With 37 Channels releasing a few short months ago, Tantric is turning heads again. An eclectic mix of varying genres, tied together by the heart and soul of the band, Hugo, 37 Channels is bound to have something to everyone. We at RockRevolt™ finally got the chance to chat it up with Hugo one evening, and boy did he have a lot to say!
Hugo/Tantric: Hey, Alice! So—have you heard the new record? Whaddaya think?
Alice/RR: Hey Hugo! Right into the interview huh? I like it! It’s different; I feel it’s a little bit of a different direction from the other records. It feels nostalgic to me. There’s a lot of 80’s and 90’s kind of feel in there, but there’s also, especially in songs like “Mosquita,” a little bluegrass in some areas.
Yeah. That I got from living in the south. I grew up in this small town called Hudson Massachusetts after that, when I graduated from high school, I went to college in Detroit and then I started my career in music. I lived in Detroit for a long time, and New York City, and LA, and then obviously Louisville has been my main home for a while. Louisville is such a part of me it’s as much of a part of me as any place is, but Detroit, Louisville and Boston have been my mainstays. So I love Louisville. The thing that is great about Louisville is like I can always get a free drink somewhere, because I tend to know somebody any place I go.
When I first moved out here I realized that it’s kind of like having the best of both worlds–you’re close enough to a big enough city to get into trouble, but then just drive five miles down the road and you can go camping.
You can totally get into trouble. I remember when I first got signed, I was like a young kid and I literally became wealthy and famous overnight. My house was the biggest party house of all time, and then trying to like retract from that is crazy.
So…what would you like to talk about?
Well, I actually had a question about your lineup changes—why have there been so many people in and out of the band?
Well, I first started the band with the original lineup in Louisville and I mean, I’m still friends with everybody in every lineup, but basically it was always on “Hugo,” if not the main writer, the only writer. Now I consider Tantric more like a vessel that carries music. The lineup changes aren’t me firing people or anything.
It’s just like a natural evolution of Tantric?
Yeah, it’s just the natural evolution, and this particular record was my fifth record. It took me about three years to write it. I was in my studio locked in there for a long, long time. So when I made it, I wanted to use all of these rockers and other musicians to kind of articulate it – everybody from Shooter Jennings to Kenny Olson to Kid Rock. I’ve got a pretty diverse lineup on it. But I’m not the guy who considers himself a rock star, I’m a musician that is lucky enough to make money at it. I hate freakin rock stars.
I had this like particular vision of how I wanted this record to be and honestly, I wrote 120 songs for this record. Literally my friends would come over and they were like, “seriously, you need to like leave your house,” and I’m like, “no!” I had like a beard I looked like a terrorist and shit.
Oh, you became a hermit!
I totally became a hermit. I would just start a song and I’d get so obsessed with it. One song would lead to another song, and another song would evolve into another song. They say it takes your whole life to write your first record, and two years to write your second. I really feel like it’s taken me my whole life to write this record. It is the most uncompromised record I’ve ever put out there. I’m a big fan of bluegrass guitar playing and banjo and just straight beats, but I’m also a super-huge fan of Metallica and Pantera, and I’m also a huge fan of Dream Theatre (super intricate), but then I love The Gypsy Kings, and I also like Andrea Bocelli. So I wanted to like make this record that kind of reflected all that. Luckily my voice sounds like a lawnmower, so it always gives everything some cohesiveness.
Your voice sounds like a lawnmower?
Meaning, I have a really raspy voice. People always know it’s Tantric. There are not really many people that sound like a two-stroke Briggs and Stratton when they’re singing (laughs).
Basically, I was trying to infuse all of these influences that I’ve had throughout the years, but still have it be Tantric. But, like you said, it’s very diverse. That’s why I called it 37 Channels, because it was like my ADD in full force. It it were up to me I would have released a box set, you know, because I pretty much wrote enough songs to make friggin five records! Sometimes I’d work on this song and then go upstairs and I’d come downstairs the next day, or the day after, or whatever it took me to recover, and I’d be like, “I just wrote a bossa nova,” and it was so random. It’s like I have all these channels in my head, and that’s where I came up with the idea for the record. So it was great, I was writing hip-hop, country, classically infused stuff, some straight up Tantric stuff, some super heavy metal stuff, and I’m like, “what the fuck is going on with my head right now?” I didn’t really ground anything because I always explained to my manager how my brain works– imagine having 37 televisions in your head and the one that you’re focusing on (meaning your conscious television) is a 42-inch set, while all the other ones are 36. They are not much smaller, so you can still hear all of them. As I talk to you, there’s a whole bunch of them that are like writing a book, or writing a fucking pilot, or other ones are like, “Oh, I need to cut the lawn” all these thoughts, there is like that 
much.
I’m glad I’m not in your head somewhere, because I think I’d get lost!
No, it’s actually entertaining. My manager, she was right there for a lot of the writing, and she would just sit there and say, “You’re fucking nuts” and I’m like “I’m NOT nuts” and then she would just see how random I was. I would write so many different genres so I could have all these tools to articulate stuff. That’s why I say it’s the most uncompromised record. I said, “fuck it! I’m just going to put this out there!” For example, “Mosquita” is a total country-ish song.
Yeah, it definitely has a very “Kentucky” feel.
Yes, and the fact that I could get my buddy Shooter Jennings on it was just like, “all right this thing’s done!” You know, I wanted to have an all-star cast, and it was so cool for all of my friends that are in the industry to come play on it. You know we had a blast making it.
So how did you whittle it down to the 13 that are on the album?
I think that there were some that were instinctual. Actually one of the songs had a co-writers (which is the only song I ever really had a co-writer on). It was a dude from Louisville named David Mouser. He’s a hip-hop artist that also now produces, and was in a band called The VilleBillies. When Tantric first came out, I helped The VilleBillies get their first deal. Now he’s in a hip-hop group/band called Knoxx. We were just sitting down, drinking beer and the whole time he was like, “why don’t we try this?” I knew then that this song is a fucking single, even though I know it’s not but it just really could be cut up for digital shit, because you have to wait for that chorus to hit, but if you give it a chance, it is a song that you never really get sick of. It’s smart, not only musically, but lyrically and it’s just a fun song. We are filming a video for it (“Mosquita”) in a couple days. My whole goal with the video is to make it as funny as freakin possible. Most pensive videos are very like—I’m a rocker I’m on a mountain and all this shit. That shit is so pretentious you know?,After a while, all right—I know you can rock. So I want to make this video that is just totally self-deprecating and whether you like the song or not, or the band or not, you’re just going to watch the video because it’s funny as fuck.
I’m going to have to keep an eye out for this video! Where are you shooting it?
I’m shooting it partly in New York in this little town that I grew up in, which is literally like the town on Joe Dirt. My hometown is like that, but it’s all filled with Portuguese people (which is what I am). It’s really funny. I grew up with like everybody here, and everybody speaks Portuguese and English and if they’re not Portuguese, they’re English, or Irish or Italian. And they all have construction companies or waste management companies, and the core of the town are these hard-working people. A lot of these people never even left the state you know, but they’re the greatest people ever. So I kinda want to throw that into the video.
Absolutely! How do you feel that your album is going to be received?
I think it is either going to be a huge success or giant flop. I know that our base of Tantric fans are loyal people, and I know that those people will always buy our records. Tantric fans, they know how we are, they don’t just know “Breakdown” and “Down and Out” and all our hits. They know how different the records are within themselves. I think that’s why it was really good to bring so many diverse artists in there, multi-platinum, super successful themselves to give credibility to this craziness that I’m doing. The record flows from beginning to end, but there is a lot of diversity in the record. It’s a smart record, and it’s very sincere, and that’s all you can really ask for. Anybody can write a song about strippers or getting wasted on a Friday night, but you know I’m writing songs like “Gravity” about my mom and the women in my life and how they’re like the gravity of my life that holds me down, and go on to songs that eloquently tell somebody to fuck off.
I did like that one where you are telling them to fuck off. That was one of my favorites—”Loss for Words.”
The thing is that the song is so pretty and so sincere and heart-felt, and it’s like I love you, but fuck you. And it’s probably the prettiest “fuck you” that anybody’s ever heard. There’s like this kind of funniness behind it. It’s basically about a girl that broke my heart, long story short, imagine if I was in Europe burying my godfather then imagine me getting a picture of the girl I was about to marry fucking somebody else in my own house. It was devastating, the first time I ever really got my heart completely broken, and I wrote that song—and it’s one of the first songs I’ve ever written that I never wrote a lyric to. It just literally just came out of me and everybody was like “um, are you sure about that fuck you lyric?” And I’m like—I’m absolutely sure about that “fuck you” lyric.
Do you feel better now that that song is out?
Yeah I really do, I remember actually finishing it, I think that’s why I locked myself in the basement for so long. I was in such this horrible place, and I started writing it when I was 37—therefore 37 Channels. After I finished the record, I listened to it from beginning to end with my friend Chris Henderson (3 Doors Down). He came to the studio and we listened to it, and it was like this happy. Then while driving back from Nashville to Louisville, I suddenly felt like a lot of weight had left my shoulders. Like I said what I had to say, and buried it. It was like writing a letter to someone that you’re angry at and you never send it, but it just makes you feel better? It was kind of how that record felt to me. But I really think that the record is probably the most sincere version of me that I’ve ever written.
I’m glad you got your closure
I did. It was a little bit of closure.
As an artist in general, are you satisfied with the path you’ve taken? Or would you have done something different?
I love what I do. My job is an incredible job, and I can only have it because people support it. But there are times when my job sucks. It’s like being a reporter or a journalist like yourself, and there are so many journalists that are writing for magazines that are online and everything, not everybody is the head journalist of Time Magazine or Rolling Stone, but you do get these articles that you write where you’re like “I fucking nailed that motherfucker” you know? And you get the right interview, you pull something out of that right person at the right time, and whether anybody sees it or not, you know it and those rewards are what you get out of it. I think it is the gift that God gave me and I’m too stupid to know that I can’t do anything else. To me, I’m stubborn, this is what I’m going to do until the day I die whether I do it filthy rich, poor, or I just live next to the librarian. It doesn’t matter. All that matters to me at the end of the day in 10 years is when I listen to this record, will I still love it? And I would say yes. I love all the records that I’ve done. All you can really aim for is just being yourself and doing the best you can. You know, who knows? Justin Bieber’s selling a bunch of records and I want to choke myself. He’s not writing “Hotel California.”
I think he’s going to be very passing. Everyone remembers “Hotel California.”
I always compare it to “Hotel California.” If you write a song that after all those years is still a great song, then you’re doing okay. You’re doing all right. You can’t control other people, you can only control what you do. It’s like the Serenity Prayer. Sometimes it just takes us time to figure that shit out. All you can do is what you think is right, and then you just kind of have to throw fucking caution to the wind. I think this record is great. I think that the more you listen to this record now having this talk with me now you’ll understand where it’s coming from.
For example—”My Turn,” is like a conversation in which I’m making fun of pop idols, and ironically I use Leif Garrett. Who the fuck would even use Leif Garrett, but he’s such an incredible guy, and this guy was just big as fucking A! It was really cool, because I’m pretty sure that nobody would think to throw Leif Garrett in that, but it was only because Leif is a really great singer, and I never even knew any of his songs before, I’ve just known him for like 3 years and he’s just a great guy. I didn’t realize how many super people are still in love with Leif Garrett. He is huge! He does Oprah all the time. He is such a significant icon, but now it is hard for him to redefine himself. So, it was kind of cool for him to be able to do this. I’m like “feel free to add your own little twist,” and he certainly did it! There’s this one lyric that says, “they stole my 20 million dollars, there I said it.” Those were his lyrics. He was totally relating to what I was saying: he was a little kid, he was making millions, but really he was making other people millions of dollars. And the guy really loves music! He is really a good musician. It’s not like I had to train the guy, he knew what he was doing right away. It was funny to have that irony in there. Either people get it or they don’t: just like having Shooter Jennings in it, and having Gary Morse playing lap steel guitar who played on Waylon Jenning’s last record. And that was all coincidental.
I swear if I could go to everybody’s house that bought the record and explain it to them they would get a lot more out of it.
Listen to a teaser of “My Turn” featuring Leif Garrett
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“Hey, I’m Hugo. I’m here to tell you what you’re listening to.”
Listen, for $14.99, I just spent $300 on a plane ticket to go to your house on Old Sudbury Rd…I’m just going to have breakfast with you, I want to give you a play by play. I’d really like to do that, but I don’t think it would be that profitable, though.
“Hey—we made $50 million and spent $150 million on plane tickets!”
I hate to let you go, but I’m going to take my girl on a date.
I’ll let you go then. Which of the 37 televisions are you going to show her tonight?
23…yeah, just 23. I’d show her 13, but it’s adult, mature language also. (laughs)
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