Q&A: HOAX Talks Debut Album, Vulnerability, Inner Peace & More
IT’S NOT COMMON FOR INDIE POP TO MAKE YOU PONDER — the purpose of your existence, but the New York City–born, Houston-based “empathy pop” duo HOAX is hardly concerned with creating what’s “common,” as evidenced by their newly released 17-track debut concept album, b?
Composed of Mike Raj and Frantz Cesar, HOAX began as a promising band out of Hofstra University in Long Island, NY. They built their fanbase locally with opening gigs for fellow rising star Boy Pablo, among others. Since then, the duo have celebrated a number of accolades, including a shoutout from Doja Cat in an Instagram Live stream and ongoing TikTok virality, with a few posts by Hailey Bieber. But even so, Raj and Cesar have had to endure life-changing hardship.
Through the pandemic, the two experienced personal loss, a cross-country move, and at times a total lack of inspiration. As a result, however, they went on to create a profound debut album representative of the lessons they learned amidst the tragedy.
Read below as Raj and Cesar open up about their process, inspirations, and ambitions following the release of their debut album, b?
LUNA: Congrats on the release of b? — it’s been five years since you guys released your last project, words that end with wh(y). When was b? first conceptualized, and how does the process of creating it compare to the process behind your last EP?
RAJ: I think the original idea for the project was founded in 2017, when Frantz and I, alongside my childhood friend Ebenezer, went to Leh, India, which is a place in the north Himalayan range of India. I think that's where we saw glimpses of the project. But I think we really started in 2018. And in terms of how this is different from [past releases], this one was much more methodically thought out. Our previous EPs were collections of songs that we had ready at the time that just fit together. This album is so much more connected from song to song with one theme in mind.
CESAR: Our music is, obviously, shaped by our surroundings and what’s happening in the world. And the last four years have been crazy. In some ways, you can hear the evolution of the things we were inspired by early on and how that’s evolved through the pandemic and other things that we went through. So I think because of that, this [album] evolved to take on a different form than probably anything we ever created and probably ever will create.
LUNA: On the topic of inspiration, it seems like you drew a lot of inspiration from individuals and moments in your personal lives. Has being vulnerable in your music always come easy to you, or is it something you guys have warmed up to over time?
RAJ: At the heart of why we started HOAX was the idea of incorporating empathy into music, because that was something that we felt was missing from both of our lives and in the lives of people around us. And I think to become empathetic you have to sit with yourself and understand all of your insecurities and all of the flaws that you have within your own life. I think that search and striving towards empathy has helped us as individuals. That's just something that we always look to put back into our music. The easiest way to do that is to, oftentimes, share the pain that you've gone through.
Like Frantz brought up, these last four years were crazy for a lot of people, especially people our age. For me, I lost two people very close to me in such a short amount of time. It was my first time dealing with death at a level of understanding that I won't, at least in this form, be able to talk to someone that I respect so much, or see someone or share experiences with them again. And I think that's something that a lot of people experienced in these last four years. That's just one example of pain that you can go through: loss and suffering. I think there's so many different levels of pain, and what we're trying to get at with this album is self-reflection so that you can kind of find that inner voice and that, for lack of a better phrase, inner peace, to help you be empathetic with other people around you.
CESAR: Yeah, I agree. And Mike is really intentional with his lyrics. I feel like when we look back at the people that we fuck with from previous generations, like Marvin Gaye and some of the greats [like] Sam Cooke, those are people that we look up to in music not just because of the music they made but because of the impact they had. I think a lot of people nowadays can make a pop song in, like, five minutes. But I think it's hard to replicate real-life experiences and feelings and somehow express that in music that sounds good and feels good. I think overall, our goal with this project was to make something that’s timeless — something that people would dance to 30 years from now, you know what I mean? Just like the greats did before us.
LUNA: Having created this album in a few different cities, there's no doubt you found yourselves in a variety of creative spaces. What's been the best space you guys have worked on this album in?
RAJ: That’s super interesting to bring up because part of the reason I feel like I was, and I feel like Frantz could relate, so creatively and emotionally drained during quarantine was because there was such a lack of us being able to travel. Traveling is such an inspiring experience that when you're not able to do it, it almost feels like you're closed off. So we love to create at home, but we gather most of our inspiration and our energy from being outside of home. We recently went to LA and now we're in New York, but next week, we're returning back to Houston, and all of these traveling experiences keep building and building inspiration. Then when we go back to our home studio; it's like we just release all of our inspiration. And it comes out as music.
CESAR: Yeah, for sure. I feel like traveling is just, it's cool. And, yeah, the pandemic definitely limited us in terms of inspiration. So now that everything's pretty much back open, it feels like the world's our oyster now. Like, we have so many things that we haven't done, and I know a lot of people in the world feel like we lost like two years of our lives. So now it feels like we got some making up to do. We're excited to play shows and do all those things that we couldn't do. Hopefully we can make up for some lost time.
LUNA: You’ve recently traveled from LA to New York for your very own album listening parties. Having poured so much of yourselves into this album — what was it like seeing people react to it in its entirety for the first time?
RAJ: Each party was super different from each other. It was very cool to put on a show [in LA] and have a listening party because most of the people that we met that night were people I had never met before. To see them celebrate the album with [us], even as strangers, was super refreshing. New York is where all our friends and family are. A lot of those people [are who] we credit for helping make this album possible. So it was very, very cool to have that dichotomy between celebrating and having a party with total strangers who believe in you and celebrating with friends and family that have always believed in you. It was really inspiring.
LUNA: Are there any songs on the album that each of you guys would say are personal favorites?
RAJ: There's 17 tracks so there's a lot to pick from (laughs). But I think my three personal favorites right now are “5,” “more than you know,” and probably “You Get So Alone Sometimes.”
CESAR: Yeah, for me, I would definitely say “5.” Also “unconditional.” And I would probably say “more than you know” as well because I love performing it live.
LUNA: In past interviews, you guys have talked about how much you both love film. If you could choose a type of film or TV show to have songs from b? placed in, what would it be?
CESAR: It doesn't make any sense, but somehow, someone could probably use it in a horror movie.
RAJ: In terms of like one film or TV genre, probably something sci-fi related. Or, like Frantz said, horror-related.
LUNA: This may be a dreaded question to answer after having just dropped a new project, but we'd love to know: Do you guys have any plans for what's next creatively, or do you intend to take some time to recharge?
RAJ: The process of creating this particular album took so long. And I think a lot of it was us finding out how to create in a way that works for us because we were still, and are still, finding ourselves as artists — we're constantly evolving. But we’ve been getting inspired so quickly and so easily by different films and songs and art in general, and now having these songs out in the world is kind of like clearing our mental RAM or our mental CPU. I feel like we're fresh and ready to start working on the next project and start figuring out our live show. We're ready to go. We're full of inspiration right now.
LUNA: If you could ask listeners to take one thing away from listening to the project, what would it be?
RAJ: If they were to take one giant thing away from the album, it would be to be patient with yourself. Spend the time to discover who you really are because there's so much going on in life and it's never going to stop. We’re always going to feel like we're on a hamster wheel. So it really boils down to what you want to make out of it. You can only discover that by sitting with yourself quietly and trying to understand what your inner voice really wants. When you have that, you'll be able to find peace. Be patient with yourself, spend the time to find yourself, and be empathetic towards other people.
CESAR: Life is short, man. We're only on this planet for who knows how long, you know? Just appreciate every moment that you have with the people you love, and remember that we don't really deserve much in life. We all have goals and motivations, but don’t let that cloud being able to just enjoy yourself and just “be.”
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