About midway into their tour, Austin, TX based BUHU returns to Winona following the release of their first full-length album, Relationshapes. A follow up to their acclaimed audio-visual EP, 4-Track Cinemat, their new album expounds upon their earlier work, honing their form and sharpening edges while keeping the dancy, warm, and fuzzy post-pop core we fell in love with. Comedian JT Kelley shares the tour with a crack wit, swift delivery, and phenomenal facial hair. A BUHU DJ set ties it all together for a wild Wino Wednesday at Ed’s (no name) Bar.
The Interview Part:
Each member equally sharing the load… The message… BUHU RELATIONSHAPES will not fall on deaf ears. The message can not be avoided ’cause everyday we are all living out our Relationshapes.
Welcome back gents. How has the road been treating you?
As of right now we are only a week in and it’s shaping up to be our best tour so
far. This week we played a couple near sold out shows, performed an acoustic version
of one of our songs in the back of a VW bus for an Oklahoma City radio station, and
we all took shots of raspberry liqueur out of a hollowed out hotdog. I should also
note that JT Kelley has made us watch both Sister Act one and two every waking
opportunity on this tour. We can’t stop until Whoopi changes us.
A lot of folks have been itching their ears red waiting for
Relationshapes and now they can scratch away. Your first full-length, over
a year’s worth of work, finally realized thumping in their heads and
beating in their hearts. How’s it feel?
It feels amazing. It’s just the beginning for us though. We are already ready to
start writing for the next album. But I don’t think any of us could be happier with
how Relationshapes turned out.
Tell us more about the cover art. My interest was first piqued when I
saw the sign language, then noticed the equilateral triangle and counted
six hands per side, color coded for band name and album title. Symbols and
signs everywhere. Have you joined a cult?
Relationshapes is about the shape of your relationship with the world around you.
The three sides of the triangle represent BUHU. Each member equally sharing the
load… The message… BUHU RELATIONSHAPES will not fall on deaf ears. The message
can not be avoided ’cause everyday we are all living out our Relationshapes. But
also, JT Kelley’s mom is deaf and we desperately want to win her affections. 🙉
Was there a penetrating focus or theme that carried along the creation
of Relationshapes? With 4-Track Cinemat you all were pretty fresh and new
as a group and seemed to be feeling things out, learning what it meant to
be BUHU, and put together this brilliant quarter-hour audio-visual
masterpiece. What was the bridge from there to Relationshapes?
The 4-Track Cinemat was essentially our demo for Relationshapes. All of the songs
from the 4-track are featured and have been expounded upon in Relationshapes. The
demo really helped us figure out our foundation and Relationshapes is the house we
built for ourselves.
Winona get’s the BUHU DEEJAY SET treatment. Who’s spinning? Say one
were to wear a costume that would embody the music catalogue of the set,
how would one dress?
We are gonna play our full set and then we will throw in an hour or so of deejay
party jams. Juan Pablo (aka DJ JUAN PROBLEMS) gonna cure our winter depression.
Bring your bathing suit. It’s about to get hawt at Ed’s!
I looked at the weather and it’s supposed to snow 8-12 inches in the
area on Tuesday (I looked at Ames and it said the same thing.) First,
please drive safe. Second, do you want to go sledding?
YES! WE NEED SNOWPANTS THO.
How’s JT been doing on tour? Do comedians smell different than
musicians when stuck in a van for hours for days? What is his musk like?
JT is doing great. Whoopi is slowly changing him every day and making him a
better person. He smells exactly like you think he would. Cheap gin and tears. I
don’t know if any of the characters in Sister Act 1 or 2 had a certain smell, but if
they did, it’s a version of that mixed with barely functioning alcoholism.
What should we expect from him? Besides a beard that will swallow an
infant whole and cough up nothing but the gall bladder, because it’s a
discerning beard, and proper beards don’t consume bile willingly.
JT Kelley here about that baby business. The whole “infant living in my beard
rumor” has gone too far. Sure, at one point my beard mighta eaten up some
breadcrumbs, but I would like to go on record saying, I have never let my beard eat
a toddler or baby and anyone that says otherwise is a liar and fool and I would
suggest watching Sister Act one and two a few times to get in a better headspace.
That being said, Whoopi bless to the haters.
Glide Magazine gave you all a nice and well-deserved shoulder rub for
“Youth Is Breaking” and a week and a half later it broke 10,000 listens on
Soundcloud (It’s at 14.1k as of this writing.) Do you keep close tabs on
metrics and hits and does it affect your planning or promotion?
We were taken by mega-huge-surprise by that number. We still have no idea what is
driving the listens. We definitely got a push from Glide and then some other
blogs/radio stations that picked up the single, but it seems to be mostly fan
driven so far and I am positive that that is the best metric a band can get. We are
hopeful that the momentum continues and it helps us get the word out there
further, but even so, we are endlessly grateful and in awe of the response we have
gotten. I honestly have no idea what happens next.
What fills the time in the van? What is on the stereo? Who is sleeping?
Who is driving? Who is (sub)consciously touching themselves while staring
out the window, longing for the one they left behind?
Everything you might expect to happen in the van, does. Lots of chit chat,
sleeping, laughter, and rasta🍁. When it comes to music, we all agree on classic rock
and public radio stations. We all take turns driving. Clellan and I desperately miss
our ladies and our animals. JP misses nothing and loves this shit. JT Kelley misses
watching Sister Act 2 wit his #1 boo.
Tell me the story about the time that _____________ did that one thing.
We got so drunk in Oklahoma City that Clellan woke up with Jeremy’s pants on.
Nobody knows how or why and nobody wants to talk about it.
You’re in the middle of a tour so it disingenuous to ask “where do you
go from here,” but do you have any idea? What’s next?
We are currently planning our first West Coast tour in the summer with our
friends and forever heart buddies 💜PURPLE💜. Should everything work out as planned,
it will be a rock n roll tour on the level of a Van Halen and AC/DC on a co-headlining tour. The Stones and the Beatles. The Who and Led Zeppelin. PURPLE AND
BUHU. That is what the rock ‘n’ roll history museum will remember.
Any last words?
“Whoopi changes people.”
– JT Kelley