Sitting down with Salt Lake City band Hurtado

An air of comfort and camaraderie surrounded the four members of Hurtado, a band based in Salt Lake City. Introspective responses were juxtaposed with fits of laughter and inside jokes as they talked about their music, upcoming projects and the plan for their performance at Aggie Radio’s spring festival, Logan City Limits, on April 15.  

Currently composed of lead singer Sam Hurtado, Simon Palo on bass, Will Washburn on guitar and Simon Griffen on drums, the band was formed in 2021 and has “seen several iterations of the lineup and style of music,” according to Hurtado.  

“Hurtado is my band. It’s my project — but I kind of hate when people use the word ‘project’ because I think it’s really dumb,” he said.  

The band described their style as a tribute to college radio stations.  

“College rock is what we call it. College radio stations, especially in the 1980s, are a lot of what we listen to,” Hurtado said. “No offense, but college radio has not had the influence that it once had because of the internet and streaming services. We call it post-college rock, which makes no sense at all, but it’s like a lot of jangle-pop, new wave influence and indie.” 

Hurtado will perform original songs for their set at Logan City Limits. They explained the songwriting process begins with lyrics written by Hurtado that are taken to practice for the rest of the band to experiment with from there.  

“I think a lot of the influence and songwriting is just from experiences and how I view stuff and my interpretation of experiences I’ve had,” Hurtado said. “Whether it’s romantically or stuff with my friends. What used to happen and what is beginning to happen again is Simon, Griffen and I will FaceTime when we like songs that we’re working on, and then when we come together, we work on them more.” 

They may perform a cover as well. 

“On the way here, we talked about Hoobastank and a song called ‘The Reason.’ We might do that if we are brave enough,” Hurtado said. 

Their experiences being musicians, rather than listeners or audience members, changed their view of music.  

“I can say that all of us listen to large amounts of music. Before I was even in a band, I was listening to music — walking the hallways at school with my earbuds in, being all edgy and sad,” Palo said. “But you know, I started playing in one project that gave me a whole new idea of what I can do and what is inspiring with my playing style. From there, I started playing in two other projects, which really expanded my horizons, and figured out how to work with different spaces and genres and all of that, so it did alter my headspace when it comes to music.” 

Being in a band changed the way they feel about music production overall.  

“I appreciate the production and the balance. There’s a truism to guitar,” Washburn said. “The hardest part of playing guitar is to play nothing — which is fair, but it’s also boring, and it sucks — so you have to balance doing a lot and doing nothing that creates a nice feeling of space and balance in a song.” 

Like Washburn, Hurtado also notices good production. 

“I have also appreciated quality production and just songwriting, because that’s what I am first. Before a guitar player and definitely before even a musician, I am a songwriter,” Hurtado said. 

Hurtado has singles out on streaming services and will be coming out with a new single, “All About You,” and an EP in the fall.  

“We’re going to work hard, follow the music, leave it all on the court,” Griffen said.