According to the popular infomercial, Snuggies are good for all sorts of stuff. You can use the blanket-with-arm-holes for outdoor camping, sporting events or just lounging around at home. Ask local songwriter Brian Huber though and he’ll add one more use to the list: hit songwriting fodder.
According to the popular infomercial, Snuggies are good for all sorts of stuff. You can use the blanket-with-arm-holes for outdoor camping, sporting events or just lounging around at home. Ask local songwriter Brian Huber though and he’ll add one more use to the list: hit songwriting fodder.
Turn your radio dial to DC101 and you might just hear Huber’s tune espousing the many virtues of a clothing article that is little more than a reverse robe but oh so much more to modern day pop culture. The station has taken to playing the tongue-in-cheek ode since Huber submitted it to DJ Grant, and it’s marked the biggest success to date for Huber since he started a solo project that will soon produce his first album, Imagination of Ourselves. Huber is set to release the record Jan. 5 at Jammin’ Java with a full-band show.
The release highlights another big step for Huber since splitting off from his former band, Lucky Day, which he formed in 2005 through a Craig’s List ad. Back then Huber had set out to indulge his songwriting passion a little more thoroughly. Before Lucky Day, he’d been a part of another band, but that group already had a primary songwriter.
Now Huber’s taken it a step farther, setting up shop in his apartment and recording his first solo album with the help of Pro Tools (and some guest performances to do the bass parts justice).
“I accumulated gear and was just learning stuff along the way from other people as I recorded it at my apartment,” Huber said. “I was just doing a lot with the technology available.”
Citing the perks most independent artists laud about working on your own, Huber powered through the entire creative process in a little over a year.
“I was able to take my time and get things the way I wanted them rather than worry about studio time and money, and all that stuff,” he said. “It was difficult in that there’s no one to motivate you but yourself. And when you’re responsible for most of the instruments you can’t just say my parts done and then sit back and let everyone else do their thing.”
The other challenge was laboring over a song until it’s completed, only to scrutinize your finished work.
“On a few songs, I’d take a step back and try to retool them a little bit,” he said. “On one hand you’re psyched that you just finished a song and you don’t want to admit that it might not be that great, but you take a second look at it.”
Relying on some outside opinion helped give Imagination of Ourselves its final look, but Huber enjoyed the lack of input when it came to limiting the eclectic directions his songs often take. For example, some of his songs tend to take a more heartfelt route, while, “Snuggies,” to name just one, is obviously a little more whimsical.
“The nice thing about doing this independently is that you can pretty much do whatever you want. One of the things with record labels is they might look at the CD I’m putting out and wonder if I’m going with the more goofy funny stuff or the more serious, heartfelt stuff. I would need to pick something. Whereas I just wanted to decide which songs are good and worth recording and go from there. I want listeners to be able to figure out what they like.”
Even if that something is a tongue-in-cheek ode to a pop-culture oddity.
• For more on Brian Huber, visit www.brianhubermusic.com.
