Hysterical Kindness to Release Debut Album, SIMPLE THINGS on June 1

Today, Hysterical Kindness, a new collaboration between Emile Hirsch, Chris Sayre and Brian Cohen, announced their debut album Simple Things set for release on June 1st. The album is a collection of 13 stirring tracks that feature Hirsch's rich melodies and soul-baring lyrics wrapped in Sayre and Cohen's captivating soundscapes. The first track off the album, "You" premiered today.

Simple Things could not be more complex. Whimsical yet melancholy, spare yet sophisticated, not-quite-roots and not-quite-pop. The band began when the three members met on a film set to compose music for the movie All Nighter. Hirsch, the singer and chief songwriter, is best known as an actor but is grounded in old-school hip-hop. His bandmates, Chris Sayre and Brian Cohen, are a pair of producers best known for their R&B work (Ciara, Flo Rida). Together, they find unique ways to combine disparate styles, creating a sound that is new and fresh, personal and deeply affecting.

The collaboration between Hirsch, Sayre, and Cohen proved so creatively invigorating that the trio continued working together long after the film wrapped. They even kept the name of the character's band from the film, Hysterical Kindness. Each musician brought his own sensibility to the project: Hirsch wrote the lyrics and melodies, while Cohen and Sayre created the soundscapes. It was a productive back-and-forth with one main rule: Make the lyrics as economical as possible. Streamline the music so there is nothing to hide behind. Keep it simple.

Standout tracks on the album include "She Calls You" and "The Rest" featuring the fingerpicking stylings of Sayre with Cohen adding stately piano that bounces off Hirsch's soulful vocals. A rip-roaring harmonica solo is featured on "The Best Men," and Cohen and Sayre trade barrelhouse solos on the rambling, rambunctious "Secrets Told." The latter also features "one-man orchestra" Stevie Blacke (Beck, Rihanna, Timbaland) on fiddle.

Hirsch, who is most well-known for his breakthrough performance in Sean Penn's INTO THE WILD and Pete Berg's thrilling war pic LONE SURVIVOR said, "music gives me the same satisfaction I get from acting, the same kind of catharsis ... yet, it's still engaging with the creativity of writing a screenplay or a novel. It combines those pursuits in a very effective way." Or, as he sings on the title track off the album: "They please me, all these simple things. They free my mind and let me be."

Simple Things Track List:

01. YOU

02. THE BEST MEN

03. THE LION

04. TELL ME NOW

05 SHE CALLS YOU

06. ALL MY WAYS

07. NO NEEDS

08. KINDS

09. AT BAY

10. THE REST

11. SECRETS TOLD

12. SIMPLE THINGS

13. QUIET MAN

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