Hovvdy's music sounds how rainy afternoons feel.





The kind spent half-stoned and sunken into the living room couch, specifically. Inert afternoons soundtracked by raindrops pattering against a window, where the whole world seems to exist in a perpetually gray, two in the afternoon limbo.





Hovvdy's slow-fi take on garage rock is generally characterized by a kind of pleasant melancholy - one that's refreshingly at odds with the majority of Austin's more brazen acts. Where many bands in this city would prefer to evoke images of shooting whiskey and breathing fire, Hovvdy's musical energy is more akin to, say, a slow morphine drip and lucid dreaming. This is not to suggest any sort of numbness on their part, however.





More than anything else, Hovvdy appears to be a musical project that's guided and motivated by deeply felt emotions. It's key in how they're able to imbue their songs with such arrestingly honest sentiment.





With a release party at Barracuda on Friday, February 9th to celebrate their sophomore album, Cranberry, we spoke to Hovvdy members Charlie Martin and Will Taylor about all manner of strange topics - among them, their dumbest injuries, unexplained experiences, and more. Read our Strange Inquiry with Hovvdy, below.

















Do512: Why is Austin, Texas a great place to play music? Or is it?





Hovvdy (Charlie): I'd say it definitely is. I feel like the scene is very eclectic and welcomes all types of musicians and I feel like we felt comfortable from the start knowing that we could pretty much do whatever we wanted to do and there'd be a home for it.





Hovvdy (Will): I agree with what Charlie said, and also think that the space that we have as Texans -- the space that we have in our homes.. that's a good creative environment for us to record in. I don't think that would be possible everywhere.





Hovvdy (Charlie): Yeah, in the bigger cities people, a lot of musicians are stuck in little apartments. We can have a house with a couple of roommates and make a record, and make a bunch of noise and it's great.





What will you always order if you see it on a restaurant menu?





Hovvdy (Will): This is strange because I don't get it a lot, but I'd say Bánh mì. It's kind of safe.





Hovvdy (Charlie): I always want to order Buffalo Wings because I love Buffalo Wings, but there's only a couple of places that I'll get them.







Hovvdy (Will): Buffalo Wild Wings, Pluckers...







Hovvdy (Charlie): Locally, that one spot, El Sapo, they have really good wings.







PHOTO: Roger Ho | The Do512 Lounge





Have either of you ever had a nickname, and why were you given that name?





Hovvdy (Charlie): I grew up playing baseball, and my baseball coach when I was nine called me, Cha Cha. It stuck, man. My name's Charlie though, so you get Charlie, one of my Uncles calls me Chaz, which is terrible. A couple of people call me, Chuck, but only a select few. I don't know, there's some really terrible ones I'm not even going to go into.





Hovvdy (Will): It's kind of similar for William because I am William, but I go by Will. I have family, Uncles and Grandparents, that go by Bill.





What is the dumbest way you've ever hurt yourself?





Hovvdy (Charlie): We probably both have a lot of those.





Hovvdy (Will): Yeah, about five or so years ago, I began my life of consuming alcohol and exploring how that affected me. I was on top of something tall, like a street generator that had a big casing over it and just got on top of it and jumped and did a Tail Grab and landed on my feet and my ankles like imploded. I was at my house by myself with my knees on a pillow for like weeks pulling myself around the house it was so bad.





Hovvdy (Charlie): When I was a kid, there was like those wooden electric poles, and after school I'd go out and wait for my parents to come pick me up, and I'd like, hop around those poles and it was all wet. I saw my dad coming, and he was pulling in and I was trying to show him something and I just slipped and went head-first on a pole. I think about it a lot because I've got this gash in my head. The doctor like broke a tool trying to get the staples out of my head because they left them in too long. Then they numbed me, but they hadn't numbed me before and this dude was like yanking on my head.. it was terrible.





Hovvdy (Will): That kind of injury sounds like a scream-cry. Where you're like, scared, so you scream-cry.





ART: Ami Plasse | The Do512 Lounge





What helps you calm down when you're anxious?





Hovvdy (Charlie): I take a walk; a nice walk.





Hovvdy (Will): A walk for sure, listen to music.







When do you generally feel most zen in your life?

Hovvdy (Will): I'd say the morning time like the first hour I wake up, whether I'm deciding to lay in bed or sit at the table.







Hovvdy (Charlie): Driving, I hit it pretty good there. We do a lot of driving.







Have either of you ever experienced a 'Glitch in the Matrix' moment?





Hovvdy (Charlie): Oh, man. Yeah, I think this was just a bad pool table, but a couple of weeks ago I was playing pool with my brother and had lined up a shot and the ball just like, moved. It was just a shitty pool table, probably, but definitely not bad enough to where out of nowhere it would just move two inches.







Hovvdy (Will): I was in a car accident like a month ago, my most "real" one. I just nailed this person and it was really loud and hard hit. Their car bent all up and my car didn't have one little scratch on it. I drive a Subaru, which is pretty great. It was crazy.







PHOTO: Roger Ho | The Do512 Lounge





What's the worst job you ever had?





Hovvdy (Will): The best and worst job I ever had was at a CD store in Dallas. It was a great store, but so messy, just impossible to find anything or stock anything.







Hovvdy (Charlie): I grew up going there. We didn't know each other back in Dallas, but we both grew up in different parts of Dallas and it was just one of the best shops and there was this really old woman who owned it that would sit on this perch like cross-legged on this perch, and just watch the store like all day. Like right when you walk in, right to your right, she'd be up there just sitting there. (To Will) That was your boss.







Hovvdy (Will): That was literally like, a station. There was a "watch person" - a person who came in and worked that day to sit in the chair and just make sure people didn't take stuff.





What's something another musician does, that you're maybe a little jealous of?





Hovvdy (Charlie): Singing loud and good. Some people just have such good voices, and I like to record vocals, but being able to play rock music and project over that and it not be hard... that would be sick.





Hovvdy (Will): Being able to project and be on key. It's really hard. I always wish I could shred a little more. As far as a specific musician, the person I think of when we talk about projecting is our friend Hannah of Lomelda. She can just sing over a band and a crowd, and it's just insane. We played with her awhile ago in New York, and she played before us solo and it was like a huge room -- The Bowery Ballroom holds about 700 people or something, and she just has her guitar, standing 4 feet from the mic and she just has the strongest voice in the world.









art: Ami Plasse | THE DO512 LOUNGE





What's the worst party you've ever been to?





Hovvdy (Charlie): Another band I use to play in, we were playing a house show in Houston and it was just like, the darkest scene. We were playing with Corduroi, and during his set there's like these two people sitting on the couch, and there's maybe like 5 people there watching. The two people sitting on the couch next to each other had these huge smartphones playing this game with the sound turned all the way up during his set. It was just to the point of being absurd. Cody (Corduroi) was just laughing. They were playing this like shark game. Afterwards, they were passing around a bong and a lot of cocaine. It was a really small amount of people; really sketchy stuff.





Hovvdy (Will): Any party when it's muddy outside is a bad party.





If someone were writing the Hovvdy biography, what would this chapter be called?





Hovvdy (Will): I mean, I think the most convenient way to "chapter" a band is by their albums. We have an album coming out on Friday called Cranberry, so I'd say, The Cranberry Years.















