Interview with Soul Twin Messiah

• Tell us more about your beginning and how your professional musical journey started? 

Evan Gary Hirsch (EGH): Babysitters at age 6 played me AC/DC, KISS, Aerosmith, and many others, and I was hooked! I picked up electric guitar at 16 after a decade of getting really good at air guitar. Buddy Donnie sold me a Frankenstein guitar for cheap, and taught me two finger power chords that you can slide up and down the neck to play simple punk songs. Co-worker Pete helped take me to the next level in the next couple years. It wasn’t until age 29 that I finally joined my first band Armagetiton, who were in need of a second guitar player. I met them opening for Hotbox, whom I went to see because they had two guys from my favorite band for life RKL. We never did get to finish recording anything, but Barry from RKL was producing the recordings we started. After I graduated from Academy of Art in 2009, I started to record demos for my solo album. In 2016, we founded S.O.U.L. Documentary and participated in the Summer of Love 50th Anniversary events, including forming a band to headline the Peace in the Park festival we co-produced in the bandshell of Golden Gate Park the next year. It was for that gig that we wrote our first original songs as Soul Twin Messiah. When we searched for a producer in 2020 (when studios were locked down for the pandemic) to capture high quality recordings of our songs, we found two good candidates, so I used one to complete two solo albums, and Soul Twin Messiah worked with Joel Jaffe at Studio D to record three full albums, plus a few extras. We are now at last releasing our debut, self-titled album. After 37 years playing, I am finally releasing an album!

• The band name is interesting. What does Soul Twin Messiah refer to? 

Kip Baldwin (KB): At first, I know it seems incredibly ostentatious, but what it actually speaks to is how in reality we all share a connection that is even closer that than of twins, not just with one another, but with all of Infinity. And how we all need to be Messiahs of LOVE, becoming the saviors of one another when we do. By the way, this understanding that we are all connected has now been proven by quantum physics, which tells us that we are subatomic particles connected at a quantum level affecting one another instantaneously across Infinity. 

• The vintage influences are pretty obvious still you are blending them with modern elements. Was this planned during the songwriting process? 

(EGH): We have never planned anything at all throughout this process. Everything has been 100% organic and in flow, accepting what gifts we are given, and what opportunities have felt most worth pursuing. Our songs are an amalgamation of the music that lives inside of us both. When I play a guitar, all of the influences and music I have enjoyed throughout my life is right there available to come out. For me, that’s classic rock, hard rock, punk, new wave, metal, and more. For Kip, the influences extend beyond just the hard rockin’ stuff and get into more folkie and singer-songwriter ‘70s pop and beyond. So it’s all just baked in to what we create. And people have heard so many influences in our music that we made a Spotify playlist called “Bands People Have Told Us We Remind Them Of”, which is up to 49 songs!

• The released singles from your upcoming self-titled album have been acclaimed by critics and fans alike. Tell us more about the album lyrical concept. 

(KB): All of our songs are about helping us move beyond the illusion of ego and fear and the truly insane belief that we are separate; the rugged individual doing it all by ourselves. How nonsensical. Accepting again that as the Reality LOVE, we are one with everything. We can’t not be. If we remember this, there is no problem we cannot solve, nothing we cannot do, making all that seemed impossible possible. And as I mentioned earlier, the Truth that we are all connected to everything is not just purview of spirituality, but now science. With many physicists now saying that Buddha had it right.

• The music videos are really nice. Did you collaborate with a director during the filming process? 

(EGH): We hired Dan Friedman to edit our first video for “Comfort You” from footage we shot in the recording studio and a bunch of hugs we had captured when I was interviewing people for S.O.U.L. He did a great job. Little wonder since he has made thousands of great videos for many bands, especially in the Grateful Dead scene and at Sweetwater Music Hall. The next two videos for “Shut Up and Listen to Me” as well as “Mad LOVE Story” I directed, shot, and edited myself. Good help is hard to find (and expensive). And I am really proud of myself for finally adding video editing to my personal toolkit, and making some videos that I love watching over and over, as they are so engaging and fun. I plan to make many more, both for STM and my solo stuff.

• Joel Jaffe has an impressive portfolio. How was the recording experience with him? 

(KB): We could not have had a better creative partner, as not only did Joel bring his years of studio mastery with him, but as a practicing Buddhist he understood what our message and mission is in way not many could. And from this collaboration has grown a deep LOVE and friendship.

• In the world of DAWs and AI, some artists aren’t keen about recording studios, still you were keen to record your album at the iconic Studio D. In your opinion, is choosing the studio one of the major factors for the album production, or can any studio do the job? 

(EGH): There is no question that what we did in the studio with Joel we could never have done any other way. We used the room itself, as well as all of the tried-and-true vintage and modern equipment they have on hand to make a very high-quality sounding production. I have worked with DAWs for many years, and done many high-quality demos, but know I could not have made something as professional sounding as Joel helped us to achieve. In the process, he advised the setup of my home studio, at which I ended up tracking many of the guitars and bass that you hear on our albums. I don’t know what any other studio could have done, but first-of-all, our timing was incredibly lucky that we even caught Joel at a time when he could take us on, especially mostly full time for over three years! And it was only because of the pandemic caused studio lockdowns that we were able to get in there as a duo and not a full band. He brought in all of the session players one-by-one, and gave us great options of seasoned pros. Who knows who a different producer would have brought in, but these players made all of the recordings what they are.

• In your opinion, may the AI invasion now negatively affect the music industry and artists’ creativity? 

(KB): I think AI is a very powerful tool with which we are just beginning to understand how to collaborate. Speaking for myself, I hope people don’t try to use AI as a substitute to replace us creating for ourselves and together, because I don’t think that AI can ever replace the intangible of the human imagination and the connection we get when collaborating together. In fact, all it can really do at this point is mimic our innate creativity. Having said that, if AI becomes sentient, I would be first in line to see what we can create together with our combined human/machine imaginations.

• Lastly, could you share your aspirations for 2024 with us?

(EGH): We’re going to drop our debut album on 4/12/24. Then our epic cannabis theme song for the 21st century “Our Lady Mary Jane” comes out on (you guessed it) 4/20/24. We aspire to share our music and important, timely message with the world, and hope that it resonates with people as worthy of consideration, especially the themes in our lyrics. We will continue to grow and get exposure as we share more videos and other fun content. We have two more albums plus more in the pipeline ready to follow up this release, and we will have written the book (script) for our musical Greta, The Rock Musical by the end of the year and be getting it “on its feet”, as they say, in a theater.