Hoffabus by Hoffabus

Hoffabus is a project of Brian Naubert.

This collection of thirteen songs undeniably represents Naubert’s magnum opus, the culmination of over 20 years as a songwriter and musician.

Recorded in Naubert’s home studio over the course of nearly a decade, this record is unflinchingly honest and intimate. Naubert played and recorded every instrument except the drums (played by his longtime collaborator and Northwest rock staple Mike Musburger.) Martin Feveyear (Queens of the Stone Age, Presidents of the United States of America) mixed and mastered the album on Vashon Island, his third time working with Naubert.

Hoffabus is a unique juxtaposition: classic rock elements with a strong undercurrent of melancholy synthesizers, buoyed by relentless pop hooks. Naubert’s intoxicating voice is the narrative through-line, weaving tales of longing and nostalgia, of searching for home and grappling with profound loss. His wordplay is wickedly clever, but he never hides behind it. He pulls no punches here, singing fearlessly and playing guitar like it’s his last stand. The result is dreamy, dark, provocative, and yet somehow edifying.

A longtime fixture of the Northwest rock community, Naubert has played in vital bands such as Tube Top, Pop Sickle, The Service Providers, and his mainstay, Ruston Mire, since 1995. Packed with inventive guitar work, beguiling hooks, and artful storytelling, this record affirms Naubert’s importance and utter originality as a musician.

Naubert describes this record as a dropping of all artistic pretense: “This is me playing with my eyes closed. Truly letting it out. There is pure emotion here and there is also a finally becoming one with a sound. The ability to express what I feel, what I see, a purely as I’ve ever done.”

Simply put, Hoffabus is essential work from an essential artist. Work that should cement Naubert’s place in the formidable legacy of Northwest rock.

Hoffabus is a project of Brian Naubert (Corvair, Ruston Mire, The Service Providers, Tube Top, Pop Sickle). The songs are steeped in classic rock elements with a strong undercurrent of melancholy synthesizers, buoyed by relentless pop hooks. Weaving tales of longing and nostalgia, with wickedly. Naubert’s songs, pull no punches. Hoffabus is dreamy, dark, provocative —and yet somehow edifying.