His Name Is Alive has been described at various phases of their career as beautiful, mystifying, and "the band that gave Tom Cruise a nervous breakdown!!" What began as lo-fi folk [acoustic guitar + loops + girl] eventually went on to sell 100,000 records with famed British label 4AD. Originally working closely with 4AD founder IVO Watts-Russell [This Mortal Coil] each new HNIA album set a new precedent in ethereal experimentation, while songs like “Are We Still Married” [1991] and “This World Is Not My Home” [1995] defined and described heartbreak and real sadness. Collaborations with legendary filmmakers The Brothers Quay resulted in two truly amazing installments in the Stille Nacht series [1991-92] showing up at film festivals and on MTV! Alternative Press would later include 1994's Mouth By Mouth as one of the top 100 albums of the decade.

Stars On ESP was the group's fourth album and included fully realized dub tracks and a note for note recreation of the Beach Boys Good Vibrations. HNIA's appearance in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire film brought the band mainstream recognition and helped boost sales of the soundtrack album way past platinum! The group further mutated with releases like Fort Lake [1998] and Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth [2000], which examined freaked out sounds, drone, classic rock, R&B, blues, and jazz. No one can ever guess what direction this group would explore next!

Being a Michigan-based band signed to a UK label for 13 years, HNIA parted ways with 4AD in 2002, and HNIA mainstay Warn Defever opened a recording studio in Detroit after years of recording in a basement, a bedroom, and a garage.

Warn has spent the last two years recording and remixing other like-minded artists such as Blanche, Tamion12inch, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Nomo, Low, The Vonbondies, IDA, Yoko Ono and recent demos for Iggy And the Stooges.

DETROLA

His Name Is Alive's Detrola is a benchmark album by a band that is constantly redefining itself and its sonic standards. Detrola is louder, stranger, sexier, weirder, more complicated, more suggestive, and even more violent than could be expected from HNIA. Detrola is HNIA making peace with its past. The album alternates between frenetic, vulgar, coolly analytic, and meditational. This collection of summer songs and late night confessions are filled with unexpected noises and has a critical eye fixated on clouds, unicorns, creepy-crawls, harps, drownings, and saxophones. HNIA songs are filled with sweet dreams and nightmarish visions lined with references to pop culture history, art, and politics.

Strikingly diverse in sound, texture, and genre these 11 songs concisely reprise the full range of sonic quality and stylistic jumps found within the entire HNIA catalog! “Get Your Curse On” has a loose, earthy feel sort of like Carole King finally getting around to that sequel to Tapestry, although singer Andy FM may sound more like a healthy Karen Carpenter. While “In My Dreams,” with its synth-pop beeps and catchy chorus, has some serious stanzas that carry a heavier message than would appear. More intimate tracks like “Your Bones” reclaim HNIA's dream pop roots and escort the listener to scary places where “Angels cost a little more”, “We don't tell no one,” and “Not everyone gets a warning.”

FOR FANS OF:

Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Rufus Wainwright, Carol King, 4AD, Vanity Six, Neil Young, the Carpenters, Gwendolyn Brooks, Drexciya, Yohji Yamamoto, Pharoah Sanders, twin sisters, singer-songwriter syndrome, Detroit Dance parties, and old His Name is Alive

SILVER MOUNTAIN

Detrola is first release on new label Silver Mountain Media Group / Sony BMG Upcoming releases include: Field Recordings Of A Real, Nomo, Ida, Saturday Looks Good To Me, HNIA Live At The Five Hundred Year Old Buddhist Temple In Osaka and A Tribute to Marion Brown.

PAST PRESS HIGHLIGHTS

“HNIA, whose trademark has been mixing paradise with purgatory, have made an odd little Eden, thats both peaceful and disorienting.” - SPIN

“Defever, deranged svengali, skulks behind the twin singers underpinning the lunacy around him with a stream of motown melodies” - NME

“...Some of the sexiest most varied makeout music” - Alternative Press

“Stunning intimate electronica.” - MOJO

“This could be the best late night record ever made, a timeless, funky, soulful classic.” - Guardian

“Last Night is at once melancholy, serene and assured” - Pitchfork Media

“His Name Is Alive is one of the most remarkable creations of the pop underground...it will stand the test of time...Like great movie directors, Defever is making a legacy more than anything.” - Dusted Magazine