Q & A: Hurt Parade

There’s a magic to Hurt Parade’s music. Their brooding debut single, Tuesday, was written and recorded in one afternoon. Collectively, this group of friends challenge themselves to be different in the studio, which is the apex of their uniqueness as a band. We got to know Liz from the group a bit better—discussing the raw energy, how she recorded her vocals in one take and insight into the group’s future.

Tuesday was recorded in an afternoon. Explain the creative energy in the studio at that time.

The creative energy was pretty high. Chris and Josh were buzzing around experimenting with different lead lines, while I was creating lyrics. Once we all had the ideas, we laid them down. Energy was high.

Speaking of energy, the vocals were done in one take. What’s behind the raw, spontaneous drive of the band?

Chris and Josh are both perfectionists when it comes to music—they could sit there for hours trying to get one sound right. For us to be able to work efficiently, we all decided and made a promise when writing and recording to be more spontaneous and not worry so much about getting it perfect, especially with the vocals.

Lyrically, what are you touching on on Tuesday?

The chorus is about having someone you love, whether it be a family member, a partner, a friend etc and being with them even though you both may be miles away. It’s about the nostalgia you feel with certain places you’ve travelled to, or been with someone and remembering that feeling you felt.

Collectively, you’ve known each other for many years. What spurred the idea to create and, essentially, form Hurt Parade?

We decided to give it a go because we all felt we could combine our different skills and come up with something pretty successful (we hoped).

You each bring a distinct role into the band, thanks to your backgrounds. How do you challenge yourself when writing and recording?

Whether it be picking a new sound, creating a new sound, or writing lyrics. We challenge ourselves by trying to create a unique sound and making a better track then the last every time we write.

The process was entirely collaborative. However, have you floated the idea of writing separately and bringing ideas to another studio session?

We all write separately when we’re not writing music under Hurt Parade. Josh writes his own tracks as do Chris and I. The beauty of this is we each bring our ideas to our sessions and either work on one idea or merge all three ideas together.