Hot Joy today releases “Head out of the Window,” a track off their forthcoming EP, Small Favor, available April 19th via DSPs. The emotional centerpiece of the group’s new EP, guitarist/vocalist Austin McCutchen explains: “This was one of the first songs that Curt (Ochsner) brought to our writing sessions when we were first thinking about starting this band, and it grabbed me right away. The lyrics for this song became my ode to touring – something I did for the majority of my 20s, that started to slow down more and more before coming to a complete halt. I spent a lot of early 2020 grappling with the feelings that I might never have a career in music and that my best days were behind me. I spent a lot of time really reflecting on everything that I’ve gotten to do and experience through playing music, and how sometimes when it’s week three of a four week tour everything feels terrible and you would rather be anywhere else. But in reality it’s such an amazing and freeing feeling that not many get to experience, and you don’t realize that until it’s gone.” “Head out of the Window” follows previous singles “Folded Tongue” and “Fingers On My Side.”

Hot Joy started with an existential crisis. McCutchen, who has fronted local punk mainstays Choir Vandals for over a decade (and serves as a go-to fill-in guitarist for Foxing and Squint), had slowly grown disillusioned with writing songs by himself. Though he’d spent most of his life creating in solitude, he realized he needed to scrap that formula to rediscover what he loved about making music in the first place. So he called up childhood pal Ochsner to play guitar, and after a couple of freewheeling jam sessions, the two had nearly 15 songs started. McCutchen then enlisted McCarthy to play drums and Bonura (who has a solo project under the name Nicole Grace) to sing and play bass, before recording with producer Gabe Usery in St. Louis.

While they sing about daily anxieties, interpersonal relationships, and tour-induced aimlessness with grace and wit, Small Favor is first and foremost a document of the euphoria that comes from making music with your closest buds. “The weekly act of just practicing, hanging out, and writing together re-instilled the fun of making music,” says McCutchen. “Hot Joy is just a great time playing with people I love.”

Pre-order Small Favor by Hot Joy HERE