Description
If you are into Christian Mistress, then it is highly likely that you will love Quayde LaHüe. Why? There is a tight connection between both bands, as bassist Reuben Storey explains: “After Jonny Wulf and I completed a rigorous touring schedule with Christian Mistress in 2015, we were eager to work on new music. That not being possible with Christian Mistress due to work, family, etc we set on starting a new band. We started working on songs with Jonny on guitar, me on drums and Anton on bass. Anton, Jonny and Peter had previously played in a power pop group called Wulf so when Anton left for an extended European tour with the country band Gun Outfit, we asked Peter to take over on drums while I switched to bass. The songs really started to take hold then so we approached Tim Diedrich from Christian Mistress to take on second guitar and Jenna on vocals who had recently sung in a Black Sabbath cover band. Tim had agreed to play as a temporary member as he had a planned hiatus from music, so when the time came for him to move on we asked Max Bowman to take over second guitar. Our hometown Olympia is pretty small. The musician pool is more like a puddle, so when you find people you like playing with, you end up playing with them for a long time. And there you have the clinical history of Quayde LaHüe from September 2015 to July 2017.”
A strange name it is: Quayde LaHüe. Reuben lets us know the story behind it: “When choosing a name to represent a group, I feel it crucial to create primary context. Take for instance Metallica. When taken out of context, that word means nothing but for me, growing up, that word meant everything! In short, to have the power of our own lexicon is why we are called Quayde LaHüe.”
Musically Quayde LaHüe’s sound is pretty basic and reduced, sounding like a cross between the NWOBHM and 1970s Hard Rock, would that be a fair statement? “We like to rock the boogie!,” confesses vocalist Jenna Fitton. “It might sound basic but we really spend a lot of time feeling the music out and collaborating. Like all five members are contributing their raw energy to form a feeling. Perhaps the resulting product resembles other/older styles but I think it’s fair to say we all have a large portion of our hearts stuck in that era musically. It’s a lot of fun!”
What is a song like “Symbol Of Love” about lyrically? “In short, I write lyrics based on the vibrations of the music in the room and then take the words and ideas conjured from that and make them fit rhythmically,” says Jenna. “This tune is ultimately about changes in friendship and love and grappling around that crevasse. Lyrically this song is atypical as thematically the bulk of the tunes are about life and death. A song like ‘The Oppressor’ is a cathartic response to the shift in reality that is building tension world-wide. A lot of the songs on »Day Of The Oppressor« are me trying to process being alive in the world right now.”
With »Day Of The Oppressor« out via High Roller Records Quayde LaHüe are already planning ahead, work on their first proper studio album is bound to begin sooner or later. Reuben explains: “We never stop writing. The goal is to craft songs and make music we enjoy. After touring the US this September, all efforts will be focused on the album. We’ve got a new song we’ve been calling ‘I Am Warrior’ and I imagine there will be similar themes throughout this next album. Looking forward to doing some writing on the road and hopefully writing a song called ‘Here Come The Bugs’…”
Matthias Mader