Posted on July 5, 2010 - by Editor

Hot Water Music: All Fired Up

Hot Water Music © Imelda Michalczyk

When Hot Water Music put the band on hiatus in 2006, fans may have feared the worst for one of the best loved and respected punk rock bands around. Thankfully Chuck Ragan, Chris Wollard, Jason Black and George Rebelo started playing again by 2008 after all had been performing in other acts and although it’s taken a couple years longer for the band to return to London, their first show in the Queens capital for five years, the wait proved worthwhile. Pre-show Distorted took our time chatting to Chuck Ragan and Jason Black about being on the road (this time with David Raun on drums), getting their creative writing juices flowing again, new record talk, the camaraderie and positive vibe from having no unnecessary external pressures and also debating flash in the pan punk bands.

We found Chuck Ragan in the bowels of the Islington Academy building fulfilling his band-press duties, although he hardly ever makes anything feel like a chore but an opportunity. As he wraps up one lengthy interview he makes his way over and greets us with his unassuming but warming grin and embracing as if a long lost friend re-united. Chuck Ragan doesn’t struggle to fit the ‘nicest man in punk rock tag’; its bestowed by his peers and fans to a hard working and sincere gentleman and last time round whilst performing his solo shows that was plain to see. Of course Chuck Ragan’s reputation had already been built on a foundation of performing with Hot Water Music for more than a dozen years inspiring a generation of bands and garnering a healthy respect from a all too often cynical punk rock community that couldn’t dent their genuine heartfelt intentions. Of course Hot Water Music is not just about Chuck Ragan, with each member forming part of the puzzle and between them offering a smorgasbord of punk rock offerings through various solo and collective projects.

As Chuck offers a drink we stepped outside for him to catch some fresh air before returning within the subterranean heart of the venue to start our own inquest, and Chuck offers to grab bassist Jason Black to join us.

Steve: So this tour, you have been going through Europe and doing a mixture of festivals and club shows and now you find yourself in London for a sold out show. How have you found the reaction so far to HWM being back on the road?

Chuck: Yeah, to us, since we have been doing shows again the past couple years, honestly it’s been more like a family reunion more than anything else. We have toured over here for years and over those years we have been lucky enough to have amazing folks and communities invite us in and the clubs or the squats or their homes and venues or whatever. I mean the more you come over the more you develop those relationships and even if you only see each other for a short amount of time every year or 10 months or something like that. Since we took the break and coming back on it and just going around we are seeing people we haven’t seen, some of them for 7, 8, 9 years and it’s just wonderful. Another thing that has been fantastic is right now, we have no expectations… We are completely free agents, we don’t have a label, and we don’t have anybody pushing any kind of schedule on us. We are just doing this for the sheer fun and love of doing it and its just a blast.

Chuck is always quick to praise everyone else; it’s his modest, humble and sincere way. Many musicians do so seemingly as a contractual obligation

Hot Water Music © Imelda Michalczyk

but there is real appreciation in Chucks slightly drawn out accent and words.

Steve: But you have probably earned that right though? The band has been going for a long number of years so it’s great not to have that pressure.

Chuck: Yeah you definitely make sacrifices for sure, to say the least. Yeah we have done it for a long time and at the same time we owe the people that have given us this just as much. It’s not just us.

Steve: So when is the last time you actually played the UK?

Chuck: Oh wow.(Looking embarrassed with a sheepish grin and racking his brain)

Steve: It’s been a while?

Chuck: (Laughing) Yeah. I wish Jason was here to answer that. Yeah it’s been a while and I have been coming here doing the solo stuff and to me it feels like it all just blends together. I would have to ask the boys as I honestly can’t remember.

Steve: I know when you were here earlier in the year it was the first time I had seen you play live and what first struck me was that the fans are fanatical and they are so passionate, so dedicated and so into it and I have rarely seen it to that extent. And it works both ways I suppose as you give it back from the stage. Can you put your finger on what it is? There is something with HWM and all the bands other projects as well, that little bit extra special?

Chuck: I mean we definitely believe we have the best fans in the world (laughing). But honestly I guess if I were to answer that it’s simply because we are just honest with the people that come to hear the music and it’s because of these people that we are even here to begin with. First and foremost we write music for our own therapy; it’s almost like keeping diaries or journals and to self reflect you have to be honest with yourself and we have always been a band that wears our heart on our sleeves and bring it to the people. So we’re just not wired to do it any other way and we want to just give out everything we have and if people connect to it and give a little back it just keeps that cycle going. But what people pick up on is that we want everybody at our shows to treat each other equally and that’s been the most important thing for us for sure.

Jason enters the room trying to be quiet but apologising for the noise he almost comically makes in his attempts to keep quiet! And adds”Yeah that was nowhere near as quiet as I thought I was going to be!”

Steve: No problem, we were just talking about fanatical fans, last week at West Coast Riot in Sweden just about every band on the bill mentioned you guys as a band that they respected or would look up to, so even other bands and artists have massive respect for you which must bring a feel good factor, there is a all round genuine appreciation for HWM from fans and bands.

Chuck: (almost uncomfortable with praise)Yeah it is amazing but for us as a band travelling with other groups or bringing the music to the people it just comes down to common courtesy and treating people the way you would want to be treated. Its really as simple as that.

Steve: On the flip side then do you see with younger bands some that might not having the right attitude, can you identify that in some bands?

Jason: (less prone to sit on the fence with his answers and quicker talking) I mean yes and no, it’s hard. Every band goes through it, but if you overshoot your mark then you generally are going to have an unfulfilling experience doing it. You are always going to try and improve and get bigger or whatever but if that’s the only reason you end up doing it and your main focus all the time then you are going to lose out on the fact that anyone likes your band. Like “oh we only had 300 people and not 500” Well that’s 300 more than most bands! It’s a lot easier for bands to get caught up in that these days playing this type of music cos there are more bands in this general scene getting pretty popular but most of them don’t last as long so you get that trade off too.

Hot Water Music © Imelda Michalczyk

Steve: Chuck, you were saying earlier about not having the pressure at the moment and a lot of bands going the DIY route cos the labels are crashing around them. So do you think there will be more flash in the pan bands?

Jason: Oh yeah absolutely.

Steve: And you have seen that already?

Jason: Yeah there are tons of bands that are huge for six months right now and that happens a lot in the UK with press; bands being popular like boom, boom, boom, and that’s happening in the States now too. Yeah there are more bands and its way easier; you don’t even need a studio anymore, or even know how to fucking play, just put it on a program and you can even put that on the PA and run around on stage and yell. (Chuck laughing at his friend) The lowest common denominator has dropped a lot and that will result in more flash in the pan bands and that’s the danger with becoming really popular that at some point in time you will become unpopular. Everyone is going to be there to kick you on the way down! (Both of the guys pack up laughing at the comment)

Steve: Is that from personal experiences?

Jason: No we luckily have never had so much of a drop off because it’s been such a slow build ya know.

Chuck: We never had a big push ya know, which is fine. To us it was always more important to be a band 20 years from now rather than blow up and make a ton of money, break up six months down the road. But what he (Jason) is saying is how important it is to treat people the way you want to be treated. It seems like; well I guess I shouldn’t talk too much…

Jason: (Jumping in) There are a lot of bands that treat people like shit and it’s because they are listening to what everyone is telling them (Chuck nodding in agreement) and everyone goes through that, I went through that personally for a little while and it’s not impossible to say to someone in another band that you don’t like their band, but you don’t have to treat them poorly when you do that. I have a lot of friends that know I don’t like their bands and its fine, we still hang out.

Chuck: A lot of the young generation get this massive buzz about them and that’s great, I’m stoked for them. But they seem to be living so much for that day and don’t realise that if you want to be a musician and be in the music industry, all those people around them will be there 25 years from now. And again it’s just a common courtesy thing, like any other industry or job, when you break it down in that way. Whether you get along with that person or not you treat that person with respect and you better believe what comes around goes around.

Steve: A lot of younger bands at the moment getting increased popularity, and we recently spoke to Chris Creswell the singer from The Flatliners (both nodding and Chuck adding that he thinks Chris is a great guy) and they seem so grounded with decent success on young shoulders. Do you find the younger bands that tour on the road with you do ask the right questions?

Jason: Usually the bands that do tour with us are cool and know about stuff and are in the right frame of mind and I think we are pretty good at choosing those bands but we have had a couple here or there, ya know. They don’t ask questions, they just get loaded and do whatever all night long and that’s fine. They don’t come back. That’s what happens.

Chuck: It’s a sad thing but it has to be that way, that’s how we weed off the music that we like and dislike right? That’s natural selection (laughing).

Steve: In terms of new material, more recent interviews I have read have seen a distinct lack of mentioning new material, so are there definite plans

Chuck Ragan © Imelda Michalczyk

in the works?

Chuck:  For us? Yeah we wrote a new song last night, it might take a while.

Steve: But I would assume you are putting the most pressure on yourselves with this?

Jason: We want to put stuff out just as much as everyone wants us to.

Chuck: And it’s going to be about timing and making it good.

Jason: We have put out a lot of songs and there is no reason to put out shit ones now.

Chuck: We want to do it when it feels right and when it feels real. We are all really enjoying writing again and that is cool, there is no pressure, being free agents and no-one putting schedules in front of us except for ourselves and we are just wide open in that aspect.

Steve: And is this time together on tour a good place to be together and writing with you all living in other places and having other projects.

Jason: It’s tough, writing on the road is tough cos you are just trying to get through being on the road the whole time, ya know?

Chuck: Not only that but we might play a great show and there might be that one person that can only think about finding a shower and somebody else has to go to that bar and find a bed or…it’s tough to align everything.

Steve: So how will the writing process shape up, would you be emailing each other things after the tour?

Jason: More so than in the past, cos the last time we wrote a record I don’t even know if we all had email so…(laughing) it’s been six years or whatever, so it will be easier to get everything further along to a point. But we will need to be in the same room to put it together.

Chuck: And we are all getting together in July, at the end of July in Florida and just hammer things out. We all have a massive amount of material, that we have all been writing individually. That’s the way it always has worked, where we all just write individually and come together as a collective and rip the songs to pieces and put them back together. And that’s the way it’s going to work.

Steve: Will the dynamics have changed with everyone having written and played in other bands and projects since the last recording? Will this record then be quite different to the past?

Jason: It could be, I think probably in a good way. I think that since we haven’t done it together for so long it will probably be a little bit less contentious and a lot more just like proactive maybe? Less nitpicking with each other and that sort of thing.

Steve: And you all know each other well enough you can still tell someone if a shit idea is a shit idea.

Jason: Yeah absolutely.

Chuck: See that’s what I believe.

Jason: Yeah well that too, and that can happen and it won’t be like we have been out here…(pausing) well we have been there before where we were writing for hours every day.

Chuck: And we were always under the gun!

Jason: And we were under the gun and living in the same town, so now all that is not there so it can’t get too crazy.

Chuck: I’m stoked for it, even the stuff we have come up with already is the best stuff we have already done. And its complete raw early, early stage stuff, we just got to keep trucking and stack it up and it feels good.

Steve: Ok we will leave that for now. You guys played the Vegas Punk Bowling weekend this year, how was that?

Jason: Yeah it was fun, it was real good.

Chuck: It was a blast, the Stern brothers did a really impressive job organising that thing, it was pretty intense and a massive production and that was fun. And Dave Raun (Lagwagon) is playing drums for us as George (Rebelo) is playing full time with Against Me! right now, with no say in his schedule right now and Dave Raun is an old friend to all of us. We suggested it and George gave his blessing , like “yeah go for it.” Dave has been something else and that Punk Rock Bowling was his first show for us.

Steve: Quite the daunting audition show?

Jason: It was funny cos I thought yeah it would be a good rehearsal show and then it was like “shit there are 3500 people”, a little bigger than I was thinking, ah whatever.

Chris Wollard © Imelda Michalczyk

Steve: How did he pull through?

Both: He killed it, he was great.

Chuck: He is such a pro and a great guy to be on the road with, always hungry and positive.

Steve: Is this the first time you have been on the road with him?

Jason: Um, we did Warped Tour together a few years ago when he was playing with Good Riddance.

Chuck: But this is the first time we have lived on the same bus and in close quarters with him. He is great; he is fantastic, just like we figured. We through as much and he fit right in and gelled.

Steve: How is that going to affect things for when you get together in July or have you not thought about that?

Jason: Um we will have no-one in July (laughing).

Chuck: We will just write between us.

Jason: We will be working on music, not to say drums aren’t music, but you know what I mean.

Chuck: Just structures and lyrics and everything….and probably flooding George’s email (both laughing).

Steve: Ok wrapping things up, you have a couple dates after tonight and then you are done. What’s next?

Jason: Yeah a couple more and then we fly to Canada.

Chuck: Yeah we go to Calgary for one show, the Sled Island festival and then we are done. The next thing we have booked is December in Australia with The Bouncing Souls, which should be awesome and ridiculous.

Steve: Is that a full tour?

Jason: Yeah a full tour and probably include New Zealand, about seven shows.

Chuck: As many as they let us do (laughing).

Steve: I know last time we spoke Chuck about longevity, and The Bouncing Souls you mentioned have celebrated 20 years this year. Are there regrets from yourselves with the hiatus and breaks HWM took, or were they necessary evils?

Jason: I think they were necessary and I don’t think they would have happened if they weren’t, so not really.

Chuck: I think it was all totally necessary.

Jason: Yeah everything feels comfortable still and it’s taken us playing for two years to go “hey let’s make a new record” and to get it going.

Steve: Are you getting tired yet of people asking you about the new record? (Grinning)

Jason: (Laughing) No, not at all.

Chuck: What would really bother me is if we stuck together through all of that and beat ourselves into the ground and then just been like “yeah I guess it’s time to write another record” and write it and not caring and sing it and not caring. Like I said I just don’t think we are that kind if band and not really wired that way. I can’t picture that happening.

Jason: And now the first sign of anyone burning out, someone would be like “dude I need a break”.

Chuck: Plus we are honest with our fans and they are honest with us, and it would take just one show for them to be like “you are full of shit, you don’t believe what you are doing” and leave! But I think everything, all the steps we have taken are totally necessary and us being here now and enjoying what we are doing is a total testament to that.

Steve: How long was it again since you played here Jason?

Jason: (Straight away) 2005, we played with New Found Glory at The Garage, that’s the last time, killer show.

Chuck: Ah man, well there ya go.

Steve: You are obviously the stats man.

Jason: I think it was January? I don’t know why I remember that but probably because it’s the last anything we did, if you had to ask me

Jason Black & Chuck Ragan © Imelda Michalczyk

before that I wouldn’t have a fucking clue. But yeah it has been a while.

Chuck: But we are fired up, and we are having a blast on this tour. Definitely miss George ya know, but Dave is just killing it.

Jason: And the good thing with Dave is he has played with so many different bands and still does and he is really good with fitting in and figuring out how everyone works.

Chuck: Yeah he is not just a hired gun and sitting back there and gets on stage for the show.

Jason: Just like the rest of us he played in different bands and you have a level of professional hang and you can’t be a dick all the time and you figure out how to fit it with everybody.

Steve: So for the fans again last time, new record is in the train of thought….

Jason: I would say next year, it would definitely be next year before it comes out.

Chuck: Yeah that’s all we can say and we are so fired up, more than ever, and writing again. These shows are a blast and our focus is on writing new songs.