He is Legend: Getting Amongst It (2023)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

“IT’S HARD to think back to that time. It was a very real sense that what we’ve done our entire lives might be completely over. But there was nothing to do but get together and make music. That was the only thing we had to look forward to, really.”

Drummer Jesse Shelly of He Is Legend is talking about the real dread his band was feeling when they were suddenly unable to complete touring for their most acclaimed album, White Bat. It took them a little while before they realised the only thing for it was to get back to what they did best, even if it meant no one else got to hear it except them.

“We had an album out that we couldn’t tour on and were home until further notice,” Shelly continues. “We probably sat around for a few weeks until we thought, ‘Well, we’re not going to sit around for maybe a year and not do anything, so let’s just write’ – even though there’s no promise of it ever getting recorded, no promise of us ever even playing a show again.”

“The Endless Hallway was kind of a callback to a lyric that was on our album few, and it basically spoke to how we felt in the pandemic, essentially,” vocalist Schuylar Croom adds. “Doors that seemed like they were gonna come open to new ground just opened to more of the same, and finally coming through the other side and feeling our way out. It’s not unlike the other He is Legend albums other than the fact that it’s a little more brutal, a little more honest, I guess.”

“[The] album was making music just to make it and blow off steam, more or less,” Shelly continues, “and that’s what we came up with at the end of it. It’s an intense album, I think, because of the state of mind we were in. Stressed out and upset that, not only were our whole lives ending, but our last record got cut short and we’re mad, we wanna make music, and this sucks! I think you hear that in the songs.”

Endless Hallway is the seventh studio album for the Wilmington rockers. While building solidly on the upward curve the band had been riding in the wake of few and White Bat, the band knew they had to prove their worth to maintain the momentum after an enforced two year break.

“Because we were only a few shows into touring White Bat when the carpet got pulled out from under us,” Croom says, “we felt like we had more to say, more to prove, on this album. Because we were on this meteoric rise. We could feel more people getting into the band and it had more life, there were new fans, people were showing up out of nowhere, more press than we had had before and just general new life in the band itself.”

In the end, Croom suggests that the break actually did He is Legend some good: “You never really get a break, so when we were forced to break, it put everything into perspective.” Together, they were able to get into a better state of mind for the touring that was to come once things re-opened and the road would become an extremely crowded place. The singer feels his band were better prepared for it.

“Being at home, I think, made us better people throughout the pandemic and I think – a lot of bands, I’ve seen, kinda crumble under this pressure of what it feels like being back. Not being able to handle the nuances of touring and just the fact that it’s over-saturated and there’s so much going on and there’s so much being said and everything’s dismissive now and weird. There’s so much to swallow when you talk about being on the road, and I think we were just longing for that because we went from wanting to be out all the time to wanting to be out a little bit, then wanting to be home.”

He is Legend will be in Australia in May for their first visit here since Soundwave 2015, something both men are stoked about. The touring they’ve done since being back on the road has been a positive return for the band, with audience numbers keeping up with or exceeding what they were seeing before and a general feeling of community pervading.

“When you tour Europe, or something, the crowds are… I don’t want to say grateful that you’re there,” says, “but there’s an energy, a gratitude that you’re there to play and they’re really paying attention. These post-COVID tours in the US… there was always more of that vibe that we took each other for granted – Oh, I’ll catch them next time they’re back in town. This is years down the road and a lot of bands didn’t make it over this hump. So I’ve definitely sensed that people are coming out and being more appreciative of when we make it there.”

“I feel a sense of gratitude to be there,” he continues. “Not like I ever felt like I was taking it for granted before, but now when I get to certain places I just feel so stoked to be there. A lot of venues didn’t make it, too, so I was so happy to go back to a club I’ve been playing my whole life and think, Thank God these guys are still here. A lot of places I loved and grew up playing in are gone.”

Croom feels the same way, and predicts that the positive post-COVID energy won’t dissipate in a hurry. People are happy to be out getting amongst it again, both on the performance side and in the crowd.

“There’s been an awesome vibe, like a grateful, positive, everyone’s on the same team vibe now. You feel a really thick connection to these crowds, especially at the festivals that we’ve played… You play a festival now and everyone’s just in this bubble of happy to be back out in the world. We all feel the same, happy to be there and I don’t think that’s worn off and it probably won’t for a while.”