Culture
WOUB Culture speaks with Gala of Mongolian rock band The Hu
By: Nicholas Kobe
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOUB) – The Hu are a modern rock band from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. They specialize in combining modern rock and metal with traditional Mongolian music. They heavily feature throat singing and Mongolian instruments like the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle), tovshuur (Mongolian guitar), tumur khuur (jaw harp).
Their first LP, 2019’s The Gereg, debuted at #1 on the world album and new artist charts. In 2020, The Hu was featured on the soundtrack for the Star Wars video game, Jedi: Fallen Order. In 2020 and 2021, the band released two popular covers of Metallica songs: Sad But True and Through the Never. Last year the band released their sophomore album, Rumble of Thunder, which featured collaborators such as William DuVall of Alice in Chains and DL from Bad Wolves. They are currently on a co-headlining tour with Asking Alexandria with support from Bad Wolves and Zero 9:36.
WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe had the opportunity to speak to Gala, the band’s lead throat singer and morin khuur player, ahead of the group’s performance tonight in Cleveland.
Read a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below. The interview was conducted with the gracious assistance of a translator.
So if you had to describe it in one sentence, sort of elevator pitch style, how would you describe The Hu?
Gala:
The Hu is the contemporary new art form which will spread a positive energy to humankind.
Nicholas Kobe:
Awesome. I think that’s a pretty good introduction. So obviously The Hu has had a pretty meteoric rise, your debut record in 2019 being a smash hit. How have you guys adjusted to the rise in popularity and this newfound fame?
Gala:
We’re always very focused about our work, so no matter what kind of fame it brings us, we still are very focused. Of course we’re very appreciative of people recognizing us and recognizing our music. But we’re still very much dedicated to what we do.I feel indifferent because I’ve been working as a musician for the past 20 years. Our producer has also worked as a producer for the past 30, 40 years. So the change in popularity doesn’t mean as much, but spreading our music and having people listen to it and enjoy it means so much to us. On a personal level, it doesn’t really get into my head if that’s what you’re asking.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah, that makes sense. It’s good that you guys are still just dedicated to the craft of making music.
Gala:
Thank you.
Nicholas Kobe:
So logistically speaking, when you guys go on tour, obviously with your guys’ instruments, it’s a bit of a different set up. What kind of gear and stuff do you have to set up for a live performance in comparison to some of the more traditional rock bands that you see.
Gala:
As you already know The Hu mixes the traditional Mongolian music with the modern rock music components. So as you can understand, we all have the traditional music players and the throat singers and as well as live musicians, like a bass player, guitar player and the drummer. In total, we have eight people on stage every night. The horse head fiddle for an example, has only two strings and a very delicate bow. So we have to be very delicate in terms of carrying it from town to town. So we ask our crew to be gentle once they start a tour with us, but then eventually they catch on. I’d like to shout out to our great amazing team crew that helps us tour around the world without any problem. They have the utmost respect, respect to our traditional instruments as well as any other instruments we carry all the way from Mongolia.
Nicholas Kobe:
That’s awesome. You mentioned that you have eight people on stage at any given time. How do you guys kind of manage that?
Gala:
Well, I can see how eight seems to be a ginormous number to anyone, but we have known each other since childhood because we’re all musicians and we went to a music conservatory, most of us, and we’ve been friends even before that as well. So when we are on the tour, we look after each other like we’re brothers. We are very honest with each other when things go bad, but we also compliment each other’s music in a way when we’re on the stage. If we see something is missing, we’ll add on and go back and forth. We have a common principle and also a common goal to move forward, that is to spread our music around the world and the history of the Mongolians. We keep on doing what we do because we all have the same goal, all eight of us.
Nicholas Kobe:
That’s good to hear. You mentioned the Mongolian history and Mongolian culture that you want to spread. What’s an aspect of Mongolian culture that you have not yet been able to incorporate into your visuals or your music that you would like to in the future?
Gala:
Mongolia has an amazing ancient history, and we have so many aspects we haven’t talked about quite yet. As for our music, the first album The Gereg was about the first diplomatic passport and the Silk Road and the people characteristic of the people. We were only immediately talking about the 13th century when we debuted.We also love to talk about the history, in order for the world to remember and recognize the culture and the history as well. The first empire that we know of is the Nic Empire. Talking about its characteristics, how we lived and what kind of traditional values it had is also a very interesting topic. We are hoping to incorporate that in our future songs and new music.
Nicholas Kobe:
Awesome. Going on to kind of the visuals of everything, what inspired the designs that are on all of your instruments?
Gala:
I’d like to think that The Hu is modernizing the Mongolian music culture. So it’s all about modernizing and making it accessible and listenable to the modern crowd. What we did on our traditional instruments is that we kept the body. So the way it sounds, the melody, all of that, is the traditional instrument, but the design itself has been modernized more into a rock style. As far as the Mongol guitar and the Horsehead fiddle, it was really focused on making it a modern rock instrument as well. As far as the music goes, whenever we speak about our tradition and the history, we also make it modernized so that people usually have a fresh perspective on things.
Nicholas Kobe:
So you guys have done some work outside of your albums. You’ve done some crossover work with the Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor video games for Star Wars. What’s your history with Star Wars and what was it like when you were contacted and in the process of making those songs?
Gala:
All of us have been Star Wars fans ever since we were little boys. We’ve always loved the idea of the game and the whole franchise. For example, when I was a little boy, I used to have this wooden stick that was shaped round and I kept it in my house because it looked like a lightsaber. That’s how much we respect the franchise and the whole history behind it. When they first contacted us, it was just a simply mind blowing moment because we have so much respect for the whole team and the whole franchise and the whole history of it.So in total we produced and we performed. The song was played right when the game started. So it was such a pleasure and such a mind-blowing moment when you hear your song that you have performed in your favorite game in the world. Star Wars has its own language, as you already know. The Star Wars team asked us to come up with a name because we can’t bring our earthly name to the Star Wars franchise. So we came up with the name The Agasar. It means “far and beyond” in the ancient Mongolian language. I’m very excited to hear all of our music, all four songs in the game. I’m very excited to be playing the whole game as well because the second one just came out, I believe third and fourth are coming as well.
Nicholas Kobe:
It’s pretty incredible that you guys are permanently enshrined in Star Wars canon.
Gala:
Thank you.
Nicholas Kobe:
So when you guys go out and play shows that you’re not headlining, when you’re opening up for other bands or you’re on a festival bill or whatever, how have crowds reacted to what you guys do considering it’s different than a traditional rock band?
Gala:
So whenever we go to go play or perform for a big crowd they’ve never heard us before, obviously there’s initial shock, right? They’re confused because it’s not something they hear every day. Then when we start throat singing, they’re even more shocked. The first song goes and we see from the stage that their initial reaction changes so much and they get into it after the second song. Then they start chanting our names after we play our second song. So we play almost every day. We played to a different crowd when we were touring with Five Finger Death Punch in Megadeth. That reaction still was the same. The people will be shocked by what they’re hearing, but then after that they will be chanting our name and clapping hard. It’s a really nice feeling to really conquer that stage.
Nicholas Kobe:
Considering your mission being spreading Mongolian culture and history do you feel like you’ve accomplished that whenever you guys have taken a stage or you convinced an audience that has never heard you before to become fans?
Gala:
Oh yes, absolutely and as Mongolians have a belief that whenever the horse head fiddle and the Mongolian guitar gets played, the bad energy goes away. So we firmly believe that whenever we play our music, there’s some really positive and uplifting energy in our music. We have that connection with them instantly as soon as we start playing. We are singing in a different language, but somehow the fans, whenever we play, they just get it because they feel that spirit within.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah, it transcends the boundaries of language.
Gala:
Music is the universal language and it can transcend from mind to mind and heart to heart. We don’t even have to understand each other in a conversation, but the music just carries that message for you.
Nicholas Kobe:
Very well said.
Gala:
The main goal that we have as musicians is to bring amazing music that could bring an uplifting energy that can help you get through life if you’re suffering and be happy. Talking through our music is what we can do and bringing them the joy of music is our main goal. Mongolian culture is a tool that we use to represent what we are really trying to do, right? Spread our music all around the world to bring joy to people’s ears and people’s minds. Mongolian culture has rich components, so it’s an amazing tool to use to spread it all across the universe.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. One more question before we wrap up. What is next for The Hu? What’s your vision for the future?
Gala:
Well, our biggest goal is to, of course, spread the genre that we brought out to the world and to really permanently make it stay, right? We are working towards that same goal, but in a shorter version. We are also working on our next single as well as the next album. Currently we’re working on that while we’re on the road.