HuDost is a Kentucky based musical group made up of members Moksha Sommer and Jemal Wide Hines. The folk duo recently released their newest album, ‘Anthems of Home’ with singles ‘Our Words Will Be Louder’ and ‘Home is Bigger Than Us.’ The single ‘Our Words Will be Louder’ was inspired by the painful polarization around BLM in their own community. The duo put together a powerful music video to match the song and invited friends and local activists to join. Additionally, all proceeds from the song went towards The Poor People’s Campaign, a local non-profit that empowers people with greater challenges to register to vote. Moksha and Jemal are also social activists and representatives for ONE, a non-profit organization working to end extreme poverty. The pair has lobbied with their representatives both locally and at their offices in DC on various issues such as extreme poverty, the rights of girls and women and HIV/AIDs. They also work with ONE’s sister organization Blood:Water, a grassroots organization that addresses the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Read on in our interview with HuDost to learn more about their new album and the non-profit organizations that they partner with.

Where are you based?
JW: We are currently based in Kentucky, and live near the Green River outside Bowling Green, about an hour and 20 minutes from Nashville. Moksha is from Montreal and I grew up in Gainesville Florida.

How was HuDost formed? What are each of your music backgrounds?
JW: Well, Moksha and I met in 2000 at a Rumi Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We connected very swiftly. Musically I am all over the map. I became a member of the KISS Army when I was seven years old, but also really got into Earth Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder at that time too. I was also a metal head in the 80s as well as a Duran Duran and Prince fan. By the time I bought my first guitar at 16, I started a punk rock band within a few months. I eventually started following the Grateful Dead around too. I also spent a few years playing in a poly-rhythmic ‘just intonation’ world music ensemble where I learned to play in odd time signatures and different world music.

MS: Yes, and to add to that confusion, my training is in western classical, traditional Sufi music, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian and Balkan folk music, Farsi, Turkish, Arabic, and folk. Somehow we, magically, create a sound that makes sense and isn’t a shock to the system!

How would you define your overall sound?
JW: Oh labels….what can we say? Electro-Americana Neo-Folk Alt-World Retro-Pop Art-Rock Sufi Kirtan. Seriously though, like my personal musical tastes, we are all over the map.

Your new album ‘Anthems of Home’ was recently released. What inspired this record?
JW: We had our biggest year yet planned for 2020, so when Covid hit we had to swiftly pivot. Moksha can speak more about the lyrical concepts, but basically we just started writing, immediately recording the ideas, and crafting the songs as we went. Given all the circumstances with Covid, isolation, uncertainty and home-schooling our seven year old child, it was really the easiest record we’ve ever made. The songs all feel extremely personal and universal all at the same time. It really feels natural and really seems to capture so many aspects of what we do in the song-writing and production realm. I mean, we were working on a big interfaith chant project and a multi-disciplinary installation piece and when Covid hit, everything shifted quickly. We just started writing and then recording the songs right away, so production started from the ground up. Anthems is similar in ways to our last album ‘of Water + Mercy’, but there were some issues completing that one and really making it sound like we wanted. We ended up achieving that ultimately, but it was more work. This album just kind of created itself. A few of the tracks we did as a full band at Gray Matters (Jars of Clay’s studio) in Nashville. Those sessions were super fun as it was the first time we’d been around other humans and creating music in such a long time after the initial Covid isolation. The vibe of those sessions was so good and ego-less. We love working with all of the musicians on this record.

The first single off the new album was ‘Our Words Will Be Louder’ is incredibly powerful. Can you tell us about what inspired this song? Did you make it out to any Black Lives Matter protests? If so, did you sing this while marching?
JW: The song writing and recording and video came together really quickly. Initially, Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay sent us a little piano vocal melody snippet with a text saying ‘Can you do anything with this?’. That melody became the verse melody. After that Moksha started writing the lyrics based around what was happening with all of the protests with the election on the horizon. We went into Gray Matters (Jars of Clay’s studio in Nashville) and played it live and worked with all of the guys more deeply on the arrangement and overall groove. At the end of the day, Moksha and Christie Lenee were doing gang harmonies vocals. We were extremely tired but had a third wind when Christie came up with the vocal counterpart chant at the end, so she and Moksha went in and did the ‘Queen method’ of triple tracking all of the various harmony parts all together to make one BIG vocal sound.…they sounded like a huge choir just the two of them.

MS: I was inspired to write this song due to witnessing the kind of painful polarization around BLM in our own community that I would not have seen had we not been bound to home. When touring we see amazing things and can also miss the subtlety of what happens when you witness the same place daily. It was more catalytic than I would have guessed it could be. To write this song I really had to move through my own struggles regarding when and when not to not speak up. For many years, Jemal and I have done advocacy work through ONE (non-profit) and have witnessed incredible things that result from the power of collective voice. That is why we brought so many other people in and collaborated on this song; it was about the larger empowerment that comes through collective voice.

You partnered with The Poor People’s Campaign when you released ‘Our Words Will Be Louder’. Can you tell us a little bit about this experience?
JW: We had played a couple of local Poor People’s Campaign events locally, even met Reverend Barber briefly, and really believe in the work they do. We knew we wanted to partner with a non-profit upon the release of the song and focus on early voting, so PPC was the natural choice, as they were directly addressing these issues. Reverend Barber’s part in the video is just so moving and powerful. We still get teared up every time we see it.

MS: We wanted to find an organization that is truly effective and they really amaze us. They are 100% on the ground. That is why all proceeds from it went to the Poor People’s Campaign as a means to empower people with greater challenges to register and vote.

How did you feel after the results of the 2020 election?
JW: Brief relief. I mean, it didn’t last long though did it? But comparatively to the way we felt on the day the previous President got in, it was like “My God, humanity has been restored!” Of course, it’s a cluster right now too, and Biden was my absolute last choice of all the Dems that were running, but anything is better than the alternative reality lying madness of the previous administration.

MS: if we have learned anything through advocacy it is that our government representative are supposed to do just that; represent. Right now we, at least, have some leaders who actually do want to represent people in the districts, states, and country. If people don’t push and get involved they will not be able to represent us appropriately.

The music video for ‘Our Words Will Be Louder’ is just as powerful as the song. You have a bunch of additional artists and friends in the video with you. Can you share with our readers who these people are and how they made the video so special? What made you decide to include what you did?
JW: It was at that point when Christie and Moksha created that massive ‘gang vocal’ chant effect in the studio that I said, “We should get an actual choir on this!” From that point the idea began to grow to getting a slew of special guest artists and activists for the video. We started reaching out to people we knew who were active using their voices, and, again, that came together really quickly!

In the video we have Cy Curnin from The Fixx, Gangstagrass, Kevin Hearn from the Barenaked Ladies, Jai Uttal, Jars of Clay, Alana Bridgewater, The Accidentals, and even Kevin Clash, who is most famous for being Elmo. He created an activist puppet named Jeffrey, and this was its first appearance.

Jejune also loves ‘Beat the Drum Harder’, and its native feel. Can you tell us a bit about this song?
MS: This song is about our disconnection from our planet and our awakening to re-connection. It is a celebration of the pulse and heartbeat that continuously brings us back to the deeper rhythm. I grew up in the mountains of southern Quebec and through my entire childhood my parents fought for the conservation of Mount Pinnacle (land of the Western Abenakis) that we were fortunate enough to call “home”. The land was finally protected and the struggle and fortune of the process taught me a great deal about what it truly means to respect the land and live in alliance with it. This song is about always remembering to wake up and return to that deeper heartbeat.

Its music video is a bit surreal. Can you tell us a little bit about the meaning behind it? Especially the stones with the eyes?
MS: In addition to what I already mentioned, I made the eyes as a physical representation of what we see when we allow ourselves to have a bigger vision and what it means to truly look inward and reconnect. That is why they were placed on the forehead and hands (places that we see with beyond our eyes) before the dance sequences begin in the video.

Your most recent single ‘Home is Bigger Than Us’ has a beautiful overall meaning and message. How did the events of the past year inspire the song and album as a whole?
MS: This one was very special to write. It was the last song written for the album and it is the final track. What we learned as a family during covid isolation was challenging but, ultimately, brought us closer and deepened our love. It was an awakening to what home really is, and the support we can give each other. I think this is the very essence of the song, and also the album.

Your music overall is a blend of folk, world and rock that relates to your listeners overall emotions. How do you find new ways to connect with your audience in each album?
JW: I personally try not to overthink it honestly. I’m not sure if I’ve ever thought, “will our audience like this?” while creating things. We wrote A LOT of material for this album and there are still a ton of Moksha demos and riff ideas in our iPhone voice memos as we speak. We just started working on things, and the stuff that we feel works the best seems to rise to the top of the heap. I am an old school record guy, so I always keep the album conceptually in mind while working on songs.

MS: I honestly think that we humans are simpler than we are given credit for. And by this I simply mean that what is moving to us in the writing process will be something that others can relate to. We all have love, compassion, fear, anger, joy, struggle and it is incredible how song can encapsulate those feelings in a way that have automatic empathy.

You both are also social activists and representatives for ONE (a non-profit organization working to end extreme poverty). Can you tell us a little bit about ONE? How did you two get involved with this organization? What inspired you to connect with them?
JW: The longer version of the story related to Bono. Bono started ONE and I have been a massive U2 fan since 1983. Like many others, watching LIVE-AID as a kid really woke me up to what was going on in places of extreme poverty. I signed up with ONE at a U2 show even before it was called ONE. We worked with ONE a couple of times at U2 shows signing people up and then after moving to back to the US from Canada, we were asked to be Congressional District Leaders for ONE in Kentucky. For the last few years, we’ve gone and lobbied with our representatives both here at home and at their offices in DC on various issues. ONE has passed some of the only fully bi-partisan bills as well which is a feat in and of itself! ONE is a non-partisan organization as issues such as extreme poverty, the rights of girls and women and HIV/AIDs should not be political.

MS: I will just add that through advocacy work over the years we have come to know how to be a voice for people who are not being heard. We have been amazed by what can happen from the power of collective voice. ONE is amazing at truly giving respect to the collective voice and knowing how to empower it. I’m thankful to be a small part of that bigger work.

On your band’s website, it also mentions that you work with Blood:Water, a grassroots organization that addresses the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Can you please tell us about your work with Blood:Water?
JW: Blood:Water is a ‘sister organization’ of sorts with ONE. It was founded by Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay and activist Jena Lee Nardella. We actually met Dan while lobbying in DC with ONE, and have since performed and recorded together. Blood:Water’s goal is to personalize the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. They work on a grassroots level and do a lot of work around providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene.…and now Covid. We had plans to go to Africa in 2020 on a trip with Blood:Water, but that did not happen due to the pandemic.

MS: We really hope that trip can happen in 2023! There is so much that both Blood:Water and ONE are trying to address in the wake of covid.

Additionally, you also support Love, Hope, Strength (LHS), the world’s leading rock and roll cancer foundation. On your website you recommend the documentary ‘Man in the Camo Jacket,’ which talks about how the foundation was formed. Can you explain how this organization was formed and how you support it?
JW: Again, music is the bridge isn’t it? We are not directly involved with Love, Hope, Strength, but they do amazing work. We are long time fans of Mike Peters and The Alarm and his and Jule’s story is just incredible. We know The Alarm guitarist James Stevenson who introduced us to Mike and Jules briefly in Nashville a few years back. ‘Man in the Camo Jacket’ is definitely highly recommended!

How does social activism affect the creation of your own music? How does the combination of activism and music create effective change?
JW: Again, bands like U2 have integrated activism so beautifully into their creative mosaic over the years. It’s tricky to be able to pull it off in a way that doesn’t come off as preachy or one-sided. The first time we wrote with Dan from Jars of Clay our goal was ‘Let’s write a three and a half minute pop song about activism! How do we do that?’. Out of that ‘Rise Together’ was created, and I think it achieves the objective of just putting the message out there for anyone to relate to both personally and universally.

MS: Yes, and ‘Rise Together’ actually won The Independent Music Award for Social Action Song and the album reached #24 in the BILLBOARD SALES CHARTS. That woke us up to the fact that there is actually a need for music that addresses the issues we are dealing with through social activism. This is a time to, yes, speak up as an individual, but also know what it means to act with compassion and love with the help of others and in support of others. Despite all of the years of advocacy and activism that I have done, in some ways, I feel like I am a child learning what it means to be in service.

How are you staying positive during the current wave of the pandemic? Are you almost back to normal?
JW: I’ve never been normal, and I don’t really think life will ever be normal again, honestly. We continue to try and stay positive though by creating — the combination of advocacy work and continuing to work at staying connected to the muse is what generally works. There have definitely been a lot of ups and downs and darker times during the pandemic, as well with uncertainty and anxiety about the future. We did a few shows in 2021, but things touring wise have still been hit and miss in terms of postponements and cancellations and whatnot. I consider myself an ‘idealist realist’, so my default is to have faith all is going to work out, but I don’t get my hopes up yet, and try to remain grateful at all times while feeling my habitual skepticism brew underneath. :)

MS: The shows we did do through 2021 felt like a restoration of hope for me. They were a total joy and crowds went wild with us. We are definitely ready for more, and are just moving forward as carefully as possible.

Have any of the organizations that we mentioned been negatively impacted by the pandemic? How can others get involved?

JW: Definitely! As I mentioned earlier, we had planned to go on a trip to Africa in 2020 but could not go because of the pandemic. Many of the people in the organization who usually take trips there haven’t been able to return.

Honestly, Covid has been devastating to these places. Over the past year, most of our work with ONE has been trying to get world leaders of the richest countries to give their access vaccines to countries that do not have any. Many leaders such as Biden and Trudeau have committed to doing so, but haven’t yet. Besides these countries wanting and needing vaccines, Covid has also set our HIV/AIDS work back 10-20 years because people are losing access to their medication and that virus is mutating as well. ONE’s original goal was to end extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS by 2030. Covid has severely set this goal back. If this virus and all the variants have taught us anything, it is that no one is safe until we ALL are safe!

MS: Your second question is really important! Everyone getting involved is key! You can check out ONE.org for info on how to encourage leaders to take the next steps needed.

What is your band’s overall motto?
JW: In the words of the immortal Yoda, “Do or Do Not…There is No Try”.

MS: I try to live my life in all ways being guided by the principles of love and compassion. I think that comes through in the music too.

To see and hear more from HuDost and the organizations mentioned, please follow them on the platforms below:
www.hudost.com
Facebook: @hudost
Instagram: @_hudost
ONE website: www.one.org
Blood:Water Website: www.bloodwater.org
Poor People’s Campaign Website: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org

Folk Duo HuDost and the Collective Voice