Chalumeau, the Rhode Island-based duo of Katherine Bergeron and Butch Rovan, releases “Hide,” a taut, rock-driven examination of betrayal. Unflinching and deliberate, the track trades melodrama for precision, exploring the disintegration of trust with clarity and control.
From the opening line—“Was that the best you could do?”—“Hide” positions itself as something closer to a cross-examination than a lament. Bergeron’s vocals cut through the dense instrumentation with composure, never straying into histrionics. The lyrics avoid abstraction; each line is grounded in a moment of personal reckoning. Rovan’s production reinforces this restraint—angular guitars and a stripped-back rhythm section drive the song forward with tension rather than volume.
The music video echoes the song’s structure. Stark cityscapes and lone figures emphasize distance and pursuit, reflecting the song’s core tension: the need to confront what has been hidden. Rather than dramatizing emotional collapse, the visuals emphasize movement and search—people navigating the aftermath of deception, trying to reorient.
Written during a pandemic-era road trip, “Hide” captures the claustrophobic energy of a world in lockdown. But unlike Chalumeau’s earlier genre-blending work—such as the Afro-Latin-inspired “Candombe” or the sultry jazz noir “Lies”—this track resists flourish. There’s no grand solo or sweeping chorus; instead, the duo opts for compression and restraint, evoking a simmering, controlled rage.
For Bergeron and Rovan, both interdisciplinary artists and educators, music is more than expression—it’s investigation. In “Hide,” they interrogate not only the betrayal itself but the silence and complicity that surround it. While some listeners may expect emotional release, Chalumeau instead offers a form of witness—music that observes, questions, and refuses to look away.