HuDost urgently warn us about the coming Fire Of Eden in their incendiary new single and eye-popping video — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
There’s no shortage of artists who are concerned about climate change, but for HuDost, it’s personal. Their impassioned new single was inspired by an epiphany vocalist and lyricist Moksha Sommer had on the road, surveying the damage wrought by California wildfires. She could see that the environmental upheaval she had been witnessing held implications that were beyond troubling — not just for her, but for the baby she was expecting. And of course, for the rest of us.
“I was on tour, performing and traveling, and the air was thick with smoke, making it impossible to perform,” she recalls. “I couldn’t help but reflect on the vulnerability I was feeling — not only as a woman carrying a child but as a person watching the environment around me deteriorate. It was a surreal and sobering moment, realizing how fragile both my personal situation and the world were.”
The song that resulted is a wholly appropriate concoction of fire and brimstone, painting disasters like the wildfires as harbingers of a truly biblical reckoning. When the great conflagration comes, we’re told, there’ll be nothing to do but “run to the river” and “cry out loud,” begging for forgiveness. The aural neo-Americana that accompanies those sentiments is every bit as ominous as you’d expect, but with a propulsion and intensity that keep the number well out of the realm of the maudlin. Sommer’s haunting vocals mesh perfectly with partner Jemal Wade Hines’ guitars and keys, and the contributions of guest players like Chris Powell (drums and percussion) and SistaStrings & Anit Ghosh (strings) elevate the proceedings to a near-gospel level of righteous fervor.
There’s urgency of a different kind in the accompanying video, an AI travelogue that puts the musicians smack-dab during fiery explosions that flare up in the most unexpected of places. Arresting images to be sure, but to Sommer and Hines, using modern technology to convey an environmental message is a vital metaphor for the hand-in-glove relationship science and humanism will need to maintain to pull our world back from the precipice of collapse.
Fire Of Eden is one of 11 kinetically compelling tracks on HuDost’s upcoming album The Monkey In The Crown — their first in four years, and an LP marking their 20th year as a band. As fans have learned to expect, the record is a rich tapestry of electric folk, Americana, and pop rock. Tracks like the new single and the previously released Acting Out The Outrage revel in affecting vocals and vibrant instrumentation that convey heartfelt musings on identity, resilience, and the complexities of our world.
The world has been complex, indeed, for Sommer and Hines, who met at a Rumi festival put on by Turkish sufis and have gone on to be musical partners, devoted spouses and activists committed to worthy causes like ONE (a nonprofit that works to end extreme poverty). Together, they’ve weathered challenges like Sommer’s 2008 brain surgery and the long road to recovery that followed. Their bonds — to each other and to the world — were further deepened by the births of their two children (in 2013 and 2022).
These days, the HuDost family includes the music cognoscenti and the listening public alike. The latter have honored Sommer and Hines with an Independent Music Award (for Social Action Song) and two Best of Nashville awards. And don’t forget the consumers and programmers who have taken HuDost to No. 4 on the Canadian National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart, No. 9 on the U.S. Folk Radio Charts and No. 24 on the Billboard Folk/Americana chart.
Watch the video for Fire Of Eden above, hear more from HuDost below, pre-order The Monkey In The Crown HERE, and find them on their website, Facebook and Instagram.
