Hut Hut was formed a decade ago after the semi-disbandment of Boats, which featured lead singer-songwriter and guitarist Mat Klachefsky and a rotating lineup of musicians. When Klachefsky stepped into a new career and could no longer afford the commitment of Boats, he and other members of the band began their Hut Hut project as a more casual alternative. That is, until Klachefsky lost the job and found himself with an onslaught of emotion, culminating in Hut Hut’s second album, Hut Hut.
This time around, he describes the new self-titled record as containing more anger than their previous album, Hut Hut Hut, released in 2020. The album is extremely tongue-in-cheek. For example, the chorus of the opening song, “Dukes Up On Lawns,” has the line, “Don’t try hard, you will never get that far / you’ll never be the who the hell you think you are,” over what is sonically still rather upbeat and danceable. In the hook-filled song, “Our Stubby Arms,” Klachefsky also sings, “I’ve been meaning to make some friends in case my friends die.”
Both of Hut Hut’s LPs are inspired by a broad taste for post-punk and a certain quirkiness that could only have come from Klachefsky. He noted that in making the self-titled album he was not writing with the goal of achieving any particular sound, and that his favourite albums are ones in which each of the tracks are stylistically different from one another. Hut Hut’s music is somewhat reminiscent of Modest Mouse or Animal Collective, but these comparisons still miss something. Hut Hut stands out among other bands for Klachefsky’s distinctly high-pitched and nasal voice. On that note, he recalled a show he played on tour once when an attendee was confused because they expected him to be a woman based on the music they had heard.
“When I get excited, my voice gets high, and I think it is a natural thing. I never learned how to sing, I just ended up that way. And if you listen to old Boats albums, I did not have control of it,” Klachefsky explained. “I just figured it out now.”
Klachefsky highlighted the experience of performing “EpiPen,” the third track of the record, at live shows.
“‘EpiPen’ is fun to play because I try to ruin the sound guy’s day, just making it sound as loud and obnoxious as I can,” Klachevsky described. “I’ve got a whole bunch of new [effects] pedals. I can get even more loud, more obnoxious. But no one has yelled at me yet.”
In their time, Boats released four albums and once played at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival. Klachefsky describes his former band as a relic of its 2010s era, featuring glockenspiels and “Hey” chants.
Hut Hut’s name came from Klachefsky’s desire for the simplicity of one repeated word. And naturally, his appreciation for minimalist names is also demonstrated with Boats. “Bark Bark” was another name suggested, but the band voted in favour of Hut Hut instead. Klachefsky enjoys the chance to “explore the sporting world” with the name Hut Hut, as the logistics of sports pique his interest. He is especially curious about “defunct hockey teams” and the transportation of athletes’ jerseys.
