Interview

On August 3rd at The Vans Warped Tour in Camden, NJ, I had the honor to shoot the breeze (more like stifling heat) with indie rock veterans, Hot Rod Circuit. The band has recently released a new album, "The Underground Is A Dying Breed" on Immortal Records and has been rocking out on The Warped Tour all summer long. The following interview is with Andy Jackson and Dan Duggins.

EP: First of all, can you please tell me your names and what you do in the band?

Andy: I’m Andy, I play guitar and sing for Hot Rod Circuit. And that’s Dan, he plays drums.

EP: So I heard you guys got rained on pretty bad yesterday in Cleveland?

Dan: Yeah, the wind, the trail and shit was so strong. While we were trying to scramble all the gear back into the truck I couldn’t physically stand. I’ve never been blown over by wind before. I wasn’t carrying anything- I was just holding onto a big fucking sign so my wimpy body wouldn’t get blown the fuck over. It was great… it was gnarly.

EP: Is it strange to see how the music industry has changed so much since when you first started out? You’ve been a band for so long.

Andy: Oh yeah, it’s been crazy.

EP: And also- you just released a new record called "The Underground Is A Dying Breed"- which seems to be a reference to the state of music today. So can you talk a little bit about all this?

Andy: I dunno, I think that the internet’s awesome - I love it - but at the same time it’s destroyed music. You get to find out about bands for free that you wouldn’t have found out about, but at the same time, these bands can’t pay their bills because they’re not selling records, you know.

EP: I guess sometimes when young bands are starting out they don’t mind illegal downloading so much as long as their music gets heard, but what do you think?

Andy: When you’re a smaller band like us and you don’t sell any records it can really hurt you.

EP: You guys have been working real hard for years now.

Andy: Yeah we have fun, we like to rock out. Get hot and sweaty- that’s what you can do at Warped Tour.

EP: What are your thoughts on how the industry has been pumping all these bands who get big without technically paying their dues?

Andy: I mean, if a bands good, a bands good. For example, the other night, I heard some people talkin’ trash about Paramore, ‘cause they’re so young. It’s like you hear all this bad stuff about them. But I went and watched them the other day - and I’ve never heard their stuff before - but they smoked half the bands here. You know, they rock. There’s a reason they’re big.

EP: And then there’s other bands that kind of- well, I was reading something in some music magazine the other day about how Linkin Park - and I can’t believe I’m to bringing them up - but how they just jumped on the whole emo bandwagon and everything - and now rejecting the nu metal title, and touring with My Chemical Romance. I just thought it was kind of funny how they were trying to justify their “genre” situation.

Andy: Yeah, well for us, we just came from a different scene in music. We came from more of an indie rock scene which turned into an emo scene.

EP: Yeah, you were never trying to “be” something you weren’t.

Andy: A lot of people don’t even know where that music came from, you know. The first record they probably heard was Jimmy Eat World or something like that. But they have no idea that Jimmy Eat World listened to The Archers of Loaf and Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.- and that’s what we did, and that’s where were coming from. So its kind of weird because we’ve seen a whole generation of music just lapse.

EP: Yeah, and then some kids, if they don’t know of your band, they might think that you came along later than you actually did.

Andy: Yeah, definitely.

EP: What did you grow up listening to besides Dinosaur Jr.?

Andy: Archers of Loaf- that’s like the biggest thing that’s brought this band together. For me and Casey, that’s our favorite band. There’s this band called Fudge that was from Richmond, Virginia that was really cool.

Dan: Fuguzi

Andy: Yeah, Fugazi, great band.

Dan: And Minus the Bear… oh, have you seen that movie "American Hardcore"?

EP: Yeah, I saw that in the theater when it came out.

Dan: All those bands have influenced us.

EP: Have you heard Ian MacKaye’s new band with his wife? He’s doing an acoustic thing now called The Evens, its pretty good stuff.

Andy: Oh really, I hadn’t heard about that.

EP: Have you guys seen "The Simpson’s Movie" yet?

Dan: Yeah we saw it the other night.

Andy: It was awesome.

EP: Yeah, like one super long episode.

Dan: Exactly, like an hour and a half long episode.

EP: What about "Harry Potter"? No?

Andy: It was terrible!

EP: Oh, I’m a giant Harry Potter fan, so…

Andy: Oh no, I like the Harry Potter books, but that movie was awful. It was crap.

EP: Aww no, I wouldn’t say it was crap, I was gonna say that the book it’s based off of was harder to translate into a movie… but uhh…

Andy: Nah it sucked… pass. (laughs)

Dan: Neeext.

EP: Anyway Andy, I read a quote that you said, “No matter what, Hot Rod Circuit will always remain an underground band.” I think your press lady sent that to me or something.

Andy: I said that?

Dan: I guess you did.

Andy: Then I guess I did say it.

EP: Even though you’re on Warped Tour, which is really underground…

Andy: Watch our set at seven o’clock, and then you’ll see how underground we are! (laughs)

EP: Has your turnout been good?

Andy: It’s alright, I mean there’s days when it’s real good but then there’s days when it’s just like…

Dan: The people who come to watch our set- it’s the dudes from all the other bands.

Andy: Yeah that’s who watches our set, it’s all the bands on tour.

EP: Oh yeah ‘cause I was gonna ask you whether your fans have changed over the years- have they gotten younger?

Andy: Well the thing is, most of our fans- we have a few hardcore ones in every city, of course, that are gonna be here - and you’ll see those - and there’s not many. And then we have a lot of them who are definitely not gonna fucking be here, because they’re just too old to be. So a lot of the time it’s like we’re playing in front of kids who have never even fucking heard our name before.

EP: It’s so weird, I mean I’ve known about you guys for a long time now. How old are you?

Andy: I’m 32.

EP: Oh well, you don’t look 32.

Andy: Why, thank you.

Dan: Kill her. (laughs)

EP: Well, what about you?

Dan: I’m 31. I got called “old” yesterday. I mean I got called indirectly old. There was this girl and her friends sitting around in here, and they were talking about something or other and she said, “Yeah he’s so old! He’s like 32!”

Andy: We were like, “fuck!”

Dan: And I was literally sitting right here, I was like, “damn…”

EP: Do people ever try stalking you? Do you ever have any groupie fans chasing you around?

Dan: Nah, not really.

Andy: There’s been a couple of weird people we’ve run into along the way.

Dan: A couple of weirdos who ask for favors that we’ll never give them.

EP: Like what?

Dan: You know, they always want… like Warped Tour, for instance, everybody and their mom comes out of the fuckin’ woodwork - and they’re all like, “Can you get me in? Can you get me in to the show? Do you guys have extra tickets? It’s like “Look. This shit doesn’t work like that - they don’t give us a million backstage passes, there’s 60 fuckin’ bands here.”

Andy: The title has a little bit more to do with everything about this band too, I guess. The record, we did it all by ourselves- we did it in my studio.

EP: Yeah, I read that you produced it.

Andy: We didn’t have any funding for it at the time, and we just did it ourselves. Like when we’re on tour, we don’t have techs and tour managers. We’re all out there loading the truck- and loading Alkaline Trio’s gear everyday. (laughs)

EP: Well you guys are probably more mature than some of the other bands that are on this tour anyway.

Andy: Yeah, I would say that….maybe, maybe. Catch us later in the day, and maybe we won’t be so mature.

EP: Oh at that little picnic afterwards? Has that been fun?

Andy: Yeah well actually, they don’t usually have parties this year.

EP: Really? Why Not?

Andy: It’s like every 6th show we have a break. It’s usually been like bus call at 10 o’clock. Right down to business.

EP: So has it been fun anyway?

Andy: Yeah, it’s been a blast. I mean, I would do this every year. I love the Warped Tour - I hate it, but I love it at the same time. I just can’t stand the sun.

EP: Yeah, it’s really awful out today.

Andy: If Warped Tour had a big roof over it, then that would be awesome.

EP: Anyway, on to another subject, have you ever been approached by a major label? Although, I heard that your new record label, Immortal, acts sort of like a major even though its independent.

Andy: Yeah it’s… I mean I think they try to pretend they’re an indie label, but it’s funded by a major label. But we don’t see any money like it’s a major label.

Dan: But we definitely get treated like it’s an indie label, for sure.

EP: But then again, some major labels treat their bands like shit anyway.

Andy: That’s true. But Immortal seems to be really cool. But I guess we haven’t really gotten a grasp for anything yet. I mean our record came out, we did videos, we we’re doing all that - but I don’t really know what’s going on to tell you the truth. We just get up and play.

EP: Have any of your videos been on MTV or anything?

Andy: The new one, I dunno if it’s on MTV here, but I know it was on Euro MTV and stuff like that. But Houston was playing the video for a while and I guess they still are, I hope they are.

EP: You’ve switched labels a couple times in the past - from Triple Crown to Vagrant. Can you explain why you switched, and then why you were attracted to Immortal?

Andy: Triple Crown was just our first label. We started there and everything went really smooth. We really didn’t even have a reason to leave, but it was just that Vagrant at the time seemed, you know, more unobtainable than Triple Crown. And then it kind of fell into our hands, where we were like, “Ok, this could be awesome.” And so we did it. Right at that time though, we were also approached by Drive Thru, and MCA and all that crap- which was probably the only real major label offer we’ve ever had. But other than that, we signed to Vagrant, "Sorry About Tomorrow" came out, things were going really well, and then our next record- well, we just didn’t really do too much with it.

EP: Was that on Vagrant too?

Andy: Yeah, "Reality's Coming Through."

EP: "Sorry About Tomorrow" is probably your most well known record then.

Andy: Yeah it’s probably the only record - if anybody knows our band at all. I mean, most of our fans don’t even know that we just had a new record come out.

EP: Really?

Andy: Yeah, I mean they’ll be there watching us, and when we get done playing they’ll go and buy the new record and shit like that- and be like, “Man, that shit was really good, but I only knew three of the songs you played.”

EP: I knew about your new record coming out- but did you do any promotion for it? I forget how I found out about it.

Andy: Well we didn’t personally, but our label did. I mean, there were some ads. They did Alternative Press and stuff.

EP: I think I was almost surprised that you were still a band when I saw that you had a new record coming out, because I hadn’t heard anything about you guys in a while.

Andy: I think that’s what everybody keeps saying, it’s kind of weird. People thought we broke up, but all we did was take a year off. It’s amazing what can happen in a year, and we didn’t even really take a whole year off.

Dan: Yeah, and it wasn’t even necessarily that we decided on that though.

Andy: At first we decided, “Let’s take a fuckin’ year off,” but then we played about 6 or 7 shows anyway.

Dan: And the record, well, uhh… it just did what it did.

Andy: I think that the record itself wasn’t doing so good.

Dan: It basically got as closed to shelved as it could.

EP: How’s the new record been doing? I feel like that one has been doing better.

Andy: It seems like it. I mean, reviews have been good, but I don’t know exactly. I haven’t caught up with the numbers- I don’t keep up with all that crap. I haven’t even turned in my sound scan in, but whatever.

Dan: Vagrant signs a whole bunch of bands all the time.

Andy: They told us that we were starting to sound too country- but then they signed the Lemon Heads.

Dan: They told us the greatest thing- that we were a “shelf life” band. That we’ll sell records for 20 years consistently, but were never gonna be able to sell like a bunch at once.

EP: Ouch…

Dan: Yeah, we’re just sort of four nice dudes who like to play rock ‘n’ roll. We like to have a good time and put out some records and make enough money to support ourselves. But unfortunately, if you’re just a nice dude, and aren’t out there constantly working all the angles and shit, like some other bands do- you get screwed.

Andy: Yeah, because we don’t have a manager or anything like that.

EP: Who’s the most responsible out of all of you, who acts the most like a manager?

Andy: Pretty much me- but I’m not that responsible.

EP: About the Warped Tour in general- do you feel that it’s gotten too commercial recently?

Andy: Do you mean like band-wise? Because half the bands on tour this year, I’ve never fuckin’ heard of- so I don’t know how commercial that is.

EP: You’re right actually, because I was looking at the list this year about who I wanted to interview, and I was thinking that there weren’t very many bands…

Andy: I mean if anything, I’d say they’re kind of getting a little more punk rock or something- and it’s been a bigger year because of it, it’s kinda weird. I dunno, because I look at the schedule everyday, and I can pick like 5 or 6 bands on the whole tour that I know or have heard of.

EP: I see you’ve got a new iphone- how do you like it?

Andy: Sometimes I love it, but the last two days it’s been a little weird.

EP: Has anyone hacked into it?

Andy: No, can you?

EP: Apparently they were saying that on the news that people can hack into your information.

Andy: I don’t really have anything in there, except for phone numbers, you want my phone numbers?

EP: Oh, well I already have your number now because of the interview.

Andy: Exactly, hack away. I should put some naked pictures of myself on my iphone.

EP: Anyway, what’s the music scene like in New Haven? Are you guys from there?

Andy: I’m not from New Haven, but that’s where we’ve been based out of for a while, and we’ve all lived there for quite a while. We all live everywhere now though. I live in Alabama now, and Casey lives in Colorado, Dan lives in New York City, and Joe, our bass player, lives in Connecticut.

EP: I think you almost started talking about this before, but did you ever come to a time where you thought you would break up? Like after a certain record?

Andy: Yeah, I think every band probably does at a certain point.

Dan: After every record.

EP: What kept you guys together?

Andy: We’re dumb. (laughs) We’re like retarded, we don’t know how to break it off.

EP: But you guys are having fun though, so that’s all that matters.

Andy: Yeah, we have a good time. It’s all good.

EP: Alright, who’s the messiest in the band?

Andy: I would say that Joe is the messiest. He’s starting to clean up though.

Dan: Well, he’s not really messy, he’s just a little ADD.

EP: Yeah, I feel like everybody is now.

Dan: He goes from one thing to the next really quickly, and when he comes back around-

Andy: He’s got a little extra dose of it.

EP: Is he on meds for it?

Andy: He probably should be. (laughs)

EP: Okay, if you weren’t in a band right now, what do you think you’d be doing with your life?

Andy: I’d probably be doing what I do when I’m not playing in a band already, which is producing and recording bands.

EP: Oh yeah, can you talk a little more about that?

Andy: I have a studio called The Jackalope studio- my MySpace is the Jackalope studio. And I record bands all the time, its pretty much full time, it’s what I do.

EP: Who else have you recorded?

Andy: Most of the bands I’ve done are kind of small. I’ve done a few things here and there that like- I did some of the stuff for Casino- the guys from Northstar.

EP: Great band.

Andy: I’m working on recording tracks for the new Say Anything record with a bunch of bands that are on the tour. We’ve got Haley from Paramore singing and Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio. Most of the bands I’ve done are kind of “up and coming” bands.

EP: How are the new Say Anything tracks sounding?

Andy: Really cool, really cool. I did actually, I recorded the new Hot Rod record, and I just finished this record by this band called The Escape Frame that just signed to Immortal and it’s gonna be really cool too so…

EP: Oh I meant to ask you, why did you decide to move to Immortal?

Andy: Oh at the time we didn’t have a label and they were interested. They were cool with us making our own record the way that we wanted to, you know, they were like, “We’re cool with it” - they heard like two songs.

Dan: Yeah that was probably the biggest part, we wanted to record our own record and they said, “Whatever.”

Andy: Yeah they were like, “Awesome, do what you want to do.”

EP: So Dan, what would you be doing if you weren’t in this band?

Dan: Killing myself probably, I dunno…

EP: I hope not!

Dan: Nah I dunno… I really don’t like to do anything else. I mean that’s not true, I have lots of hobbies-

Andy: Running a news shop.

Dan: Yeah selling cigarettes? I dunno… a male prostitute? Actually, I dunno about that. Hmmm… if I couldn’t play music, I might be doing something similar to Andy. I’d be writing, producing, engineering, that sort of thing. But if I couldn’t do music at all, I don’t have any idea.

EP: I just finished school, but I still have no idea what I’m doing. I guess school doesn’t really help that much if you’re not focused on a particular career to begin with, I’ve realized.

Andy: I didn’t go to school to play rock ‘n’ roll or to learn the production to record bands.

EP: Well, I figure you learn more in real life anyway-

Andy: Exactly.

Dan: School is a catalyst to real life.

EP: Anyway, just a few more questions. What new music have you guys been listening to recently?

Andy: I listened to the new Circa record little bit for the last few days- just trying to wrap that one around my head a little bit.

Dan: I’ve got a bunch of live Death Cab For Cutie stuff lying around, so I’ve been just checking that out. I’ve also been revisiting a lot of old records.

Andy: I kinda have been too. I was listening to Super Chunk the other day. You know what I listened to? This really amazing record that a lot of people don’t know about for some reason. The Posies, “Frosting On The Beater.” Ever heard of that record?

EP: No, what’s it like?

Andy: Well, what kinda music are you into, do you like hardcore better, or-

EP: I like a lot of different stuff, but recently I’ve been listening to more electronic music.

Andy: Well, The Posies are straight up rock.

Dan: What electronic stuff have you been listening to?

EP: Recently, I've been listening to a lot of this French duo called Justice.

Dan: Oh yeah, I like them. I’ve been listening to a lot of Euro pop electronic stuff- it’s a pretty heavy scene there in New York.

Andy: I gotta go and grab somebody real quick, ill be back- did you have any other important questions?

EP: Not really…do you have any final words you’d like to say?

Andy: Buy our record.

EP: What time are you guys playing later?

Andy: At 7:00, at the big blow up Hurley stage that everybody thinks is the Ernie Ball Stage.

EP: Ok, I’ll be there.

(Andy leaves)

EP: What other electro bands have you been listening to latley?

Dan: I’ve been listening to this DJ named Ellen Alien. She’s killer, she’s from Germany. The sounds she comes up with are fucking amazing. She uses a lot of these Arp synths that are just kind of like cool vintage synth modules. They’re real expensive… but she’s great. Hmmm…I also like the Lily Allen stuff, produced my Marc Ronson, I think.

EP: What about Amy Winehouse?

Dan: I think her voice is frickin’ butter. Her voice is awesome.

EP: What do you think about her hair?

Dan: I think it’s big! I think her voice is incredible. I’d really like to hear her with a really killer band- a real tight Motown style group- somebody who’s immersed in all that stuff, because her voice slammin’.

EP: Apparently she has a hard time showing up at concerts though.

Dan: Yeah, she had like 5 shows booked at South by Southwest, but she only played one.

EP: Oh, did you guys play there this year?

Dan: Well, Andy went down and played acoustic, but I didn’t go this year. But I have a bunch of friends who were all down there all jonesing to see Amy Winehouse- but she canceled and canceled.

EP: I’ve wanted to go to South by Southwest, but I haven’t made it there yet because it’s kinda hard to get there during the year.

Dan: Its cool, you should go. It’s worth it. It’s way better than… not that the Warped Tour is bad, but it’s just a different kind of festival.

EP: There’s a lot more indie rock type bands there, I guess?

Dan: There’s bands of all types and all sounds- but it’s smashed into 3 or 4 days- but not so much of the same sound.

EP: And no parents with their kids.

Dan: Yeah, and there’s a shitload of industry people who go, and a lot of people from Europe fly over for it. So you have Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen and people like that, doing really cool shows that are small and intimate, and a lot of industry people. It’s just a different environment all together…

As Casey and Joe (the two remaining members of Hot Rod Circuit) climb back onto the bus, the interview is pretty much complete. “It’s hot as balls outside,” they say. “It’s gonna be fuckin’ crazy later.”