Deeper Digs: The HU
It’s a Rock N Roll Archaeological Dig as Christian sits down with the hot new band out of the Mongolian Steppes, The HU!
Meeting just a few minutes before their Oakland California show in December, the four primary members, who play the traditional instruments and perform the incredible throat singing, Gala, Temka, Jaya and Enkush tell us all about Hunnu culture and how it is infused in all their music, what they like about touring the States and how they are being received in the Western world. Conducted with their translator Tuga backstage at the New Parish.
The HU is a band from Mongolia that blends heavy metal and traditional Mongolian throat singing. Their first two videos (“Yuve Yuve Yu” and “Wolf Totem”) immediately went viral garnering the band over 30 million views. The explosive reaction to The HU resulted in a number of features about the band in international media such as NPR, ET India Times, Playboy Mexico, Jack Canal+Fr, Hong Kong 01, DW News Germany and others.
If you are a video gamer or Star Wars fan and played the recent Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order game, you would hear a song early on called "Black Thunder" and it's by The HU. The fact that their music is featured in a Star Wars video game is huge - no other real-world music has ever existed in the universe. And since Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is confirmed Star Wars canon, that means that The HU rock band is now also Star Wars canon.
The band’s name The HU, is the Mongolian root word for human being. They call their style “Hunnu Rock”…inspired by the Hunnu, an ancient Mongolian empire, known as The Huns in western culture. Some of the band’s lyrics include old Mongolian war cries and poetry.
Founded in 2016 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia by their producer Dashka, along with the members Gala, Jaya, Temka, and Enkush. The HU combines Rock Music with traditional Mongolian instrumentation like the Morin Khuur (horsehead fiddle), Tovshuur (Mongolian guitar), Tumur Khuur (jaw harp), guttural throating singing and the bombastic bass and drums of rock. All four members have earned Bachelor’s or higher degrees in music and have several years of touring experience throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Since the formation of the band, they’ve been working on their first album, The Gereg, out now. The word "Gereg" was used as the first Diplomatic “Passport” by the Mongol empire during the time of Genghis Khan.
The album contains nine songs including viral hits “Yuve Yuve Yu” and “Wolf Totem”, and was released on September 13, 2019 via Eleven Seven Music.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/artist/0b2B3PwcYzQAhuJacmcYgc