LISTEN / SHARE “MY FRIEND WANTS TO BE A FREEMASON” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MY FRIEND WANTS TO BE A FREEMASON” HERE
HIS HIS NEW EP, GOOD GOLD CASSETTE, OUT NOVEMBER 15, 2024 VIA VICTORY POOL RECORDS
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN NOVEMBER 28
Photo Credit: Kenzie Burke // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, His His, the recording project of Toronto-based artist Aidan Belo, shares another new track from the upcoming EP, Good Gold Cassette, set for release on November 15, 2024 via Victory Pool Records.
“My Friend Wants To Be A Freemason” is oddly enough, “a song about one of my childhood friends who had the idea of joining the freemasonry,” says Belo. “Prior to his fascination of becoming a freemason, I had very little knowledge of what it meant and what it is that they do. The idea of joining this secret society consumed my friend, and for a couple of months it was all that he’d talk about. The obsession eventually fizzled out and I never heard about it again. A few months later, I found out that one of the regulars who eats at my dad’s restaurant, where I work, is the officer for the Masonic lodge that is in town. I never introduced my friend to him, but I wrote a song about it.”
LISTEN / SHARE “MY FRIEND WANTS TO BE A FREEMASON” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MY FRIEND WANTS TO BE A FREEMASON” HERE
MORE ABOUT GOOD GOLD CASSETTE + HIS HIS
Good Gold Cassette is a record inspired by his dad, claims Belo. “One of the earliest memories I have with my dad is driving in his old Nissan pickup truck in the early 2000s going to get 1000 bales of discounted hay that a farmer that lived nearby was trying to clear his barn of to make room for the new harvested hay. I remember watching my dad pack 30 or so bales at a time bringing it from the farmer’s barn to ours. It took a long time, and it was blazing hot.
“A cassette of Breakfast in America by Supertramp (easily my dad’s favourite band after Pink Floyd) was what we listened to over and over again. I was fascinated at how this little piece of plastic produced these amazing sounds. At one point when my dad was moving hay while I was sitting in the car, I decided to press eject on the cassette player. I pulled the cassette out and looked at it closely. It made no sense to me, but I saw the little black coils of magnetic tape inside and on the bottom, it was exposed. I started to pull it out and before I knew it, all of the tape was on the floor of the Nissan pickup. When my dad came back inside of the truck, I could see the look in his eyes, and it was then that I first remember the feeling of guilt. He didn’t get mad, but I knew I did something wrong. The Supertramp cassette was replaced, and then eventually the cassette player in the truck was replaced by a newer truck with a cd player. To me, it never sounded the same as it did on that old, well-loved cassette that sat out on the dashboard cooking in the sun when it wasn’t in the console. That day sparked my love for and interest of cassettes.”
WATCH / SHARE “GET-GO” HERE
BUY / STREAM “GET-GO” HERE
Good Gold Cassette was originally planned to be a digital and cassette-only release as every track on the EP began on a Tascam Portastudio 4-track cassette recorder. “The recording process began with 4 tracks starting on the cassette recorder (usually guitars and vocals) and were then bounced to my computer afterwards and built upon from there,” explains Belo. “They were sent again to tape during the mixing stage to help glue the tracks together. The EP is far from perfect, but that’s what I love about it. It’s a simple production of some tracks that I wrote in the early winter months of 2024. It was recorded with a couple of ribbon and dynamic mics, some old guitars, a (partially broken) 70s fender champ, a weathered drum kit, some bits and bobs I had laying around the space, lots of coffee, and a lot of magnetic tape and cassettes.”
WATCH / SHARE “OUTSIDE” HERE
BUY / STREAM “OUTSIDE” HERE
Since the first His His release in late 2020, this project has generated more than 1,000,000 streams across Spotify and Apple Music, and has been featured on CBC Music and SiriusMX’s The Verge.
Everything is recorded in the empty space of an old wood barn on his family’s farm which has been temporarily converted into a makeshift studio, where everything is recorded entirely to 1⁄4 inch tape and cassette.
His His made their live debut at POP International Music Festival 2022 in Montreal and have since showcased at SXSW 2023 + 2024.
TOUR DATES
Nov 28 Windsor, ON - Phog Lounge
Nov 29 Toronto, ON - The Monarch Tavern
Dec 6 Montreal, QC - La Sotterenea
Dec 7 Burlington, VT - Arts Riot
Dec 8 Boston, MA - Cantab Lounge
Dec 9 Brooklyn, NY - Purgatory
Dec 10 Philadelphia, PA - House Show, Treehouse of Horror
Dec 11 Richmond, VA - Gallery5
Dec 12 Asheville, NC - Static Age Records
Dec 13 Columbus, OH - Half Baked
Dec 14 Chicago, IL - The Fallen Log
GOOD GOLD CASSETTE TRACKLIST
01 Sirens From An Apartment Bedroom
02 Get-Go
03 My Friend Wants To Be A Freemason
04 Good Gold
05 Na Madrugada (At Dawn)
06 Cabra
07 Outside