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Mammoth Press Hazen Street Interview with Guitarist David Kennedy
by Gina Asaro on 2004-11-18 |
MP: So David, you’re in Hazen St. which is made up of people from a ton of different bands.
David: Well I wouldn’t say a ton.
MP: I’ve got like 7 listed and I know that’s not all.
David: Well what do you have listed?
MP: H2O, Madball, Cro Mags, Bad Brains, Built to Last, Boxcar Racer, & Over My Dead Body.
David: Yeah but it doesn’t count if I was in like 3 of those bands and Mackie was in like 2 or 3 of them!
MP: So other than that, Toby (Morse) was in H2O and Freddy (Cricien) was in Madball.
David: Right.
MP: So how did you all come together and get this formed?
David: Actually, it’s kind of a crazy thing because originally Chad from New Found Glory and Toby have been friends forever and they had been talking about doing a band and wanted to play music together and it just kind of took awhile to come about.
MP: So you live in San Diego, Toby lives in Los Angeles, Freddy lives in New York. How does that work?
David: It works out good; it’s not a complicated process. I lived in Los Angeles for the past year. I just moved back to San Diego since I got home from tour. So Toby and I were in LA together and it was always just one place or the other. We would do demos in New York and those guys would fly out for rehearsals. It works. When you start doing stuff you realize how small the country is. We don’t practice like regular people. Not to toot own horns but I feel confident in being able to play the songs and so we have always just scheduled rehearsals for so many days before going on tour. We’ve all been playing for so long so we’re pretty confident. We’re able to be creative and focus also on what we’re supposed to be doing.
MP: At least the last few bands you’ve played in have covered the spectrum of music: from Over My Dead Body (Hardcore), to Boxcar Racer (fairly mainstream), and now to Hazen St.
David: A lot of different ideas in music and things and you know derive creativity from and there are a lot of other things and I don’t want one thing to sum me up. I don’t want to be that guy from that one thing ever. So in so many ways you paint different pictures, they’re all different parts of me and hopefully whenever I’m done getting to do all the music stuff and I can look back and there are several things I’m proud of. I like to think of different places I’ve been and the bands and people I’ve played with. Going from Over My Dead Body then to Boxcar Racer was quite overwhelming. It was an amazing learning experience to be a part of it and was also an eye opening experience. Kids think that it’s this glamour, I don’t know it was just an eye opener playing in more of a pop band and getting out of a scene and kids kind of forget the fact that you go to shows for music and it’s not about clothes, attitude and who’s cool, and when you go to a pop show or rock show, maybe they don’t know why they’re there or they’re just there to hear the music and I think that’s awesome even if it’s that one song they heard on the radio. I learned that from playing in that band. I also learned how difficult it was to play at that level as far as the business side and where people really stand in the music world. Then to Hazen St. which is starting at a level I haven’t played at before but with guys where it’s new and fresh. Playing music, you can’t compare it to another band. You can try to say it’s like this or like that. It doesn’t sound like one thing. But it’s something fresh and new. I just don’t want to always be a part of…I would like to be a part of something new.
MP: So Boxcar Racer turned out to be a 1 record thing. Is Hazen St. set up to be the same way?
David: Boxcar wasn’t set out to be a one time thing, it just gets hard to come together to do things. With this band hopefully we get another shot to do another record. We’re definitely going through a lot to do this and to try to make this happen. It we can get the shot it would be a great thing. Right now we’re trying to sell this record and see if we can continue this band. That’s what we’re focused on. Nothing has been set out to be one time thing. However, there are a lot of things besides music that happens unfortunately. Being younger and getting involved in music all you cared about was the song and now there are so many more things you forget about. All I wanted to play is the 40 minutes a night. It becomes sometimes a mess. Hopefully it’s for the greater good. I think I said that with Boxcar and unfortunately it was a one time thing. When you say one time thing, it’s not like you’re not being passionate, like oh I just do it for fun. Most everything I do is for a reason whether it’s because there is something behind something, everything…everything I do revolves around music. It’s not a one time thing.
MP: You’re last tour was opening for P.O.D. How was that?
David: It was a pretty rough tour. All in all, we’re a new band and we don’t fit in with any band. We’re just looking to play shows and at the time, this was a 2-month long tour playing a lot of shows in front of a lot of people. On paper, it looked like a great deal. But it turned out to be a pretty rough tour for us. We didn’t really consider the Christian factor before and then we were being booed for saying cuss words. It was a rough tour, fuck. The P.O.D. guys were great, they were rally nice and supportive but that doesn’t always help. Their fans, it was just very Christian. Some of the shows we killed it though. Birmingham, Alabama and we were going to go on stage and we’re in the middle of the bible belt, white power central. The dude loading our gear had a confederate flag hat and a tattoo of the state of Alabama tattooed on his throat. We have 2 Hispanic dudes and one guy, we don’t even know what he is, Mackie. Whenever we ask him, he skirts the question. We think he’s part Asian, part Hispanic, I don’t know. So I think we’re going to go on stage and people are going to freak on us. But yeah, it turned out to be one of our best shows and hopefully we opened some of those kids to something new. We played 4 shows on the east coast on our own with the F-Ups. They’re just a straight up punk band, and Non-Fiction, a New York based hip-hop group, and Last of the Famous, a poppy-emo band, and that is what Hazen St is also and that’s what we want to do is different stuff. We’re not trying to fool anyone even though we come from more of a hardcore background. H2O and Toby has played with Sum41, and New Found Glory, and I played in Boxcar Racer so we all have some mainstream in our backgrounds, but our base is hardcore music. We’re not trying to fool anyone into thinking it’s anything other than fun music and it’s for anyone who is into fun music for anyone who wants to have a good time. That’s why I started playing music and it took a long time to get back to it. Playing in a hardcore band you kind of forget, in the scene, you’re not hardcore enough or you’re too punk or you’re not straight edge. What the heck (I just said heck!), I just want to play music and express myself, I just want to make friends, and now I’m worried about these guys hating me for something that is stupid. With Hazen St., we like it. We like something kind of poppy or dancy and we write it. We’re playing shows and then going out with a band like P.O.D. and that makes a strong statement. The Story of the Year tour was so good for us and we had so much fun. Those guys supported us and still support us and look out for us and that tour was great. You might think that tour is going to be whack or P.O.D. is going to be whack, or you’re going to do good.
MP: So you’re about to embark on the Good Charlotte/Sum41 Tour. What sort of expectations do you have about that tour?
David: I’m really looking forward to playing. They’re there to have a good time and I think when you see Hazen St. it’s like one big party on stage. We’re there to have fun and party there with everyone else and I think kids will pick up on that. I met Cone (bassist, Sum41) but for the most part I don’t know anything about them but Toby has a good history with them, he thinks there pretty alright.
MP: Thank you for the interview, David, and have a great tour!
[ VIEW ALL INTERVIEWS ]
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