Straight Talk

In the mid-nineties, the Hang Ups were the most prominent purveyors of what was sometimes called ’Sota Pop. Lead singer Brian Tighe and his bandmates eschewed bar-scene three-chord punk for heart-on-sleeve harmonies and shimmering layers of melody, best exemplified on songs like “Runway,” “Top of Morning,” and “Jump Start,” the latter two of which you may have heard in the film Chasing Amy or on TV’s Dawson’s Creek. After a major-label merry-go-round for 1999’s Second Story, they’re back on indie turf and set to release their fourth album, simply titled The Hang Ups. It’s the group’s most musically complex and layered album yet, but less harmony-laden and even a little melancholy. Tighe’s other band, the Owls, has released a sublime MP3 single called “Air” and will follow it with an EP in January. The Hang Ups play First Avenue on November 21, and the Owls the Turf Club November 8.

THE RAKE: What approach did you take recording the new album?
TIGHE: What really gave the album its start was Brad Kern, who worked a lot with Semisonic. We were interested in doing it in a way where we’d work on it in the studio, but then be able to take it home. We all have digital systems at home where we can add to what we do in the studio. And so we were all able to really think about how we wanted to flesh the tracks out. The songs are still being written in that stage. You’re deciding on melodies and countermelodies and textures and all the things that make a song what it is.

THE RAKE: Is this the first record you’ve been able to work and rework to that extent?
TIGHE: It really is. It’s almost too much. You can get bogged down, and I certainly did at times. Endless possibilities. Brad was so good at pulling all these ideas together and really hacking through them that at a certain point we said, “We can just leave Brad to this, and not worry about how it will come together.” Then we were free to explore the endless possibilities, and it would just create more and more of a headache for Brad. But I think he loved it too. That’s his form of creativity.

THE RAKE: Is there a single story running through the songs?
TIGHE: I think that one arose through the selection of the songs, but it wasn’t intentional. But it goes through these different aspects of a love life. It goes through some mournful states; there’s this excitement at the beginning of a possible new love. It goes through some pretty weird territory. Loneliness. “You’ve Come Home” is the arrival at the end where you realize that this is true love. And then the last song [“Light Green Sails”] is a send-off, a light note after you’ve come to this pretty heavy realization.

THE RAKE: And it’s classic Hang Ups, in that it’s got that theme of motion that runs through so many of your songs.
TIGHE: Right. The traveling, the scenery, and the quality of light. Things that seem to come up a lot.

THE RAKE: You’re averaging three years between albums. Will we have to wait that long for the next one?
TIGHE: We recorded at least 20 songs, so there may be a pretty healthy EP not too long after this. We take our time (laughs wryly). But I think the product has always been the most important thing for us, and not so much the promotion of the product. We love the closure when something is finished and you have something to show for it. It’s the best feeling, and really important to the process. I found it really hard to write any new songs in the last year or so, because I knew we were wrapping this thing up, and we had to get these out.

THE RAKE: How did you feel about your songs “Greyhound Bus” and “Caroline” being picked up and covered by Muzak?
TIGHE: Apparently “Greyhound Bus” is still going strong in elevators and grocery stores. I was tickled by that. And flattered, because the song has to make it without the lyrics to be easy listening.