Interview with Evil of HURT
Boardwalk Show – November 23, 2002

I wanted to ask you why you guys had a year off? Was it strictly for recording? Why didn’t you play live in the meantime?

Yeah. We kind of just decided that we wanted to write a whole bunch of new songs. When we decided to do that we weren’t super thrilled about the Sacramento scene and we weren’t in any big hurry to get these songs done to get back out and play. We wanted to do these songs the best we could do so we can try to get our deal. As opposed, hurry up and be the biggest band in Sacramento again or the second biggest or the tenth biggest or whatever.

Is the scene still as competitive as it was when you left it a year ago? Is it getting less? More bands?

It still is. I mean we are kind of jumping right back in and it doesn’t seem like anything has changed. I mean oh look we’re playing with Tenfold again. They’re still here and we’re still here and LUXT is still here. All these bands are still here. It seems the same to me.

How do you feel going out tonight after a year? Do you think returning to stage will be comfortable for you?

Oh yeah. I mean we have been playing forever. Me and him (points at Colin Stambusky) started out in my first band.

Where did you record at?

We have our own big rehearsal place way out past the Cattle Club out in this all industrial area, nothing going on, just a bunch of auto repair shops and warehouses and a lot of drive-by shootings. So, we just recorded in this room that we rented and mixed at Tom’s house and kind of did the whole thing ourselves.

No rush?

Yeah. It was our rehearsal room, so we didn’t have to hurry up and record cuz you know no one else was coming in there and it wasn’t anyone else’s room, it was all our room. It was kind of the cool way to do it if want to spend time with the songs maybe this drum fill should be this or maybe I don’t need to play guitar right here or maybe if we sang this part instead of Andy screaming it would be better.
We just kinda really got into these songs and hopefully everyone will think they are as cool as we do.

Hurt was formed in what year?

Long ago. I don’t remember when.

And the songs that you are doing now, these seven, how are they different from when you first started? How did you come from when you first started to where you are right now?

Well the songs when we started out, it started out as just Andy, Tom and our old programing guy John and they spent 2 years writing all these songs… long story short they got me and Dave. So pretty much those songs were written before me and Dave were in the band. Godlike was kinda a little bit more of the same. A lot of those songs were already done. And now, we are all writing as these 4 guys. Everything is fresh for us. Now it is 4 guys making up Hurt as opposed to Tom and Andy going Hey we want to start this band and we have this idea blending electronics and techno music with metal. Thatís what we want to do. That is what the first couple of records were. Now these other song are different because itís more all 4 of us.

It’s more of a united song writing effort?

Yeah. So itís like some of the songs are a little heavier because I got in there and was you know I like more of the heavier music. We all kind of like the same music, but none of them are really into death metal or really crazy, crazy heavy music. I just kind of bring that. Tom is really good at melodies and he brings that to the table. Andy brings his lyrics and whatís going on in his life, thatís what he writes about. That kind of what I write about and Tom also writes about. So thatís another thing thatís different in these songs. Its like those songs are what happened back then and this is what is going on right now. So….

When you wrote for this particular album, what was the writing style? Where you guys doing a jam session, kind of come from a free flowing practice session, did someone come in with songs already for everyone to look at? How did you do it?

We … me and Tom were trying to bring in these song ideas and then let everyone get their 2 cents in and bend it whatever way they wanted to. We actually didn’t argue nearly as much as we normally do. I mean we are all like, we all have really strong feelings about how we want things to go. We all really want the same goal, but it’s just you know, I want it my way, Tom wants it his way and sometimes there is not a middle.

Do you think you guys have grown to a place where it is more of a partnership?

Yeah. On this recording we kind of grew up, not really grew up a little bit but more like we are a lot more comfortable with each other. So it’s like, I don’t have to go Tom is just doing this to get me or I’m doin’ this to get Tom. Any band that has been together for kind of as long as we have, kinda gets like this is my space and this is what I am the best at and kind of let me do this. I will let Tom do what he does and I don’t have to worry about it because I know if Tom is on it, it is getting taken care of. And Andy is doin’ his thing and that’s handled, so I don’t have to worry about if Andy is pulling his own or if Dave is pulling his own. Everyone just does their own thing and stays out of each other’s way kind of now. Respect each other a little bit more than we used to.

I think maybe that come from you guys being together for so long now and being able to take this time?

Yeah. Well that and we have been… we fight a lot but we all love each other, so. Thatís why we fight about it. If we didnít really care, then we would be more like ñ yeah whatever play your guitar part, Iíll play this other guitar part…you stay on your side and Iíll stay on my side.í Weíre trying to go ëWell, what is going to be the best thing for the song?í If itís my idea getting totally thrown out the window, then thatís fine with me because itís going to be a better song and that really all we care about. We donít care if itís like, ëTom wrote this song and hereís Tom shiningí. You know, its for the music and what the song needs. We are all musketeers now.

What else would you like me to know about this evening? What we are going to hear?

Just really theses new songs. That is the whole main point for playing, we want everyone to hear these new songs.

I asked to do this show, because I know that you had not performed in a year and I didn’t have the chance to see your last show. I haven’t seen any of the bands on this bill.

You haven’t seen us perform either? None of these bands?

I was in school.

Beat Officers are killer.

They’re fun. I got to talk to Dustin earlier and he is a kick in the pants.

We were doing a bunch of shows with them right before we decided to take the break. And the break just kind of ended up getting to be … let’s take some time off and write some songs. Now okay we have taken a couple of months and written 7 songs, now let’s record them. And that takes a little bit longer. Then its like let’s take a week off because we have heard these song s a hundred million times. And then, we have to get in and mix them. It is a long process and we didn’t want to rush through any of it. We had to do that before where we were in someone else’s studio and we were paying money that we didn’t have.

That’s good.

It’s cool that you haven’t seen any of these bands.

For me it’s like a brand new look at everything. I was out of the scene until I started managing Colin’s band.

Cool.

So I am jumping back in. Doing the reviews is my way of knowing what’s going on, who’s out there, who’s playing what, who has the good music going on, who I am not going to like that much. It has been interesting because it got me right back into it.

Yeah. We get people that like, some don’t like our style of music, they’re like “You are a fun band to watch and you look like you are having fun and you want everyone to be having fun when you’re playing”.