Charlotte and Mike Truman of the UK electronic duo HYBRID chatted with Digital Journal’s Markos Papadatos about their latest single “Sky Full of Diamonds” and their upcoming album, “Black Halo,” which will be released on July 9, 2021, via Distinctive Records.
On the song selection approach for their new album, Charlotte said, “We came up with a title before we started writing actually, and that guided our journey of the whole album. We usually come up with the title towards the end, but this way the other way around.”
“We organized our songs like a story,” she added. “The tracks take you on that journey through the story so it’s all purposefully done. A lot of the album is about getting through adversity.”
“We really enjoyed the process of putting the tracks in order,” Mike added. “It was sort of empowering in the end.”
They listed “Lost Angels” as their personal favorite song at the moment due to its significance, and they noted that “Nails” is a great tune and that they had “fun with it.”
Regarding the song “Sky Full of Diamonds,” Mike said, “We wrote that track towards the end of the album. One afternoon, we cracked out the bass and got some of Simon’s drum licks on it, and it kind of took shape. It was right at the very end, and it was the last track to go on the album really.”
“Sky Full of Diamonds” is available on digital service providers by clicking here.
On being artists in the digital age, Charlotte said, “Releasings have become different. We releases three singles before the album so that you don’t get lost in everyone else’s releases. The digital age is a different way of doing things. We treat an album as an old-school album and we hope people would listen to it from start to finish as opposed to people cherry-picking the tracks.”
“We are grateful when our fans message us and tell us that they listen to our albums all the way through,” Mike added. “It’s a different kind of world. We enjoy having a close relationship with the people buying the music.”
“I like using social media for what it was intended for, and we managed to get more personal with our fan-base and that is really good,” Charlotte added.
On the title of the current chapter of their lives, Charlotte said, “Looking forward to playing live.” “Having a beer in the garden on a regular occurrence,” Mike said. “We have plans to come to the United States early next year. We haven’t played in the United States for a while so we are desperate to come back.”
The band is made up of Charlotte Truman (lead vocals, piano, synths, and guitar), Mike Truman (sound design, and producer), Stu Morgan (vocals, guitars, and bass), and Simon Hanson (drums, percussion, and background vocals). “We treat our band as a family,” Charlotte said. “It is great to be collaborating with our drummer Simon and our guitarist Stu. They both put a lot of hard work in ‘Black Halo’.”
For their fans, they remarked about their new music, “We hope they really enjoy it and we are looking forward to seeing their reactions. We can’t wait to see people face-to-face again. There are a lot of hidden messages in the album as well so it will be nice to see who picks out what and who gets it.”
To learn more about HYBRID and their new music, check out their official website, and follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
