Eight dreamy, melancholy songs of hope and loss by Hrishikesh Hirway.

8 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Gentle, POP: Delicate



Details:
The One AM Radioâs Hrishikesh Hirway is a man in awe of the world. His songs have an ache of being both daunted by and in love with whatâs around him. That strange intersection between mourning and joy is where Hirwayâs writing takes shape. His gorgeous and understated A Name Writ In Water [Level Plane] is his most recent attempt at reconciling these extremes, and once again shows theyâre more similar than first glance reveals. In his production, too, Hrishikesh knits together the seemingly disparate warm sounds of violins and acoustic guitars with minimalist electronic clicks and cuts, and from this, he manages to create a texture and a palette all his own.

The One AM Radio was born in 1999 on the streets of New Haven. With his roots in hardcore and punk music, Hirway initially made for a strange figure in the scene, unraveling his quiet, elegiac music at shows primarily featuring a litany of heavy, screamy hardcore bands. Basements full of kids ready to thrash would instead be forced to listen, surprised by the hushed baritone and the sparse electric guitar.

After gaining fans in the indie rock scene as well, The One AM Radio began playing shows with folks like Ida, The Secret Stars, Edith Frost, and Mark Robinson. Following one such show, Lookout! Records' Ted Leo approached Hirway, offering to produce a couple songs at his home studio in Boston. These songs eventually found their way onto a split 7" with Leo, and became the actâs debut release. "It was a turning poing for me," recalls Hirway. âI hadnât had much recording experience at that point. The songs were just recorded on a 4-track, but Ted was a seasoned veteran with his set-up, and for the first time, I really saw first-hand how recording could be a part of the writing process. It set me towards thinking about the sounds in my songs in a way that for me has been pretty important to the songs themselves.â

Flash forward to April 2004 and Hirway's A Name Writ In Water, whose title references the poet John Keats' headstone. The record finds Hirway still distinctively plaintive, but equally ambitious, as he sings of impermanence and accidents. Songs putter and pulse, with a keen and balanced ear for both the organic and synthetic. The One AM Radio's rueful songs evoke peacefulness just on the brink of collapse. They are lullabies sung to keep some unspoken turbulence at bay, or to preserve some fleeting memory. Brutal and brash in their own right, reflected in the white noise between the bawl or after the show. It transcends genres. This is music that carries the weight of fear, but glimmers with its counterpart, hope.