HUDSON FREEMAN + lots of hands
Indie / Folk / Lo-Fi
Doors 7 PM / Show 8 PMĀ *See venue bag policy*
18+ Valid ID required for entry into venue / Under 18 permitted with parent (Accepted forms of ID: State Issued ID or Driver's License, Military ID, Passport.)
HUDSON FREEMAN:
Hudson Freeman is a Brooklyn-based Lofi-folk artist, inspired and forged by the DIY Midwest. The 27-year-old Freeman continues to record and perform songs equal-parts resonant, reflective, and poignant. He has quickly emerged as one of indie's most enthralling new voices. His recent full-length, Is a Folk Artist, helped solidify his presence as the kind of songwriter unafraid to tackle life's most draining contradictions: modern identity, digital disconnection, and faith.
Born to Evangelical missionaries, Hudson started writing songs upon a radical break at the age of thirteen when his family suddenly moved from the suburbs of Dallas to The Kingdom of Eswatini. The profound influence of indie big-hitters like Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver, as well as college years spent in Springfield, Missouri, made a do-it-yourself mid-westerner out of Hudson. Now, his new song "If You Know Me" has recently started drawing in attention from the masses, catapulting Freeman into a wider spotlight than ever. It's a moody blend of bedroom pop, folk, slow-core, and post-emo, stitched together by a singular guitar riff and mantra-style lyrics, confirming Hudson's undeniable knack for melody.
lots of hands:
into a pretty room ā lots of handsā debut on Fire Talk Records ā exists in the tear-stained early mornings of adolescence, just as the sun makes its first appearance over the horizon and thoughts of the night before begin to subside. A collage of reworked demos, freewheeling session standouts, and swatches of instrumental electronics, āinto a pretty roomā, emerges as lots of handsā most thoughtful work to date. Solemn yet hopeful, āinto a pretty roomā occupies the space between moments of tragedy and triumph, offering a touching rumination on grief and loss, growing up and letting go.
Billy Woodhouse and Elliot Dryden, the core duo behind lots of hands, first connected in a Newcastle school music program at age 16. At that point, Woodhouse had been tinkering with lots of hands as a solo musical outlet, self-releasing music on Soundcloud and quietly beginning work on 2020ās mistake. Shortly before that recordās release, Dryden properly joined lots of hands, an effort which was quickly thwarted by global circumstances outside of anyoneās purview. Separated by geography and global chaos, Woodhouse and Dryden began work on lots of hands remotely, exchanging demos online to craft what would become 2021ās largely instrumental āthereās someone in this room just like youā, and 2023ās cult favorite fantasy. into a pretty room marks the duoās first truly collaborative effort, with Dryden often trekking the vast northern English countryside to write and record in Woodhouseās bedroom studio.
Between pints of beer and rounds of Fortnite, the two slowly chipped away at āinto a pretty roomā, whose name is lifted from a pair of demos recorded and released in a short span across November of 2023. The earnest tenderness of these tracks ā āinto a pretty roomā and āthe rainā, which appear newly re-recorded for the album ā served as guiding light while the duo self-engineered the remainder of into a pretty room. Alongside these newly recorded songs appear Drydenās unearthed demos, mined and reworked by Woodhouse. Lead single āgame of zeroesā puts Dryden front and center on a Hank Williams-inspired ode to coming up short. "I play a game of zeroes," he sings atop acoustic guitar, piano, and digital frills, "Everyone but me will always win." Elsewhere, āmasqueradeā interrogates defense mechanisms through electronic-speckled indie folk that is both jaded and joyful.
Drydenās tracks appear alongside Woodhouseās own songs, which span from touching instrumentals written for family, meant to help usher them through a chapter of monumental loss, to whispered ballads sung with loved ones. āAll of my friends agree, youāre in my head,ā Woodhouse intones alongside close collaborator and former roommate Mage Tears, āin my head with me.ā On the understated late album stunner, ārun your mouth,ā he imagines a lost one as āa bunch of stars,ā and ends the song fixated on āthoughts and memories of us.ā Woodhouseās contributions across into a pretty room ache with loss, but settle gracefully into sparkling ambient sonics that propel the record on its trajectory of self-discovery and acceptance. āDeath is just a word, the feelings a reminder of past nights in the cold,ā he filters through pitch-corrected vocals on āthe rain,ā before sighing a resigned āoh well.ā
These individually conceived tracks passed back and forth between the duo, as they ventured into their first moments of writing in the same place at the same time. ābackseat 30ā is the duoās first joint venture, and the most immediate song in their discography, transforming youthful anxieties into an explosive anthem. "I don't wanna waste my life up," Woodhouse manifests atop layers of twangy and kinetic instrumentation, "hitting the backseat 30, talking with the dogs and the birdies, getting my nails all dirty." Early album centerpiece, ābarnyard,ā marks another proper collaboration on the record, with Woodhouse and Drydenās vocals intertwining and reflecting a quiet sadness as looped guitars swirl in a pool of sparkling instrumentation: āIāll brush your hair through a nightmare, breathing in the country air.ā
Newly relocated from Leeds to their current base of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, lots of hands is anchored by the duoās friendship, which emanates across the albumās 14 tracks. While conceived across painful moments of growth and grief, into a pretty room is a decidedly hopeful effort, crafted between two friends who have spent the better part of the last decade supporting each other through lifeās challenges.