By DONNA BALANCIA
Swear Words, AKA Justin Hill, has released the new album, Barbary Brothers.
The record is playfully jazzy with a compelling unique modern style. From the first track, “High Tide,” through the last track there is a sincerity to the music. There’s a soft smartness that’s a change from the brash word-spitting world of rap to the new direction of quiet but strong.
Barbary Brothers
In presentation, the music is a little like East Coast-based revered musician Dean Friedman (“Ariel”) blended with Death Cab For Cutie if they turned to the jazz milieu.
We sat down for a little chat with Hey Swear Words prior to his show at Bigfoot Lodge.
Swear Words – Barbary Brothers
A Q and A With Swear Words
CR: Is there a genre for this music?
SW: That was something that I struggled with early on trying to figure out what genre I was considered. I spoke to other audiophiles about it. A friend of mine who is a musician said it’s “Electro Indie Soul.”
CR: What is the thing people tell you?
SW: A thing that people say to me is that the music is cinematic, which I love because initially when I got into music I wanted to be a composer.
CR: Do you like performing live and how do the people react?
SW: I saw the necessity in performing and now I’ve grown to love it. And then “different” is something I hear a lot. I never know how to take “different” when I hear it.
CR: What comes next?
SW: So longterm goal take over the world. Short term goal put out another record relatively soon and doing gigs. I am sitting on close to 12 projects. This is the first of 12.
CR: Who are the guys on the record?
SW: My coproducer is a longtime friend James Hart. I put this record on his label Disclosure, with that came great triple A players. Christian plays harp, Richie Hart, James’ Dad and Scott Reeves play guitar, and Adam Block plays keys. Jonathan Strange is a featured rapper. We have several talented horn players on there so I composed the skeleton and muscle of this album and wrote the lyrics. These dudes bring the music to life in a different way. I love all those dudes.
CR: How did you meet?
SW: Some people I met through the music. They heard my music, it emoted to them.