Hating on Day Jobs

“This album was supposed to come out last December,” says Lualta singer Michael Roger Hernandez, “but, when we were in the studio fixing up the kinks, we all had different opinions and ideas about how it should sound. We went in over and over again, just changing and adding shit.”

As for the album title, Nobody Loves You When You’re Down, “A lot of the tracks were written at a very low and dark point in my life,” says Hernandez. “[The title track] is speaking of a breakup and self-reflecting on how you’ve become nothing that you anticipated in life. One line in the song says, ‘Take your wine and your records, to me they don’t mean nothing.’ Obviously, trying to convince oneself that they don’t give a f*ck about a breakup is clearly a lie.”

A release party for Nobody is taking place February 12 at the Beauty Bar in City Heights. “One of the best piano players in town, Joey Guevara of Lady Dottie and the Diamonds, is gonna join us onstage. Mike Kamoo — who recorded the album — is also on the bill, with his band Lights On. Hopefully, our set will deliver the same as the album; loud with balls, but soft at heart.

“We hope to really hit the ground running with this album. We have to. This could be our only chance at some sort of refuge. We all hate our day jobs.”