Q&A: The Hails Bring Their Tour to Orlando, FL
BRINGING THEIR COVID BABIES ON TOUR — The Hails has hit the road and have brought some pre-COVID friends with them. The “friends” in question: their three latest singles, which have been in production since the beginning of the pandemic. For their 16-run tour, the band, composed of Robbie Kingsley, Franco Solari, Dylan McCue, Andre Escobar, and Zach Levy, has begun playing the finalized versions of “Exonerate,” “Breathless,” and “Fiona” live on stage.
The Florida-native band will be traveling across the United States to support three different crowd-pleasing indie bands: The Happy Fits, The Beaches, and the moss, while headlining three of their own shows in Oklahoma City, OK, Kansas City, MO, and Tallahassee, FL.
Luna went backstage with the boys in Orlando, FL to chat about what it’s like to be back in action. Read on below to hear about touring in support of The Happy Fits, leaving their home state of Florida, and their upcoming “big project.”
LUNA: How does it feel playing in your home state?
KINGSLEY: It feels great. These are, like, the biggest shows we've done in Florida. And our headlines have always been really cool, but I think it's cool supporting someone from out of state and getting to show what the Florida local bands and venues are like, so I hope we represent it well.
LUNA: What are your expectations for the Florida portion of the tour?
SOLARI: My expectations are high, honestly. I would think there's a level of uncertainty in places we haven't been in… regions that we haven't really touched. I think we'll get a lot of that next month too. So this to me is like it's homecourt. It should be behind us, and I feel good that it will be.
LUNA: Being from Florida, what are your expectations for the out-of-state shows?
MCCUE: It's always interesting coming from Miami because Miami is so different, even from the rest of Florida. It's such a different scene from really anywhere else, the country that I've seen, so it feels like everywhere we go it's kind of a culture shock. But yeah, I mean, I'm particularly excited about Texas. I've got a lot of friends out there. In Chicago, there's some great music students out there, where we’ll be playing for the first time. So yeah, it's places like that that are long overdue for us.
Photo courtesy of Grayson Keglovic
LUNA: What city are you most excited to play in?
KINGSLEY: I’m oddly excited to play Oklahoma City. I had a weird dream/vision about us playing in Oklahoma City. We're staying in a hotel and I just have this snapshot in my head of us sitting at a hotel bar waiting to play our show, which makes no sense because I don't really know that we'll be in a hotel. I'm kind of excited for that because of that vision. It's about to come to fruition.
SOLARI: That was also my answer, [Oklahoma City] … In the past few days, someone randomly stopped me in public saying how excited they were about Oklahoma City specifically. It was in California, so kind of a long way away. I think as I was texting these guys about it Robbie said something that was bigger than me. Not in a self-aggrandizing way, but I think that we discount ourselves. That region has places that, honestly… we don't think about. We're so focused on where our lives happen and the places we go that there are all these people across the country that have been impacted by our music and identity. That guy was telling me how he found “Younger” and then all of his boys dug into our entire discography and became obsessed with it. So it's like, wow, there's just a reach that you forget.
ESCOBAR: Playing Texas. It's gonna be interesting getting out there. We're used to Florida, I think. I mean, the shows and the reception we've been getting from everybody are pretty cool. Like, just over 1,000 people in these types of venues alone.
LUNA: From the previous two shows, what has been your favorite memory so far?
KINGSLEY: Well, Atlanta. Atlanta was by far the biggest show we've ever played, and that was just a sight to see. Like, I really couldn't believe my eyes. It's the dream. We just always kind of dream about that — it’s the goal. It's really nice opening for The Happy Fits and for us to have that opportunity to get that taste and now we can go chase it ourselves. It felt like it was long overdue.
MCCUE: Atlanta was the first time we've been nervous. I know … I was. It felt appropriate … it was like, “Wait, yeah, we deserve this,” but it's like, holy shit. “Holy shit, we're actually doing this kind of crap.”
ESCOBAR: Nashville. I really love Nashville and the people. The response we got afterwards… We went to the merch table and a line formed, and it was the first time I ever saw a line form to come and talk to us one-on-one and to tell us that we’re their new favorite band or we were their favorite band. It was really cool experiencing that firsthand. That's a dream to influence somebody else in that way. The way I've always been influenced by my favorite bands and the way I am influenced.
LUNA: For your first four shows, you’re supporting The Happy Fits and introducing your band to an entirely new audience. Describe the experience you’ve gone through playing for a new fanbase.
KINGSLEY: Very accepting. Honestly, they're a really, really great and caring fanbase. Every single song has been a really great applause. They love the moments that we've constructed in our set and they've been really receptive. They're there early. That's the big thing, that they're there early. Like, all of the shows have been packed from the get-go. They’re just good people to be in front of so that's honestly probably the coolest part of the tour.
MCCUE: In Miami, it's a sort of a stereotype that if you're not 30 minutes late then you're really early. Like, everybody's just running behind in Miami and that goes for concerts. I've been to a few concerts where the opener has played in front of half or a quarter of the people that the headliner plays in front of so I kind of had that expectation going into this tour. I've been very surprised and very wrong on that front, which has been awesome.
LUNA: You guys have released three singles this year. Are these singles teasers for something new? If so, what comes next?
KINGSLEY: For the record, I’m shaking my head “yes.” There’s a big, big project on the way. A debut thing of sorts.
LUNA: Why did you choose these three singles to set the precedent for this “upcoming thing”?
KINGSLEY: They've been some songs that we've been holding on to for a long time. They all were born, actually, probably pre-COVID, so we've had the chance to play some of them live, and I don't know, we never really got the production right. Sometime around last year, we dug back into them because we knew they're strong demos and “Exonerate” was something that we felt could kind of ease us into the new era, and “Breathless” was kind of like, “Let's hit the gas.” And “Fiona” is like, “We’re back.”
**Amidst roars from the crowd and instrumental breaks, lead singer Robbie Kingsley announced the upcoming release of their debut album, to be released later this year.
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