After Hour Animals, an alternative/post-hardcore band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was formed in 2020 by Nik Voyn and Armon Hassan.
Since their inception, they have evolved their unique sound by drawing inspiration from influential groups such as Bad Omens, Dayseeker, and Bring Me The Horizon.
Their recent hit single "Dangerous" wonderfully showcases their distinctive style, which has amassed over a quarter million streams in six months. Nik Voyn, the lead vocalist, articulates the group’s aspiration: "We all feel vulnerable & lost sometimes. After Hour Animals is just aiming to embrace it." The band’s newest song, "What I Wanted," perfectly represents what After Hour Animals is all about.
Diving into themes of loss, sorrow, and self-reflection, "What I Wanted" explores the stages of grief. The song commences with a tranquil melody, casting an immersive ambiance throughout the intro, soon joined by the gentle cadence of vocals and a simple drum pattern. The instrumentation swells during the chorus shortly thereafter, evolving into a powerful rock number. The track fluctuates between laid-back harmonies and intense vocal surges, reflecting the erratic emotions one may experience through hardship.
The "What I Wanted" music video perfectly complements the song's essence. Cool blue hues color a sequence of vacant spaces to create an alluring yet uncertain ambiance, forging a connection between the visual aesthetics and the song's underlying theme. The video shifts to a montage of the band members' silhouettes, evoking feelings of darkness, ambiguity, and solitude.
Through their music and visual art, After Hour Animals displays an unapologetic embrace of the wild side by exploring all aspects of the human experience and finding beauty in imperfection. Dive into "What I Wanted" today, available on all streaming platforms.
Welcome to BuzzMusic After Hour Animals, and congratulations on your latest release, "What I Wanted." Can you walk us through creating “What I Wanted?"
So it’s funny how this song came about. We were searching through our folder of demo tracks, thinking about which we wanted to use, and stumbled across one we were interested in pursuing further. As we were writing, however, the song took a drastic turn (which it often does) and quickly went from a fast song full of energy to a slower, emotional ballad. We focused on making something highly repetitive to drive home the meaning behind the song, which is that you have to own up to your mistakes in life and take accountability for them. Though it doesn’t outright say it, to let the listener relate to it however they see fit, the song is about how substance abuse can change you and make you unbearable to even the people that love you most. Sometimes a person leaving can be the best they could ever do for you.
What have been the greatest influences on your music?
Well, when talking bands, it probably has to be Dayseeker, The Plot In You, and Sleep Token. Their music is very much their own, which we respect, and is very lyrically driven and properly orchestrated to bring their central themes to life. Like those bands, though, we try to use our shortcomings as human beings to inspire our songs to help us learn from our mistakes and cope.
How has your music evolved since your group’s inception?
We’ve always tried to make our music catchy but also experimental in delivering sound by smoothly crossing genres. I think this sound we have been chasing is finally coming to fruition after years of maturing and hard work.
In what ways do you hope your music will impact listeners?
I hope that listeners can take away something positive or impactful in some way to help them deal with whatever it is that is going on in their lives, even if that’s something as simple as listening to our songs, letting loose, and forgetting about life's problems for a short time. We all need that time to breathe.
Looking to the future, what are your aspirations for After Hour Animals?
We hope to take this project as far as we possibly can. We have no plans of stopping and don’t ever want to put a limit on what After Hour Animals is capable of accomplishing.
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