Posted on April 18, 2010 - by Editor

Hepcat: More To Come?

Greg Lee - Hepcat © Imelda Michalczyk

When the Hepcat show was announced for London some months ago, Distorted had to double check it was THE Hepcat that were to grace Europe and London on a brief tour. The reason for our doubts of course is that the legendary LA band had not ventured to the UK for over a decade. On confirming the bands genuine intentions we wasted no time in trying to secure an interview and waited excitedly for the show to arrive!

For those who are less familiar with Hepcat, the band formed in 1989/90 and for a decade lead the ska movement; lovers of a mixture of styles and enthusiasts of older records and sounds they carved out a name and sound that stood head and shoulders above the generic third wave phenomenon which took grip of mainstream “ska” during the latter part of the 90’s. Sadly in 2000 the band announced a break and it took close to four years before the band announced they were playing again, although sporadically and over the last seven years still mainly concentrated in and around Los Angeles. The last full length record of material is was released a decade ago (‘Push ‘n Shove’)

On the night of the London show the interview pre show didn’t materialise but vocalist Greg Lee greed to speak to us after the gig. It’s rare for Distorted to do post show interviews but it would be great to get the guys views on the night and sum up what was the final show of a European sojourn.

Making our way to the bands tour bus, we were greeted by the most modern and comfortable accommodation on wheels we had yet seen! Greg Lee and Efren Santana (Saxophonist) were ready to talk about Hepcat, the unwritten road ahead and the tour to date. Asked how they felt about the show that night (after it being demoted to a smaller venue which was a surprise and enduring cramped conditions on stage and roasting under hot stage lights Greg responded with a frustrating shake of the head.

Greg: It’s tough when you try and reciprocate energy with the crowd and not being able to see them; I was like what am I doing up here?

Steve: It’s been 11/12 years since you last played in the UK, and my understanding is that since 2003 you play sporadically around LA. So where are things at the moment for Hepcat?

Greg: Well we are calling this as building or rebuilding. We have been gone so long we weren’t sure if we ever wanted to tour international again. We were not sure if we wanted to tour locally ever again? It just kept happening, we almost tried to not play for a while but then we would get the call and sure enough people who didn’t want to play now wanted to play. And I guess Efren and I who have been the rocks I guess, have always wanted to play, so we would play.

Steve: And is that due to people in the band having other commitments or what?

Greg: I can’t say, only because it’s a personal thing. But I was always thinking; we have toured for 12 years why wouldn’t we play?

Steve: Well the name Hepcat still rings highly with people that enjoy good music and ska. So this building process…

Greg: Well that’s where it’s going, we had one show, and then another. We had a meeting and I said hey guys; the way it’s always been with Hepcat is we started with a backyard party and we went to being on a tour bus and playing the Vans Warped tour. So when we play and it’s just one show what are you the guys wanting to do when they say, “hey why don’t you guys come over to Europe?” And everybody said “no we are not going to”, but here we are now! So we are just going with it as it comes. We have enough songs to write an album, to make a new record; but that’s a whole other step. We had a 12 year block in between so we are a little gun shy, or little bit afraid to get on stage…

Hepcat © Imelda Michalczyk

Steve:  But it’s not like everyone has not been playing in other bands and involved in music over the 12 years?

Greg: No not at all. Pretty much everyone has done different projects except me; I went away to the jungle.

Steve: Costa Rica, right?

Greg: Yeah how did you know that? I always thought it would be great movie, for a ska band to play for a long time and then one of the lead singers goes away to the jungle? But I loved it there, it was great but it was time to come home. Oddly enough right when I got home, these here guys were like “hey we want to play a show!” And one show lead to another, and another and the question was again, what happens when we get offered to play in Europe, or Japan or Brazil and they said they want to do it, so here we are.

Steve: And the fans are grateful! So the touring side of things, have you enjoyed playing again and being on the road?

Greg: Definitely, I mean look at the travel, the people reading this maybe can’t see, but I’m sure you can describe it to them (and believe me I have seen some tour busses, and this is the nicest and most modern I had seen, clean, big fridges, TVs, kitchen and probably a hot tub in the back where I could sneak a peek!) It’s been pretty amazing. And Brian (the coach driver sitting nearby) always turns down the beds for us and holds us and sings a lullaby (crack up laughing).

Steve: The full service!

(Greg starts singing a lullaby and they all burst out laughing.)

Steve: Not looking too far ahead but what’s happens after Europe, back to LA and?

Greg: Yeah back to LA and complete some songs, finish some writing I been working on and then go back to our own corners and not look at each other for a little while, we find that’s healthy, and then the offer will come in to do the next thing and we will be off doing it.

Steve: I think the last tour you did was in the US with Flogging Molly?

Greg: Yeah, and we just played with Nate from Flogging Molly (on tour with his Original Bunnymen outfit) Yeah we played in Amsterdam.

Steve: So with the band, breathing space aside, are the band all friends and hang in similar circles or is there a professional divide.

Greg: We have known each other a really long time and our circles have grown, often we might go to a random show and

Hepcat © Imelda Michalczyk

four guys from Hepcat will be there and none of us knew we would be there. We don’t, like we used to, call up and say “hey, what are you doing tonight?” I think we are all too busy and have all grown past that.

Efren: We all have so many things to do; it’s harder to co-ordinate any type of outing.

Steve: So I imagine it’s nice to have these short periods of time together too, on such a nice bus.

Greg: Yeah, no hotels.

Steve: None?

Greg: Nope, well maybe one but we have been living on the bus.

Steve: Ok let’s talk about music; in the interim while the band has been away on breaks and touring,  when you guys were hitting your peaks in the 90s, there was the third wave craze which has since died down and now bands are again looking back at the roots and reggae. Have you kept abreast of bands and what they are doing over the past few years?

Greg: Yeah but only cos they keep sending us stuff and were like “hey man, we covered your song”.

Steve: Is that humbling?

Greg: Very. I have like five songs recorded by I can’t even tell you by how many different bands and all in different ways. That was when like, maybe we should play? If they haven’t got over us! Like, go make you own songs (he says with humour.)

Steve: I suppose that’s a sign of respect too.

Greg: Totally. Going back to your original third wave as they called it, that happened for sure and for us going through that and playing the same time as all those bands you have to understand it was a lot of work, cos all the kids were there to see punk rock ska, not us. So we worked really, really, really hard to establish ourselves and it almost seemed like the second we tapered off is when the whole thing dropped. We didn’t have enough strength to carry on anyhow, but fortunately bands like The Slackers, The Aggrolites and quite a few other bands have stepped up. But there is still room; it’s not quite…full? (Choosing his words).

Steve: Definitely there is always space for more. In terms of your own influences, which bands lead you down that road of ska, dub, reggae and you knew that was a sound you wanted to play?

Greg: Skatalites, for sure. But also we would listen to quite a wide variety of music. I mean with The Skatalites I didn’t like them at first, like “man I can’t take this stuff”. But then I started listening to more Latin and more soul and all sorts of music and I would go back to The Skatalites and I would go like “Oh, that’s the how good they are, they incorporate all these things in a single song” and then the next song would be completely different and that made it instantly something we had to do. We love the Latin the bossa, the samba, rock steady, ska, we love all these things. To combine them and work them into one song; the mechanics of that. Trying to figure out a way to have a song with all these elements that’s the beauty of it, that’s the fun. And to turn around and play it to people who are losing their minds and they don’t know why, it’s because of all these different elements of music have been combined into one song.

Steve: I think that one thing that’s underrated; so many bands I have spoken to like The Slackers and The Aggrolites you mentioned, were not professional musicians when they started and ska, or quality ska is a skilled thing.

Greg: You know it’s funny because it is a difficult thing to learn to play it well, and I’m not saying we do but the people that I enjoy listening to that play it well; all of them I noticed when I talk to them, like I was talking to Ritchie (Dr Ringding) the other night and we realised we had this thing in common that we have with so many other bands. We were all kids in school that would go to the record store with our little bits of money and we would buy a record and go home on the bus (acting this out) reading the liner notes word for word, trying to figure out which player was on which songs and it was before it was popular, before the Skatalites had come back in play, before all these guys were playing…Well, in England it was different of course.

Efren: Before people were accessing things only on the internet.

Greg: Yeah we would steal a mom’s car and drive eight hours to go to a record store and all those people that did that and I can hear them play that they really know it and they love it. And there are a lot of people that got into it because ska got cool for a minute. Just like in the third wave.

Hepcat © Imelda Michalczyk

Steve: A couple things you just said there; that enjoyment of going to record stores and searching out music and pouring over the record and booklets or whatever; tangible music, that’s disappearing cos of the digital mindset.

Greg: Yeah it’s gone.

Steve: But vinyl is coming back?

Greg: It’s coming back but you don’t have to really hunt for it; to find a Studio One 45 once upon a time was Valhalla. I remember running out of vinyl records going “oh my god, oh my god” (animated and excited at the memory), now everybody has them. One thing I was talking about on stage; Alex and I were saying before the show that song  “Goodbye Street” and (singing the lyrics) “I don’t want to walk alone, I don’t want to walk alone”  I can’t express to anybody the feeling we had when Deston (keys and vocals) came up with it he was like “I don’t know what to man, I got this part, I don’t want to walk alone girl” (Greg singing how it sounded originally and out of tune) and suddenly (singing it like we know today, with wide eyes and smiling) I was so excited I couldn’t even say it, and everybody was like “do it again!” It’s kind of like Smokey Robinson coming up for The Temptations (singing the lyrics). You get the feeling; this is going to last forever!

Steve: That’s great even the way you tell the story so animated like you were still there, you can tell you still get excited!

Greg: You should have seen it, we were dancing around, I can’t remember whose house we were at but we were bouncing like “Oh my God” (bouncing on his chair and saying repeatedly). Let’s do the next one, do the next one. That for me is not just playing chords, not just playing ska, you’re playing something that you love, it touches you it really gives you goosebumps. When you are writing a song it feels so good. But so many people are like “yeah let’s play the ska song” (mimicking and mocking strumming the same chords) it’s not the same thing.

Steve: We heard that from a few people recently. About longevity in the music industry, if your hearts not in you won’t last.

Greg: Sure, yeah but I mean ska has remained so popular from 3rd wave to now like its switched over to being cool, especially like The Aggrolites “like we are aggros, whoo go crazy” (Greg says in a mocking butch voice). So now suddenly everybody is playing it, but it doesn’t work that way; ya know The Aggrolites do that because whichever member was going through records was like “listen to this record and listen to this record, that’s what I want to play. For other bands to pop up and say yeah let’s do what The Aggrolites are doing; there is no foundation there.

Steve: I remember Jesse (Wagner of The Aggrolites) was saying the same thing a while back, with chasing down records, especially in LA.

Greg: Yeah I remember Jesse going (Greg in his bratty kid voice) “You know where I got this record, hey Greg, hey

Hepcat © Imelda Michalczyk

Greg.” (Laughing).

Efren: Yeah we have known Jesse since he was 16.

Greg: Yeah we love that guy.

Steve: I can see what you are saying with bands becoming total copycats of bands like The Aggrolites.

Greg: Yeah and in LA a lot of bands became copycats of Hepcat. And I think for us that kind of broke the camel’s back before. We would play a show and there would be a band and we would be like “that chord progression sounds a lot like ours…” and then every show became boring, I don’t mean to say that with a big head I say that because I saw it. (Efren saying he did too ad nodding in agreement)

You just get bored, no one was doing their own thing and no one was making me excited by what they have done, it was a wonderful thing because we made something and made other people excited; that was great but if you go and just copy us well we just got bored.

Steve:  A lot of bands are getting back together, like The Specials.

Greg: Yeah I think a couple days after we get back to LA we are seeing them; everyone I know is going to see The Specials. And that has nothing to do with us playing again- it just happened.

Efren: We have been playing on and off again since 2003, so we got back together theoretically a long time ago.

Greg: Ya know it would be great if, sure we were playing for the kind of money The Specials get paid, maybe we would get back together but we’re not at all. Were going home from this with nothing-doing it cos it’s strictly to come out and say hello, so show we are still alive and appreciate what we did way back when.

Steve: Everyone seems to be doing well then overall, how did do you feel about the shows so far? Have they all as small as tonight.

Greg: (Sniggering) No, they have all been bigger than this. That was a little tough when we got here this morning. Our thing is a lot of movement and engaging with people. First of all not being able to see. And second of all not being able to move. Everything for me kind fell apart cos it’s all about reciprocating energy- the longer we can get that going we can play for two days straight, but without it… (shaking his head) But yeah we have been really happy, we realised what were saying before this tour; that we can’t afford a soundman, we kind if can’t afford not to have a soundman, no matter what it takes. From club to club every engineer and soundman believes they know what we want and it’s not.

We had a guy, maybe I shouldn’t say it, in Amsterdam the guy got creative with us.  Like sure get creative but with ska, it’s pretty much what it is and you can’t club it out.

Efren & Greg © Imelda Michalczyk

Efren: The bands doing pretty much everything that it needs to be doing.

Greg: Yeah and effects live? Nah. (Shaking and grinning his head).

The signs are looking positive that Hepcat are enjoying things together and with the potential of new material and possible future touring we can only hope that the band once again regularly visits the UK, Europe and elsewhere. The guys are genuinely enthused by music and their love and appreciation of music past and present combined with their own abilities is an enticing and powerful combination and one which fans will hope to see more of in years to come.