Formed in 2020, Humble Armada consists of converging friendships and musical interests. The group has quickly grown to be a standout name in Washington State's live scene. Humble Armada satirically employs the 60s and 70s tropes that the band grew up listening to while also giving them a warm embrace. They are fostering a sense of revivalism and rawness to their sound.
The band's upcoming single, "Always Marry (The One That You Love)," sees the group embracing a melodic approach to songwriting. Set for release on November 11th, the song has Humble Armada swapping out their indulgent psychedelic tendencies for west-coast indie rock. The slow tempo of "Always Marry (The One That You Love)" caters exceptionally well to its love-inspired message. The band keeps it simple by reminding the listener to marry the one you love and forever find its way while preaching the hardships of finding your forever.
"Always Marry (The One That You Love)" is a beautifully played ballad that entices the audience to partake in a slow dance. Speaking directly to your heart and forging a deep connection to your soul, Humble Armada persuades the audience to follow the path that love has set out for them. "Always Marry (The One That You Love)" is an ideal listen on a Sunday drive that certifies the connection between the listener and everyone they love.
The third single from their forthcoming album, 'All Around You,' set for release on January 14th, 2022, "Always Marry (The One That You Love)," perfectly displays Humble Armada's vision and direction. Given the genuine nature of their prior releases, we are riddled with anticipation for the debut of their complete project.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Humble Armada! Congrats on the release of your new single "Always Marry (The One That You Love)." What does this song mean to you? Both creatively and personally?
From a creative point of view, we've taken a step back from our previous singles that had a theme for trying to compact lots of instruments and harmony into one track. For this song, we've simplified our arrangement - just using guitars and drums, really - and placed our focus on the curation of our tones and the track's melody. I think it was a mature step in our role as producers as we fought the urge to include more sounds like strings and piano, for example, and just tried to allow the songwriting to speak for itself. From a personal point of view, the lyrical theme of the track is a bit of a taboo one in our space. I feel like most songs we listen to these days about love tend to speak from a youthful perspective - from characters that still have the energy to put themselves out there - but we wanted to challenge that and talk about something potentially bigger than love, like marriage, family, and commitment. The song also serves as a metaphor for staying true to what you believe in and being grateful for what you have.
Seeing as this song veered off the usual path for Humble Armada, how was the dynamic affected during the creation process?
The writing and creation process for this song was just a stream of consciousness. Usually, with songwriting and production, we're trying to fit a theme - something that would flow well on a record or contribute to a story - but for this song, we felt no real affiliation to a genre or idea and wanted to make something that we thought people would want to hear again.
What differences have you noticed when recording and performing your songs live? Does the crowd have an impact on the energy?
It's interesting because our songwriting and recording processes run parallel to each other. Having a DIY studio, we're not limited to an acoustic guitar when we want to write a song. We can flesh it out straight away and keep chipping away at our DAW sessions and arrangements. So for us, our songs are usually all recorded before we ever play them live, which is cool because having a crowd reaction completely changes the vibe of a track. Something can go from being introspective to anthemic in a live show, and that is something really exciting about how we do things.
What can fans expect from your upcoming album 'All Around You?'
At its heart, it's a bit of a revivalist album, an ode to our influences. The album's not overly conceptual or anything, but a 60's pop atmosphere definitely shines through. We've also done our best to make the album as interesting as possible from start to finish. We've tried to include some unorthodox song structures, weird tempo/timing changes, and some out-there lyrical themes, initially because it was just fun to do so but also because we want to be engaged with our music years down the track, and this was a way to do that. So it's a bright album, summertime-without-mobile-phones vibe, and one that is potentially better on a second listening.
What's next for you?
We'll be doing a tour over the Australian summer around our native Western Australia to support the new record and spread our music, and then it's back into the studio to get some fresh ideas down. We've got some darker material that we'd like to explore, to sort of antithesize the new album. I would love to make it out to LA to meet you guys at one point!
