In a modest living room studio in Montreal, Nick Bendzsa is crafting something extraordinary. The Newfoundland-born artist’s debut album Very Soft Glow – set for release on May 23, 2025 – represents a bold sonic departure from convention, blending trap beats, folk storytelling, and ambient textures to create what might be one of the year’s most intriguing genre-defying releases.
After years producing music under the alias Hullo, Bendzsa’s decision to step forward under his given name feels symbolic of the raw vulnerability that defines his new work.
The genre-blending nature of Very Soft Glow wasn’t initially deliberate, Bendzsa explains. “It wasn’t a conscious idea to blend them initially, but looking back I think it was a desire to communicate myself in a new way, and explore a type of creativity that wasn’t rooted in genre idioms that I was already familiar with. I’d been feeling as though I was just making variations of the same pop songs over and over again, so this was me trying to re-introduce the element of play and discovery back into my process.”
The influence of artists like Yung Lean is evident in the atmospheric production, though Bendzsa admits he doesn’t consider himself deeply immersed in either trap or folk genres. “I don’t really listen to trap music or folk music that much, and I’d heard a few Yung Lean songs that captured my imagination for their musical texture and the fantastical drama behind all of it. I guess I wanted to chase the drama and fantasy of the trap, and the directness and authenticity of the folk, and just try something new!”
Bendzsa’s evolution from recording as Hullo to using his birth name marks a significant shift in his artistic identity. “I had a lot of fun making music as Hullo, but I think it was just time to move on,” he reflects. “I feel free writing under my own name because the music can change with me as I grow up and I can be more direct. When I was making music under an alias I felt as though I had to adhere to an abstract set of emotional and musical guidelines I’d established for myself when I was 18 that I had outgrown, and I was beginning to feel stunted creatively. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to outgrow my own name.”
That freedom has allowed Bendzsa to create deeply personal work that doesn’t shy away from emotional complexity. Singles like “21 Jump Street” and “Gentle Red and Baby Blue” possess a cathartic quality that feels like emotional purging disguised as bangers. For Bendzsa, this emotional release is inseparable from his creative process.
“For me, I can only reach catharsis through honesty,” he says when discussing the emotional weight of these tracks. “I don’t think there was another direction possible for either of these songs; they’re both vocally sentimental, and I needed something that pushed forwards energetically to keep them from feeling too sunken.”
The album’s lead single, provocatively titled “Emotional Creampie,” examines intimacy and connection in ways that subvert typical masculine narratives around sex. Despite the potentially graphic title, Bendzsa’s delivery transforms sexualized language into something “undeniably careful and tender,” reintroducing love into what might otherwise be gratuitous terminology.
The visual aesthetic of Very Soft Glow feels intentional and immersive – something that extends to the album’s production style. Bendzsa’s description of his creative vision is as vivid as the music itself.
“I had a pretty strong colour palette in mind throughout the production of the album, some deeper purples and faded pinks, but looked at as though you were underwater, so softer and glowing a little,” he says. “On this album, I tried not to overthink the production; most of the ideas felt pretty clear to me, as though they’d been there the whole time.”
Rather than citing specific cinematic influences, Bendzsa found inspiration closer to home. “I was going through some shit and was really working on looking inwards, so I can’t say that I consciously drew from any external cinematic references while working on the project, but I was influenced a lot by the sci-fi I was reading in terms of its grandeur and fantastic nature and scenes from close to my apartment: browns, tans and greys in winter and floodlights on the red running track and green trees in spring.”
Bendzsa’s approach to songwriting has evolved with this project, moving from music-first to a more lyric-centred process. “In the past I was always making the music first, but I wrote most of these songs acoustically in emotional moments and then wouldn’t change them that much structurally,” he explains. “I tried not to add musical elements for the sake of it, but only if I felt that it had an emotional reason behind it.”
This album also marks a shift in Bendzsa’s creative process, incorporating more collaboration. “For the first time, I also worked a lot more with other musicians to perform some of the ideas I’d had in my head, which made the arrangement fall into place over a longer period. I had to have most of the ideas for the whole song in my head before I brought it to my computer.”
That collaborative spirit extends throughout the album, which features contributions from a wide variety of musical collaborators, most notably in the orchestral and choral arrangements that give the album its cinematic weight.
The physical space where Very Soft Glow came to life reflects Bendzsa’s hybrid approach to production. “I have a studio in my living room where most the album was recorded,” he says, “but while I was recording the album, I was also finishing my masters in sound recording at McGill, so I used some of the studios and equipment there to bring some of the acoustic components of the album to life that wouldn’t work in my living room.”
This blend of DIY and professional recording spaces allowed him to expand the sonic palette significantly. “I recorded a choir there, grand piano, some strings, percussion and saxophone there. I also did some tracking at a friend’s studio in Newfoundland where I’m from and another studio in Montreal. I like a blend of hi-fi and lo-fi in my work.”
Montreal’s famously eclectic music scene seems to have provided fertile ground for Bendzsa’s genre-blending approach. The city’s creative environment has clearly shaped his artistic development.
“I love all the random stuff in Montreal’s music scene; it has definitely had an effect on me,” he confirms. “I think seeing so many people being free to pursue something that speaks to them, no matter how unconventional it is, made me feel like I could follow my heart and not try to confine myself to a genre. Maybe I would have stumbled on it in Saskatoon, but there’s such a strong culture of authenticity here. Working on some folk projects as a producer in Montreal also helped me to see the storytelling magic of folk music and bring it into my work.”
That connection to authenticity plays out in Bendzsa’s approach to performance as well. His album debut show took place at Bruno Sports Bar – not exactly a conventional venue choice, but one that offered unique creative possibilities.
“It’s a fun place to hang out, and my manager and I wanted to try something new,” Bendzsa says with enthusiasm. “The walls are covered in TVs, and they let us use the TVs, so I made a couple of movies to be projected, and my friend Allen live-streamed the concert on YouTube, so we were projected on the walls in real time. It was a lot of fun!”
As both a performer and an audio engineer (Bendzsa completed his master’s in sound recording at McGill and has worked with artists like Dameer, Fine Food Market, and Sarah Rossy), he brings technical expertise to his artistry that many singer-songwriters lack. This dual identity as both creator and technical producer creates an interesting tension that he’s mindful of when working on his own music.
“Yes, definitely,” he acknowledges when asked about the risk of over-polishing the emotion out of a song. “I try to trust in the ideas I had in my first creative burst. Usually, there’s some element from my first demo or recording that will make its way into the final recording. I need reminders all the time of ‘oh, this is what you were feeling Nick’.”
Time management has become crucial to preserving the emotional core of his music. “I also try to not let the songs sit for too long on my computer. I think on most projects I’ve worked on, if you’re still plugging away at the same version of a song for over 12 months, it’s so hard to connect with your original impulses and still enjoy your own music.”
For Very Soft Glow, Bendzsa imposed stricter deadlines. “I’m really proud to have been more impulsive with this project – I had the final masters exactly one year after starting the project, which was a big step for me in not over-polishing.”
The album’s title track features what might be its most ambitious arrangement – a 12-voice Montreal-based women’s choir singing in unison with Bendzsa against a backdrop of piano, guitars, ambient textures and percussion. It’s a dramatic culmination that encapsulates the record’s themes of acceptance, change, and letting go of fantasy.
While Very Soft Glow represents a bold new direction, Bendzsa remains open about the future trajectory of his sound. “I’m not sure yet!” he admits with candour when asked if this trap-folk aesthetic will define his work moving forward. “I’ve already started on my next project, which has no trap in it at all so far, but it might just be my mood for the moment, and I’ll come back to it.”
Whatever direction his next work takes, it seems clear that Nick Bendzsa has found something valuable in this current phase – a musical identity that embraces contradiction, vulnerability, and innovation while maintaining an unwavering commitment to emotional authenticity. In a musical landscape often defined by strict genre boundaries, Very Soft Glow stands as a testament to the power of deliberately colouring outside the lines.
Very Soft Glow is released on May 23, 2025
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