Hala, the project of Detroit-based musician Ian Ruhala, announces his new album, Red Herring, out May 1st on Cinematic Music Group, and a North American tour. Today, he shares the lead single, “Emotional R&B,” and an accompanying video. Ruhala’s music is at once precise and playful, skipping breezily between decades and their musical aesthetics while executing them with care and sincerity. On Red Herring, which is his studio debut, he elevates this formula, applying his genre-agnostic blueprint to a set of songs that comprise a no-concept concept record. It’s a varied album which explores the tragedy and comedy—often, both at once—that color and confound the modern 22-year-old’s existence.
To execute his wide-lens vision, Ruhala worked with producer Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Vance Joy, Ra Ra Riot) at his legendary secluded Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington. Over a few months in late 2019, Ruhala and Hadlock sifted through a stockpile of prepared demos and assembled the 12 songs that comprise Red Herring. Apart from strings—played respectively by Andrew Joslyn and longtime Brandi Carlile-collaborator Josh Neumann—Ruhala wrote and performed each instrument on the record, including guitar, piano, bass, drums, baritone ukulele, xylophone, vibraphone, and all vocals.
Ruhala’s singular operating style is a credit to Red Herring’s simultaneous idiosyncrasy and unity: each track bears the earmarks of his tendencies for saccharine melodies, clear instrumentation, and a sort of ethereal, out-of-time placelessness—and yet each could also be from a different artist.
Lead single “Emotional R&B” showcases this infatuation with kaleidoscopic tonalities and narrative double-entendres. The track is about the early stage people go through in relationships, when things begin to become more intimate. “Things feel a lot more cinematic, maybe because these moments of a relationship are portrayed and documented in countless Romantic Comedies,” says Ruhala. “It’s the feeling of riding a romantic high, perhaps turning a blind eye to things that would normally set you off in pursuit of what could possibly become a substantial, long lasting relationship.”
Red Herring is a coming-of-age record from an artist recognizing that cohesiveness need not only be expressed in structural sameness. It can and should be found in other experiences, in the complex, poignant, life-and-death fleetingness of a three-and-a-half-minute pop song. Or better yet, 12 of them back-to-back.
Hala will tour across North America in support of Red Herring. A full list of dates is below.
Watch “Emotional R&B” Video:
https://youtu.be/bHHHbpQnd-4
Pre-order/pre-save Red Herring:
https://hala.ffm.to/redherring
Red HerringTracklist:
1. Turn Out Right
2. Making Me Nervous
3. Somehow
4. Camera5. Why Do You Want Anything To Do With Me?
6. We Can Start Again
7. Emotional R&B
8. Lies
9. Nobody-Body Knows
10. With You Now (It’s The Only Place I Want To Be)
11. Red Herring
12. True Colors
Hala Tour Dates:
Fri. May 8 – Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx- (Record Release Show) %
Sat. May 9 – Columbus, OH @ The Basement %
Sun. May 10 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd %
Tue. May 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade %
Wed. May 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Creep Records %
Thu. May 14 – Boston, MA @ Once Ballroom %
Fri. May 15 – Montreal, QC @ L’Esco %
Sat. May 16 – Toronto, ON @ The Drake Hotel %
Thu. May 28 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas *
Fri. May 29 – Milwaukee, WI @ The BackRoom at Colectivo Coffee *
Sat. May 30 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry *
Tue. June 2 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza *
Wed. June 3 – Portland, OR @ Lola’s Room *
Fri. June 5 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill *Sat. June 6 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo *
Sun. June 7 – San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe *
Wed. June 10 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge *
Fri. June 12 – Kansas City, MO @ recordBar *
Sat. June 13 – St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill Duck Room *
^ with Miloe
% with PONY
* with BOYO
Keep your mind open.
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