Hurt feels good about return

The band’s first album wasn’t a smash success.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

For most artists, traveling the world means nothing. It’s all a blur, each night spent in a different city.

Despite this reality, Hurt singer J. Loren has a mad love for Youngstown, which his band has played twice since 2006. In fact, its first Mahoning County show was actually the band’s CD release party for its debut effort, “Vol. 1.”

“I love the people there, and I’m not the kind of person who says [expletive],” said Loren, calling from Minneapolis. “I love the people there and would love to see them again. They’re just good people, and it’s good times, plus my romantic love of knowing we had our CD release party there and that was the first show of the tour.

“Considering we started things off there, you can’t forget something like that, especially when every living day we’re slaving all day long. You remember where you got your start.” Hurt returns to Northeast Ohio for a show Friday at The Wedge.

Part of Loren’s sentimentality can be traced to the location of its CD release show but also speaks to the fact that Hurt has beaten the odds as a major label recording artist. The band recently released its sophomore album, “Vol. 2,” which Loren believes is quite a feat considering the act’s first effort wasn’t necessarily a smash success. 

“Thankfully, we’re still trucking, still playing these shows and getting more and more fans,

and we got to make another album,” Loren said. “I’m really happy about that. It’s definitely a hairy business being in the music industry, and we’ve managed to keep it afloat this long.

“People have slowly bought the album, and it’s actually spread by word of mouth. ‘Vol. 1’ still sells a couple thousand copies a week because people tell their friends about it.”

Unique group

As songwriter for Hurt, Loren said the band’s uniqueness acts as a double-edged sword.

“I’d say we’re around still because we’re different, and I’d say we’re a smaller band still because we’re different,” Loren said. “I believe that people probably gravitate most to the fact that we don’t make a crappy record that has one good song on it and then send it off. We actually put all of our resources into making a record as good as possible.”

That’s the hope Loren and Co. have for “Vol. 2,” which as its name indicates is a follow-up to the group’s debut. In fact, the second volume was actually written at the same time as the first effort, with the powers that be deciding to cull the more accessible material for the former release and the more adventurous tunes for the latter album. 

Loren points out a few new tracks from “Vol. 2” that will test and he hopes excite Hurt fans. There’s the sort of a dark Irish jig-sounding “Summers Lost ” and the Pink Floyd-esque “Aftermath” that will further challenge the alternative metal label which has followed Hurt the past few years.

 “I don’t think we’re a metal band at all,” Loren said. “We just simply make music and if you have an open mind when you make music, you’re not going to be out there trying to be the harshest, the most metal or the sweetest. We’re just making music the way it needs to be.”

He added, “It’s all good. It works our pretty well.”