Hello=Fire - Hello=Fire

Dean Fertita is a very busy and productive man. Not only is he a touring member of both Queens Of The Stone Age and The Raconteurs, but he’s also a full-time member of indie super-collective The Dead Weather. And it doesn’t stop there. Somehow between tours and other album sessions he’s also managed to find the time to write, record and release his own solo album too. It’s a dizzying amount of music to be involved and Fertita, acting under the pseudonym Hello=Fire, has somehow managed to all this without missing a beat.

Though Hello=Fire obviously draws on the inspiration of his various musical companions, you can’t blame him for taking everything he can from the likes of Jack White and Josh Homme, he’d be stupid not too, but to put too much weight on those inspirations would be doing Hello=Fire a huge disservice. If anything, it’s Fertita’s pre-Queens Of The Stone Age outfit The Waxwings that has the biggest influence on the sound on Hello=Fire, making it feel more like a development of the ground he’s already walked without his famous friends than a blantant rip-off of anything he’s been luckily enough to be part of in the recent past.

Opener ‘Certain Circles’ is a bit of a slow-burner but within, a mammoth lung-tingling riff it does contain, and though said riff is only fleeting, if you, like this writer, are a firm believer in moments, this one will have you hooked and keep you on board throughout the whole record. ‘She Gets Remote’ is a joyful mix of Monkee-esque vocal-harmonies, fuzzy lo-fi guitars and features a cowbell with such presence it’ll have Bruce Dickinson smiling from ear to ear and the rest of the record will probably have you doing the same too.

Though it feels a little rushed in places - not suprising given Fertita had to twist and squeeze this album into his schedule - it’s still a well worth a listen. And though Hello=Fire isn’t an album that will set the world alight, it still deserves to be heard and enjoyed by any fan of any band, and not just anyone with a penchant for one of the three-hundred and seven outfits Dan Fertita just happens to be a member of.