Huntington’s Massing has been putting out music for the better part of the last decade and have just released a new EP entitled “Rejuiced.” It sees them re-recording previously released tracks as they have naturally evolved in live settings with their full lineup in place. Massing began as a duo consisting of original members Heath Holley and Rob Coleman. As they added new members and played the songs live with those new additions, the presentation of those songs changed. That lineup consisting of Coleman on vocals, guitar and mixing, Holley on vocals and trumpet, Jeffrey McClelland on drums and vocals, Corey Zornes on guitar, and Anthony Pino on bass, put out Rejuiced on April 5th. We asked Heath Holley about the idea of revisiting these tracks and what Massing will be doing next.
You released an ep of songs you’ve released before entitled Rejuiced. Why did you feel this project was important at this point in your career?
We’re kind of at a point right now where we’re starting to think really hard about writing a debut album to follow up on these EPs we’ve been releasing for the last several years, and what that album will sound like. We’ve played around with our sound a lot, but we’ve never really released any music that sounded like a real band was playing it. It’s always been sort of pop infused songs that Robb and I have written from our computers using midi keyboards and drums, tracking a live guitar, bass, or trumpet here and there, and recording vocals from our bedrooms, etc. For this EP, we wanted to take some of those songs and record them in the studio the way we as a five piece band play them at our shows.
Some of these songs are as old as six years ago. What was it like getting to revisit them?
I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re revisiting them, because we’ve been playing these songs live for so long. The very first song we ever wrote has pretty much stayed in our setlist since we started performing live. But it’s exciting to give other people a way to sort of revisit them in this new form. Especially if they’ve never been to a Massing show and heard us play them like this.
Photo by Hunter Way
Were there any tracks that made you think, why did we do it that way?
I think a lot of times looking back on some of the old tracks, we kind of cringe listening to them. There’s a lot of decisions we probably wouldn’t make today if we were writing those songs now, like clunky lyrics and vocal rhythms, mixing choices we probably wouldn’t have made, etc. I think we’ve always kind of wished we could touch them up. Luckily, we’ve sort of been slowly altering them at the live shows for years to make them feel a little better, so it made sense to do something like this in the meantime before we start working on an album.
Which song were you most excited to get to redo?
Dayblind is probably the one we talk about the most. We don’t play that one live super often anymore, but we started putting it back in the set recently. That one feels kind of special because it’s the first song on our first EP. Early on, there was a video floating around on Facebook of us performing that song in one of the first iterations of our live band (maybe the first time we ever played at The VClub, aka The Loud) and it was one of those videos where you can watch it and say “We’ve really got something special with this one,” referring to the song, or the band, or whatever. Watching it just felt good. We were stretching out the song to make it rock a little longer and improvising vocal lines, and it just felt really good at the time. I think we try to channel that performance and improve upon it anytime we’re playing that song now, so it’s exciting that a version that’s sort of reminiscent of that performance is out now for people to listen to.
These rejuiced versions maintain the feel of the originals while presenting them with a fuller arrangement. Are these what you wanted them to sound like originally or was this just how these songs have evolved in a live setting?
This is definitely just how the songs have evolved over time. When we were writing these songs originally, we were working with what we had at our disposal between the two of us, but when we finished a song, we were always super happy with it. Eventually, you have to kind of work against the grain of the song to translate them to the live set, going from midi keyboards, synths and drum samples, to electric guitars, bass, and drum kit. But once the full band starts making the song their own, it’s like the song undergoes mitosis and splits into two. They’re still the same song, but they’re a little different and there’s two of them now.
Describe your sound to someone that hasn’t listened to you yet?
We’ve cycled through a lot of trendy buzzwords to try describing our sound. I’d say somewhere in the realm of indie/alternative rock is pretty accurate, but there’s definitely a lot of pop sensibility holding it all together, too.
What’s next for Massing?
Our drummer Jeffrey is having a lil baby in July, so we’re not making too many plans for shows around that time, and only have a couple shows on the books that are soon to be announced, but Robb and I are always scheming in the background to keep things moving. We’re always trying to avoid stagnation, so you can at least expect that while we’re not playing shows, we’re pumping out silly videos online, planning for new merch drops, etc. We have a TON of plans in the works that will hopefully see the light of day in the next few months. Somewhere in between all of that, we’re hopefully making some time to finally hammer out some new original music as well.
