Hugo Heart

Sharp songwriting. Alternative-pop melodies. Keyboard textures, hip-hop inspired backbeats, chill-wave soundscapes, and acoustic guitar arpeggios. 

Those are the building blocks of Here They Come Dancing, the lushly-layered debut album from Hugo Heart. It's a record that balances genuine song craft with wildly eclectic production, creating a sound that's organic one minute and otherworldly the next. For Hugo Heart — the stage name of Greg Herndon — it's the next chapter in a career that's always blurred the boundaries between genres.

Raised in North Carolina, Hugo grew up listening to artists like The Beatles, Beck, and The Flaming Lips. These were musicians who pushed the envelope with every album, and their sense of exploration was inspiring. Moving to Nashville, he became one of the go-to keyboard players in a city known for its top-shelf instrumentalists, performing everything from Americana songs at the Grand Ole Opry to hard-rock anthems on America's Got Talent. Hugo wasn't just a player, though — he was a singer/songwriter with his own music to explore — and as he continued playing nightly shows, he started spending his days working on original songs, too. 

Here They Come Dancing isn't a piano album. Hugo wrote half of the songs on the acoustic guitar, and he took an experimental approach to the material that did originate with a keyboard. "A traditional piano sound can ground you in too familiar a place," he explains. "For a lot of these songs, I'd use a synthesizer and manipulate every parameter I could — the cut-off, the resonance, the tone — until I was left with just a feeling. You can hear the notes, but you don't know what the sound is. It's a familiar world, maybe…but it's not your world." 

He brought that world to life with help from co-producers Aaron Bond and Kevin Harper (who doubled as the album's mixing engineer), along with a small cast of collaborators. Together, they used the studio as its own instrument, adding nuance and atmosphere to songs that Hugo had largely composed alone. The results speak for themselves. On "Hollywood," a bossa nova bedrock is laced with vocal harmonies, swooning electronics, and a spoken-word outro. On "Table Manners," Hugo reflects on the wreckage of a messy breakup over thumping grooves and dark, grinding synthesizers. "Your Everlong" balances its ear-candy pop hooks with an abstract backdrop of upright piano and stomping percussion, while the album's title track opens with a finger-plucked guitar pattern before making room for syncopated beats and a climactic, radio-ready chorus. 

This is alternative pop music that transcends trends, delivered by a songwriter who — after being one of Nashville's best-kept secrets for more than a decade — deserves his shot at the brass ring.