Yet Another Exclusive Boredom Watch Interview!!! This time we place our fingers to the wrist of the Chapel Hill music scene and get real with the members of HAZERAI!!!
Lincoln sat down with Adam Kish, John Crouch and Steve Wright over some beers at the Reservoir for a talk about their band and their impression of the Chapel Hill music scene. This will be his sexiest interview ever!
BWZ- What other bands have you guys been in?
JC-Me and Steve met in band call Country Bears.
AK-I play in a band called Sons.
(interrupted by adoring fans.XR-5, the bomb is in the basement.)
SW-John you got to start...is this thing on? John you got to start and describe how you, Zach and Andrew meet 'cause you guys had the band that I join in at the end.
JC-Okay...thanks Steve, I'll take it from here.
(drunken laughter)
JC-I met a guy named Zach Blalock through a friend named Andrew Watson and we formed a band called Bears. We couldn't find a singer and Steve put out an ad in the Independent saying that he liked Unwound so we sent him an email..
SW-I thought it was Jehu...
JC-That was what triggered it. It was like, "Oh, this dude is legit."
(laughter)
SW-I didn't think any of you liked Unwound.
JC-No, I love Unwound!.....Uh, what was I saying?
SW-You didn't like it that night we played in Baltimore....when we got all drunk and I made you listen to that feedback part for 20 minutes.
JC-Oh, yeah. (laughing) Okay, so we played in a band called Bears and then Steve tried out. Later that night, after he was leaving he was like, "Hey, I got to go to another try out, but I'll let you guys know..." and we....
SW-Did I say that?
JC-Yes, you did and we knew he was in. So we played in a band that was mistakenly and originally called Country Bears...it was off a joke that I made up. Anyway, we were called Country Bears from then on. When that was over...I don't when did Adam?...
AK-'Cause I tried out for Country Bears and got denied actually...I didn't get the spot.
JC-You didn't have a van is what it came down to.
AK-I didn't have a van.
SW-Yeah, you didn't have good gear, man.
(laughter)
SW-You didn't have the Pro Gear.
AK-I didn't have the gear so they say.
(laughter)
AK-and then I guess the band broke up, right? Country Bears broke up...
SW-That's the bass...(pointing to bass hanging over the hallway to men's bathroom at the Reservoir)
AK-Last show broken bass right there.
BWZ-Oh, really?
SW-That guy doesn't have the gear either.
(laughter)
AK-then umm...
SW-He got the call back.
AK-I got the call back and we started Hazerai.
JC-That was November of 2005.
BWZ-So it's been close to two years now?
JC-Actually it was January, cause January....
SW-Yeah, November my kid was born and I definitely wasn't getting back in for a month or two.....and we practiced in Adam's mom's basement for a while. It was unbelievably noisy and she is a saint for putting up with that. We drove your dog insane.
AK-Yeah.
SW-There was a little shack out back that looked haunted and every time you went out to pee it was scary out there.
AK-That was on Old Lystra, which is a Polvo song.
JC-We were almost called Old Lystra, but there was another one?
BWZ-That's pretty sweet...your history is so succulent.
JC-We also had a dude named Dave that played the keyboards.
SW-For like a month or two.
BWZ-I'm glad you guys didn't put the keyboard in the line up, because it sounds fucking great right now. Keyboards might have thrown you over the edge.
SW-We were called Bobby Gaza at that point.
(laughter)
SW-We knew Bobby Gaza was a problem when we would try to book next door (Track and Field) and they would be like, "You guys aren't going to keep that name" and we were like, "Yeah we are."
AK-We were also Cock and Balls
SW-Yeah, we were Cock and Balls.
AK-It was Cock and the Balls.
SW-I think it was just Cock and Balls and I always felt really stupid calling Track and Field and be like, "Hey this is Steve from Cock and Balls....
(laughter)
SW-...do you have any Wednesday nights open." That was bad.
BWZ-Where did the name Hazerai come from? I have heard rumors as to were it comes from, but how do you associate it with your band?
AK-That was originally Andrew right?
JC-My friend Andrew, the original bassist in Country Bears,...I don't remember when or where....I just remembered he said that word and I guess it is Yiddish. It is slang for junk or bullshit.
AK-but a recent definition I heard was, "all the bells and whistles"...like it just means everything.
SW-I've seen it used in recipes...like online people will be like, "that's hazerai." in a derogatory way...like that's some crappy wine or that's cheap beer.
AK-There is also a new pedal called Hazerai....
JC-We need to copyright that shit. (laughs)
SW-It will bring lots of web hits to our website. It will be awesome...
(laughter)
SW-..lots of musicians will mistakenly find us and be very frustrated.
(laughter)
BWZ-So how long have you guys been in the area?
SW-You moved here most recently right? (pointing to Adam Kish)
AK-Yeah about three years.
SW-That's me too. I'm three years.
JC-I grew up in Burlington so I have kind-of-sort-of always been here.
SW-Adam and I both grew up in Charlottesville.
JC-Did you grow up there?
AK-Yeah Charlottesville, Virginia
BWZ-Virginia...that's for Lovers isn't it?
SW-Dave Matthews lovers, but I won't get into that.
BWZ-You guys have been in the music scene for two years now...so how do you feel about the music scene, not necessarily in Chapel Hill, but in the Triangle? You can be mean if you want, but you don't have too.
SW-I'm going to be stupidly nice, because I moved here from San Francisco, where I played in a couple bands and felt like we had to break down a fuckin' door to get a show. Maybe we were bad...I don't know. I don't think we were that bad. Bands would never help us out or try to get us shows and I feel like here bands approach us...maybe times have changed and now there is like Myspace and stuff, but bands are approaching us about shows and it's great. I never felt that in San Francisco or Charlottesville where I use to play too.
JC-I don't know...it's that and for a while when we were doing Country Bears stuff about three years ago we had a lot of trouble finding hard/heavy bands, I mean not to say...
SW-Yeah, we did.
JC-...they were few and far between.
SW-Are there more now?
JC-It seems like it.
SW-Yeah, maybe there are...or is it we are learning there are more?
JC-I don't know.
BWZ-In the area?
SW-Yeah...in Chapel Hill.
JC-...for a while...
SW-In The Year Of The Pig was like the only band and we were always setting you guys up for shows.
AK-Four times a week.
SW-We played with a lot of bands...like Cities remember..that was our first show. We had a lot of weird shows. Literally we would arrange a show and just start asking anyone to play with us we could get. I think there are more heavy bands now.
JC-Sure as hell seems like it.
AK-As far as the shows quality though a lot of them don't seem to great in the Chapel Hill area as far as people coming out.
BWZ-Have you guys looked outside this area for that kind of scene? Looking for more bands to play with?
JC-No. (laughing)
AK-We should.
SW-I know we have commented on how little towns like Greenville like us more.
AK-We had an awesome show there.
SW-I was going to say Wilmington, but we haven't played down there.
AK-Charlottesville, VA we had a really good show. That might have been friends and family... don't really know.
(laughter)
BWZ-Greenville had a little scene down there a while back. It would seem that they would be starving for the kind of music you all are playing.
SW-Maybe, and think we were saying because there is less to do in those kinds of towns people are a little more angry. I think intellectual snobs think hard music is for meat heads or dumb fucks, but not all of it is.
AK-Well were not meat heads.
SW-Girls don't like heavy music....not many. Only special girls...very special girls.
BWZ-There are a lot of women on campus and this town carters to the campus. You guys are getting shafted. How does that feel?
SW-I don't think that the college kids come out..unless they are heavy into the underground. They dress like you wouldn't know they were college kids....maybe, I don't know.
JC-Isn't not that I desire really shitty shows, but some of my favorite memories in this band are from really bad shows. You know like 4 people at BCHQ (Bull City Headquarters). Sometimes it makes it more interesting. It seems when no one is there I get a weird energy.
SW-Yeah, I know what your saying. You kind of mad and sometimes that will focus you to play that much better.
JC-It's not that I play better it's probably that we get more loose.
(break for beers)
BWZ-What is your favorite place to play in the area?
JC-Probably here. (referring to the Reservoir which hosts live show) The Reservoir has been really awesome to us.
BWZ-Your first show was at the Reservoir?
AK-Our first show was at the Wetlands with Tiger, Bear, Wolf.
BWZ-When I first moved here there seemed to be more venues catering to the type of music you all are playing, but places like the Reservoir and Nightlight have had to take up that slack. How do you feel about the press you guys are getting?
SW-Lack of.
BWZ-Yeah, do you like the fact that it is an underground group of people that spread shows by word of mouth or would you like to see more written press about the shows?
JC-It's tough because we are sort of lazy about it all....
(laughter)
SW-I think we are kind of assholes about it on purpose. Like the stuff we send out is written by hand or ripped up or jokes. Our one sheet doesn't say anything about what our music actually is. I think we put out misinformation on purpose. I have tried to do it legit many...many times and I'm just over it. I kind of like fuckin' around...not fuckin' around. You either know or you don't, you come out or you don't. What is the use of send out some real thing to.....(loud music plays in the background. A show is about to start up and we step outside after finishing beers.)
BWZ-Any last words?
JC-We have a show on November 1 at Bull City Headquarters and November 11 here at the Reservoir.
SW-I would like to go back if I may...
BWZ-sure.
SW-I don't think I hit the nail on the head exactly. We don't go for misinformation....I think it kind of goes with our music which is sort of angry and obnoxious and so I think that is what we send out to the press. We kind of assume no big press is going to like because of the music we make. I don't know...am I totally wrong with this?
AK-I mean I have seen big press about bands that are worse than us.
(laughter)
BWZ-and that goes back to the local press thing. Do you feel like they give good coverage about what is going on in this area or do you feel like it's one of those things were were Independent has a readers poll and almost everything that won was affiliate with a corporation?
SW-I don't think we have tried to be nice or shake a hand, like if we tried that maybe we would get press. We put obnoxious fliers. If we were a little more in a genre, if we were more hardcore or more metal then maybe we would not feel like outcasts.
AK-When we play show with people that fit into a genre then we look like outcasts automatically, because we aren't hard enough or we are not indie enough or pop enough....
SW-That's what I was trying to say.
BWZ-Is there anything else you guys would like to say into the microphone of love?
JC-Wu-tang Forever.
(laughter)
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