Q&A Scene: Cody Hudock ~ CODY AND THE BLACKOUTS (USA)

Tell us about your new single/ album/ tour?

Time Stood Still is actually a song I wrote many years ago for different project, which took on an entirely new life when we started playing it as a band. A while back, we’d landed a good-paying gig where we had to play two full, unique sets of material, and with only one set of new songs under our belt, we got together and learned a whole bunch of my old songs to supplement the material we’d been crafting as a band. Although we stopped playing most of the old tunes after that gig, we just had such a good vibe playing Time Stood Still that when it came time to record the album, we decided to track it too, and see if it would make the cut. Despite my initial reservations about recording an older song, in many ways Time Stood Still ended up the hottest, and definitely most “pop” of all the tracks. Sort of the song that refused to die… And now here comes the pandemic, and suddenly all of humanity is transported into this incredibly significant moment in history, which is exactly what the lyrics of Time Stood Still tell the story of — these brief, but profoundly significant moments in time, where everything seems to change in a flash. I could’ve never foreseen all those years ago that the song would become so topically relevant at the exact time it was released.

What’s your favourite work at this point in time?

Whatever new song we’re working on. We’re sitting on a bunch of fresh material at this point, and it’s in the process of creation where you experience that true connection to the universe, or god — whatever you choose to call it. That’s the state I’d like to remain in all the time, if I could.

How would you describe your sound in food form and why?

When we were recording the album, we kept ordering food from Desano Pizza, which is this amazing, Neopolitan pizza shop in right by the studio in East Hollywood (it has a real brick oven from Naples, uses imported Italian ingredients, etc.). So, I think all those pizzas must have played a key role in shaping our sound ;) We’d like to think that our music is like an artisanal pizza – taking a relatively simple, ubiquitous food, and elevating it to transcendence using craft and the very best ingredients.

Tell us a quick, on the road or studio, anecdote.

We were about to start a month-long residency at a Los Angeles music venue in 2016, and a couple of days before, our drummer at the time tore his Achilles’ tendon. So, without any time to get together and rehearse, Brent, who had been playing bass, shifted over to drums, and Jordan, who had been playing guitar, shifted over to bass. Brent and Jordan are such crazy good musicians that the transition was totally seamless. Then, after we played two of the residency shows, we made the decision to part ways with our guitarist (that’s a separate, amusing story). So, Brent asked his buddy Will Weissman if he’d like to play bass just a couple of days before our third show (Jordan should shift back from bass to guitar). Will agreed and spent the whole day of the show learning the songs by himself, and then showed up that night at the gig that night and killed it… those shows were really the genesis of our coming together as a tight, cohesive band, and after all those last-minute shifts, that lineup we put together once Will came aboard stayed steady all the way through our recording the album.

What, or who, inspires you?

In the months leading up to recording the album, Brent and I were listening to a lot of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – in particular, their album, Damn The Torpedoes. Even though I don’t think our record outwardly sounds like a Tom Petty record, there was a powerful connection we felt at the time to Damn The Torpedoes, and we went into the studio with a desire to create something that captured a similar energy and honest rock spirit.

Which song do you wish you wrote?

If the Beach Boys’ God Only Knows can still befuddle me every time I sit down at the piano and try to parse out the chords, and at the same time be this incredibly infectious and catchy tune (not to mention, one of the finest pop vocal arrangements ever), they certainly hit on something very, very right. I would be amazed to watch a song like that flow through me.

What’s next for you?

Like everyone else, waiting for the COVID tide to turn so we can get out and start playing again. Perhaps we will also get in the studio sooner than later, as this long layoff has allowed for a considerable accumulation of new songs that we can’t wait to record.

What’s your scene?

The Eastside of Los Angeles has the very best indie music venues (East Hollywood, Silverlake, Echo Park) It’s where we came up playing, and where we’ll always feel at home.

Cody and The Blackouts (USA)
Time Stood Still

We’ve all had those moments.

That instant when realisation hits. The sudden knowledge destiny is unfolding right before our eyes. It could be meeting a potential soulmate, achieving a lifelong goal, watching your team salvage victory from almost certain defeat.

Moments when time stood still.

The new single from Los Angeles five-piece Cody & The Blackouts captures that lightning in a bottle – not just once, even twice, but thrice. Time Stood Still, penned by the band’s lead singer and songwriter Cody Hudock, references three momentous events in history: the birth of Gutenberg’s printing press, Freud’s breakthrough theories of psychoanalysis, and how the Beatles and their producer George Martin changed the game forever when it comes to writing and recording popular music. Hit, hit, hit.

If anyone could weave these wildly disparate subjects together in the context of a single pop song, it’s Cody Hudock. Born into a family of songwriters, Hudock learned the trade from his father and older brother. “I picked it up quite naturally, in much the same way the son of a baker might understand intrinsically how to make a good loaf of bread from their first go at it,” Hudock says.

After acquiring early performance experience playing keys in older brother Jordan’s popular LA indie bands, Coalinga and Marvelous Toy, Hudock launched his own songwriting vehicle, Cody The Band. The group released three EPs before Hudock embarked on his solo debut, 2016’s ambitiously titled The Great American Album. Released under his own name, it garnered some delirious word of mouth: “If there were an award for ‘greatest living songwriter you’ve never heard of’, then Cody Hudock’s sterling solo effort would place him firmly in the running,” gushed LA blog The 704.

What would become the core of The Blackouts played together on The Great American Album: Cody, his wife and vocalist Joanna Hudock, and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Bennett. Drummer Brent Stranathan and bassist Will Weissman were soon added to the fold, as the band began playing shows across Los Angeles. When Bennett moved to Atlanta a year later, guitarist Jimmy Holman proved a worthy replacement.

Recorded at Hollywood studio Elephant In The Room, produced by Ethan Kaufmann (Avril Lavigne, Wild Party) and Brent Stranathan, and mixed by longstanding Capitol Records engineer Chandler Harrod (John Mayer, Neil Young), Time Stood Still captures the unique studio chemistry of Cody & The Blackouts. That chemistry translates to the song’s accompanying performance video, shot in crisp black and white at The Room Downtown, LA, with Matt Soson as Director of Photography and edited in Australia by Emmy award-winning Jason “JJ” Jamieson. Time Stood Still, from the album Gold, released on Chance MUSIC. Hit, hit, hit.

Video