The winter storm, for which constant warnings have been broadcast since Thursday night, has finally hit Indianapolis. Twelve hours late and packing a pathetic punch that hardly even warranted a warning, but it’s here nonetheless. I, for one, have no intentions of going out into the storm. Just looking at the white sheet that’s blanketing the street fills me with a rabid sense of repulsion. Instead, I drop the blinds, draw my curtains—the cats are upset that their window access has been cut off, but they will learn to get by somehow—and take to my recliner to listen to some albums. The occasion calls for something mellow, something easy on the mind that you can close your eyes and disappear into but that still has enough bite to keep you paying close attention. Something like Hathaway’s debut EP, “What’s It To You?”
Hathaway dropped “What’s It To You?” back in April. Since then, they have been touring around my home turf, the one and only Crossroads State, promoting it to the masses, which is what brought about a strange moment of deja vu when I first listened to the EP. Upon my initial listen, I recognized the songs, and I don’t mean they sounded like imitations of other more familiar tunes; I mean, I had heard some of these songs before. That’s when I realized for certain I had heard “What’s It To You?” before; I had heard it live. I’m not sure where I saw them, although after looking at their old tour dates, I’m fairly confident it was at the Healer, where my nights always end in a blackout, but the memory of watching them play was clear as day. Now, with a personal interest, I listened to the rest of the record, and by the end, I found myself stalking their website trying to find another show to go to.
“What’s It To You?” is quintessential indie rock. It’s heavily influenced by the garage rock revival of the 2000s, with a hit of late 80s post-punk for flavor. It’s characterized by effect-laden guitars, driving beats, and echoing vocals. It has the attitude of a late 90s skate-punk album but the melodic instrumentals of the specific brand of indie rock that is constantly playing in every cafe in every corner of the known universe. It blends several types of alternative music into a sound that is uniquely theirs but still familiar. It’s something you’ve never heard before, unless you also have a habit of getting a little too loose at the Healer, but it evokes a feeling of nostalgia anyway. It makes “What’s It To You?” nearly impossible to set down.
The weird thing about this niche of music is that it just refuses to stay dead. Like some kind of malicious cosmic entity in a horror novel, it rises from its crypt every few years for another moment in the sun, only to vanish from public consciousness overnight. This has created a weird image for indie-"whatever you want to call it" music. It’s somehow viewed as both modern and antiquated, and fans expect bands to be able to produce records that satisfy both those views. Don’t stray too far from the greats but have your own sound. The same but different. Easy, right? Well, Hathaway makes it seem that way. “What’s It To You?” sounds wildly similar to albums that blew out the speakers of my 01 Sunfire as I raced around the backroads of Indiana, thinking 2017 would last forever. At the same time, I never felt like I knew where the album was going. It’s inventive without doing anything that could isolate old heads, it’s inspired but not imitating, it’s the same but different. Easy, right?
At just six tracks long and a total runtime of nineteen minutes, there’s no excuse for skipping this one. Give it a try and see why Hathaway is one of the only acts that could lure me back to the Healer. You’ll want to get on it quick, too. My inside sources have warned me that we’re going to be getting a full-length album come February 26th of next year. Three short months to fall in love with “What’s It To You?” before Hathaway lays eleven more tracks on us; not nearly enough time. Better get to it then; put it on and play it loud. It's fantastic for drowning out the sound of the howling wind outside. I’ll leave you with a message direct from Hathaway to you: What’s it to you?
