When Detroit-based musician Ian Ruhala started his borderless alt-indie project Hala, he was recording in the storage room of his parents’ house on a shoddy computer program. By the time he put out his gorgeous, retro, genre-hopping 2020 full-length Red Herring via Cinematic Music Group, he was co-producing and soaking up advanced techniques of engineering

Now, a new chapter starts as Ruhala returns to his roots as an independent musician, keen to learn, evolve, and explore every corner of his own sound. The release of a new single “Sins” and an accompanying music video celebrate this new-but-familiar journey.

“With life, and music, you gotta try everything once,” says Ruhala. “Red Herring had hints of rock, singer-songwriter, pop, country, and more. But I think the beauty of this project is I haven’t found my one particular sound, and I don’t plan on doing so.”

For Ruhala, the fun of Hala is that listeners are along for the ride, traveling down sonic rabbit holes with a lust for life and a broad, awe-struck grin. “That’s what I love about this journey through ‘Hala:’ you kind of learn with me,” he says. “You just have to understand that I want to try anything and everything.”