Q&A: Emo-Folk Duo hey, nothing Rips Their Heart Out and Puts It Back In With Growing Pains Track “Maine”
A DUO ROOTED IN FRIENDSHIP AND RAW HONESTY — Athens, Georgia’s hey, nothing is captivating audiences across all platforms with their folk- and emo- inspired tracks “The Sink” and “Maine.”
The viral, self-produced teenagers met in elementary school and now have the coordinates of the park where they first created music together tattooed on their bodies, reminding them of their origin as their careers begin to form. Their purposefully unrefined sound and impressively real lyricism explores themes of growing pains and self-regard, earning them a cult online following with over 5M likes on TikTok alone.
Fresh off the success of “The Sink,” which propelled them into the spotlight, hey, nothing’s latest single dives into the bittersweet journey of leaving the place you grew up for the betterment of yourself. The group describes the message behind “Maine” as “an apology to those hurt by your distance but an acknowledgement of the pain you experience without it.”
Rough at the edges, the song is brutally honest and packed with experience — something that couldn’t be created from imagination alone. With lyrics like “I can’t wait not to go home, so far away from everything I know,” Tyler Mabry and Harlow Phillips use their pain to create a safe haven for themselves and everyone who’s felt the crippling guilt of leaving home and feeling better off because of it.
In an era of social media and striving for perfection, this duo is pushing against expectations with their vulnerability. That’s what makes hey, nothing special — along with their ability to produce a pre-chorus that will be stuck in your head for days. With a sold out show in New York and other cities to come, the group is leaving everything on stage and putting a face to the dedicated online community.
Read below as the duo opens up about their bond as friends and musical partners, the writing process behind “Maine,” first concerts, and more, as they finish each other’s sentences throughout.
LUNA: “Maine” has over a million streams on Spotify alone — how does this kind of reception make you feel?
PHILLIPS: It means the world to us that people are listening.
MABRY: It's really awesome. I think this is the most a song of ours has done in this amount of time. We've been doing music for as long as you can remember, and this is the first time … this could actually be doable as a job or as a career.
LUNA: You both are 19 now — when did you start doing music?
MABRY: The first time we met, we were playing music together. We did middle school talent shows and stuff. Then I had hey, nothing as a solo project when I was 14 or 15 but it couldn’t stay that way — we were making bangers together. In 2021, Harlow formally joined the band and we started putting out music.
LUNA: How did you guys meet?
MABRY: We had a bunch of classes together in school. I knew Harlow sang and I was alright at the instruments, so we kind of joined forces. The first time we met, we went to a park where we grew up and just played ukulele and sang.
PHILLIPS: And now we have those coordinates tattooed on our bodies.
MABRY: Music definitely brought us together — it’s the best thing for bonding two people together. We’ve become super close friends outside of music, too.
LUNA: Did it take time to get to this point of vulnerability as artists, or does it come naturally?
PHILLIPS: We definitely were not writing vulnerable stuff to begin with. It took a while to get comfortable with ripping out your heart and stomping on it then putting it back in.
MABRY: And then taking a video of that and posting it online (laughs). For me, I grew up listening to emotional, emo music so I’ve always been drawn to make that music.
LUNA: What does your writing process look like?
PHILLIPS: We used to write separately but “Maine” and “The Sink” are the first couple songs that we’ve written formally, in a room together.
MABRY: We sat down in a room and talked about every single lyric and how it made us feel. All the songs we’re writing together now are so much better because we’re very critical of ourselves and each other. It pushes us to be better and more intentional.
LUNA: Besides creating a career in music, what drives you to release this type of raw music?
PHILLIPS: We had both grown up listening to music that really formed us so we know how important it can be to feel like you relate. We would be doing ourselves and everyone who loves our songs a disservice to keep it to ourselves.
MABRY: “Maine” is one of the most emotional and vulnerable songs we have, and when we wrote it we were crying in the writing session. It was making us really feel things, so we knew how important the song was to us. That's kind of why it's been held for a year. We were waiting till it had its moment for people to actually hear it and connect with it. We didn't want to just put that big of a piece of us out there and then not be felt by anyone. That would almost make us feel a little invalid for having those feelings, I guess.
PHILLIPS: We definitely couldn’t have ever imagined how big it was going to be.
LUNA: Hey, nothing has gone viral online quite a few times now. How did it feel when you first started getting this type of traction?
MABRY: It didn’t feel real, and I think that’s because you can’t see the actual people who are interacting with it but it’s super gratifying.
PHILLIPS: It’s so weird to be a teenager on the internet and then all of a sudden you’re the internet now. You’re the one that they’re looking at. We’ve just had to figure out how to compartmentalize that stuff in our brains (laughs).
LUNA: Is there a certain headspace you try to get into when you’re on stage, or does it sort of come naturally with live performance?
MABRY: We talk about this a lot (laughs). We usually almost blacked out when we get on stage.
PHILLIPS: It's definitely like a different part of your brain that’s on.
MABRY: 100%. We get nervous before — we’re shaking and jumping around — but once we’re on, there’s a switch.
PHILLIPS: It’s just like a more exaggerated version of ourselves. It’s definitely us.
MABRY: It’s us if you take out all of the negative anxieties in our lives. Being on stage is like us being put in a room and being told there’s absolutely nothing to worry about besides the moment we’re living in. And then you get off stage and you’re like, “I need chicken tenders and a warm pillow.”
PHILLIPS: Maybe a good ranch? A good ranch will really take you home.
LUNA: Speaking of shows, who was the first artist that you saw in concert, and who did you see last?
PHILLIPS: The first concert I ever went to was Billie Eilish. It was $20.
MABRY: I went to see Remo Drive at The Masquerade for my first show. And we went to see our friends, lighthearted, at The Georgia Theater in Athens.
PHILLIPS: They put on a great show. We also went to a Briston Maroney show recently — it’s a crazy show.
LUNA: Aside from the very exciting new releases, what else are you looking forward to this year?
MABRY: We’re going to be on the road a lot, so I’m really excited to meet people who are a part of the numbers on social media. And hopefully write another album.
PHILLIPS: It’s a huge year for us — we’re living our dream. It’s the first year that we’re really living off of music as a career.
