HELLO WHIRLED

04 Oct, 2026

released OCTOBER 4, 2026
ALBUM 60, RELEASE 164

Oh hey it's this band's 10th birthday. That's cool. I decided that this album needed to be more eclectic in a big way. It was also going to have no outtakes (there were a few anyway). I wrote up a big list of bands and would listen to like five bands at a time and get really absorbed and then write/record a song based on that. I knew that, even if I tried to rip off a band I loved, I'd get it wrong, and it would force me to make different decisions than I would usually make in trying to do things a specific way rather than simply my way. I guess.

Hello Whirled - I thought that, if I could make a self-titled album, it should have a self-titled song. Aunt Sally did it and it was cool when they did it. Anyway this was my XTC song. I think they made five incredible albums from Drums And Wires (my 2nd fav) to The Big Express (my 1st fav). I've tried writing like them before (hello "He Who Loses, Wins") but this felt different. We played it live at the release show and 2 different people said they loved that one in particular. I'm happy with that. The characters of Star Sign and White Wine are maybe supposed to be opposite sides of someone's personality. It's not too concrete.
Over And Over - One of my favorite bands I don't talk about much is Erase Errata, a post-punk/no wave band from the early 00s who devoured everything in their path. I especially love Nightlife and Other Animals. This was a stab at writing like them, or perhaps Scissor Girls. I set up 2 drum loops, one in 3 and one in 4, and then set the metronome to 5 and hit record. Started this one on bass. It's why the timing is so all over the place the whole song. It's called "Over and Over" because I figured if Heavenly and Cabaret Voltaire can both do it then so can I.
Bream - I challenged my twin, Dan from Signal Valley, to write a Hello Whirled. They said ok but you have to write a Signal Valley. I really enjoyed writing this one. I've played it live on guitar, but it really is a piano song.
Why Should I Love? - I read The Day The Country Died earlier this year and got on a big anarcho-punk kick. Turns out there are better bands than Crass, and most of them have female singers. This was a stab at Rubella Ballet, Lost Cherrees, Icon A.D., and Hagar The Womb (peep their A Brighter Side of Black comp for a familiar font). That meant writing a simple song with a really simple chorus. I NEVER do that! It was fun to do it once though. It goes well live. It's about being aromantic.
I Recorded This Loop Then Immediately Sold My Bass VI - What the title says. I was waiting for my neighbor/Cave Paintings bandmate to buy my Bass VI off me, and while I was waiting for him I came up with this little thing and recorded it. When I finished the loop, he was inside already, so I just handed it to him right then and there.
Club Banger - I don't totally remember what I was going for on this one. It might have just happened. It's about not wanting to be in the 27 Club. Another mega fun song.
N.R.E.F. - Actually I don't think this one's amazing but I thought it worked well enough in Block 1 of 4 (4 blocks of 8). I was going for Meat Puppets or even Silver Jews, but I didn't even get close. Okay. The title is just my name backwards.
Cold In The Street - My Cabaret Voltaire/Tuxedomoon/Wire song. It's fun just making lots of noise to a static rhythm. Messing with the vocals is fun too. The original mix was too much fun, and I actually went back and brought more of the dry vocals into it so the words could almost be made out instead of barely at all.
Not Enough or Too Much - Believe it or not, I have a soft spot for some 80s and 90s twee. Anything that Rose Melberg and Amelia Fletcher do is guaranteed to be at least good. I was trying to do that sort of thing here. The title hook has been stuck in my head for a decade. I swear I heard it in a song but I've never found it. Many of the lyrics from this were taken from a list of song titles I had. Two of the phrases were the names of real people.
You Think - The only song I would immediately remake given the chance. I wanted this to be a great big Deerhoof song, but for some unknown reason I used 5 acoustic guitars to do the job of 2 electric guitars. I deeply regret this decision despite the fact that it's my album and no one was making me do anything. Maybe we'll do it that way live. I really like the rest of this song.
Owner In Her Unmade Bed - I was going for Pere Ubu. The guitar is just a loop, I think, but it starts in different spots sometimes. First guest of the album here and it's Jared from Noether ripping the bass. Their friend Tommy is in the HW live band and they pointed out that I never play bass like that. I said "yeah that's cause it's Jared".
Block Party Sweat Buckets - I scrapped an OOIOO/Boredoms sort of song because I sorta stole 2 melodies from OOIOO songs in the guitar leads and I didn't think it ultimately ever went anywhere. In its place I needed a new song so I wrote this. The guitar setup is capo 9 with a high E and A on those lower string (well, an octave above normal) hence why it's so chimy. Chimey? Who cares?
Character Actor - One of my favorites to play live these days. Was going for a Buzzcocks/Soft Boys thing. The lyrics are a rare sort of story song from me these days, where I'm addressing my film director friend (in the song) and talking about how I'd be happy to just be there at all. I guess it's subconsciously singing about how I feel like I'm in the margins of something huge going on around me, but it's a happy song. I want to see my friends succeed.
Hope of Success - My Palberta/LiLiPUT song. I suppose this is my idea of a playful song. It's fun having all the vocals hop around like that.
Bug - One of the few songs I wrote here without a specific artist in mind. The first version of this was made for a side project, but I reworked it to work on just an acoustic guitar and my voice, with new lyrics about a stressful situation I'd been dealing with. This song is a rarity in the HW canon in that it was recorded fully live with no overdubs.
With Numbers Like That, Who Needs Friends? - This song is the reason I can't just say "this album took 3 months to record", because this song took 5. I wrote and recorded the rhythm guitar on New Year's Eve 2025, after which I listened to every Dog Faced Hermans album. It kicked around for a while, remaining unfinished after To Breathe Your Air Is Violence and getting finished along with the other last remnants of Automatic Panic, but I concluded this song didn't fit the AP vibe even a little bit, so I just said "ok it'll be on the next one" and that was that.
Bury Me - For a while, this was the hit. It still kind of is. This album has many hits, but only this one sounds like Ex Pilots. I've been a fan of Ethan's music since 2014 and I've definitely absorbed some of his quirks. I asked my friend Freya to play bass on this because she's also a colossal Ex Pilots fan. The remix at the end wasn't planned, it just sorta happens while I was editing her bass.
Up And Around - This is my favorite song on the album. I wanted to write something that flew all over the place like a lot of the noise rock/math rock/etc I've been listening to lately, specifically Olympic Deth in this instance. Recording the drums for this one took some serious effort but I pulled it off (by stitching a few takes together) and I think it worked.
A Church For His Soldiers - This was supposed to sound like early R.E.M. but it's so shambolic that it just sounds like Hello Whirled. Like a few other songs on here, my voice was compromised by a nasty cold that I sang through anyway.
Hollow Wind - This might have been my Mount Eerie ripoff of the album, but when I hit a wall with the arrangement, I sent it to my twin Dan to add drums and keyboards and they took it in a completely different direction. It wasn't what I heard in my head but I like being surprised.
Screaming Mass - The title gives it all away: Screaming Females and Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs (also Husker Du and Ovlov). We opened the album release show with this but at the end of the day I think I'd rather play "New Fire".
Have Fun In Japan - I wrote this about a homeless woman I used to see fairly often at 46th St Station. Her name was Lys/Liss/? (I never got a spelling) and she was a recovering addict. She was a few years younger than me. I'm describing her in the past tense because I haven't seen her in a few months. I have no idea if she's alive or dead. The title phrase was something she said to me after I told her I was in a band.
Bad Month First - My Fugazi/Unwound song. Septembers 2024 and 2025 were both marked by awful depressive periods (especially 2024 where I suffered a breakdown) so I concluded that, for 2026, I'd just have a bad August instead. It did kind of play out that way. I once asked my basement roommate what her favorite noise from my bedroom was, and she sent me a voice memo of me blasting this song from my speakers.
1/0 - I just really like Chrome, and writing songs that sound like Chrome. From 1977 to 1983 they made some of the best music I've ever heard (bar maybe Blood On The Moon, there's too much reverb on that one). I moved the varispeed slider around while I was recording vocals, so they're almost fully indecipherable.
Beyond Number - This is the saddest fucking song I've ever written and I don't wanna talk about it. Listen to 22° Halo.
On A Ferry - I keep trying to write Minutemen songs. It's hard! It's why no one's ever made a career out of ripping them off. They're bulletproof.
Never Let You In - It's sort of corny openly admitting that my big new album is about trying to write songs like other people. I feel weird being so open about it. At the same time I feel like I've always worn my influences on my sleeve so why not find a way to tell everyone about them? Anyway this came from a random voice memo. I hadn't done a really slow song in a while and I enjoyed the challenge of playing the guitar part.
Ego - I was trying to sound like Enon or maybe Pillowinde but it ended up sounding like Good Pollution. Sometimes I think it's like "Character Actor" from a more mocking perspective but that wasn't my intent. It's certainly more upfront about getting over some of my weird negative feelings about music scene stuff. The laughter was because I'd stumbled into this funny voice singing the first verse and I just couldn't believe it.
Blinders - Short punk song. Always fun.
Big Flower Game - This was going to be in D for the longest time. I forget why I sped it up to E. Anyway it's about my twin and their longtime relationship. They're a good couple. I think they're gonna truly be together forever.
Whole Light - My last stab at shoegaze, specifically of the Kitchens of Distinction and Lush variety. You know, songwriting.
33 Teeth - Stereolab have had a profound influence on me for the last 8 years, not least through the other bands who started out very Labby but found their own voice later like Broadcast and Vanishing Twin. My songs usually don't sound like any of them. More importantly, Part 2 of this song has been kicking around in my brain for a year. I wrote it alongside "He Who Loses, Wins" and tried it out for the abandoned Dayton Sunburn album, maybe In This House We Are Cold, definitely Automatic Panic...it just never clicked. It being part of another song was the saving move. I also just haven't done a super long song in a while. I should make more of those.