Humming House reversed all the normal processes for their first album. When songwriter Justin Wade Tam went into the studio for a one-off single recording with legendary producer Mitch Dane, Tam did not even have a band assembled. As he gathered his friends and their friends to fill the instrumentation he wanted for his songs, his professional relationship with Dane and the players grew, and the opportunity to record an album seemed possible. As the assembly of players readied for the process, a family emergency pulled Dane away unexpectedly and the pre-production was scrapped as they were gratefully handed over to colleague Vance Powell to record the album–a happy accident, for sure.
In the process of recording the album, the group of players revealed themselves to be a band. Although they did not start out that way, by the time the album was finished, Humming House had forged a musical path together. As they have taken the album on the road over the past year, they have matured as a group, yielding clearer musical voices for each of the players and a more collaborative approach to the new songs they have written. Humming House is already tossing around ideas for their next album, which will highlight Kristen Rogers soulful vocals more like their live shows than their first record indicates.
Humming House plays regularly, keeping their performances lively and throwing in unexpected covers, like Whitney Houston, Bill Withers, and the Beastie Boys–even the Ghostbusters Theme for Halloween. They have become a band and putting the cart before the horse did not send them down the wrong path. They started with their dream team, and have lived up to it as they have grown.
This post previously appeared in an expanded format on http://countryfriedrock.org/1247-humming-house/, with the entire program streaming for free, a free podcast to download, and the entire playlist to purchase and support the band.
