• SumoMe

Hello Jupiter Group ShotHello Jupiter is a New York band of three friends, Evgeni, Maxwell, and Jon, who grouped up to create music for their free EP titled “Do I Dare..”. All the songs focus on chance and uncertainty in life, and how your choices in life relate to events down the road. Intrigued, I reached out to Hello Jupiter to ask them a few questions about their work and inspiration.

Electrogent: Introduce yourselves to those who might not know who you are.

Hello Jupiter: We keep it real. Just like this guy [Ed.–on the right]. Listen to our new EP at hellojupiter.bandcamp.com.

E: Band names usually have a pretty great story behind them. What’s the story behind “Hello Jupiter”?

HJ: I wish we had a cool story behind our name, like maybe one of our parents was an astronomer who discovered the rings of Jupiter, but alas! We have nothing of the sort to provide. In reality we were all brainstorming together for names and one of us said “hello something” and another said “something Jupiter”, so we married the two and it sounded adequate.

E: Where do you guys draw your inspiration for your work?

HJ: We draw inspiration from a whole lot of places. Musically we draw a lot from bands like This Town Needs Guns, Colour, RX Bandits, Radiohead, The Police, Animals As Leaders, The Dear Hunter, and a lot from the Long Island aesthetic of bands like Glassjaw and As Tall As Lions. Lyrically we draw from our lives, things we read that we like, and for me, great hip-hop like Nas and Wu-Tang.

E: In “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe,” part of the lyrics say “In every choice we make/a thousand paths are unexplained…do you want to know what could have been?” This reminds me of some lyrics that Geddy Lee of Rush would sing, as they sometimes play with themes on philosophy, choice, and existentialism. Do you guys draw any inspiration from Rush, or am I just crazy?

HJ: I see where you are coming from, but I don’t think any of us dig Rush to that extent. If you want to talk progressive rock influences from that era I would say we lean more on Yes than Rush, but in instrumentation, not really lyrically.”

E: In fact, all the songs on your EP focus seem to focus on choice and decisions. As a group of 20-something year old men, I think this is really great because this age is fraught with all sorts of big life choices. How do these songs about choices relate to the lives of the band members?

HJ: These songs have served as a vent for myself [Ed.–Maxwell] and Evgeni lyrically. We all have a lot of big responsibilities on our plate and it’s wild to think about how quickly they came about, and how small choices or actions play a monumental importance to how our lives have turned out. For me, I became a father at a young age, and it has made me navigate the responsibilities of being an adult in a world that seems to aggrandize youth and the freedom associated with it, which in turn created the frustrations and doubts that were funneled into “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe.”

But, there is also this great feeling of optimism about the future that comes with being independent and tackling big responsibilities, this feeling that even though we might not have all the answers, we have the ability to find them if we apply ourselves properly, which is at the heart of “Underneath This Giant Sky.” Those songs balance themselves out in addressing the effect of change and our outlook on the future.

“My Love” is about being so obsessively infatuated with someone or something, that you disregard the nature of reality and hinder it from manifesting just to fuel that obsession. Everyone is trying to pull you back into reality, but, you’d rather choose to live in a treacherous Utopia; ignorance is indeed bliss.

“Turn Back Time” was derived from a play, “These Shining Lives” that Evgeni and I saw at Stony Brook that tells the true story of four women who developed cancer because of the chemicals they were working with at a clock factory. They went on to file one of the first lawsuits against a company for un-safe work practices, and that song addresses that situation.

Hello Jupiter ArtE: If you could give three things you’d like people to know about your band, what would they be?

HJ: We are really approachable! Send us a message or an email at hellojupiterband@gmail.com. We love feedback, and we will send you tabs if you feel like learning the songs or instrumentals if you like.

We plan on doing this for many years to come, so keep checking back on us. Every song we write refines our skills a little more, and in ten years from now we hope to have a solid collection of music for you to enjoy.

We endorse drop-box wholeheartedly, it’s made the whole making music miles apart deal very easy. So we think everyone can find some use in that service.

E: Where did y’all record this album?

HJ: We got to record these songs at Vudu Studios in Port Jefferson, New York. I had worked with them previously, and we all really love their work with As Tall As Lions and The Dear Hunter. The vibe there is fantastic, the property and studio are beautiful and it’s an inspiring environment for creativity. Tom Flynn, the engineer on the EP, is an absolute beast, and it’s because of him we were able to track this thing in two days. Mike Watts, who mixed the EP, has a great ear and helped us capture the feeling of our live performance on record.

E: The fractal art on your album’s cover is really neat―who designed it?

HJ: The album art was created by this fractal artist Jock Cooper. He has a website with thousands of works in the same style that are all mind-blowing, check it out. Also the writing you see on that cover was created by a friend of Evgeni’s, Yevgeniya Ryaboy, who really does a fantastic job creating logos and print. ”

E: You describe your band as a group of friends, and that “life tends to pull us in all sorts of directions and this pulls us all right back.” What do you mean by that?

HJ: We are really great friends, we share the same screwed-up sense of humor, and we feel really comfortable creating music together. Our talents and personalities seem to compliment each other’s very well. But we also all have lives outside of this band. I have my own little family and I am earning my MBA while working, Jon has a full-time job in IT, and Evgeni is currently working on a law degree up in Syracuse. What’s great about this band is that there is no pressure, we purely do this for fun and the pride that comes with creating music that we find interesting. That really serves as a stress reliever, a way to vent thoughts and ideas that wouldn’t have an outlet otherwise.

E: Do y’all have any plans for live shows in the upcoming future?

HJ: Right now Evgeni is getting his law degree up in Syracuse, so we don’t have much planned, but we will be doing a handful of shows late in December and in the beginning of January. We plan to get around a good amount next summer, so find yourself at one of our shows then!

 E: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

HJ: Just that we appreciate all the people out there supporting us and giving our music some listening time. The feedback so far has been positive and keeps us excited about writing new material. If you haven’t downloaded the EP yet it’s completely free at hellojupiter.bandcamp.com.

My thanks to Hello Jupiter for answering a few questions about their lives both inside and outside of their band.

Do you have any questions for Hello Jupiter? Ask them in the comments below.