Everything You Need To Know About Henry Elias from LAUNDRY DAY

Unpublished sat down for “lunch” with Henry Elias better known as HW from the band LAUNDRY DAY who is now releasing his debut solo album, Lizzy’s Stadium. As Henry described, this interview was structured like a “sandwich”. We first played a game with the titles of the songs from the album, the bread if you will. Then, Unpublished asked a series of interview questions, the inside of a sandwich. And lastly, we played another game where Henry took a bunch of amazing photos to give us some insight into his life. 

After two years of on and off work, this long awaited project shows an unseen side of Henry, not only from his vulnerable lyrics but also from his previously almost unheard vocals. Henry has been a part of the band LAUNDRY DAY since they began and he has never had lead vocals on a track before. This album gave Henry room to put his vocals to lyrics that felt right to him. The album, Lizzy’s Stadium, is an eight-track insight into a million different stories about Henry’s life. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] I'm going to take the titles of the songs from the album and crowbar a little question about them to see what you have to say about them. “Friend Won”: What is the greatest thing a friend has ever done for you? 

[HENRY:] You know, I live with my best friends, so they make me laugh hysterically on the daily, which is always fun. Just sort of being there for me, making me laugh, everything that you need a friend to do. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] “If I Said”: What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever said?

[HENRY:] You're asking the wrong person. I’ve said some pretty embarrassing things. (Henry asks Jude) What's the most embarrassing thing I've ever said?

[JUDE (FELLOW LD BAND MEMBER):] What’s the last thing that you said?

[HENRY:]  I've been using the word cordial a lot, and I don't really think I know what it means. But I've been using it a lot, and people sort of look at me weird because I'm definitely not using it in the right context. I probably said that 20 minutes ago.

[UNPUBLISHED:] “Lizzy’s Stadium”: What's the best live performance you've ever seen?

[HENRY:] Probably Paul McCartney. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Oh wow, that’s a good one! Where did you see Paul McCartney?

[HENRY:] I saw him at the Javits Center, actually, which is a conference hall in the city, near Midtown. He played for like four hours. It was pretty unbelievable. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] “Beginning”: What is one thing you keep beginning but never complete?

[HENRY:] For a while it was this album. I’ve started many books, and have not finished one in quite a while, but just because I'm just excited about a lot of other things. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] “Bend Over City Lights”: Describe the craziest night that you and the boys have had in the city in only four words. 

[HENRY:] The first one that came to mind was: Riding Wrong Way Highway. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there a story that you want to tell behind that one?

[HENRY:] We were on Revels, they're these scooters like mopeds, but you rent them like City Bikes. So, we were on them and we sort of took a turn. We were really far uptown and we took a turn and we didn't realize that we were getting onto a highway. We were also going the wrong way. So if we were there at the wrong moment we so easily could have gotten hit by a car because it was such a blind turn. We turned around super quickly and realized how stupid it was and luckily nothing bad happened but for a second, it was pretty ridiculous.

[UNPUBLISHED:] “Woolf”: If each of the LAUNDRY DAY boys were animals, what would each of them be? 

[HENRY:] Etai’s a dolphin. Sawyer, the animal needs to be in his feels sometimes but most of the time be energetic. Oh you know, Sawyer’s a bear, but a really cute bear. HP is a dog. 

[JUDE:] Great answer.

[HENRY:] He's a golden retriever. Jude is an owl. And Camilla is a leopard. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What about you? What would you be?

[HENRY:] I would be, what is the greatest animal? For the sake of not saying wolf I'll just go penguin.

[UNPUBLISHED:] “Process Me”: What is the strangest part of your creative process?

[HENRY:] If I really liked a song while I was making it, I would stand on my chair and put my hands on the ceiling and listen to it fully extended. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] “With My Best Friends”: What's the best part of each of your best friends?

[HENRY:] I'll just go with Jude first because he’s sitting right in front of me. Man always has my back, he never fails to make me laugh. Etai, (Henry thinks aloud and explains) I'm friends with them all because they have very similar qualities. I mean Etai is never in a bad mood. Camilla is the most dedicated and hardworking person I've ever met, makes me laugh constantly but in a very different way. Camilla has a very nuanced sense of humor, underrated in my opinion. Henry Pearl is the most interesting human being I've ever met in my entire life. He is the greatest person. Then Sawyer, he's just the big homie. He's always there for me, I get some of my best laughs with him. Our house is separated into different quarters, and we share a side of the house and it is called the “Sawyer Nunes chamber”, including my room, because he's just that personable. 

As Unpublished moved into the second portion of the interview, Jude exclaimed:

[JUDE:] It’s like a sandwich. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Exactly. So what’s your favorite sandwich?

[HENRY:] Well is a hot dog a sandwich?

[UNPUBLISHED:] I’m going to say no, sorry.

JJ, LAUNDRY DAY’s manager, Camilla, and Jude’s laughter can be heard in the background. 

[HENRY:] I'll go for a classic sandwich: salami, mozzarella, maybe some spinach. Grill it and just give me a little bit of hot sauce on the side, and I'm pretty happy with that. 

[JUDE:] What type of bread? 

[HENRY:] I like a nice white hardy bread. You know Tom Hardy, like white hardy. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What inspired you to put out a solo piece since you usually don't have your vocals on LAUNDRY DAY songs? 

[HENRY:] I've been working on it for a really long time, a few years. And to be honest with you, I was always interested in singing and stuff because I had things to say. I just never found a time where it felt right on a LAUNDRY DAY song, which I still stand by. I'd always been delaying the process, questioning whether [the album] was good enough. And I just thought that once we were locked up in the house for quarantine that there was no time like the present to finish it and I did it and I'm proud of it. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Did you face any challenges with the vulnerability in the album or writing solo for the first time rather than collaborating with the band?

[HENRY:] Not really to be honest. That sort of came the easiest. Writing songs in general was hard, but once I got a song I was never worried it was too vulnerable because I was just focused on being honest. As much as that lended itself to the vulnerability, I was happy with that. It was more so about just getting the songs as good as I wanted them to be, so that was the toughest part. The vulnerability, I guess you could say it is a vulnerable album, but I don't think I ever second guessed that. I thought it was just me being genuine.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What made you want to release “Woolf” as your debut song?

[HENRY:] I thought it was the song on the album that both, musically but also lyrically, summed up my character. And I thought that it would be a nice introduction to people hearing me sing and hearing what my music would sound like. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What is the story behind the audio recording in “If I said”? 

[HENRY:] The first shot of the [Woolf] video is me hanging upside down by a rope by my legs. It was one of the hardest things, all the boys were there and JJ was there. And we all spent an afternoon trying to do it and it was the hardest thing, it was so difficult. It did not work for hours. And then we finally did it and that voice recording is from right before the tape where it actually worked. 

[JUDE:] We would pick him up and then get his legs tied really tight to the rope and then like slowly drop him so that his head was basically touching the ground. When we stepped away we were saying what’s in the recording. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] You're from New York and I notice that you wear a Warriors sweatshirt a lot, are you a Warriors fan not a Knicks fan? 

[HENRY:] Well okay, let me just say that Steph Curry is the best shooter in NBA history. I'm not a Warriors fan per se. I think I acquired that hoodie for Hanukkah one year from a random relative. And it is really comfortable and really big. And I love wearing it. So am I a Warriors fan? I enjoy watching them play, but I am a Knicks fan in my heart. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] I feel like fans usually only see goofy HW; what inspired you helped to embrace a more serious vulnerable side and present yourself as Henry Elias?

[HENRY:] The stage name thing was just because my name is sort of hard to pronounce. That's just my middle name and that was the only thought behind that. The goofy thing, to me there are a lot of moments on the album that are pretty goofy, but it's just presented in a more serious way. First of all, it's definitely less goofy than I come across in real life and that's just because I thought that if I were going to make an album, I had one shot to make it represent me in the best way possible. So I decided to split the time; there's some goofy lyrics and there's some, there's some serious lyrics. But at the end of the day, I just wanted it to represent me as best as possible.

[JUDE:] The goofy stuff that we make is really bad. It is usually safer to be a little less goofy.

[HENRY:] Goofy music that we make, especially when it's all of us it's just so horrible. So it was more of the safer route; it was the 401k.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Last time we talked to Etai about his pre and post show rituals; what are yours?

[HENRY:] Pre show I go to the bathroom plenty, hang out with the boys, jump on JJ, try to cause some ruckus in the green room. Honestly, we haven't played a show in a long time. And then post show, I'm usually trying to get whatever I wore on stage off as quick as possible, get some water, get some Diet Coke, God's juice, and just chill out, meet the fans, stuff like that.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Who/what are some of your current inspirations for your creative processes?

[HENRY:]  Kodak Black, Dijon. I started listening to Johnny Cash a lot after the album was done so I love Johnny Cash now. I was never really a Johnny Cash guy, but I downloaded “Hello I'm Johnny Cash,” and my mind was changed. Jack Harlow, “What’s Popping?,” I’ve probably listened to that song one too many times. 

[JJ:] Enter Sawyer Nunes

[HENRY:] Sawyer, who else do I like listening to? Porches 

[SAWYER:] Etai, JT, Pharrell 

[HENRY:] I also listen to my music a lot

[UNPUBLISHED:] How did the boys help you with your album?

[HENRY:] They were just always encouraging. I would send them songs and to hear positive, and sometimes negative, feedback would just be great. They're always open to listening and having Sawyer and Etai completing an album at the same time was also helpful. We sort of went through the same things together; the mixing, the mastering, getting everything sorted out. It was just nice to have everybody there just to help me along the way. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] That was the end of the interview questions. There you go. 

[JUDE:] Round three

[UNPUBLISHED:] This is the bottom of the sandwich. 

[HENRY:] Or top or the top 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Whatever you want. Each question it will be some sort of prompt: go to location, take a photo, get an object, record a sound to answer the question. So you guys are at your undisclosed location house.

[HENRY:] Yes 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What makes you feel at home there?

[HENRY:] The number one answer is the boys, honestly. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Your fashion in the album promo has been pretty cool. What is your favorite outfit/piece of clothing?

[HENRY:] I have this jacket that has these green leaves on it, and to be honest with you I don't even wear it that much. I just love it.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Get three objects that describe the album and tell us why.

[HENRY:] My acoustic guitar. That acoustic guitar is from the garbage. Yeah, I mean, I'll tell the story really quick: JJ basically had this guitar and he showed up at my house. He was like, “Is this guitar any good? Can I learn how to play on it?”

[JJ:] And he just started flocking it.

[HENRY:]  And now it's my favorite guitar and I literally can't find it anywhere online. The two other objects would be my apple earbuds and my parents car because I would listen to the songs and drive around.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Take a photo of how you want your listeners to feel after they hear the album. 

[HENRY:] It’s a picture of me with my headphones on, with my jaw dropped, and I'm completely naked. No, no. It's me with my headphones on and my jaw dropped, and I'm in utter shock because it was the most amazing album ever.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What are three photos in your camera roll that describe your personal sound? 

[HENRY:] This is a picture of my mother cutting my Mohawk for me. The next is a picture of me in and Etai painting this guitar that we bought and designing it ourselves. The last one is of a hot dog on a hamburger bun. It may not sound that weird by me explaining it, but it is really weird in this configuration. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] Find one photo in your camera roll that requires context to the story and tell us a little about that moment. 

[HENRY:] Here is a picture of me, Sawyer, Jude, and two of our friends in the park the day that we graduated high school. And everybody is behind us wearing their cap and gowns, and I am wearing jorts (jean shorts for those who do not know). And we were having a good time.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Did you wear jorts to graduation?

[HENRY:] Well, we didn't have graduation because of Corona, so everybody went to the park afterwards for the coming of age movie type thing, one last hurrah with everyone in the grade. So I didn't even realize that I should have worn my cap and gown. So I wore jorts and a sweater. Keep in mind, it was June and I wore a sweater. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] That was the end of all of my questions. Is there anything you want to add? 

[HENRY:] This has been very fun, I appreciate it. Thank you for all the very insightful and nice questions and all the comments and we'll talk to you soon.