Back in May, Strangelander singer Amanda Huff made a mark on her own with the release of her solo debut, Hemiptera. The album—which we named one of Milwaukee’s best of the year to this point—treats listeners to her amazing vocal range and summer-suited material with beaming production on songs like “Cherry Limeade.” Less than two months removed from that record’s release, Huff is already taking her catalog to exciting new places. Well, more accurately, she’s reprising unreleased material in unexpected ways.
Seven years ago, following the death of her grandmother, Huff wrote “Gravetalking.” The song (originally written and played on ukulele) confronted the songwriter’s struggle to connect with other people’s direct losses. “I figured I would write a song a step removed from that, and just explore the act of grieving itself,” Huff says. “Sort of an ode to the process, and a reminder that it is okay for it to be difficult.”
A few years after the song was written, Huff met Milwaukee musician and producer William Gardiner. The pair decided to join forces to breathe new electronic life into Huff’s aged ukulele number. Along with accompaniment from drummer Marshall McGee and mastering by Justin Perkins from Mystery Room, Huff’s gloomy lyrics about processing grief and Gardiner’s equally moody production touches merge to take predominately dark subject matter someplace special.
Before Huff premieres the music video for “Gravetalking”—a Kristin Peterson-directed vehicle that features an all-female cast and on-set crew, along with glitch effects from Blackbox Visual—at Company Brewing on Saturday, July 21, you can hear the single now, only at Milwaukee Record.