THE HOMESICK - HUGS OF THE SKY

"The Homesick are well and truly earnest post-punk voyagers."

The Homesick are Elias Elgersma (Vocals, Effects), Jaap van der Velde (Vocals, Effects) and Erik Woudwijk (Drums). The Homesick fuses post-punk rhythms with melodic whimsical pop into an experimental blend of great songs.

The band has been around since their first EP "Television" from 2013 and released their debut album "Youth Hunt" (Subroutine) in 2017. Hailing from the backwater Frisian municipality of Dokkum, the band shrewdly courted spirituality under their own nonconformist whims. The album played with this ambiguity as they incorporated this in their sound through the mixing of dark post-punk with sure-fire pop earworms.

Their second album "The Big Exercise" (SubPop) from 2020 inverses this sound, second-guessing their core chemistry as a live unit. Where the debut album incorporates vocals drenched in reverb, warped synths and distorted guitars, "The Big Excercise" leaves a hint of romanticism through the baroque elements such as piano, acoustic guitar, percussion and clarinet.

Shortly after the release of "The Big Exercise" they individually started to explore new musical directions. Guitar and bass were dropped as Elias and Jaap searched for other sounds playing keys, sample boxes and more new rhythmic instruments. “We wanted to come up with something that we can dance to”, Jaap says. “After these last two years we very much felt like this is what we need now.”

The new songs are unmistakably The Homesick and at the same time like you've never heard them before. Recording took place early summer 2022 in GAM Studios in The Belgium Ardennes. It's recorded by Casper van der Lans, the same engineer as with "The Big Exercise". Noah Melis from the Belgian band Borokov Borokov mixed the songs. Mastering has been done by Uwe Teichelt (Balthazar, Dans Dans). The third and self-titled album by The Homesick will be released on September 8th 2023.

HUGS OF THE SKY

Despite their young age, the independent psychedelic rock band Hugs of the Sky already has quite an impressive curriculum vitae: since 2018 they released 4 full albums and went on 5 European tours. On one of these, they supported the legendary 80s band The Sisters of Mercy: they received a personal invitation from the Lord of Darkness himself, Andrew Eldritch. Their most recent single “Butter Free”, accompanied by an AI-generated video, is another anthem to cheer up all your post-apocalyptic balloon parties, making reference to amongst others veganism and nineties nostalgia.