INTERVIEW: The Journey and Resilience Behind Houston In The Blind’s “Hide The Glow”
Houston In The Blind has finally released their first album in nine years, delivering their most profound work yet with “Hide The Glow.”
The journey leading up to this album has been marked by significant personal and creative challenges for Houston In The Blind‘s frontman Charlie Garrett, who moved across the country several times, battled mental health issues, and faced numerous setbacks. Despite these hurdles, Garrett found his way back to Athens, Georgia, and reignited his passion for music, culminating in what he considers his best work to date.
In this exclusive interview, Garrett opens up about the tumultuous path that led to “Hide The Glow.” He shares the deeply personal experiences that inspired the album, reflecting on his struggles and the resilience it took to overcome them.
From his mental breakdown in Los Angeles to the healing process and eventual return to the studio, Garrett provides an honest and introspective look at the making of “Hide The Glow,” offering fans a glimpse into the raw emotions and relentless determination that define this remarkable record.
It’s been nine years since your last album. Can you tell us about the journey leading up to “Hide The Glow”?
It’s been a bit chaotic. I moved a few times. First to Los Angeles, then I was briefly in Connecticut. I came back home to Athens, Ga in the summer of 2021, I didn’t really have any intentions on staying, but I’m still here.
Can you give us a summary of what has happened in these years of absence?
Sure. Not long after relocating to Los Angeles, I had sort of a mental breakdown. The move was well intended, but it had some seriously detrimental effects on me personally and creatively. I love California, and I hope to live there again someday, so it wasn’t like I moved there and immediately hated the place. The city can be incredibly overwhelming, though, so I’m sure that didn’t help. There were just some issues that I had never attended to that eventually boiled over. Sorting through that mess took some time and required help, which I’m proud to say I got. I did attempt to get things back going a few times but never could sustain anything really. Moving around a bunch didn’t help. It wasn’t all bad, though. I started “Hide The Glow” with Gus Seyffert while I was in LA. We tracked 3 songs together, which was a really great experience.
What inspired you to finally push through and create this new album?
I guess I really didn’t want my story to end the way it was going to, had I never put out another record. We recorded and released a great album, I had a killer band, and cool shit was starting to happen, then I moved and fell off a mental cliff…… I wasn’t ok with that being it for me. That being said, there were so many failed restarts, that I started wondering if the universe was trying to tell me to let it go and move on. It became a real burden, probably because so much of my identity has been tied up in music. A few months after moving back to Athens, I started to get the feeling that I might be here for a while, so I started trying to wrap my head around the idea of finishing the record that I started with Gus. I started asking around to old friends and band members to see who might be interested. That spring, I was finally able to get everything going again with Kris Sampson at his studio in Atlanta.
You’ve said that you consider “Hide The Glow” to be your best work. Why?
I know It’s cliche, every artist declares their most recent work is their best, but I hope that the longer I do this, the better I get at it. Maybe it’s just recency bias, but I feel like these songs are more focused than anything I’ve released. I know this is the hardest I’ve ever worked on a project. I was challenged constantly by Kris during our sessions. Whether it was my singing, playing, or songwriting, he wasn’t satisfied until we got the absolute best. Working like that can be difficult, but I benefited from it, and so did the songs.
Why did you choose the title “Hide The Glow” for this album? What does it signify for you?
It’s a lyric that comes from a Dinah Washington song called This Bitter Earth. The original is beautiful, but at some point, a mashup was released of her vocal on top of Max Richter’s composition, On The Nature of Daylight, and it’s completely devastating. I read that Robbie Robertson had some involvement in combining the two songs, which made me want to check it out. I turned it on during a walk and was immediately brought to tears. In the song there’s a line where she sings “And if my life is like the dust that hides the glow of a rose, what good am I?” That definitely hit a nerve for me at the time. It summed up so much of life to that point for me. All of the struggles with mental health, constantly staring into the past, second-guessing everything, all of those things had plagued me for years. Moving forward and getting help takes a lot of resiliency and vulnerability, but it’s worth it if you can find some peace or unlock a way to access a better version yourself. The record is mostly about those life struggles, so for me, it felt like the perfect title.
Let’s talk a little about the tracks and the history behind them. What can you tell us about it?
Most of them pull from the experience I had with my mental health and battle with depression. I recorded You Could Be King, On A Wire, and I Don’t Believe with Gus. When I wrote them, I was fighting so hard to keep my head above water. I did not want to be in a bad spot mentally, but it just started feeling more and more inevitable. I think you can hear that desperation in those three. Let Me Go and On & On, really come from a place when I was at my worst. Some of the songs are newer, though. The perspective you gain when you’re on the other side of that sadness is quite powerful, but also a bit jarring. At least, it is for me. Drifting and Thoughts of You look back and assess the damage, but also search for a way to move forward.
In terms of the melody, there are some tracks like “Drifting,” “My Mind” or “On a Wire,” which feel heavier, more nostalgic, perhaps. With a deeper/disturbing effect when listening to them. How was the process of musicalizing each song? What were you inspired by?
The LA sessions with Gus were really about capturing a great performance, live to tape, and then building from there. With On A Wire, it was pretty much finished, but I felt like it needed a female vocal to add a sense of balance to the lyrics. I was listening to the Benji Hughes record, A Love Extreme, on repeat at the time. There’s a song on that album, Do You Think They Would Tell You? That has an incredible female vocalist that appears during the second verse. She adds this really haunting beauty to the song. I think it’s Jade Vincent from the band Unloved. Anyway, I felt like On A Wire needed something like that, but I didn’t want to forcefully push it in that direction, so I just vaguely explained what I thought might sound cool to Gus. He brought in Azniv Korkejian from Bedouine, and she blew us away with the part she came up with. Totally gives that song a haunting beauty that doesn’t exist without her.
With Kris, I felt like we always added something weird when we recorded basic tracks to keep things interesting. Whether it was a distorted drum loop or putting a space echo on some percussion. Just something to keep our minds open about the different directions the song could take. I like getting weird, and Kris is always down to explore whatever rabbit hole you’re thinking of. I have a pretty eclectic taste in music, so my inspiration comes from all over the place.
What message do you hope listeners take away from “Hide The Glow”?
I don’t know. I kind of want to give that to the listener to interpret or decide. All I can hope is that people hear it and connect. Most of my favorite music tends to be a bit low or sad. I don’t listen to it because I like being sad. I listen because it makes me feel seen or not as alone, you know? Like, I’m not the only one that feels this way, and that’s ok. If I can accomplish that for whoever listens to the record, that’s pretty fulfilling.
Do you have any favorite tracks on the album? If so, which ones and why?
Sure. I Don’t Believe is the last song on the record, but the first song I wrote and recorded for “Hide The Glow”. I think it set the bar pretty high. Plus, I got to play Jonathan Wilson’s guitar for the solo at the end, which was super cool. I love everything that dude touches. Dreams turned out really well but were almost abandoned multiple times. It was really difficult to get it from the place where it started to how it ended up on the record. I’m really proud that we didn’t give up on that one. All of that being said, my absolute favorite is Thoughts Of You. To me, we captured something sonically that perfectly complements the lyrics. There’s an intense melancholy, an anxiety, that builds on that one. The song has taken on a whole new meaning since I wrote it, which has been odd, but it’s still my favorite. It’s also very personal, so I probably just have a weird attachment to it.
Looking back on the entire process, what has been the hardest and most rewarding part of creating this album?
The fact that I was able to finish the record and release it feels like a minor miracle! That was definitely the hardest part. I felt like I had to will it into existence. But I remind myself that most great things don’t come easy. Creating in the studio, once things really got going, was very rewarding. Recording these songs with such incredible musicians was also a highlight for me.
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