Home Body

(Interview with vocalist Haley Morgan)

Where does the name Home Body come from?

Home Body is two words and that’s on purpose, and something we’ve been meaning to talk more about because there’s another band now called “Homebody” that’s been confusing for people and annoying to us. It has to do with the space between comfort and discomfort, form and formlessness; about accepting what’s yours but also naming your own terms. Home Body for us is an active thing, not like a couch potato avoiding the world, but a “this is my flesh and I’ll do with it what I want”. I think movement is a major theme for us, and in the name of our band, like, you don’t want to be stagnant, so how do you find peace and acceptance with yourself while constantly evolving and changing? Is home a physical or emotional space for you? How do you relate to your body? Is it ok to like yourself? Is it even possible to feel comfortable in your own skin?

When and how was Home Body born?

Eric [Hnatow, synthesizers] and I started Home Body in 2011 after dating for six years, initially meeting at Hampshire College. At the time, he was performing solo and starting to feel like he was generating material and stage energy in a vacuum. I was doing public art and event production in Northampton, MA at that time and craving an outlet to express my own ideas instead of just supporting the work of others. I would go see Eric perform and could hear melody lines and had all these aesthetic impulses – performance ideas and stuff – and eventually we started fooling around musically. It took us a while to figure out how to work together sonically and communicate – neither of us are classically trained and know much music lingo, plus Home Body was my first band. We’ve never been interested in the formulaic boy-girl pretty femme vocals over slick beats thing, and have been more interested in riding the shadowy edge where machines and human sounds collide and are in dialogue with each other.

How does Home Body express itself in practice room and in a room with an audience?

Eric uses an MS2000 he literally bought in 2000. Our Korgs are a decade old too and the lights I manipulate when we perform are the kind that have actual filaments burning, not LEDs. There’s something about all the wires everywhere onstage, the circuits surrounding us and tethering us to our machines that we get off on. Like, displaying the physicality present in our music rather than hiding them under slick automations and bluetooth connections is integral to our performance. It feels strangely comforting that the machines we use still need us to be there, press the buttons, change the lighting or whatever. I like figuring out new ways to illustrate and retain a certain humanity. 

Wow, that’s a beautiful description. I always thought it was cool the way you used lights to emphasize certain actions or words.  The delicacy of the filament is an awesome tangible concept.  Where do you think all that magical spiritual feeling comes from?

We are fed enough futuristic, produced, pretty, full-to-the-brim homogenized pop music. What does it look/sound like to present something that’s messy, raw, strong, distorted, full of holes, greasy, and confused? In my experience, not shying away from embodying those qualities creates space to be more relatable or honest or something. I think audiences these days crave realness. Or like, a certain spirit of transparency. 

To record is to capture this unit in time, only in sound. What’s it like to do this with Home Body?

Recording is a whole different animal and that’s what Home Body has been up to recently. This winter we wrote a bunch of new material, stuff we’re really psyched on. It’s meaty. And lush. And untamed. For the first time we’re recording ourselves, in our practice space in Greenfield, and though there’s a huge learning curve, we feel like we’re doing the right thing. Our past recordings don’t feel like they totally reflect our live, evolved sound and energy. Not paying for studio time and a sound engineer had opened up space where we don’t have to take ourselves so seriously. It’s playful, and we’re able to experiment and take risks. Dig deeper into what we’re making and find our own satisfaction in it, instead of looking to others for validation or something. And vocally I find it very freeing to sing these songs without others around. Although as a Virgo I have to chill out and let go sometimes, not be a perfectionist and make sure the songs retain a rawness to them. 

You’re on tour now. What’s it like for Home Body on the road?

We’re on a short tour now, debuting many of these new songs live for the first time, and it’s been cool so far. But you know, surprising to see what works and doesn’t. It seems to really highlight something I’ve been thinking about a lot with Home Body. Like, where does my energy come from? As a performer it’s a lot of constant output – physically and emotionally- and then there’s always having to be socially engaged with people at the show, etc to generate his own energy and material and at the same time I was anxious when I was watching him perform because I felt like I could add to it. I could hear vocal lines and I could see aesthetic.

Over the past winter, we’ve been writing new music and working on recording. This is the first time we’ve tried recording ourselves in our practice space in Greenfield, which has been a really great experiment. Without the pressures of spending money to be in the studio or feel like I’m potentially wasting someone’s time listening to us work things out we are able to experiment more and dig deeper into the emotional content of our work. The new stuff is definitely meatier, deeper and darker. We’re really happy with the new material and have been fun trying it out on this tour. I’ve been thinking a lot about light lately, its form and formlessness, how it can highlight or hide, what it feels like or can look like.

What has been your favorite part of tour thus far?

Last night, we camped out smack dab in the middle of Amish country after playing in Lancaster and that was cool. I love touring and being able to see different parts of the country – the US is huge! And so different place to place! Lots of weird cultural niches. Like this morning driving our spacey looking silver scion past horse and buggies with families riding together, hats and beards, hauling dozens of baskets of flowers…pretty magical. And a total trip thinking about what a different life I lead from the woman in the buggy who was probably the same age as me. And Eric and I cook most of our meals on the road, which is cool and grounding, and means we get to have all these picnics in weird scenic places. Today Eric cooked veggie sausage, broccoli, and potatoes in a church parking lot in Maryland, and we ate next to a bunch of alpacas. Random! I love touring and would do it all the time if the opportunity presented itself. I also love that moment right before I’m about to perform for people who are seeing us for the first time and I feel like I can do or be anything, like a secret agent, they don’t know what’s coming…