Hataałii on writing “Presidents Got Me All Night Long” and more
In the second single of a pair from Hataałii (produced by Joel Jerome, a favorite LA-based indie rock producer), he weaves a dreamlike, sensuous poetic world. The prolific young musician continues on his musical trajectory after several previous full-length releases including Banana Boy, Painting Portraits, his latest self-titled record, and a duet record with Jakob. Hear the song here – and read about Hataałii’s creative process in his own words. 👇 Cover photo credit to Shaun Price.
Your lyrics seem so dream/stream-of-consciousness like. How do lyrics come to you?
I usually write the lyrics after I’ve made the instrumental, and I’ll write along to the music. Sometimes I’ll have the song already written out but not so often. I’ll pick words and concepts out of the stream and kind of give them life in a way. I don’t know, I don’t really think about it too much anymore tbh. Thinking about it kind of puts me in a strange loop/paradox mindset and then I get weird, so now I’ve learned to not ask any questions and to just get it out as efficiently as possible because it feels productive. Or at least that’s how I look at it now. It’s always changing.
Can you tell me what kind of pedals you use?
One BOSS chorus CE-2W, and an Electro Harmonix Canyon delay. I’ve been meaning to check out more, but I don’t have the money for that right now. I use a lot of the shitty digital effects on my DAW though, which I’ve grown pretty fond of.
You set out to write a song every day while in high school, what did you learn during that process?
I don’t know if I learned anything by doing that. At the time it was a kind of this selfish insurance strategy, but I didn’t really get what I wanted out of it. I was only like 16 or something so my reasoning behind that goal now seems incomprehensible. But I’m glad I did it, because when I listen to those songs it brings me back. I also suppose it helped me learn how to record songs quickly, but whether that’s a good thing or not I don’t know. I must have been on some kind of Malcolm Gladwell shit. It definitely gave me some kind of boost, though that shouldn’t be what it’s all about.
Would you recommend it?
Yeah, I would. It probably trains your brain how to do it faster and faster, to a point where you’re not even aware of yourself doing it. And so you start to get these lapses of headspace where you get to ask yourself “ok, now I know how to do this, but WHY am I doing it?? Who am I?!?!”. And so then you get to use those ideas to blanket the song with your true essence. Or something like that, I don’t know. It allowed me to get my hands deep into it in my own special little way.
How did you sync up with Joel Jerome?
I was looking for a producer and Jim Fairchild recommended I meet him. So I called Joel and next thing I knew I was flying out to record the first singles with him in his LA home studio Psychedelic Thriftstore.
How was it working with him?
He’s cool, he’s like my uncle or something. The first couple of times I went out to LA I slept in his basement. When we got down to business he just kind of let me go off in the studio and recorded everything. I don’t know anything about music gear so he handled it all. He’s also taught me a lot about different recording techniques and music history. He’s super knowledgeable about those things. He’s CHILL AF 💯 shoutout to JOEL JEROME 🙏
You recently moved from Window Rock, AZ to attend college at the University of New Mexico. How has a change in your environment affected your songwriting?
I just moved into a room in Albuquerque, and it’s been pretty slow in terms of songwriting. I only make like one song every week now. Maybe two. Sometimes I’ll go on a wild streak and make like three or four a day, but that’s kind of rare now. However I write all the time. I write now more than anything, which is interesting. I like to ride the bus up and down town when I get bored or crazy, and I always carry a little notebook with me. I think if I had a drum kit I’d be making songs in my home more often, but that also feels like an excuse. It’s probably just a motivational thing I’m going through right now. “IT” has to find me working if anything’s going to happen. I think Picasso said that or something.
