Last Call

Nick Farrar, singer for Worcester band Hidden Figures

Veer Mudambi Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Worcester has no shortage of musical talent. Hidden Figures is one of the latest bands to enter the local metal scene, but they have plans to go much further afield. Their latest track, “Damaged Art” featuring Ricky Armellino of Ice Nine Kills, set to released Nov. 18 from their upcoming EP, “For the Both of Us,” will be dropping early next year. Vocalist Nick Farrar sat down with Last Call to discuss what went into the making of the band's newest song and the accompanying music video, and how the entire track reflects the band’s struggles with personal tragedy, mental health and how to move on in the wake of loss.

Tell me about your band’s new song?

The new video and song coming out on the 18th were produced by Ricky. The song itself, and generally the EP that we’re putting out, is loosely based on the stages of grief. This particular song is about acceptance and sort of pulls it all together.

My bandmate Casey Evans and I write the lyrics — anytime we write songs together, we like to do it from two different perspectives so with one set of lyrics we’re talking about two different things. From Casey’s perspective, the song is about moving forward in the wake of the passing of a friend, Timothy Plouffe. This is like an ode to [Timothy] so the EP album is called “For the both of us.” For me, the song is moving forward after you’ve lost yourself mentally — I suffer from borderline personality disorder, PTSD and survived two suicide attempts. So it’s about the growth of it and moving past that in spite of how I feel, there’s more to me than just these illnesses and there’s a bigger point to me than just creating sad music.

Hidden Figures released a track called "Borderline" on July 1. Was that referencing Borderline Personality Disorder?

Yes, that's the reference. When we were writing it, I wanted to try and show what’s going on in my head a little bit. There’s a part of that song where I talk about the loss of close friendships due to my illness not being able to handle it. The song’s like a back and forth conversation between me and my friend about that.

So how many people are in the band?

Five of us: Casey who does rhythm guitar and singing, Eric Fay, he’s the bassist. Eric and Casey are the main composers for the band. There’s the lead guitarist, Zach Sharp, and then Devin LaPlaca, the drummer. Casey and I write the lyrics together and Eric and Casey do the instrumentals together.

What stage is the EP at right now?

We’re done recording it and just finalizing it before we release it. We actually became a band and started recording as soon as COVID hit in 2020. So that kind of held us back but because of that we were able to meet Dan Hourihan, the director for some Ice Nine Kills videos, and he introduced us to Ricky and we were able to record the last three songs of the EP with him.

What did Ricky bring to these songs?

The recording process with him was much more involved — he threw himself into the band and made himself a member. He was helping us rework our stuff and reword some of our lyrics to say our message in a better way. He’s a very good producer and he’s helping bands all over the place get bigger and better. The stuff we’re working on now is leaps and bounds better than it was even a year ago due to the experience of being able to work with him. It’s been awesome and very surreal having people I look up to and respect become my friends.

Would you say that the delay from COVID actually created a better product?

One-hundred percent — if it weren’t for COVID, I wouldn’t have met the people that I did because they would have been all over the world touring. So when it shut everything down, it was a blessing and a curse. Obviously, our product is much better than it would have been but at the same time, because we got the better product we wanted to play at shows. We actually just played our first show on October 30 up at the Jewel in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Was it tough waiting to show off your new stuff?

Yeah, that’s the hardest part of everything. We’ve had the concept for this video for over a year and this whole process of waiting has just been awful and I really want to get it out there.

When was the video completed?

We filmed it at the end of September but we just got the final product back on the night of the 10th. With the mental health stuff, I really want to get all this stuff out there and even if I can help one person the way other bands have helped me, that’s my ultimate goal.

When's the EP due out?

We haven’t had the full discussion but more than likely the beginning of next year. No set date though. We need to put out "Damaged Art" and let that sit a bit, then there’s a documentary we’ve been filming over the last year that we’re going to release. After that there’s one more song, "Burn."

Is this your first video?

Actually we have two other videos we filmed with Dan — one during the summer of 2020 and another at the end of the year so this will be our third. Working during COVID definitely presented challenges with everyone getting tested and wearing masks but the quality of the product is better than anything I could have hoped for.

What’s next after this EP?

Our ultimate goal is to make a career of this and we’d love to be touring. So all of next year we’re going to try and grow our audience to get to that next level. There’s so much talent here in Worcester with the hip-hop and metal scene. I just want to be that kind of inspiration — to grow and make Worcester proud by representing all the music from here that kind of gets overlooked. We’re all very proud to be from Worcester.

Hidden Figures in front of the Palladium, from left, Casey Evans, Devin LaPlaca, Nick Farrar, Eric

Fay and Zach Sharp. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE