After returning with their brilliant comeback singles 'Worth It' and 'Spinning Around' earlier this year, Californian duo The Hogstad Brothers are back on the grind once again to deliver their vibrant new offering 'Take Me Higher'.
Capturing more of that broad and immersive electronic aesthetic they have been growing lately, 'Take Me Higher' makes for a stellar return to form for them. With its shimmering textures and lively hooks layered throughout, they continue to shine as one of the more exciting names on the rise right now.
So with the new single available to stream now, we sat down with them to find out more about their origins and what has been inspiring them most over the years.
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What was the first instrument you fell in love with?
Jonathan: I played the guitar for a long time before picking up the bass. But once I took up the bass, I found my voice in a way I never did with the guitar. I love programming drums and I play the pandeiro (a Brazilian percussion instrument) too. But while the drums make you nod your head, the bass makes you move your butt.
Brandon: Like a typical little brother, I picked up the guitar after Jonathan started learning guitar, but then I ran with it and made it my own thing. I love electronic sounds and I went deep into making my electric guitar sound like a synthesizer using various pedals. This experimentation led me to the vocoder, which expands my guitar sounds into a whole different dimension of textures and playing styles. Thus, with my electric guitar, I love having both traditional and synthesizer sounds at my fingertips.
What kind of music did you love when you were younger?
Jonathan: My first love was underground hip-hop. We grew up in the northern part of Los Angeles County. I connected six coathangers to the end of my radio antenna to pick up the stations from LA over the mountains so I could get shows like Julio G and the 9 O’clock Bomb with DJ Melo-D from the Beat Junkies. I would hear a song come on that I’d never heard before that would blow my mind and then scramble to hit record on my mixtape. My last year of high school, my friend Yakeen (who was later an MC in a great band called Simple Citizens) left a DJ Rhettmatic mix tape at my house after a birthday party with groups like Jurassic 5, Dilated Peoples, and Slum Village. I wore that tape out in my car before I could give it back.
Brandon: I spent most of my time listening to a radio station called 97.7 KAVS High Desert Modern Rock. It introduced me to a pantheon of late 90’s bands like Sublime, Barenaked Ladies, Green Day, Eve 6, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Beck, Blur, Foo Fighters, Marcy Playground, Harvey Danger, Semisonic… They had a show called Bob & Tom in the morning that would play the extra weird stuff like They Might Be Giants. I called in one time and won a 97.7 T-shirt that I wore to tatters.
What was the first album you remember owning?
Brandon: When I was a kid, the first CD I bought was the official soundtrack to the movie Cool World, which was a strange mixed live-action/animation film featuring a killer title track by David Bowie, and a mix of sexy electronic dance and moody rock music that was probably a bit inappropriate for a 9-year-old. I loved that album to death. It probably set the tone for my eclectic and off-kilter musical palette.
Jonathan: The first CD I ever bought (if you don’t count stealing my sister’s Bel Biv Devoe and P.M. Dawn tapes) was Zapp and Roger’s Greatest Hits. That old school electro-funk and boogie was big in California at the time and I loved it. It definitely still comes out in our music.
What is the one song you wished you could have written yourself?
Jonathan: Soldier by Erykah Badu. I saw her perform it once where she repeated each line four times before moving onto the next line and spread the song out over 15 minutes. It was hypnotic and let me immerse myself in the lyrics. I remember thinking how beautiful the song is, storytelling at its finest. It lets you deeply feel how hard it is to live in this world, and how inspiring and brave we can be by marching forward for change despite the difficulties.
Brandon: “Dance Yrself Clean” by LCD Soundsystem. The extended anticipation, the simple build-up, the quirky self-deprecating vocals, the massive release, the manic and continuous escalation, the atemporal kick drum breakdown… just a phenomenal song. The organic electronic textures and simple but multi-layered grooves in this song continue to grip me everytime I hear it, and I draw so much inspiration from LCD Soundsystem and the spirit of this song. That moment the snare hits and the bass synth blazes after simmering for 3 minutes is just *chef’s kiss*.
Do you have any habits or rituals you go through when trying to write new music?
Jonathan: There’s a lot of different ways we can start a song (a beat, a feeling, a vibe), but whatever the starting point, we try not to overthink it. We just play and move towards what feels good. We never really know what’s going to come out, but we know what we like. Sometimes there’ll be an affirming “mmm” from one of us when something good happens from the other. It can be hard to have perspective on music that’s coming out of yourself, so it can help to have someone else there that you trust to make sure you don’t move too quickly past a good idea.
Brandon: When we jam on new music, I usually try to follow the improv philosophy of “yes and” by adding in bits and pieces in context with whatever Jonathan is doing on bass or percussion. We try to keep an open mind to various new possibilities and embrace strange and new directions with as little self consciousness as possible.
Who are your favourite artists you have found yourself listening to at the moment?
Jonathan: Anderson Paak, Kaytranada, Little Dragon, Gabriel Garzon Montano, Steve Lacy, and Hiatus Kaiyote are all doing really exciting stuff.
Brandon: Some additional artists on heavy rotation – Todd Terje, Lindstrøm, Toro y Moi, Pink Floyd, They Call Her Heaven.
If you could open a show for anyone in the world, who would it be?
Jonathan: Little Dragon has been doing amazing live shows for so long and they just keep growing and evolving.
Brandon: Yep, Little Dragon would be the dream!
What do you find is the most rewarding part about being a musician?
Brandon: I think the most rewarding part is revisiting songs that we wrote and recorded in the past, seeing it with fresh eyes, hearing it with fresh ears, feeling proud of what we made, and remembering “Oh yeah… I like this!”
Jonathan: Music that others have made was such a healing and grounding force in my life growing up. It’s really exciting when I can find that same healing and grounding energy in something that I create or co-create.
And what is the most frustrating part?
Jonathan: Music and all art is meant to be shared. It connects us. But sharing music with the world is daunting these days in the consolidated streaming age. If you let it, the economics and numbers can color your valuation of yourself as an artist. We try to stay focused on creating art that we love and sharing it out of gratitude for all the art that’s been shared with us.
Brandon: I agree with what Jonathan said, and I’ll add that navigating the social media landscape can often feel like orbiting a black hole.
And what is the best piece of advice you have received as a musician?
Jonathan: Rick Rubin’s book was really helpful for me to grapple with my artist anxiety. He basically said that it’s normal for artists to feel anxious, but no one else can make the art that comes from you. You may not yet have the craft to fully execute what’s inside of you, but no one else can either because it’s not theirs. So there’s no use in comparing yourself to others. Your art can only be your art.
Brandon: Nile Roger’s book encouraged me to focus on the fundamental backbone of a song. If the melody and chords are strong, it will feel good regardless of the genre and arrangement. The arrangement becomes the decorations that stylize the underlying bones that are holding the song together.
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The Hogstad Brothers' new single 'Take Me Higher' is available to stream now. Check it out in the player below.