News
How Much Art are an exciting new band made up of some of the best musicians in modern punk/hardcore, all coming together to push into new creative territory. Today they're sharing their new single "XO" out now via Convulse Records. "XO" follows How Much Art's debut single "PR" and offers another instantly appealing introduction to the band's unique amalgam of shimmering synths, cutting guitars, and the singularly powerful voice of vocalist Pat Flynn (of Fiddlehead, Have Heart, Free, Sweet Jesus, and many more).
How Much Art was formed when Flynn reconnected with friend and multi-instrumentalist Darin Thompson (Downtalker, Qualms), and the two bonded over the idea of combining the grandeur of synth-based music with the spirit and intensity of hardcore. The lineup was soon rounded out by drummer Shawn Costa (also of Fiddlehead, Have Heart, Free, Sweet Jesus, and more), guitarist Maddi Nave (GEL, Nave), synth-player Justin Mantell (Qualms), and bassist Adam Gonsalves (So Automatic, Sweet Jesus, and more), and the group immediately began honing their sweeping sound. "I see this band as a lifelong project to see out the rest of my musical journey," explains Flynn. "It was born out of a yearning to be really free and creative. There's just a range of sound with synths that speaks to certain emotions I've never really been able to get out before."
Flynn discussed the new single's lyrics, saying:
"There’s five different languages featured in this song (English, French, Chinese, Irish and Spanish) - with native speakers each singing about love or reciting it from a poet in the native tongue of both speaker and poet. It's a love song about the ineffable nature of true, marrow-deep love and the frustration that comes from realizing just how badly words fail when trying to express such a concept to the actual source of one's feelings and thoughts.
Our French friends from Paris in the duo, Copycat, sing in their native tongue, as do close friends and family members, reciting famous love poems from the like of Li Bai, Antoine O' Rafteiri and the great Cesar Vallejo - each in their native tongue, all love poems from each poet, in a failed attempt to capture that impossible emotion we sense deep in our bones for that beloved person in our life. When Darin and I first put the music together for this song I felt like it was the sound of a dark, meditative state of reflection on only the most intense of experiences in life. So, I decided to try and communicate in five different languages all the ways in which I love my wife / my best friend / lifelong traveller / etc. I think the music and lyrics capture this attempt."
How Much Art are performing on the East Coast this month, including shows in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Boston's Something In The Way Fest.
Stay tuned for more music from How Much Art in 2026.
