Loving HELLA by Seb Tull

The first entry in the series of Hella tributes is from Seb Tull, hailing from Australia. He is currently in a band called Control and is a massive fan of Hella and all related projects.

"Hold Your Horse Is was the world’s launch pad into the world of Zach Hill and Spencer Seim. I heard these guys through a friend, who knew I am a huge Lightning Bolt fan and sent me the live Biblical Violence video. It completely blew my mind and I soon picked up this album. It hooked and dragged me in, in a way that only the best do.

Since then I’ve researched, purchased, attended shows and been addicted to these guys in all their many forms/projects ever since. To me it’s not just Hella, Zach and Spencer have a whole dimension beyond this band which is filtered more directly into what we all know and love as Hella.

This album is extremely important in showing what they are capable of and why you should give them the time to appreciate them. Hella have redeveloped, redesigned and reformulated their work ever since, even Tripper which was stripped back doesn’t quite have the same intensity, sincerity and beauty of this album. This will always be Hella’s finest work to me but that doesn’t mean to say that any of their other work less special. Hold Your Horse Is, is their starting point and what happened since has been a twisting and schisming, intriguing and delightful path.

Zach in particular (as I’m a drummer) really speaks to me, not only through his natural playing exuberance but through his ideals and personality. Since reading interviews about him, I feel a kindred spirit in his unrelenting desire to serve his musical passion and soul, to serve his music and transcend into his instrument.

He truly has inspired me when I was losing faith in good music. I owe a lot to him for inspiring me to really believe that – shit! I can do what I feel is right in music, I can truly express myself and not question it or given reason to it. This for me represents a real artist and one explained by in Wassily Kandinsky’s “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”.

But back more on topic! this album will forever be important to me and many others who see its beauty. To me it’s as important as Nevermind by Nirvana, which got to me when I was very young and got me into music.

The truly sincere, expressionistic exuberance of feeling in this album, really catches me and drags me in. It will forever be a major influence on my personality, work ethic and artistic outlook."