Mongolian folk metallers THE HU are here to conquer.
The Mongolian metal sensations have already conquered Youtube with their unique sound – the world will surely follow
THE INTERNET HAS an uncanny and unpredictable ability to create figureheads in the least likely of places. Through the instant gratification and lightning-fast discourse of YouTube and social media, what is today a simple, unassuming opinion, song or even mishap could tomorrow become a worldwide talking point.
No band knows this better than
The Hu, who are currently revelling in their status as one of the most surprising stars in heavy music. After all, every aspect of the band exudes the esoteric or niche. They make catchy, rock-inspired jams out of their homeland of Mongolia; they write lyrics in their country’s mother tongue and communicate them via throat singing; in lieu of conventional Western instruments like bass and electric guitars, they exclusively use native alternatives like the morin khuur and topshur.
Somehow, despite (or perhaps because of) their alien approach to rock music, The Hu are a worldwide online sensation. They only have two songs to their name – both of which dropped with accompanying music videos late last year – but have amassed more than 25 million hits on YouTube.
“After releasing our two videos
– Yuve Yuve Yu and Wolf Totem – we got a lot of unexpected reactions all around the world,” says The Hu’s lead throat singer, Gala.
“The reason we got a lot of attention is the hard work that we put into them,” the frontman states, as if categorically. “To film the first video, Yuve Yuve Yu, we travelled more than 3,000 miles off-road in western Mongolia. One day, we’d be in a desert that was so hot that we were all sweating; the next, we’d be 13,000 feet above sea level, freezing on top of a mountain. We wanted the video to show the world how beautiful Mongolia is and, because of our hard work, I think it succeeded.”
Having reaped almost 20 million viewers with their first video alone, it would be easy to label The Hu an overnight success. However, this has been a project years in the making.
Gala has had a fascination with both Mongolian folk music and international metal ever since his youth, as if the two were destined to cross paths during his lifetime.
“I loved Metallica, Slipknot and System Of A Down,” he remembers, “but there was a Mongolian band that I really liked, called Altan Urag. They were doing a similar thing to what we are, combining Mongolian music with rock elements. They were my favourite growing up.”
Inspired, the youngster pursued higher education at the Mongolian
State Music and Dance Conservatory in the country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. From there, he played the morin khuur – a two-stringed fiddle that dates back several thousand years – for a national Mongolian orchestra and as a session musician. Gala met the mononymous producer Dashka during this stint, bouncing between career opportunities; the two quickly bonded over their mutual affinity for blending local folk soundscapes with international hard rock.
“Dashka had that as an idea and, for eight years, he had been doing research on new sounds,” says Gala. “It was just good timing because, when I was in music school, I was doing similar things with my friends. So, we decided to do something together.”
AFTER RALLYING MORE musicians to their cause, The Hu officially formed in 2016, with Gala fronting as lead vocalist and one of the band’s two morin khuur players. Meanwhile, Dashka worked behind the scenes, producing and advising them as they began work on their earliest songs.
Despite possessing a unilateral vision to create uniquely Mongolian rock anthems, The Hu’s early songwriting sessions were arduous. Gala recalls his troupe’s intense perfectionism to nailing their core methodology from the very off, saying, “sometimes it would take a week to a month just writing and recording one song. Even then, after that we could still go, ‘We should do that again.’”
Because of this, it took two years for The Hu to curate an appropriately large arsenal of songs, of which only two have been officially unveiled. The rest will follow later this year on their debut album, Gereg, which will be released via Eleven Seven Music after the label were blown away by the band’s flooring YouTube success.
“A gereg was the first diplomatic passport issued in Mongolia,” explains Gala. “That’s why we’ve named our album that: this is going to be our passport to the world. We want to go everywhere and play live and share our music.”
The Hu are not shy about their goals of world domination, voicing a mission statement of becoming “a huge in band in Mongolia for the rest of the world to see.” Their voyage to this aspiration is already well under way, not only through the realm of viral videos, but also a recent European invasion. The Hu’s summer tour ventured further than the campaign of Genghis Khan, hitting its apex with an invigorating performance at the UK’s famed Download Festival.
“It was a huge milestone!” Gala exclaims. “We can’t believe we made it here. We showed Europe what we can do and, next, we’re touring North America in the fall. We want to show all the world what we can do!”
Some cynics may dismiss The Hu’s unique instrumentation and viral online presence as hallmarks of a mere novelty act, but with such ambition coursing through their veins, they are clearly more than up for the task of maintaining their stratospheric momentum.
GEREG IS OUT SEPTEMBER 13 VIA ELEVEN SEVEN
“This album will be our passporT To The world”
GALA