Chad Hoy – I’m Not the Picture You’ve Painted in Your Head Interview

We love music here at Culture Hash and I am pleased to have secured an interview with Chad Hoy a talented singer currently based in Texas with a new EP, I’m Not the Picture You’ve Painted in Your Head.

The 5 song EP is an emotive experience, featuring haunting vocals and stories about heartbreak. From the mournful “You Don’t” to the hopeless “Timing” this is a dark tale of missed opportunities and unfinished business. In these misadventures of the heart you can’t help but connect with Chad’s emotional state in his vocals.

We are lucky to have secured a semi-serious interview with Chadley, I admit I was fairly drunk when I sent some of these over. Kudos to Chad for putting up with my drunken ramblings:

 

What music influenced the sound of the project?

I honestly can’t think of any band in particular that I wanted the project to sound like, but more than a couple of people who listened have said that it had the vibe of a Manchester Orchestra or a Brand New project, and for me that was a very high honor.

 

How did you come up with the title?

I had a ton of trouble thinking of a title. I actually didn’t have any artwork or a title until about two weeks before the project was released on Spotify and all that. I just picked one of my favorite lyrics from one of my favorite songs on the EP [You Don’t] and it just sort of felt like it fit the whole project really well.

 

How are the ladies in your life treating you since they heard the EP?

Well, uhhhh, not much has changes. Except now the ladies are rejecting me while also telling me that they enjoy my music, haha. It’s worked its charm here and there and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the project from ladies and non-ladies alike. For the most part, though, I’ve done about as much making out after the EP came out as I did before it came out, which is little to none.

 

When you’re in the shower do you sing your own songs?

Haha, well, I don’t really sing in the shower much at all. Part of that is probably due to always having “roommates” of some sort, whether it was my family while growing up, or friends/roommates in college. I’m always afraid of being too loud when I’m writing new music in my room, so doing it in the bathroom — which is usually, like, the echo chamber of the house — has never held much appeal.

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How long have you been singing for?

I grew up thinking that I had exactly zero musical talent, but then my 7th grade choir teacher, Mr. Luney, made me sing a short solo for the Christmas show when I was thirteen years old. Looking back now it was odd because I had never volunteered to sing any solos or anything in that vein at all.

I think he randomly picked me because I was a bit of a troublemaker back in the middle school days and it could’ve been that he wanted to keep me in line by giving me some responsibility. That, or to possibly embarrass me in front of the entire school, haha. Either way it worked out for both of us because I realized I had some pipes and he realized he had a kid that didn’t completely suck that he could force to sing solos in every show he had.

 

Who was your favourite singer growing up?

The Brits will love this one because it’s probably Freddie Mercury. If not Freddie it’d have to be Steve Perry from Journey. Both of those guys had major pipes and growing up listening to a lot of classic rock with my dad, I aspired to one day be in the vocal range of those two. Still working on that really.

 

What’s your favourite music to have sex to?

Haha, ummmm, next question.

 

Who was the bigger sexual menace, Michael Jackson or R. Kelly?

Woof. If I’ve got to pick between the pedophile or the guy who peed on teenage girls who was also a pedophile, then it just shows how sad this world is, haha. They’re both pretty bad. I think peeing on young girls non-consensually is possibly worse? I guess? But either way they are both very not good. Both very talented, but both very not good people.

 

Was there a particular relationship that inspired the album?

None in particular. Each song is about someone different, although, yeah, they’re mostly all about girls, haha. “You Don’t” is actually about a roommate that I moved in with after college. He was and still is one of my best friends, but the first few months living together were pretty tough.

His family has a history of alcoholism and he hits the bottle pretty often so that was one of the more personal songs and that’s why it’s my favorite. All the others are about various girls I’ve had flings with throughout the years that didn’t work out.

Since this was my “debut” EP it’s kind of like the five best songs I had written before we started recording it. The fifth was actually an acoustic bonus that my producer/friend, Anderson, loved so much that he wanted to throw it on the end as a sort of “bonus” track because the EP took over a year to get out. It was sort of long-awaited and people were getting impatient so we wanted to do a little extra to make up for the time it took to get it out.

 

What are your future plans with music?

Well, I recently moved to Austin, Texas here in the states and it’s a really big place for “indie” music. There’s a huge festival called SXSW every spring that’s always got a lot of fantastic emo and alternative bands, and the plan is to be playing it in the next three years.

The problem now is trying to get a band together and getting popular enough in the Austin scene to make it as an opening act for that, haha. I’ve got a good job here now, but if I can ever make music a full-time job I’d love for that to happen. It’s a big leap to drop a good job to pursue something that’s a long shot like music, but once I get a band going I think it’s possible.

The reception from the EP has been really good. It’s been really encouraging and it’s propelled me to think “Y’know maybe I could do this full-time.” Also, I’m definitely going to be putting out another project sometime in 2018. Now that I’ve put my music out there, I’m excited about making more albums. This time I’m thinking full-length for sure.

 

Chad Hoy’s I’m Not the Picture You’ve Painted in Your Head is available from Spotify, iTunes, BandCamp and CDBaby.

Host of Culture Hash, writer of music, TV and film opinions

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