 "Photo: Allen Broome")
A friend’s kitchen was the best place for Pat Hull to record the intimate tracks of his new self-titled album, which debuted during his concert Friday at Cafe Coda.
When the singer-songwriter heard the album Michael Lee recorded using the equipment and acoustics in his apartment, Hull knew it was the perfect setup for the sparse and minimalist sound he had in mind.
“It was all simultaneous,” Hull said. “I wanted to record an album where if people go out to see me live, this is what they’re going to get.”
With his vision intact, most of the songs were recorded in a single take with little to no changes made in the studio. The clear-cut, stripped-down aesthetic on the album made it easy for Lee to produce and engineer.
“There was very little pressure on me to make the songs great,” said Lee, who opened the CD release concert with an emotional set of keyboard-and-guitar-driven solo songs. “Anything I added was just icing on the cake.”
Hull began the show by himself, shaking his head back and forth, his lips pressed firmly against the microphone, while transmitting his atmospheric voice to a packed audience sitting on the floor and reciting every word. As Hull was gradually joined by upright bass, drums and auxiliary percussion, the usually stoic Cafe Coda audience rose to its feet and began dancing as the rhythm section stomped in tune on stage.
“As far as anything at this acoustic kind of level, I’ve never seen anybody dancing here before,” Lee said. “It’s really great that Pat’s music is all-encompassing enough to capture that.”
Through his universally accessible style, Hull’s lyrics address the ideological struggles people have dealt with for ages, he said.
“A lot of my lyrics try to answer the questions that are unanswerable,” Hull said. “They really aren’t solvable, but you wrestle with them anyway, because there’s no other option but to wrestle with them.”
A staple of the Chico music scene, Hull recently moved to New York with his girlfriend, where he’s been closer to the friends and family who live in his home state of Connecticut.
“It’s been more of a relational adventure than a musical adventure,” he said. “The people who helped create and mold various parts of me are there. It’s been a perfect climate for me.”
Since starting college at the age of 18, Hull has grown as a musical artist and learned how to take himself seriously.
“I thought that the best way was to not put myself out there completely, but kind of make fun of myself and not be so serious about it,” he said. “The more I grew, the more I realized how that isn’t artistic at all. The reason I do this is because I want to express something that is concrete.”
Once he learned how to embrace his creativity, Hull no longer felt the unexplainable fear of expressing himself, he said.
“I want to put it all out there,” Hull said. “That’s what it’s for, nothing more and nothing less.”
Earl can be reached at
entertainmenteditor@theorion.com
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