Hitting The Road With hey, nothing
hey, nothing’s Harlow Phillips and Tyler Mabry may wear their hearts on their sleeves, but they make sure to leave plenty of grace for taking life less seriously. The two spoke to Pleaser about how it all comes together on tour, and what to expect from them next.
Phillips and Mabry’s dueling guitars bring a triumph to pressing themes of adolescence, addiction, familial dynamics and many more hard-hitters. Despite just hitting their 20s, the duo writes with a wisdom that feels far beyond their years. Their mature lyrics are comically countered by a generally silly demeanor and witty humor— qualities that hey, nothing’s fans feel closely connected to.
Prior to one of their last shows as the supporting act for Cage the Elephant’s Neon Pill theater tour, accompanied by Common People, Pleaser spent a chilly fall afternoon with the band, which felt on brand for their discography. We roamed the streets around The Capital in Port Chester, NY, trading takes on Georgia cities and scheming up the best time to squeeze in a ghost tour into their European jaunt.
Between our afternoon together and their performance that evening (which included Austin Powers costumes, a dinosaur and a fair amount of boogying– as per Phillips), it’s apparent that hey, nothing is truly an act in a lane of their own. Adding to that status, our Q&A video chat was the first and only time I’ve hosted a transcontinental interview. Tuning in from Paris, they tackled their long year of touring, from full circle moments to flipping off the audience.
PHOTOS BY OLIVE JOLLEY
PLEASER: I had come across an interview from 2023 in which Tyler had mentioned he grew up listening to Cage the Elephant. I suppose that tour was a big full-circle moment for you guys.
Tyler Mabry: It was a huge full-circle moment, actually. I think the first time we ever saw Cage the Elephant was in 2019 at Shaky Knees [Festival] in Atlanta. We were there with my little sister. I think for half that set she was on my shoulders watching them, and that’s her favorite band. She’s the one that put me on.
Harlow Phillips: I think that show changed our whole lives.
What were some of your other takeaways from that run?
TM: It was our first time working with a real big production, and they have a huge team, but the whole team showed us respect through and through. They set an example for how we would want our crew to treat an opening team if we had a bigger crew like that. We’re also so inspired by how they perform every night. We watched them perform, and the next night we were like, “This is so much fun and this is something we’re so lucky to do, so never take a single second on stage for granted.”
HP: Every night they go 100%, every single band member.
What do you think that 2023, or even 2019, version of yourselves would think about you now?
HP: I think they would think that we’re f*cking awesome. I think they would lose their minds.
TM: I think they would be very proud, very excited.
Now you’re getting to make them even more proud, taking the show internationally: “hey, nothing’s Big Jaunt.” Is it your first time playing in Europe?
HP: It’s our first time ever being here!
Does it feel high stakes?
TM: It did before we played the first show, and then we played and now it feels natural and beautiful.
HP: [With] hey, nothing fans all over the world — there’s just a palpable, good vibe to each and every single person. We just got so so lucky with the people that listen to our music.
Do you feel like the energy of these European shows is different from American shows?
TM: Yeah! It feels a little heavier. I think the emotional aspects have a little more weight. I don’t know if it’s because we’ve been doing this for a few years now and we never had the chance [to play in Europe], and now that we’re here, it feels a little more special, but every show so far has felt heavy in the best way. We’re over here with just two acoustic guitars and our voices, and they’re very locked in and very excited about it. They’re going just as hard as they would be if we had a full band.
When you’re bringing music that is so introspective and emotionally resonant to a live stage, how do you still bring the excitement that people tend to want from a live show?
TM: We’ve structured the setlist that we’re playing right now so that the first half is fun. We’re going to play our dance songs, our catchier, more upbeat songs. The last half of the set is just going to be devastating. We play the saddest songs last, and I think it puts everyone in a mood.
HP: I also feel like it kind of comes down to us. That is who we are on and off stage; we are goofy and silly, but we are also deeply, deeply introspective and always thinking about emotional things. But you simply can’t be that way all of the time. It’s exhausting. You also can’t feel happy, silly and goofy all the time. We just try to be as 100% us on stage. and I think that comes with it.
TM: A funny thing that happened at the last show in Amsterdam is we played like five of our saddest songs, and hey were all clapping and people were crying in the front row, and we just threw up middle fingers. [As in,] “f*ck you guys. You guys are too f*cking sweet.” That felt very us.
How do you make sure you stay true to yourselves while uprooted on the road for so long?
HP: For me, I get to bring my best friend everywhere.
TM: I was going to say the same exact thing.
HP: It’s extremely grounding because they know everything about you. You can’t ever get too big of a head because they’ll bring you right down again. It’s perfect.
TM: It’s also cool because if a crowd is not feeling it, you can just look over and feel it with your friends. Especially with a full band, I have 3 other people up there with me, and I know I can have a good time just by looking at them.
You guys have been at this together all the way through, but you jumped into the industry, particularly touring, relatively young – you’re still young, but do you feel it’s made you grow up faster in any way?
HP: I think we grew up fast when we were younger, but I feel like everything happened how it was supposed to. We’re very happy with where we’re at now.
TM: I don’t know if we’re growing faster, but I think we’re growing different. We’re experiencing the world and life differently than other people our age, but we’ll probably always be growing.
Many of your lyrics come from a mature and pensive lens, but there are also some youthfully humorous lines. My favorites are from “Sick Dogs”: “I’ll fix the Hinge/Fine, I’ll watch Grown Ups again” and later, “Extensive thoughts on Simpsons lore.” Are these all straight pulls from real life?
HP: 110% real life. Okay, The Simpsons lore is out there, maybe Family Guy lore would’ve been [more accurate]…but it doesn’t have the same punchy effect.
TM: Simpsons lore is fun because it goes so deep.
HP: But yeah, Grown Ups is my favorite movie, actually, specifically Grown Ups 2.
TM: Grown Ups 2…also doesn’t roll off the tongue.
Speaking of songwriting, once you finish this long year of touring, are there plans to dive back into some more projects?
TM: We’re almost done with an album. After we finish it, I think we’re going to take a bit of a breather and live some normal life, be at home for a while. Spend some time with our son – our cat. Go see our families and really make sure we’re getting to see them as much as possible. And then we’re going to put out the album!
HP: We’re gonna hit it!
That’ll be well deserved, and I can’t wait to hear! Have you worked on projects at all while touring, or do you go in and out of phases?
HP: It’s hard to not be in tour mode when you’re on the road. I feel like with our writing it involves so much sitting and being able to create a safe space around wherever we’re writing. It’s kind of hard to create that when you’re on the road so much. Not to say it’s never happened!
TM: We’re reflecting in all of our music, and it’s hard to reflect when you’re moving at 150 miles per hour — literally.
What can we expect to hear from hey, nothing on this future project?
TM: We are more proud of it than anything we’ve put out before. I hope it feels more mature of a project, and a lot of it’s about our parents still…we’re finally going to put the nail in the coffin and really sum up all the things we’re feeling in our lives right now. Convey that as best as possible and let it breathe for a while. But it’s going to be fun. There’s some rockers on there. A lot of it is pretty sad unintentionally. We went into the studio wanting to write rock songs, and it changed so quickly. As soon as we started writing it, we were like, “Aww, come on.”
Once that’s wrapped up, anything non-musical you’re looking forward to after tour?
HP: I’m looking forward to spending so much time with my cat. I think both of us want to go back to Europe…Traveling outside of work is going to be a pretty new and interesting thing for us.
Anything else you wanted to add for our Pleaser audience?
TM: Um, we’re single. Sorta.
HP: Tyler’s mostly single. I'm not very single. If you know what I mean.
TM: Pleaser audience…please.
