Live concert photography of SIlversun Pickups and Hello Mary at Brooklyn Steel last month.
Tag: Hello Mary
New Video: Hello Mary Shares Furious Ripper “0%”
With the release of last year’s sophomore, self-titled album, New York-based indie rock trio Hello Mary — Helena Straight, Stella Wave and Mikaela Oppenheimer — received praise nationally from the likes of Rolling Stone, who wrote that the album was “one of 2023’s sharpest, nosiest debuts.” Building upon a rapidly rising profile, trio will have an incredibly busy summer: Already developing a reputation for a killer live show, the New York-based trio are currently opening for Silversun Pickups on their Stateside tour, a tour that includes a June 27, 2024 stop at Brooklyn Steel. They’ll play a handful of their own headlining Stateside dates and play a set at Denver‘s Underground Music Showcase, before heading to the UK for a London headlining show, followed by an opening slot for American Football during their UK tour. The band has also confirmed a slot at this year’s Best Friends Forever Fest in Las Vegas this October. (As always, tour dates are below.)
“0%” is the first bit of new material from the rising New York-based trio since the release of last year’s self-titled album. “0%” sees the band pushing their 90s alt rock-inspired sound into a much heavier and distorted direction with the song being featuring thunderously percussive, down-tuned bass, distortion pedaled guitar fuzz, forceful drumming and Stella Wave’s throaty, feral screams — within a classic grunge song structure, alternating impossibly loud choruses, quieter verses and a mischievously dreamy break down with vibraphone and triangle.
Fittingly, the song captures a young woman boldly and defiantly expression an existential frustration — and getting a bit of joy out of the fact that she doesn’t know much of much.
The new single emerged as the trio were jamming in their practice space. After quickly become a crowd favorite live, the song really came to life in the studio, becoming the first time that the band’s Stella Wave had ever screamed on a recording. But when she hopped into the recording booth, she felt emboldened to draw out the vocal shouts the band originally planned, turning them into much longer screams. “0% is one of our favorites to play live,” Hello Mary says. “Our inspirations in the last year have broadened, and we feel like this song reflects that.”
The accompanying video edited by Caroline Knight is from footage the band has had taken over the last couple of tours, and captures the energy and passion of their live show.
New VIdeo: Hello Mary Shares Trippy and Uneasy “Spiral”
Brooklyn-based indie rock trio Hello Mary — Helena Straight (guitar, vocals), Mikaela Oppenheimer (bass), and Stella Wave (drums, vocalsmutl) — can trace their origins back to high school: Oppenheimer and Straight started th band when they were high school freshmen. When they met Wave through happenstance, the trio became an inseparable unit with the band consisting of good friends, who are also bandmates.
With the release of a handful of singles and their debut EP, 2020’s Ginger, the Brooklyn-based trio have quickly established and cemented a sound that meshes elements of shoegaze, indie rock and grunge paired with the band’s multipart harmonies. Their Bryce Goggin-produced, self-titled, full-length debut is slated for a March 3, 2023 release through Frenchkiss Records. The album reportedly sees the band referencing 90s alt rock, Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley — while nodding at contemporaries like Palberta, Spirit of the Beehive and Palehound, acts that don’t shy away from unusual time signatures, careening feedback and unconventional harmonies.
The album will feature several previously released singles including “Rabbit,” “Sink In,” “Stinge,” and “Looking Right Into the Sun,” all of which were recorded in a proper studio and won attention outside of the Brooklyn music scene. Hello Mary’s Stella Wave describes those singles as the first proper introduction to the band.
The album’s material — both lyrics and music — were written in tandem, with the trio knotting their perspectives into a singular consciousness. “We collaborate on everything,” Oppenheimer says, “from our lyrics to guitar parts and even bass and drums sometimes.” Unsurprisingly, the album was written during our current period of immense uncertainty and unease. “We were battling things personally, the world was battling COVID,” Wave says. “This might sound vague,” Wave adds “but to me, this album is about accepting the state of things as they are at a given moment, whether it’s your relationship to another person or the world around you.”
The self-titled album’s latest single “Spiral” is a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV-like anthem centered around swirling guitar textures, Oppenheimer’s and Straight’s gorgeous and ethereal harmonies paired with Oppenheimer’s driving baseline and a steady backbeat. The song’s narrator directs their angst and unease to an unknown other, who may have wronged them — or fucked them over.
“‘Spiral’ is about the feelings of paranoia and jealousy that can come with relationships, and how these feelings can become so strong that they turn into delusions,” the band explains.
Directed and edited by Isaac Roberts, the accompanying video for “Spiral” was shot on what appears to be grainy Super 8 at The Slipper Room and Tompkins Square Park, and captures the spiraling jealous and paranoia of someone in an unsteady relationship.