The Hails

BIOGRAPHY

Trying to make a living from art under late-stage capitalism can feel disillusioning at best, and farcical at worst. In the music videos for their second record, Duckpond (out October 23 via ONErpm), The Hails play a gang of 1930s bowling alley pinsetters, a job so long lost to automation that it feels like an obscure relic of another era — not far from what being a band in 2026 can feel like. That sense of obsolescence, and the more generalized malaise brought on by cost-of-living crises, miserable jobs and mind-numbing social media discourse, drove the writing of Duckpond. It’s an album about not being satisfied — whether personally, professionally, or societally — with scraps.

The Hails — Robbie Kingsley (lead vocals), Franco Solari (guitar/keys/vocals), Dylan McCue (guitar) and Zach Levy (drums) — are a product of the University of Florida’s college indie scene. In 2018, the single “Younger” landed on Spotify’s Fresh Finds playlist, breaking the band out of the Florida circuit and onto the national indie scene. Since then, they’ve toured extensively, supporting the likes of The Revivalists, Quarters and The Beaches and appearing at major festivals like Governors Ball, Ill Points and Okeechobee; meanwhile, they’ve racked up millions of streams, including 21M on “Younger” and 40M on “Stay”.

When COVID-19 struck, like so many other bands, The Hails’ momentum was disrupted. The band members retreated into their separate spaces, sharing near-completed demos back and forth that would become their debut album, 2023’s What’s Your Motive. For Duckpond, the band wanted to recover the camaraderie and lightness that was lost in that process. They rented a house in South Florida for the summer, where long and freeing jam sessions started to become songs, just like in those early days.

In Duckpond, The Hails have created something that they can truly say they’re proud of, no matter the stress and the pressure that is piled on by just trying to keep surviving as a band. “I think this is as creatively vulnerable and liberated as we’ve been in a very long time,” McCue affirms. “It was something that was created completely all together,” Kingsley adds. “It really feels like this is truly what The Hails have to offer. This isn’t what Robbie plus a few guys or Franco plus a few guys has to offer — this is what these collective guys known as The Hails are trying to offer together.”