Bay-area-based Greg Hoy & The Boys are impossible not to root for as they’re the poster children for consistent, sustained promotion.
After thirty-two months of challenges that many in the music industry have faced, these unfaltering rock and roll stalwarts have just returned from a successful East Coast tour and continue to write and record as they have a continued 2023 toe-curling onslaught in the plans.
Devotion runs through the veins of Greg Hoy & The Boys as they’re capping off 2022 with their final music video for "Everybody Wants to Be Somebody.” Embodying trademarks reminiscent of signature rock n roll veterans like Sly and the Family Stone and Van Halen, this record is fueled with a timeless foundation, further exhibiting rock n roll is very much alive.
Accompanying the hard-hitting melodies, we’re treated to enticing visuals that showcase musicians in their natural habitat. "Everybody Wants To Be Somebody” was filmed in the band's rehearsal space in Berkeley, California, and oozes the formula for old-school rock n roll. After being inspired by MTV in its debut form, Greg Hoy & The Boys filmed this one take wonder in record time.
Kicking it into overdrive with a high-spirited liveliness that places an enigmatic energy in your step, the craftsmanship of this record is nothing short of excellent. With a black and white checkered pattern canvasing the wall thanks to the soundproofing and the blue and yellow color palette of the lights present, this cozy nook of a jam space exemplifies major live-off-the-floor vibrations.
“Everybody Wants to Be Somebody” has that melt-your-face-off type of vigor that runs through every melody shed, and that goes for the messaging associated with the song, which delivers unalloyed truth, no matter how cold it may seem. Plus, there’s something extremely impressive about seeing each artist master their respective craft as an individual and then come together to express it as a collective which has us fanning over the roots of the music that are very apparent in how Greg Hoy & The Boys execute their sound.
As lyrics flood the screen and you get to hang on to each word crooned that much longer, this approach embeds itself into your memory.
With each step Greg Hoy & The Boys take, there’s passion intertwined within the meticulous moves. Wowing us yet again with another authentic representation of who they are; we’re eager to see what 2023 brings.
Welcome to BuzzMusic, Greg Hoy & The Boys, and congratulations on releasing your latest music video for “Everybody Wants to Be Somebody.” We’re thrilled that you could fit in another music video before the year finishes. Creating this on a whim, what were the thoughts and energy like all around?
We were about to go on our last tour of the year, which was too many of our favorite spots in California. The video itself was recorded in one take - just us rehearsing. It felt like the right move. My opinion of lyric videos goes back and forth. We've put out a few over the years. The analog, frenetic style of this one seemed to be interesting enough to keep my attention over multiple hours of editing (and that's not an easy feat!). Plus, I got to use my 1950's Olivetti Italian Typewriter.
Did you grow up watching MTV? How did it influence your sound and how you carry yourself as a musician?
MTV came to cable later in my small town in Western Pennsylvania. Growing up in a conservative era, videos were considered by many religious folks in my community to be just about as awful as pornography. Artists like Madonna, George Michael, Robert Palmer, and many more packed a lot of bare skin and sex into a three-minute music movie. And I loved it! This was the era of the PMRC (look it up!) Friends would VHS tape (!) hours of MTV to watch it again at parties. I'm not sure how much it influenced me directly as a musician. It made me want to play guitar to help me talk to girls. What are your favorite things about creating a visual component to go with a song? Do you find the creative processes vastly different from one another?
Every single one creates an opportunity to make an accompanying visual story. Sometimes, they are more obvious than others, especially if the lyrical content lends itself to a particular video style. My creative mojo is rarely, if ever, satisfied. I'm the type that can spend an hour tweaking a snare drum sound. If the internet is to be believed, 'Art is never finished, only abandoned' is something Leonardo da Vinci once said, and who am I to argue with a guy that kept himself that busy?
Let’s get into the song's messaging. What are you hoping your audience can take away from this record?
'Are you making time for the right thing?' We are in the throes of an existential crisis of proportions never realized. Runaway capitalism needs constant growth to sustain itself. This clashes with our planet's finite, fragile nature. Our species hurls itself into oblivion and seems to be taking all the rest of life on this planet with it. The line 'Everybody wants to be somebody they're not' has a double meaning. The first is maybe the more obvious: the twisting, manipulating, and distorting we all do base on some vague false belief that other people's opinions matter or maybe, that the AI wants to own even more of your face. Deep down inside, the more subtle, significant meaning is that all of us feel that we could collectively be doing more to stop the freight train of extinction we're beginning to witness. And that feeling might be worth exploring together. What if we all agreed we want to be something better, something we're not... right now? What if we stopped swiping, clocking in, working (to quote the great Dolly Parton) 9 to 5, and instead really opened our hearts to change the future? What words of inspiration would you like to leave your fans with going into 2023?
Explore Metta meditation. It's one of the greatest gifts I've ever received... and given.
