15 JANUARY 16-22, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | FIND MORE MUSIC COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MUSIC Synthesis of Sound DENVER ARTIST RUMTUM IS BLENDING VISUAL ART WITH HIS MUSIC IN A SIX-MONTH PROJECT. BY HYDE C HRASTINA On a Saturday night in December, the new Novel building in RiNo glowed warmly against the early winter chill in the air. The ground level was buzzing with hundreds of local artists, musicians, makers, writers and other creators; they conversed and sipped cocktails, ogling the debut of three massive paintings while eagerly awaiting the centerpiece of the event: an exclusive preview of the brand-new LP created by interdisciplinary artist John Hastings, otherwise known as RUMTUM. The exhibition and listening party were just the beginning of a six-month rollout of the new album, Glue of Everything. Hastings will release a new single every month leading up to the full album drop on May 30, and he is actively creating a visual component to ac- company each song. Original paintings, anima- tions, murals, music videos and other creative works will be unveiled monthly, and a release show in May will celebrate the culmination of the multi-dimensional project. Glue of Everything holds true to its name, beautifully merging different facets of Hast- ings’s life — creative, personal and profes- sional. “Over the last few years, the more and more I’ve been pushing my career and having good success with music and art...I’ve realized that it’s not really making me any happier,” Hastings refl ects. “And I realized that the only thing that was making me happier was getting to spend time with family and friends — them being there in those moments with me and seeing them excited about what I was doing. “I started noticing a shift happening where I just felt more grateful to be around family and friends than I ever have,” he continues. “But what also started happening was that I was struggling to get the art and the music to come together. It always felt like they were so separated, and I couldn’t get them to balance quite right.” For Hastings, Glue of Everything is not just about “spending time together and being present,” he says, “but also about the music and the art fi nally syncing. And, of course, I think my family and my friends pushing me to be present is what brought it all together and made it make sense.” This disciplinary melting pot is a pivotal moment in Hastings’s creative career, as he’s been making both art and music con- currently since his formative years. As a teenager, he started off drumming on a kit that he pieced together with broken sets from the local music store. Later, he saved his money and bought a four-track cas- sette recorder, prompting his lifelong obsession with record- ing gear. He went on to play guitar, bass and keys in various bands throughout high school and college. Then, at 22, he got his fi rst SP-303 and realized the possibility of making his own music using samplers and drum machines, kicking off his independent musicianship. Artistically, Hastings has been creating since he was a kid growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. He remembers fi shing and camping with his dad in the woods of Pennsylvania and teaching himself to draw the trout they would catch, forging a lifelong connection to nature that is still seen in his artwork today. Hastings majored in fi ne arts at the Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio, and during his years living in the city’s downtown, he discovered the rich and diverse worlds of graffi ti writing, street art and mural painting. He was im- mensely inspired by his time there, and his experiences infl uenced the evolution of his artwork when he moved to Denver in 2011. Hastings found his way into both the mu- sic and mural scenes, connecting with local artists and forming lifelong friendships with his fellow creatives. “Denver, for me, when I fi rst moved here, felt like a playground of possibility,” he recalls. “Everybody was just doing what they loved, and it was so inspir- ing, and I was like, ‘I wanna do this.’ “I was young, and I just wanted to learn and have fun,” he continues. “It was like, ‘Hope- fully if I show up with a thirty-rack of beer, these guys will let me hang out at the wall and I’ll get to see some techniques that they’re us- ing.’ But then I also was super inspired by the fi ne-art world; I loved walking into galleries and seeing huge paintings, too. So I’ve always been trying to fi gure out how to blend all of this together and do my own thing with it.” Now, hundreds of shows, murals, draw- ings and paintings later, Hastings is doing just that. The three massive paintings that he debuted at the December listening party were the products of his fi rst time intentionally creating artwork inspired by his music. Each canvas shares its title with a track from Glue of Everything, and each transports viewers into an entirely new realm, with audiences also receiving a sneak peek at unreleased tracks. “Shapes and Flowers,” which drops on March 25, is the second track on the album, and its corresponding painting depicts a mes- merizing and luminous vortex of golden leaves around a fl oating white orb. “That’s one of my personal favorite tracks,” says Hast- ings, “because in the song all these things are swirling around, but I manage to pinpoint and control the track when it’s kind of spinning out on me. … I think I like it so much because of how chaotic it is, but [also] how I was able to still wrangle it into making sense.” Another painting at the show, “Bleeding Light,” is as immersive as a two-dimensional work can get. Clocking in at eight feet square, this dynamic and vibrant piece renders layer upon layer of geometric forms and lush vegetation that somehow feel both alien and hospitable at the same time. “That piece, for me, was very much about giving people a safe space,” Hastings says, “It’s kind of like a gar- den that you feel like you could walk through, or have tea in, or just go and lie down in some weird fl uffy grass.” The correlating song is set to drop on Tuesday, January 21. While these new paintings mark a foray into blending his music and artwork, the intention to transport people to surreal places has been embedded in Hastings’s work throughout the years. As a prolifi c muralist, painter and illustrator, his body of work has been a continuous expression of imaginative, daydreamy elements and landscapes connoting a deep connection to the natural world. “It’s about stealing someone’s attention even just for thirty seconds,” he says. “If I can get somebody to not think about a bill or a health issue or an issue with somebody else, even just for the thirty seconds where they’re looking at that painting, that’s a win. Because you just teleported someone into a space that they can never get to in their normal life.” The album’s opening track, “Fall Into Floating,” was the fi rst song to be released, dropping just a few days before the listening party on December 14. As the title implies, it encourages listeners to let go and allow themselves to drift into another world. “I think that’s the most beautiful thing about art that we have,” says Hastings. “It’s like taking someone’s attention and literally just fl oating away. “The record feels like a beautiful version of myself,” he adds. “And I think it takes a little bit of age, wisdom and growing up to have the confi dence to put yourself out there and not just make music for other people. … I love the music I made when I was in my twenties, but I’m healthier now, physically and mentally, and I can make better music energetically that serves people in a better way because I, myself, am healthier. “It feels like it’s my fi rst real album,” he concludes. “It feels like it’s the fi rst time I’m actually being honest with myself, being confi dent in who I am as a human being and truly being authentic in being like, ‘This is my style, this is my voice, and this is what I want to say.’” RUMTUM’s music is available on Spotify and all other streaming platforms, and a selection of his artwork and murals is available on his website. Glue of Everything is set for release on Friday, May 30. MUSIC RUMTUM performing at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox. EMMA PION-BERLIN
