[Photo by: Kat Nijmeddin]

Belmont struggle with self-identity on new track “Hideout”

March 12, 2020

[Photo by: Kat Nijmeddin]

Chicago prog-punk quintet Belmont are back with their new trippy neon music video.

The five-piece are exclusively premiering their riff-heavy and lyrically introspective “Hideout” with AltPress. They’re currently on tour with Tiny Moving Parts, Jetty Bones and Capstan, hitting venues from coast to coast and preparing to release their new EP, Reflections, tomorrow featuring their single “Deadweight.”

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Vocalist Taz Johnson, drummer Brian Lada and guitarist Sam Patt gave us a behind-the-scenes look at “Hideout” and chatted about all things related to their current tour. Check out their video, interview and tour dates below.

Tell us about “Hideout.” What’s the story behind the lyrics? How did you push past any limitations that you thought you had?

TAZ JOHNSON: It’s a song I wrote about valuing the life you lead and my own personal struggles with self-identity. The biggest limitation I faced was opening my vulnerabilities on a personal level, but I think it shines through positively.

What inspired your colorful and trippy music video? How did the concept come to life?

BRIAN LADA: We’ve always wanted to create a trippy, atmospheric music video. We’ve always been big fans of hip-hop and took influence from the style of music videos that typically comes from the genre. We worked with Miguel Barbosa of YEAH! Films and took the video while we were on tour. Planning and executing the video was done in a time crunch, but Miguel was able to dial in what we were going for without hesitation and came up with a spot in Toronto, which was basically an entirely neon light room with a lot of other cool things and props. We had a basis for the video, but the rest was improvised while shooting, and the result turned out to be one of our favorite videos we’ve shot.

What was the most fun part of creating the music video?

SAM PATT: The location was awesome. Miguel found this dope neon studio, and they had a ton of arcade games and cool glasses to try on. They even had a giant lightsaber.

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What was the most challenging part of writing and recording?

BRIAN LADA: The writing process was the easier part of the two. “Hideout” and “Deadweight” were recorded at the same time and are the two songs on Reflections that are self-produced. Brian [Lada, drummer] wrote the main instrumental of the song and then laid down the rest of the demo with Jason [Inguagiato, guitarist], which was done and then brought to Taz to start the lyric/vocal process. The challenging part was putting together the recording all on our own without the help of a separate producer. We were able to record at Rax Trax [Recording] in Chicago through Taz and his work there. We pieced together the recording in parts with drums getting done at the studio, tracking guitars at Brian’s place and coming back to the studio for vocals in separate increments of time all while being engineered by Jason and Taz. We Frankensteined the recording in parts and put it all together, produced it on our own, and then the pressure went on to Jason to fully mix the track. It was probably one of the most challenging times we had to record a song, but we could not be happier with the end result.

How did you prepare for your current tour with Jetty Bones, Capstan and Tiny Moving Parts?

BRIAN LADA: We have our rituals that need to be done before leaving that are usually the same as any other tour, plus planning anything we can do to make our live set better and more exciting than the last tour. Other than that, it’s really just practicing new songs we will be playing off Reflections.

What are you most looking forward to this year, and what can fans expect in 2020?

BRIAN LADA: A lot of touring and recording! We plan to be on the road as much as we can, some overseas, and we are going to be heading into the studio to record our second album very shortly after the release of Reflections. People can expect a lot of new music this year going into the next with much time on the road.

Check out “Hideout” below. Belmont are on tour this spring, with tickets available here. The Reflections EP drops tomorrow, and preorders can be placed here.

Dates:

03/12 – Ames, IA @ The Maintenance Shop
03/13 – Palatine, IL @ Durty Nellie’s
03/14 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
03/15 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House Revival
03/17 – Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall
03/18 – Lancaster, PA @ Chameleon Club
03/19 – Amityville, NY @ Revolution Bar + Music Hall
03/20 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium – Upstairs
03/21 – Asbury Park, NJ @ House of Independents
03/22 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
03/24 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
03/25 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
03/26 – Athens, GA @ The 40 Watt