Handsome and Gretyl are an acoustic folk duo releasing a unique concept album, with one track per month all year in 2015, and the full album releasing on 12/12/15. They are extraordinarily talented. I was excited to ask them some questions about their music and this project. They kindly obliged. Enjoy getting to know these wonderfully gifted music makers.
1) So what inspired your awesome idea for 12?
Well, it can take a long time to make an album. We thought writing, recording, and releasing one song a month would feel more attainable- and quite the experiment! We loved the fresh idea, so we just dove in this January- 12 songs in 12 months- with a release date set for 12-12-15.
2) It looks like the Pledge campaign went really well. Has it yielded what you guys need or are you seeking more support?
Well, it’s going! We’re grateful for the support thus far and always welcome more! It may look like it at first, but this isn’t a crowd funding campaign- it’s simply a unique opportunity for folks to follow along as our album comes together month by month. We do hope for a snowball effect with each song release.
3) How do you describe your music? Is it fair to call it pop folk?
Yeah, kinda folky, kinda poppy- pretty sure that’s a word. Genres are tough nowadays. Alternative, singer/songwriter, americana are some more terms we’ve been connected to. We say genre shmenre. It’s like joyful folk earth pop. Someone wrote us recently saying it’s “refreshingly simple and engaging”. We thought that was well put.
4) Do you plan to tour after the album is complete?
We hope to! We don’t play shows very often these days, but we’re hoping for an opportunity to tour in 2016. There’s also an option for folks to book us for house shows through the PledgeMusic.
5) What are your music backgrounds? How long have you been performing as a duo?
We both grew up surrounded by music. Brett learned cello, guitar, and drums early on. Give him an instrument and he can hold his own. Whenever I got the chance I’d hide away in my bedroom, playing guitar and figuring out the places my vocal chords would let me go. We worked on music together as friends here and there, and it progressed after getting married. What really tipped us over the edge was moving to Nashville for Brett’s audio engineer training. It’s this magical land where everyone and their barista wants to make music. We fell for it and officially started H&G in 2011.
6) How did you come up with such an awesome band name? Seriously, we love it.
Ha! Thanks. We were at a show in Nashville when we came up with it. Even awkward shows can be inspiring because someone is up there being brave. This particular night we realized if we were going to make music we were going to need a band name, and then it just fell into our laps. We were thinking about Hansel and Gretyl, but went with Handsome instead because… well, we’re not brother and sister.
7) What would you like our readers to know about your music?
We keep it real. We keep it light, but we also go deep. We keep it hopeful. Our songs are inspired by life, love, hardships, nature. The things of life. We try to keep our instrumentation fairly sparse so we can pull off a similar sound live, but we have a lot of fun coming up with all the sounds and all the feels, and we enjoy going a little overboard sometimes. I don’t sit around listening to our music. That would just be weird. But when I do hear a song, I’m reminded that I honestly love our music!
Thanks so much for thinking of us!
