An album for ‘Everybody’: Hue and Cry’s new electronic album

When brothers Greg and Pat Kane were writing for Everybody, their new album set to be released on 29 May, they didn’t start with a clear intention in mind. Instead, they chose to see where the music took them. They first wrote 15 to 20 songs over a year, then started developing them. “The ones that are the strongest make themselves known pretty quickly”. Once the songs had gone through production, Greg told his brother, “I think we’ve made a love album.” But this wasn’t a love album in the traditional sense – “It was about a love of culture and a love of people.”  

They finished writing the songs that would eventually be part of Everybody in February 2020, just two weeks before the world shut down for the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, Greg thought it would be a perfect time to add some finishing touches to the record, but Pat told him it was fine the way it was. And he was right. “Nobody was dancing because nobody could go and dance. So, to try and finish [ the album ], I nearly spoiled it,” Greg told me. And so the album stayed untouched. After all, what was the point in releasing an electronic album when the whole world was in lockdown?  

Maybe the applause is part of the drug that makes you want to do it

Greg Kane

Not playing gigs for 18 months made Hue and Cry realise just how important live shows were for artists. “Maybe the applause is part of the drug that makes you want to do it”, Greg laughs. When 2022 came around, they made up for lost time, playing 60 gigs in a year. They are currently completing their electro/acoustic duo tour and will be taking their full band on tour in October of this year.  

When it came to mixing the album, the Kane brothers struck gold with their mixing engineer, Yoad Nevo, who Greg met in a forum and bonded over a synthesiser called ‘The Deepmind’. He’s worked with other big musicians, such as Sia, Ed Sheeran, and The Pet Shop Boys, to name a few. Typically, artists go through countless mixes until they find the perfect one. But, the brothers got lucky with two songs featured on the new album being the first mix. “We’d found a soul mate in this music for us” Greg says. Nevo perfectly understood the vision Hue and Cry had in mind, embracing the chaotic blend of analog and electronic, which makes Everybody so special.  

Greg, who is credited alongside Nevo as a mixer for the album, wrestled with a wall of 20 synthesisers. “Let the machines lead” Pat assured his brother. So, Greg would turn the machines on each day, listen to the ‘wall of sound’ he created, and find where the harmonies were on the piano. Although the harmonies and the dissonances were quite chaotic, the duo were excited. Coming from a pianist’s background, Greg learned to let go of many of the musical principles ingrained in him by this album and embraced how synths didn’t adhere to the harmonic structure he was used to. He realised that if he hooked up a keyboard to play a chord, instead of using the synths, it would change the entire dynamic of the song.  He quickly learned the subtle art of ‘finessing’ the analog synthesisers and how being clumsy can erase what you’ve made. “You can never know everything, so you’re still making mistakes” he laughs. It’s all about making “a tiny amount of movement” which can “completely change” the sound.  

Electric music is all about either making mistakes, recovering from it, or making mistakes and celebrating it

Hue and Cry

After learning the craft for 40 years, they’ve established many dynamics between each other: Pat is the lyricist, and Greg is the instrumentalist, Pat is the ‘dreamer’, and Greg is the ‘doer’, Pat is the ‘Liza Minelli’, and Greg is the ‘Kurt Cobain’. “Because we’re brothers, we can read each other’s body language really well”, Greg answers when I ask how they handle creative differences. But one thing they’re sure about is that for now, the electric music scene is where they see themselves for the near future. “Electric music is all about either making mistakes, recovering from them, or making mistakes and celebrating it. It’s an amazing journey. I can encourage everybody to try it.”