Getting to Know the Kick and the Hug

The members of Kick and the Hug lived through a different time in Boulder, CO, when the vibrant live music scene, and plentiful basement apartments, was a great place for a musician to make a living. The band is scattered across the country now, stretching all the way from Los Angeles to Philadelphia, and Denver. Such is the case these days; they collaborate via file sharing...but when it's time to get in a room and create the real thing, Boulder seems as good a place as any to congregate and create, with its proximity to nature and the creativity that flows through the city. Lead singer /guitar player Doug Murray and Sam Young (drummer, keys) played together in the early 90's Boulder stalwart the Winebottles, before Young went on to serve stints with the Samples and Devotchka. The band is also joined by multi-instrumentalist Mike Ferguson on bass, strings, and vocals. The band's sound is glued together by lead guitarist and in-house producer Tyler Skye. Skye is picking up steam as a producer and is best known for his work with indie upstarts FRND CRCL and The Idea. I had the honor to catch up with the band for an exclusive interview below.

With your latest single "Girl You Changed" out now when writing new tracks overall, what is your inspiration behind them? What drives you musically?

I think my own persistent confusion and struggle with life is the main inspiration from our songs. I’m much more of a music fan than I am a musician, so whatever I’m listening to at any given time can certainly creep into our music. If I sat down and listened to one (or all) of our songs with you, I could hit pause every ten seconds and away, “ok,. ;listen to this next part…I totally ripped off Bon Iver in this next part,” or “listen for the ending, that’s how R.E.M. ended Losing My Religion.” I can literally do that for pretty much every moment of music we’re produced to date….luckily, most people need me as their tour guide to see all of those influences, but they’re there, trust me.

When creating and penning your latest songs, what artists or influences did you channel?

Buckle up…its among list.

Band of Horses, Wart on Drugs, Supertramp, The Cars, Post Malone, Miracle Legion, Local Natives, The National, American Music Club, DaDa, Yoke Lore, Michigander, Wilco, The Idea, Kurt Vile, Phoebe, Bright Eyes, ACDC, The Strokes, The Samples, The Dead, Car Seat Headrest, Future Islands, The Replacements, Jason Isabell, Fleet Foxes, John Prine, Kenny Hoopla. I could go on forever. Thats just the tip of the iceberg. COIN, Lord Huron, Echo and the Bunnymen. Ok, I’ll stop.

You seem to be very hands on in the process of your music and songwriting which is GREAT! Can you walk us through the process for the latest single?

It's a story we’ve told a few times, but here it goes again. We were not yet a real band. Sam (drummer) and I had definitely decided we were a “a thing” and we were Kick and the Hug, but we had no band we could play out with, or record with for that matter. I decided to have a little songwriting retreat. I had met Tyler Skye and Dom Giacalone (from FRND CRCL) a few months earlier…they had helped us with a few demos. We found a studio a few miles outside of Boulder Co and we just went up there (also with Mike Ferguson, bass) and we just wrote songs for a week. On Day One, we really didn’t know what to expect. We set up the gear, got settled in, and the very first thing we started playing was “Girl You Changed,” it just popped out. Not fully baked, there was lots of mumbled lyrics, but the song was there. We pushed record almost immediately, and I remember driving down the canyon road that night listening back to the recording thinking…”hell, that was easy…that’s a good tune.” After that…I literally listened to that according over and over and over and transcribed my mumblings into a song. There are lots of holes in the story. I don’t think it's the creates lyrical work I’ve ever done, but the story in my head is a clear one. It's about a band, us I suppose, coming back to life after many decades away from the stage, and playing show, and an old friend…a groupie (and not in the demeaning sort of way the word can be used in) comes to the show, and its about how both the band, and the girl…look much older than the last time they saw one another, but all parties could care less about what they all looked like because they were so damn stoked to be at a show together. It's a reunion song of sorts. Some people read it as a COVID comeback show…but its timing was just a coincidence. That writing retreat in Boulder was in Nov of 2019, long before the germ came to town.

When you have a concept for a song, how do you execute it? What comes first?

Shoot. I spend a LOT of time strumming and humming in my basement studio. I would say music and feel almost always lead me to the lyric. It's rare that I build a song around a lyric that just appeared in my head. I do note plenty of lyrics when they fly into my consciousness, but I’ve yet to figure out how to harvest them. It’ll happen.

With the new music in tow, how does the song differ from your prior work? Or does it feed into a new realm for you as an artist?

I think its new territory for me. We’re a new band…we’re still trying to figure out what “kind” of band we are, as that makes it much easier for the music people to market you. I think we’ve decided we’re gonna be whatever kind of band we feel like at any given moment. Of course it would be easier if we fit perfectly inside of a genre. It sure would make our Spotify existence more productive…but it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. If you listen to “Ladies and Gentlemen, Kick and the Hug” when the full album finally comes out this fall, you’ll find a pretty wide spectrum of music. There is plenty of American flavorings showing up, but there is a bit of Prog Rock, Shoe Gazer Emo stuff as well.

As 2021 is now half way through, what other surprises do you have up your sleeve in terms of music, videos, and additional releases this year; especially in the current realm of things?

Well, thanks for asking. We have a music vide0 for “Girl You Changed” which dropped on August 20th. After that we have our next single, “Born Too Late” which will be accompanied by another video. October 8th is our targeted drop date for our debut full length album, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Kick and the Hug.” And we just wrapped on production of an alternate version of our song “Dead Mom,” from that album. I know, it seems weird that we’re doing alternative versions before we’ve even released the original, but things area weird these days. We recorded it with a string section at E-Town Studios in Boulder CO, and it will be accompanied by a long form “making of” video. So…yeah, lots of stuff coming. Not fast enough for my taste, but it’s coming.