"Love is ‘LUVLY’. It’s what we all want. It makes the world rotate. However, for some, it isn’t available. Like Wifi under a tunnel, it’s just not reachable. My reason is my past and the tease of love. I yearned for it from my family but didn't receive it in the way I wanted it."
"I saw it portrayed in movies, books or in person when I saw nuclear families at school, or when I went to my friend's houses. But, if you hate yourself and are on constant missions to hurt yourself, how can you be in receipt of love? Until I put this frown upside down, until I rewrite this circuitry, haphazardness and sabotage, then there will be no love. Tongue rung through teeth.. that suits me, Luvly. It doesn't, but this is what this forthcoming project is about: the purge of one’s old self. I do feel it’s high time for change. Initiating it is the difficulty. One day.."” - Hak Baker
East London’s finest, the critically acclaimed musician and poet of the people Hak Baker, announces new EP Nostalgia Death Act I, out on 12 July 2024. “Nostalgia can be a trap and I am a man plagued by bad habits,” says the musician who wears his heart on his sleeve.
On his revered top 11 independent album Worlds End FM, Baker told the raw story of the world on the brink of destruction, from historical pain in “Windrush Baby” to male fragility in “The End of the World”. Now Baker is staring down the barrel, stepping out of the “inferno” and attempting to break his own personal cycle of destruction in Nostalgia Death.
A methodical songwriter and one of the UK’s most striking lyricists, today Hak reveals “LUVLY”, a song that paints a portrait of a man who cannot receive the love from the woman who loves him. And poignantly, can’t love himself. “Wipe your eyes mate, cause you’re gonna be lonely, luvly, more space for the old me,” laments Hak, juxtaposed against a backdrop of breezy, jangly guitar production. Baker worked with Craiggie Dodds (Amy Winehouse, Nitin Sawhney, Gorillaz) on Nostalgia Death, an odyssey for Hak’s “Mis-Fits” and “Wild-Fires”.
Act I is out on 12 July on AWAL Recordings. The official video, co-directed by Broken Antenna and Hak Baker and starring Hero Fiennes Tiffin (The Woman King, After We Fall) and Geoff Bell (The Business, Once Upon A Time In London), documents Hak’s story on the Isle of Dogs.
Nostalgia Death EP Tracklisting Act I
Nameless
Boys X Girls
Everybody’s Dyin’
LUVLY
Poems
