For Eric Hnatow and Haley Morgan, a musical partnership grew out of a romantic one.
“When we first met six years ago we didn’t start making music together right away—it’s been a natural progression,” explains Hnatow. “In many ways it’s easier to fit together with someone romantically than it is creatively, so it took time to figure out how to best collaborate. We seem to have a good equation figured out now. We are able to really pour our hearts into our music and have fun with it.”
The resulting band, Home Body, is an electronic amalgamation inspired by the likes of Bjork, Brian Eno and the B-52s. Hnatow, veteran of groups HNATIW and LOLFM, twiddles and fiddles with MIDI-linked Korg Electribes and an MS2000 synthesizer along with “other strategies.” Morgan, president of Northampton creative community collective C3 and producer of the Kirkland Ave. Mural Project, sings and adds an occasional kazoo line to the mix.
While the compositions may be technology-based, the twosome says it’s really about hearth and humanity.
“Much of our work is centered around the joys, challenges and magic of being human,” Morgan says. She explains that homes and bodies are usually sites of warmth, invention and expression and that in this modern world of uncertainty and technological and cultural distractions, it’s comforting that no matter where you are or what you look like, you can close your eyes, be inside yourself and feel at home.
“This is the place where we try to make music from—an honest, fuzzy, dark and warm place,” she adds.
Hnatow and Morgan have a distinct creative routine. First, they fill up big glasses of water. Then they climb the stairs to their studio attic, shut the door and jam, make beats, fool around on the mic, and dance. When they get into a proper groove, Morgan busts out a handheld tape recorder.
“When we get tired and our glasses are empty, we go back down the stairs and listen back to the collage of recordings,” Hnatow says. “From there, we find parts we like and I will work on setting the music, and Haley writes some lyrics.”
The duo recently released its first EP, Fire Places, and is finalizing details for an autumn East Coast tour, which promises to be interesting on many levels—the two are putting a great amount of work into the staging, lighting and choreography of the performances.
Home Body rocks Flying Object in Hadley Oct. 4, Northampton’s Iron Horse on Oct. 15, and Smith College Oct. 26. For more info, visit http://home-body.bandcamp.com.
