Grief, And What Follows: Hurray For The Riff Raff Interviewed
Hurray for the Riff Raff are a band known for melding and crossing genres. Driven by the creativity of Alynda Segarra, reinvention seems to come naturally, and exploration is in their genes. Their ninth studio album, ‘The Past Is Still Alive’, was recorded shortly after the death of Segarra’s father in 2023, and this collection of songs reflects deep and complex themes of grief.
Now the album has been shared with the world, CLASH sat down with Alynda Segarra to take a deep dive into influences, drivers, emotion and experience.
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Alynda Segarra is enjoying a few hours of downtime near the end of HFTRR’s U.S. East Coast tour when we speak, and sounds almost overwhelmed with the positivity of their experience so far.
“It’s been incredible! I’ve never had a tour like this, where there’s just been so much love for the album,” Segarra says. “There’s something special about this one, and I’ve felt this incredible support and momentum. It’s been really amazing.”
Segarra has always hoped and aimed for connection with their audience, and the new record has enabled them to reach this goal almost unexpectedly. We begin to explore just why this has happened.
“I believe in the collective unconscious and subconscious – we’re all maybe thinking or dealing with a chapter of our lives or a theme, and it just strikes a nerve. It feels like there are a lot of themes on this record that people are really resonating with,” says Segarra.
“It was so painful to create,” they continue, “but at the same time, it was a practice in letting go which is so difficult to do but at the same time should be easy – just stop resisting and let life happen, or let death happen.”
Listening to ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ on one level can be a relaxing, easy-going experience. It is a laid-back record in many ways, and very enjoyable musically: accessible, richly textured and layered, and very well-written. But delve deeper and there’s a lot more to it. I wonder how Segarra views the album now, given the difficult emotions which went into making it.
“I mean, it’s relaxing for me when I hear it, and it’s also relaxing for me to play these songs,” they respond. “The process of making it helped me to get to a place which is a little hard for my brain to understand: to just simply be myself, to be present with these songs, and that’s enough.”
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It feels to me as if Segarra has stumbled upon that key, long sought after, ingredient of connection. The process of ‘letting go’ is one shared by many of the artists Segarra has been influenced by: soul-searching, experimentation with genres and forms, pushing themselves and their craft, and ultimately finding themselves.
“It feels like a narrative and a journey that I’ve heard people talk about before, and somehow here I am, stumbling upon it: ‘Oh there I am – there’s my writing style!’”
I ask Segarra to expand further on their earlier comment about the painful nature of creating ‘The Past Is Still Alive’. In response, they explain how the record was made following an unforgettable period of world events in the early 2020s; circumstances which created a challenging environment for everyone, not least touring musicians.
“I came to this record feeling really at the end of the road, asking, ‘Is this the end of this type of career, the end of this type of lifestyle?’ And then, of course, losing my father really abruptly and suddenly, it felt like so many things were crashing around me, and all I had to hold on to was the writing. That was the only thing I could really turn to, and these songs thankfully were coming.
“So that part was painful. And then going into the studio was painful and yet also relieving to be like, ‘This is all I have, me, barebones, we’re not going to do a lot of heavy production, it’s just me and these songs and these wonderful musicians.’ That part was really scary because it was just me putting myself out there. I don’t think I was even thinking about reception at the time, I was just saying this is all I have and this will keep me going. This is my life raft!”
HFTRR is a project which has taken many forms, musically. Their previous album, ‘Life On Earth’, was a foray into electronic music, sitting in stark contrast to, for example, 2013’s ‘My Dearest Darkest Neighbour’, a record steeped in US roots, folk and blues traditions. Segarra explains how the electronic-centred method was not only fun but also forced them to write very different kinds of songs and bring a new approach to their work.
“When I was sitting with my guitar, I felt like I was getting really stuck in this box of song structure, and getting stuck in the same old form, and I’d go to the same chords – I was trapped. So I feel like the rules really got thrown away. I was able to say, ‘I don’t even need a chorus, I’m just going to write a song’… It really helped me at a time I felt like the world was coming to an end.”
Returning to a sound which HFTRR are perhaps more known for, Segarra realised that genre labels were creating boundaries.
“It reminded me that I can still be heavily influenced by someone like Kendrick Lamar and still write this record,” they say. “It helped me to come back to this approach and still bring all of my influences and the things that really excite me. And it helped me remember that, at the heart of it, I just wanted to write poetry, basically. It made it feel so experimental and exciting, because I get very uncomfortable when I’m stuck in a specifically Americana/roots box – I don’t belong in this club, I’m pretty sure!”
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Segarra has been described as ‘constantly reinventing’ themselves, but perhaps the truth is that, over time, they are finding their true selves, or different aspects of themselves.
“I understand what people mean, especially with an album like ‘The Navigator’ [HFTRR’s sixth] where there was a storyline, and a character that I was following, but… I’m just trying to stay in the writing and stay in a creative flow state, and I’m just kind of using these avenues – anything that will keep me making art. I think if I were to solely sit with my guitar and write about my personal day-to-day life, I would get spooked,” they explain. “These are just ways of continuing to write and try to stay in that space.”
Segarra says that the new record was written while they were on tour – far from their normal pattern.
“I was able to, and I’m still not sure why! I want to keep doing that,” Segarra laughs. “I have my phone with me all the time and I’m always recording any little bit that pops into my head, and I do a lot of journaling. But I will have months where I’m like, ‘Will I ever write a song again?!’ And then of course something comes, and then another one comes…”
‘The Past Is Still Alive’ is clearly a very special album for Segarra, with many precious elements contained in it.
“I just love this record so much and it feels like I’ve finally discovered my own language, and so much of the work I did really shows in this record,” they say. “One of my favourite moments is the piano solo on ‘The World is Dangerous’. I love that little moment so much.”
“Also ‘Colossus Of Roads’ is such an important song for me,” Segarra continues. “I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to write that song. “There are certain songs that feel very channelled, and the work is actually spending time and energy and effort in not being blocked. That’s a lot of the struggle in our modern world, in our attention-grabbing society, where your attention is like gold to so many different companies. So the work is finding ways you can channel different inspiration.”
‘Colossus Of Roads’, says Segarra, is an example of the way their mind works – “like a scrapbook”, demonstrating and sharing their wide and eclectic range of influences.
“I’m trying to highlight these things I find beautiful because the world is so violent and scary and so hard to live in. It’s an example of me bringing all that stuff with me, and me being open at the right moment for it all to come out,” Segarra explains.
Once the hard work has been done, and once the songs are released to the world, Segarra is willing for people to take what they can from them.
“I kind of feel like it’s a choose your own adventure! It’s going to spark whatever it sparks within them, just like art affects me. I have my attachments and references… and things resonate with different people. It’s that amazing thing amongst humans, how it just morphs and changes,” Segarra muses. “It’s giving someone a tool…I’m not going to heal you – I’m trying to heal myself. But you can heal yourself by listening and taking this as you see fit.”
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We turn our attention to what may be coming next, once ‘The Past Is Still Alive’ tour is done. Will new music inevitably emerge?
“Right now I feel like I don’t really have anything in the tank. When I get to this point, it’s good for me to feel like, ‘Well, what’s the next frontier?’ …There’s this blurry image and I’m trying to get it into focus. What is the next vision that can lead me? What sometimes happens first is the album title, and then [that] leads me to the new songs.”
At this stage, Segarra is immersed in what they describe as an obsessive search for inspiration.
“I need to be watching a lot of films, reading different books, always looking… I feel like it’s all out there, you know?”
Segarra’s recent inspirations are wide and varied, including the latest Youth Lagoon album (‘Heaven Is A Junkyard’), jazz from Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk, novels by Katie Kitamura (Intimacies) and Jen Beagin (Big Swiss), and the movie Poor Things. Segarra clearly consumes art with passion and enthusiasm, drawing energy, as well as influence, from all forms of media. Their output over the past decade-and-a-half (since the ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ EP came out in 2007), has been prolific by any measure, but Segarra’s view is that this has all been part of a continuing process with each new record representing a new high point.
“It feels like a lot of workshopping and there’s obviously so much I’m proud of, but… it always feels like the first record because it’s like I’ve discovered a new frontier,” Segarra reflects. “That stuff was just leading me to get here, so now where do I go? There’s always a new horizon.”
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‘The Past Is Still Alive’ is out now.
Words: Phil Taylor
Photo Credit: Denny
