Jorge Arana Trio’s New EP ‘Hyena’ is Full of Snarling Art Rock [Premiere]

If you’re feeling a little out of tune today, which is likely if you’re confined to your home, then we’ll get you back on the right track with the new EP from Jorge Arana Trio. The band is about to release their new album, Hyena, consisting of five new tracks of some of the rawest, most finely crafted art-rock you’ll likely hear in 2020. There is such spontaneity in the songs that you’ll think they’re coming up with these sounds right on the spot, but behind all the impulsiveness lives a well planned musical explosion of tastes and sounds. Hyena is a turn towards more of a jazz/punk sound for the trio, defined by its unconventional riffs and solos, quick shifting rhythms, and consistent inconsistency. Dare we say, it’ll be music to your ears.

Although a highly seasoned veteran of the punk and garage scenes, Hyena was an entirely new experience for guitarist and singer Jorge Arana. Arana finally decided to shift the band in a whole other direction, from an all-instrumental act to now a symphony of distorted sounds and vocals.

Commenting on the creation process behind Hyena, Arana explained what his mindset was while seeing the project through. “This EP was a necessary though not always enjoyable project for me to complete. It reflects where my mind was at at the time when I wrote it, not a great state. Musically, I’d been very inspired by the punk acts I’ve been seeing and playing with at DIY shows, but in my own way wanting it to go further musically. It’s me trying to reconcile the influence and love of bands like the Cure and Birthday Party and composers like Dimitry Shostakovich and Schoenberg, among many other things.”

Originally from Mexico, Arana moved to Kansas City where he has become an influential presence among the city’s underground music scene. Before forming his current trio, Arana gained experience touring in noise rock band Pixel Panda. He’s also played in the past with acts such as Dead Rider, Retox, Marnie Stern, Bent Knee. Now as the leader of his own band, rounded out by drummer Mark Lomas and bassist Jason Nash, Arana has finally arrived exactly where he needs to be, not only with his own band, but his own music. Hyena marks a whole new direction for Arana and there’s no telling where he’ll wind up next musically.

We took some time to speak to Arana to get some more from him on Hyena and whether he thinks he’ll ever want to record a more polished, traditional studio album.

Listening through to your EP, I loved the chugging, driving, kind of out-of-tune guitar sound that was a common aspect throughout most of the five songs. How did you develop this type of guitar sound?

Jorge Arana: “The tone came out of the playing. I was always attracted to non-traditional chords, complex or not, and stabbing like rhythms. So things had to be fairly bright tone-wise and it ruled out much distortion so the chords could come through and not become a wash.”

What’s cool about this guitar sound is it has a kind of perfectly imperfect sound to it. In other words, what’s so fitting about it is that it’s so in your face and unpretentious. Who are some of the bands you love who you perhaps tried to emulate with this kind of sound?

“Zazen Boys were a big eye opener for me when Himitsu Girl’s Top Secret came out and subsequent albums. Definitely influenced by Andy Gill, first by proxy with bands like ATDI and Blood Brothers, later getting more into Gang of Four proper. Blonde Redhead, weirdo noisy groups like Arab on Radar and Antioch Arrow. But equally important is Luiz Bonfa with his widely spaced chords and extended tonality.”

Artwork for ‘Hyena’ by Jorge Arana Trio

How did you record and produce Hyena? My guess would be that it was a fairly quick recording and production process so I’m curious to hear how it actually went.

“We recorded at our practice space (my house). For this EP, we decided to do it ourselves this go because I felt I could capture the vibe more accurately. Got the base of it recorded fairly quick. The vocals were trickier than I thought they’d be, perhaps because of my inexperience. Mixing it was a little difficult, mainly because I’m a fan on clarity and one must balance vibe vs. clarity.”

I checked out some of your 2016 record, Mammoth, which was also quite impressive. What did you do with Hyena to differentiate it from Mammoth and your other previous releases?

“With Mammoth, I was trying to play with sparse, stretched out ideas, focusing on the tamber of the instruments and layers as much as anything else, making these murky clusters of sound sometimes and other times these pretty tones with a lot of brilliance. With Hyena, the songs are more rooted in punk, more direct, riffs are fairly simple but chromatic and dissonant, every solo is ugly and non-tonal, and I’m singing on several tracks which is new too.”

I think this kind of rough, garage style is very fitting for the band, but do you feel like you’ll ever try to do a more polished, produced album or EP?

“Hard to say, depends on the project. It’s always tricky finding the right way to present a set of songs. With songs that feature a good bit of dissonance, no matter what you do it’ll always be a bit grotesque. But I do think at one point we’ll eventually do something more pop and produced, then swing back to the chaos, or perhaps both at the same time would be interesting.”