After nearly all of your formative years in the public eye, what is left of you that the world has not already claimed? For his first independent release to date, LA-based multi-hyphenate Huddy answered that question to define himself and tell his story on his own terms, resulting in Somebody To Hate: his most distilled, personal, yet empowering release to date. The alt-rock rising star shifted focus to his music after developing an unmissable online presence in 2021 with Teenage Heartbreak, but the sophomore LP shows exactly who he has striven to become in the years since. Rather than framing the projects in a traditional way, heavy themes and songs about grief, heartache, outside perception, and uncertainty become ways to reflect on what those experiences left behind, what they shaped him into, and how to grow from them. All of this introspection, along with catchy hooks and solid musical arrangements, became concrete proof that once his vision was the only guiding force behind his career, the music would speak for itself. And on Somebody To Hate, the music does more than speak for itself: it speaks for Huddy, for the listener, and for anyone who can relate to his message. Hit Parader got the chance to sit down with him to talk about career independence, themes, and everything in between.
HP: Just to start off, what’s your favorite, most meaningful, memorable part of your year up until this point?
Huddy: My favorite part of the year so far has been allowing new experiences, just inviting them. I’ve lived with this New Year’s resolution, which was small but has opened my perspective a little bit. It was just to be more curious, try new things, and have an open heart to allowing whatever comes into my world to play a role in it, because you never know if somebody you meet one time could actually change your life or give you a new perspective on the things that you know and/or don’t know. So, I’ve been meeting a lot of really great people. The amount of friends that I have now, I feel like, has doubled this year. I’ve learned a lot of new small skill sets that I’ve been trying to hone in on and get better at this year, and that’s been really fun for me: to see new things and people, because I’ve been used to having the same routine and a closed-minded mindset. So, I asked myself to be more open this year, and I learned a lot.
HP: There you go. What’s your favorite thing you’ve learned, or favorite habit that you’ve picked up, or any specific thing that has really stood out to you?
Huddy: I started really drawing, and I’ve found a lot of peace in that. I started reading, and I really like reading now. I also thought that I didn’t like reading when I was growing up, and that was because I hadn’t found the types of books that I liked to read. I didn’t know that I liked drawing because I didn’t know what I wanted to draw, and so I think not being closed-minded to that has been very helpful for me.
HP: So cool. But to dive into the record a little bit, congrats on Somebody to Hate coming out in less than a month now. That’s super exciting.
Huddy: Thank you! I’m really proud.
HP: To start, I feel like the title is pretty pointed. I’d love to know where the specific title idea originally stemmed from, and if there was a specific point in time when you knew that that phase was going to be the title of the project.
Huddy: So, I had this song for a really long time, but I was always convinced that it was going to have a different title. It wasn’t until we had the album completely done that we thought to ourselves, “Well, maybe this isn’t it, and maybe it’s something else.” My team gave me that idea. They’re like, “Is there something else in here that you think could stand out to you?” They’re like, “I want this to come to you.”And I said, “Somebody to Hate,” and everyone was like, “Well, thank God you’re thinking the same thing.” So they had the idea, but they didn’t want to tell me they had the idea; they wanted me to be more open to seeing if there was another idea out there.
But I was really dead set on “The One.” “The One” was the first song that I made for the project. I really loved the song, and I really liked it as a title. I think it holds the same depth because, for me, it’s almost like this album is a character. So it was just thinking, either I’m “The One” or I’m “Somebody to Hate”, and it’s that whole character title, because it’s really a get-to-know-me project in a lot of ways. Get to know me for my hardships, my pain, my grief, and my past. So you get to know a lot about me throughout the record, even what I’m like when I’m in love, what I am like when I’m at my worst, and my best.
So, I think that “Somebody to Hate” became a great title for me because I realized, “You know what? This all does make up the idea of, okay, if this is somebody to hate, why is it that we don’t like him?” Then you listen to it, and you’re just, “Oh.” The mind and the perspective that he’s had on being somebody to hate – it all kind of takes these sort of tolls on him. It really takes you along for the journey, especially what it has and what it’s become.
HP: I love that. Also, there’s a lot of heavy theming as well with the struggle, hopelessness, love, heartache, and everything, but you also seem to spin it through a lens of empowerment and also who that made you become. How has your relationship with the songs, the experiences, and the emotions changed as you were creating these tracks?
Huddy: I think with this album, I really didn’t want to hone in on the side of “Poor me, feel bad for me.” I don’t want people to have that be the takeaway. I wanted people to really look at this record as they’ve been through these things and realize it’s actually shaped you into who you are. I think there’s something really cool about that too, because it shows people you can face these same struggles, you can relate to them as well, and you’ll be able to overcome them in the same way that I have. So, they’re little time capsules of bits and pieces that I’ve gone through.
HP: I mean, it’s also beneficial messaging for audiences as well because it promotes the idea that there is no way to work through things, but proof that because you work through those things, the people who are listening to them can as well, in a sense.
Huddy: Yeah, exactly.
HP: You said that the record overall follows the experiences of you trying to find your place in the alt-music realm. What part of that transition to the career was most important to show honestly?
Huddy: I think the thing that I keep going back to is: how can I define who I am as an alternative musician? A few things I really honed in on were trying to find my voice, where that pocket is, what I would normally gravitate towards lyrically, and how I would tell a story. So I wanted to find those key components that made me the kind of artist that I am and how that separated me from everybody else, while still living in the same space as everybody else. The most important part about it for me is finding a way to be unique in a world full of tons and tons of bands and music from everywhere. So I wanted to stand out.
HP: It’s amazing. How has your relationship with being in the public eye changed as you’ve shifted your career towards music, and has that played any role in the making of this record at all?
Huddy: I think that the public eye has played a role in the way that I want to approach it from now on. After I’ve made the music, I’m like, “How will they perceive it, and how do I want them to perceive it, and what do I want them to feel?” I think that I’ve gotten to a really calming place. I feel very relaxed with my approach to social media and what I say and show people. I’ve found my rhythm for what I want to show them as well. I used to be a little bit more scared of letting people in, and I think that I’ve opened up by finding ways to do so throughout my own present music world. It’s been really nice. But I think sometimes it can be really challenging for me to navigate social media when I’m not putting out music. I think that becomes a struggle.
HP: In what sense? Because you’ve shifted your focus completely towards music, I feel like that approach might be a bit different.
Huddy: I know. It’s cool. I love putting myself out on the internet in a bunch of different ways and showing that side of myself, but the more I do that, the more I miss music and touring and making stuff. So it’s just that thing that I always crave to be doing when I’m not doing it.
HP: That’s fair. This is also the first release that you put out as an independent artist, which is really amazing. Congrats on that.
Huddy: Thank you!
HP: What has been your favorite part about having greater ownership and creative control over your artistic direction?
Huddy: I think it’s become a lot easier for me to be the captain of my own ship in a lot of ways. The labels try to each play their own role on the ship, and then you kind of take a back seat, and you just become the face of it, and less so the one in control of everything. I really like having control over the styling and the imagery, whether it’s the covers of things or other things. I feel like having 100 percent of a say in all of it has been really helpful for me to be a perfectionist, whereas sometimes labels will fight you on a lot of different things: “what’s the single, what’s this, what’s that?”
So, I really like that I’ve been able to have complete and total freedom, because I think that liberty is everything for an artist, whether it’s in your creative process when you’re making the music or everything afterward as well.
HP: That makes the production process a lot more personal to you as well than if there were more of a say from the label side. The input is all coming from you now, which might make it feel like you’re more tethered to it, I guess.
Huddy: Oh, totally. I find myself really attached to my music regardless, but I think, yeah, more now. It’s very, very special to me, and so I love to treat things super carefully regarding how people see them, how I present them, let’s say.
HP: Are there any parts of tracks or tracks that would not have come out the same way as a result of your pure artistic input that’s kind of unfiltered now?
Huddy: Yeah, I think that I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable in the studio with this album too, compared to the first one, where I was figuring things out. But with this album, I made it my mission to know exactly how I wanted to make the music and what I wanted that to look like. I think my artistic input was really important to me throughout the whole process of making this record, so I could really show people how I shine. I made sure to have writing credits for everything. I wanted to make sure that there are little creative inputs I could have to incorporate those weird itches I would have in my brain to add little production bits.
I really have been listening to a lot of music and trying to find the harmonies within different songs that aren’t mine, so it’s helped me become a lot more well-versed in the harmonies that I’m making in my own music as well. I really wanted to just know exactly what I’m going for with every song that I’m making, come into the studio with a lot of great ideas, and be really well-prepared.
HP: That’s great. I also saw that the record is about reclaiming your voice, so to speak. What do you most hope the listeners hear in that lyricism and in your voice from the record, that after they listen, they might not have heard from you either from past releases or just from you in general?
Huddy: I hope that they’re able to understand and have a takeaway from all the things that I’ve gone through across the board and get an understanding of how powerless I felt in moments when I was almost being controlled by old teams and old media perception. I’ve taken a step back, but found my way to reclaim that through music. Instead of making these messages on social media, I’ve made them into music for them to consume, and I hope that they’re able to see what that means.
HP: I love that. To start to wrap up, what does success mean to you now compared to a couple of years ago? How has that changed?
Huddy: This might be the same answer that I’ve had, which is that my idea of success is just having people listen to my music and having more people discover it and love it. If they can find one song that they relate to, that means my job is done. I want to just continue to have the freedom to keep making music, keep inspiring people, and to keep giving people something to relate to and hold a place in their world. If there’s one person who listens to me, then I feel like my job is done.
I’m happy if I were the number one artist in the world, and I’m happy where I’m at now. I think that I’ve just come to appreciate the journey, any little or big one. So I think that success for me is also about the little ones. Even being able to release music is a very important thing and something that a lot of artists have had a real struggle with. I understand labels have shelved a million and one artists until they think that they’re ready, but really, it’s damaged a lot of good careers along the way. So, I hope other artists are able to come around to being able to release the music.
I think that people who really pay attention to charts just don’t actually appreciate the music for what it is. I think that you have to strip all of that back and just understand: this is somebody who dreamed as a kid of growing up and making music. I think that’s a really important thing. It’s really special that I was able to make it here, for me to make it to LA, to have the life I have, to make music, is big enough of a success for me. That’s all you could ask for.
HP: Just for the last question, broad, open-ended: what are you most excited for the rest of the year?
Huddy: I’m excited to put this album out and maybe play a show or two. I just want to show people the music, and I’m excited for people to see the complete visual, to see the vinyl and the merch and the music videos all tied together. The video for the title track will be the fourth and final one because I made four music videos; they all have a throughline, and one leads into the next. So I’m excited for people to see that last chapter of the music video, and I’m excited to really live with it. Hopefully, we can put together a big tour soon and be able to go and see the world and sing it to the fans.
Somebody To Hate, is out now
See Huddy + much more in Issue 9 of Hit Parader Magazine
Hit Parader #9: The Beaches
September 2026 — $12.99
