Hypnogaja

“A cinematic, genre-fluid sound marked by tension, control, and precision.”

— New Music Moves

“Luscious and haunting in equal parts, Hypnogaja reinvents their commanding musical presence framed by atmospheric sonics and emotive songwriting.”

— EARMILK

“Frontman ShyBoy remains the gravitational center. His voice carries weight, not just technically, but emotionally. ”

— alt recess

Hypnogaja • My Dreams Have Teeth (Expanded Edition)

Out now

Hypnogaja's dark, cinematic rock has a way of getting to people before the band's name does. Nearly a million listeners a year find them on Spotify alone. Their hard-hitting take on Eurythmics' "Here Comes the Rain Again" is past 30 million streams and still climbing. To Devil May Cry fans, frontman ShyBoy is the voice of "Shall Never Surrender," the battle anthem he co-wrote and sang, with tens of millions of plays.

They've been too busy making music to chase attention, and the fans showed up anyway. The comments under their YouTube videos read like love letters.

Their songs have soundtracked hundreds of moments across television, film, trailers and games. ShyBoy and keyboardist Nubar scored Bryan Fuller's Emmy-nominated docuseries Queer for Fear and wrote additional music for his Mads Mikkelsen and Sigourney Weaver film Dust Bunny, a number one on HBO Max. ShyBoy remixes icons like Donna Summer and RuPaul, and his monthly LGBTQ+ club residencies in Los Angeles and San Francisco have packed thousands onto the dance floor. Then there's guitarist Jeeve, a Latin Grammy-winning producer whose credits run from Giorgio Moroder to Bruno Mars.

With My Dreams Have Teeth (Expanded Edition), they put their own name on all of it. Out now on Snafu Records via FUGA/Virgin Music, the new edition adds four songs to an album Spotify and Apple Music editors have already backed. It's closing in on seven figures in streams and views. Next, the band steps in front of the camera: a live-action short film built around the record's most-streamed song, "This isn't going to end well...," and the new fan favorite "Sympathy is a knife." A hand-drawn animated video for "Open/Wide" follows.

The focus track, "Lost Days," is retro-future synth pop, and it was only the second song they wrote for the album. The pressure of starting from a blank page is right there in the words: "As I try to write the perfect phrase," ShyBoy sings, "a perfect new refrain."

Two of the new songs make the record's boldest moves, bringing ShyBoy's after-dark pop life all the way into Hypnogaja. On "Wonderful Wonderful," British singer-songwriter Pixie Lott steps into the band's world with a haunting pop-rock melody, trading verses with ShyBoy before the two settle into close harmony and stay there. It isn't a love song. They sound calm while the world comes apart around them, singing "wonderful wonderful" anyway. Jeeve, who co-produced her album Encino, made the introduction. For all its pop warmth, the song landed on Apple Music's New in Rock playlist. Its two biggest audiences sit on either side of the Atlantic, with Germany close behind.

On "Sympathy is a knife," they pull Charli xcx's brat-era touchstone into the dark and rebuild it as a rock record, blade intact. Fans have been asking for more of that sound ever since. One comment reads, in full: "plz do an entire album like this." The band may already be planning one.