Back to our Roots with His His: “Home, Home” is Nostalgia Defined
Aiden Belo, the Toronto artist behind His His, really brought us back to our roots with his new release “Home, Home”. Part of his new EP ‘Garden Songs’, the song “Home, Home” is nostalgia defined. During the pandemic Aiden returned home, away from the city and back to the farm, the dirt and earth where he grew up. Ergo, with the rustic warmth of the acoustic guitar and the rich supple fullness of the electric guitar, we are transported onto the farm right next to Belo.
Away from the city, when life’s complications fall away, what’s left are the simplicities, the small things, the moments. When we stop and breathe, pause and just be, all that’s left is just what’s in front of us, what we feel and see. Belo perfectly captures this with lyrics like “hand paint on wood, sun, whistle around the bend / laundry still sets, blows, and sails in the wind”. With our senses vividly described to us, we can place ourselves directly on the farm.
The music video, like the song, strips life bare. We see the animals, the people and faces, the warmth, the sun. Filmed free-hand, we get the feeling of it being a home video.
Again, nostalgia defined.
Our favourite lyric grabs us by the heartstrings: “why did you park that car, in my head”. The cover of the single is Aiden and his dad posing on his dad’s 1981 Camero. That car, the memory, the farm, is engrained. Why certain memories are something we come back to is a mystery. Sometimes they are bizarrely chosen. There is a flavour of frustration, like we can’t escape this nostalgia and are asking “why?!”. Why do I always return to this moment, this place? Why this longing? Chasing something we can’t quite touch.
“Why did you park that car, in my head?”
At the end of the song, we find ourselves shaking our heads, feeling our hair move, singing along with His His “I wanna live, live, live, live right here.” We imagine ourselves putting our hands out and running as the guitar strums to the sound of our feet as we “feel the air”. In the video, this feeling of bliss and movement is paralleled by the gang riding their bikes. For the closing line, Belo holds the notes longer, almost as if to solidify his desire. He wants to live right there. Stay in the moment. The memory. Home. The video closes with just the sound of their bikes, which sound oddly like the rolling film of an old projector. Nostalgia defined.
