Bio / About the album
-by Erin Lyndal Martin
“I aspire to being madly authentic,” singer-songwriter David Hobbes says. On his forthcoming debut album Searching for a Home, his songwriting is by turns tender and clever, often within the same song. There’s diversity in the instrumentation and musical styles, but never for ornamentation’s sake alone.
The album's origins are a last-minute decision to go to a music conference. Hobbes caught the end of the final songwriting session being led by producer Rachel Efron. Over time, they developed his songs until an album came into view. He shares co-writing credits with her because her input was vital.
At times, Hobbes resisted the idea of an album. “It doesn’t really make sense in an age of streaming services. Frankly, there’s times I’m not even sure a song makes sense. The 6 most ineffective words in the English language might be, ‘I wrote a song about that,” he quips drily. As if by magic (well, Audible algorithms), Hobbes found himself listening to Jeff Tweedy’s How to Write One Song while driving through Idaho. As Tweedy’s infectious enthusiasm for the importance of song restored his own faith in songwriting, Hobbes began writing the title track, “Searching for a Home.”
A distinct acoustic guitar rhythm propels the song forward with the urgency of a long drive. Meanwhile, he observes the world around him with wit and specific imagery. “In an on-the-way café, a friendly man, a giant flag, and a crucifix / A girl collapses on the floor / I wonder if she also had the tuna fish,” he sings before circling back to his search for a place to belong.
“First and foremost, I see myself as a storyteller. Stories with a beginning, middle, and end. I put a lot of effort into this. I wish I could write impressionistically but it’s just not me.” Never mistake his linear song structures for monotony or easy narratives. “If I’m going to do anything provocative, it will be with the lyrics but not the music. I want the music to be satisfying and full of variety, and I think we have achieved this here. I don’t think you will be bored,” Hobbes surmises.
It’s true. In addition to the jangly guitar rhythms that populate his songs, electric guitar solos, pianos, horns, strings, backing vocals from Efron and AJ Hicks, and the occasional synths, Hobbes’ versatile voice—think Ben Folds—is produced just enough to capture its nuances.
The variety also comes from the different lyrical themes of the songs, hitting the sweet spot between the personal and the universal. He wrote “Lulu Left Town” for the familiar of a friend moving away. Initially feeling sad, he turned the song into a celebration of friendship’s ability to transcend geography. Horns reaffirm the lyrics’ optimism, in which he celebrates Lulu’s personality. “Lulu will take her whiskey neat/ Jim Beam’s just fine - she likes it cheap” fit perfectly alongside Lulu, who dyes her blond hair’s roots and gives away her lotto winnings.
Another upbeat song, “We Are Wild,” was borne of an upbeat mission: Hobbes wanted to motivate his girlfriend while she learned the mandolin. “It was a tongue-in-cheek song about us ditching a normal life and heading out on the road to play music. It failed in its purpose to be a mandolin teaching aid, as my girlfriend promptly gave that up,” he remembers. At Efron’s direction, the song underwent many rewrites for the next two years until it came together in that mysterious way that songs sometimes do.
Songs are also prone to fooling their writers. When Hobbes wrote “When You Need a Hand,” one New Year’s Day, he thought he was writing it for his new son. In the song’s bridge, he makes a promise. “I wanted the bridge to be the one promise I was going to make to him, even though I don’t believe in making promises and am highly skeptical of any made to me,” Hobbes says. By the time he finished the song, he realized the song wasn’t for his son so much as a reminder to himself how he wanted to be as a father.
Which circles back to being madly authentic. In the stories of his songs, you can hear David Hobbes’ own evolution as a songwriter and a human being. He doesn’t pretend he had the answers all along. Even when he dips into escapist fantasies like “We Are Wild,” the lyrics serve to further a real-world situation. In these ten songs, it’s apparent that Hobbes doesn’t just aspire to authenticity so much as he can’t escape it.
The album’s first singles, “Measure of Degree” and "Fields of Blue," are streaming everywhere now.