8 Hours is the first solo single to be released by London based and midlands born, writer-producer HULLAH. The song, released via AWAL, is streaming on all streaming platforms from 6th November 2020.
Speaking about the track, HULLAH explains that “8 Hours is the time difference between London and Kuala Lumpur. It’s about falling in love with someone coming to the end of their student visa. We hadn’t expressed that we were in love with each other until the day he left the UK to return to Malaysia. I was in shock and definitely gutted”.
The song, written in a few “frantic days of despair” and writing sessions that “substituted sleep”, came together quickly but only after the songwriter had spent “a year figuring out what the hell had just happened and what I’d just lost. Songwriting is like therapy to me, I can channel my thoughts and it’s essential for my mental health”.
Describing the inspiration behind the production, he says: “I like to think that the song sounds like the strangeness of 3am. It was written against the backdrop of busses and faint sirens. For me the upbeat house-style production conveys those messy, spiralling thoughts: the things I let slip away, the what-if’s, those things I wish I said sooner. I can’t figure out if the song makes me want to dance or cry.”
“It was supposed to be a hookup but he stayed the night and it quickly turned into a year long romance that was never really realised until it was too late. A dream-like experience that both fascinated and haunted me. We stayed in touch but the time difference made it feel like they were moving on faster: “you get up, I go to bed, you’re in the future, eight hours ahead”.
