Brett Stepanik
The band, from left: Heather Sawyer, Bobby Hussy and Tyler Fassnacht.
It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since The Hussy released an album.
But a lot has changed in the time between 2015’s Galore and Looming, out Sept. 27 on Dirtnap Records. For one thing, the hardworking duo is now a trio: Bobby Hussy, a guitarist who likes to light his guitar on fire, and drummer Heather Sawyer have added local shredder Tyler Fassnacht on guitar. Beyond personnel changes, tragedy threatened to derail the long-running band.
Just months after Galore’s release, Hussy’s mother was killed in a car accident. In the aftermath, the singer and guitarist wasn’t sure he could make another Hussy record, even though he continued to perform with other projects.
“I didn’t know if I had it in me,” Hussy says. “I felt like I could still play in Fire Heads because I was just playing guitar. That was just punching a clock. But this is a lot of emotional baggage for both of us.”
Since 2015, Hussy released a Fire Heads album with Fassnacht, who in turn made a Proud Parents record with Sawyer. Meanwhile, Hussy also debuted his synth project Cave Curse. But after years of sporadically working on the album, The Hussy began tracking a fifth LP in December 2018. And from the twinkling keys that open up “Coast,” the album sounds a lot like a rebirth.
“If you take a break and then come back to it,” Sawyer says, “then it’s really fun again.”
This time around, the band kept things as close to home as possible, recording at Hussy’s home studio, Hex Empire. Most of their previous records were recorded on the fly.
“The other recordings have all been done in practice spaces and then overdubbed in all sorts of different locations,” Hussy says. “This is the first thing we’ve done in one spot from start to finish.”
While it wouldn’t be The Hussy without a ragged, psychedelic edge, there’s a sense of comfort that shines through on the recording. The production values are a little slicker. At times, Sawyer sounds like a resurrected Grant Hart; her drums and vocals on “Have to Hide” and “Sorry” recall Hüsker Dü’s muscular hooks. And with Hussy and Fassnacht’s twin guitar attack, the riffs crunch harder. (See “Erase/Her,” a turbo-charged banger.)
There couldn’t be a more perfect fit to The Hussy than Fassnacht. In addition to being a longtime friend and collaborator of both Hussy and Sawyer, he’s a chameleonic musician who is able to quickly adapt to any style of music.
“He’s good at catching on really fast,” says Sawyer. She also drums in Proud Parents, sharing lead vocal duties with Fassnacht. In fact, Fassnacht is the first member of The Hussy to play every instrument on an album track: a jaunty interlude on Looming aptly called “Tyler’s Jazz Odyssey.”
Even through all the various changes and adjustments, what’s remarkable about Looming is how energized The Hussy sounds. These three musicians play in a dozen or so other bands, but they show no hint of fatigue. If anything, a sense of momentum permeates Looming.
“We had to make it happen because it’s been four years since we made a record,” Hussy says. “I guess at that point you could just keep letting it go. But I didn’t want to.”
