Acclaimed musician and Song Exploder host/creator Hrishikesh Hirway has released his debut solo EP, Rooms I Used to Call My Own. The album features collaborations with a long list of acclaimed artists, songwriters and producers including Yo-Yo Ma, Jay Som, Baths, Jenny Owen Youngs, Jimmy Tamborello (The Postal Service, Dntel), Jonathan Snipes (Clipping), John Mark Nelson and Grammy-winners John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen) and Kimbra.
Rooms I Used to Call My Own marks the first time Hirway has released music under his own name following five critically acclaimed records under the moniker The One AM Radio. A deeply personal work, the EP is informed by Hirway’s experiences as a podcast host; eschewing the inward gaze of his previous work as an artist, Rooms I Used to Call My Own instead focuses on collaboration, each song formed out of a conversation of sorts with everyone he’s brought into the project with him. Likewise, the subjects of the EP are all other people: the people he loves. The songs are about the deep love and appreciation he holds for his wife, Lindsey, as well as his parents and family.
“I spent so many years apart from making my own songs, and I didn’t know how, or even if, I would find a way back,” explains Hirway. “The way I got out of my own head, finally, was by actually listening to some of the insights that artists on Song Exploder had shared, and to try writing with other people. Just as I was figuring that out, my mom passed away, and then, all I wanted to write about were the people closest to me.”
Hirway is also set to continue his Spring tour with Jenny Owen Youngs, performing select dates throughout the west coast in May. They’ll be on stage together, doing one combined set of all their songs, performing as a duo. Jenny and Hrishikesh have collaborated as co-writers on several songs and are both storytellers, as hosts of popular, award-winning podcasts: Hrishikesh with Song Exploder, The West Wing Weekly and Home Cooking; and Jenny with Buffering the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars Investigations. These special performances will be a mix of songs and stories from two dear friends; find tickets HERE and see below for a list of dates.
AN EVENING WITH HRISHIKESH HIRWAY AND JENNY OWEN YOUNGS
Neptune Theatre—Seattle, WA—May 8
Polaris—Portland, OR—May 9
Independent—San Francisco, CA—May 11
Lodge Room—Los Angeles, CA—May 17