By Sonia Schnee | Posted Thursday, September 26, 2019
On September 19th, The Random Hubiak Band released their latest single, “Slipping Through My Hands.” If you’re a fan of Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, John Hiatt, Del Amitri, or Neil Young, then this track is sure to be up your alley. Jersey Indie was fortunate to interview Asbury Park frontman/singer-songwriter Rand M. Hubiak to learn about the inspiration behind this latest track. Be sure to catch The Random Hubiak LIVE this Saturday, September 28th, 4pm, at Asbury Park PorchFest.
Where are you from originally, and where are you based now?
I was born outside of Salt Lake City in Utah. I grew up alternately in Franklin, PA (in the old Oil Heritage region, where we moved when I was four), Irvine, CA (where I lived from age twelve to sixteen before we moved back to Franklin, PA), and Cranford, NJ (where I spent my summers with my grandparents). I moved to New Jersey in 2003 and have been living in Asbury Park since 2011.
Who are the members of The Random Hubiak Band? Where do you record?
We have a rotating cast of characters besides myself, particularly where live shows are concerned, since we have to sometimes strip down to more of a cabaret ensemble of piano/vocal and rhythm, or where we may have a full band, but the studio members/songwriters aren't necessarily all available to play their parts, so we have good number of occasional members.
But besides myself (Rand Hubiak — I play piano and occasionally rhythm guitar, sing, and write), the permanent studio crew consists of Paul Galiszewski on drums and percussion, Adam Silverstein on piano and synth strings (Adam also writes), Julian Michalski on bass, and Tom Briant on guitar (Tom also occasionally co-writes with me and sings backing vocals). We recently added Paul's son Dylan as permanent rhythm guitar. He hasn't done any studio work yet, but we've just given him some demos to start arranging, and he's played a couple big live gigs with us, so we're stoked to have him in the band. He'll draw the youth market (ha ha).
Saxophonist Michael Squillace has played on several of our recordings and also toured as my backing band in 2017, so he's a permanent member, even if he's not always available for live gigs. And I've just added two strings players in Pittsburgh as permanent studio ensemble, cellist Barbara Anndrea Delaney-Arriaga and violinist Megan Williams, the latter of whom I met as a teenager at Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts.
We record partly at Jankland Recording in Wall, NJ under the wise auspices of Steve Jankowski, a horns player for Nile Rodgers/Chic, Blood Sweat & Tears, Chicago, and Three Dog Night. We do some recording at my much less capable (but more easily affordable) home studio, which I call The Seaman Shanty.
How would you describe your musical style? Who are some of your influences?
My influences are all over, but the obvious ones are piano pop-rock songwriters such as Elton John, Tom Waits, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, and Leon Russell. You can particularly hear those influences when Adam is at the helm with me, because he's a huge fan of Elton, Billy, and Ben, as well as Randy Newman.
When Tom is co-writing with me, we come up with songs that sound like the Beatles and Bowie. If I'm writing on my own, it depends on my mood: I'd say my lyrics can often take on an Elvis Costello/Aimee Mann tone (a lot of hyper-literate cynicism), but if I'm writing on guitar, my chords structures are pretty basic, so you'll get chord progressions and arrangements that sound like Neil Young or R.E.M., whereas if I'm composing with samples I'll write stuff that has weirder sounds — Peter Gabriel and the like (although most of those are still “in the vault,” because you don't want to overwhelm with too wide a palette when you're not an established commercial act).
My vocal arrangements almost always end up sounding like Fleetwood Mac. I love their harmonies, and that tendency invariably manifests itself the second I add a harmony line to anything I do.
Congrats on the recent release of your single “Slipping Through My Hands.” What can you tell us about the inspiration behind the song and what it’s about?
“Slipping Through My Hands” is pretty ancient. I wrote it back in college. I didn't have a piano at my disposal, so the guitar was my instrument for composing. Hence the very simple chord structure. It's one of the few songs I've written from my own perspective.
I do write a lot of first-person narratives, but they're usually fictionalized at least somewhat if not outright. And while I did fictionalize a few facets of what happened in the relationship that this song is about — or rather synthesized details from other relationships besides the one that triggered me to write this song — the song itself was spawned from an early college romance that didn’t work out. The details are culled from other people I’d either dated, been friends with, or other friends’ relationships besides my own, because I rarely find my own life interesting enough to write about, and I don’t think there’s much art in simply journaling experiences in purely literal terms.
So the song existed forever as a demo, and then Tom Briant and I began adding guitar bits to it in the studio back in 2011. I never wanted to finish it because it was part of a whole song cycle that I’d released as demos back in the late 90s or early aughts, and I didn’t want to finish re-recording those songs until I’d got more albums under my belt. But now our back catalogue of unfinished material is so large, and the business model has changed (you release the songs now one at a time and then compile the full album for physical release later), that it made sense to start finishing something.
Paul and I laid down drum tracks and new vocals for 15 songs across two days in the studio in March, including this one. Julian added his bass in August, and I uploaded it for September 19 release.
Do you have any shows coming up? What’s next on the horizon for you?
I’ll be part of this weekend’s Asbury Park PorchFest on 28 September at 4:00 pm at 1323 4th Avenue. The next confirmed gig I have — I’ve been so busy with my day job that I haven’t been too actively seeking gigs — is November 3 as part of the official entertainment for the NYC Marathon; I’ll be playing at 92nd Street and Gatling Place in Brooklyn that morning from 9:30 to noon.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, your personal journey.
Well, I’ve lived all over — as mentioned earlier, I’ve spent all my summers at the Jersey Shore since I was a child, but I was born in Utah and moved to western PA at age four, then southern California for three and a half years, then back to western PA until I graduated high school.
My university days were all spent at Penn State, which I absolutely loved, and I lived abroad in Greece for half a year as part of my college experience. My collaborator, Adam Silverstein, moved to England with his wife for almost ten years in 2009, so my first album with him (MEMOIRS OF A MANWHORE: THE REELING WALTZ OF A DRUNKEN LOTHARIO) was recorded over there in his home. We refer to his studio there as The Brick House, which is kind of a joke we have with his wife. The Commodores’ “Brick House” irritates her to no end, and historically it’s been nearly impossible for us to go out for dinner or drinks without that song somehow playing in the background.
I’d say that the experiences of moving around, and in particularly living or traveling abroad, have shaped my perspective. While I will sometimes document my own experiences in music, or at the very least write from the first person perspective, I’m far more keen on observing others and telling their stories, exploring the emotional context of what may seem like ordinary or mundane events and then applying to them what facets might make an experience unique to an individual while simultaneously identifying what elements of an experience are universal and therefore easily shared with a wide audience. I think the experience of being an outsider, a traveler, allows one to fine-tune that talent.
What words of advice or encouragement would you give to someone who wants to follow a similar passion, or is maybe facing obstacles similar to what you've faced?
I’m pretty old for somebody who’s really just starting to pursue music seriously. I’d say keep plugging at it, because there’s nothing wrong with not encountering immediate success or acceptance. You may have to defer your goals a bit, or at least pace yourself, and don’t be ashamed of that; don’t be ashamed of having to take a day job.
The stories coming form songwriters whose lyrics are shaped by actual experience are a Hell of a lot more interesting than the songs being penned by cushy trust-fund babies who have never been forced to struggle: Those people don’t write with the depth of experience and haven’t been forced to develop the eye for detail or the degree of empathy that comes from having to navigate the social structures of our world for survival.
Where can people listen to “Slipping Through My Hands,” and how/where can they connect with you online (website, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)?
Free streaming at any of the following links:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/1uKLTNEii6MGkgVk29azI1
YouTube: https://youtu.be/U2-uar1GsXE
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/therandomhubiakmusic/slipping-through-my-hands-single-edit/s-Ja6w7
It’s also available for download on CDBaby, Amazon, iTunes, and pretty much any other purveyors of digitally compressed music. We’re on Pandora, too.
My own website is www.therandomhubiak.com, and there’s an email sign-up list there for folks who want to know whenever I’ve got a new song coming out — and the band and I are hoping to release at least one or two songs a month for the next year or two just to clear out the back catalogue. I also send out recommendations of other artists whose work I think deserves recognition.
And of course, yes, I’m on Facebook as The Random Hubiak.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I’ve probably already rambled on far too long. But yeah, I guess — I also have a side project called The General Electorate. It’s more of an 80s retro synth-pop sound, but all originals. It’s not on Pandora, but it’s pretty much all the other places. The album we put out in 2017 was entitled SYNTHETIC BONES.
