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Hit the Lights
By NatalieBisignano
Published: October 6, 2008
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Hit the Lights

Band Members: Kevin (Guitar), Omar (Guitar), Nate (Drums), and Dave (Bass)
Interview Date: September 26, 2008

 

Could you introduce yourself and say what you do in Hit the Lights?
Kevin: I am Kevin, I play guitar, in Hit the Lights!
Omar: I’m Omar, I play guitar.
Nate: I’m Nate, I play drums

(Dave also joined the interview partway through.)

Congratulations on your recent release of Skip School, Start Fights. How
did recording this album compare to recording This Is A Stick Up…Don’t
Make It A Murder? I mean there have obviously been some major changes
including the lineup change of moving Nick to lead vocals.  How did that
affect your experience in the studio and your mentality heading in to the
studio?
Omar: That is a very good question. There are a lot of parts to that
questions haha.

Haha yes, let's break it down a bit. How did recording this album compare
to recording Don’t Make It A Murder?
Omar: Well we made the record with a friend, Rob Freeman who used to play
in Hidden in Plain View, while our original singer was in the band last
year, we recorded three demos with him, and just really clicked with him.
Then our singer left and we were kind of in a rut for about nine months
because we couldn’t find anybody that we felt was right for replacing our
singer.  So we kind of came up with this plan to have Nick, our guitar
player, who sings back ups, to front the band and we were going to go in
with our friend Rob and we were going to go in and take one thing at a
time. We just wanted to go in and make this record and see how it goes
since we had these songs already.  So it’s not like we knew what we were
getting into or anything.  But, that being said, it was the best recording
experience we’ve ever had. We’re really stoked on the way the record
turned out.

I read in a past interview, that you guys were kind of nervous going in to
the studio last time since it was your first time on the label.
Omar: Yeah it was the first on the label and at the time too, we saw him
as a really big producer and had no idea he was going to get to that like
next level of producer.  But yeah we were definitely…definitely more
experienced, more comfortable with this second experience for the second
full length.

You guys have said before that you all sort of saw that Colin’s heart
wasn’t really into his performance anymore for the last part of the year
or so.  What as it like breaking it to your fans? What kind of reaction
did you expect from your fans and how did they respond?
Omar: We knew it wasn’t going to be good.  It is never going to be a good
situation.  At the time though, it was maybe like the third time he had
tried to quit.  So, at that point, we had been touring for a really long
time and we had just come home, and we actually scheduled to record a new
record in a couple months away and we had to cancel all that.  And, we
knew it wasn’t going to be good but at the same time he had wanted to quit
so many times before, we were like, well fuck you then, quit,  We’re going
to find a new singer and we’re going to keep going and we’re going to do
this.  And then a month passed and we couldn’t find anybody, and then
three months passed and we still couldn’t find anybody, and then six
months passed and it was just like, torture, it was hell.  But he cool
thing about it is, that the reaction since then has been amazing.  Kids
are kind of like “Colin who?” at this point cause they are so stoked on
the record and the new live show and stuff. I feel like we stepped it up a
notch.

Yeah, I mean personally, I think I like it even better that it came from
within.
Omar: FUCK YEA! That’s awesome! Thank you, that is what we like to hear.

What do you hope your listeners take away from this album?
Omar: That is a good question also.
Kevin: Pizza? Haha. I don’t know.
Omar: I hope they see this as the next step up from the last record.  We
put a lot of work into the songs and the recordings and I feel like it
definitely paid off and I hope that kids can see that.  And from the
reactions we’ve been getting, from kids, it seems like kids can tell that
it is the next step for us.  They like it.  So, we’re happy with that.

The title of your album is Skip School, Start Fights. What kind of
students were you growing up?
Omar: I wish I skipped school a lot more.
Kevin: I was a bad kid.
Omar: Yeah, Kevin was a bad kid! At the time I was too afraid of my
parents, to skip school.  So I’m trying to bring that to other people now.
Like, HEY! Get into fights! Get your knees dirty!
Kevin: I definitely skipped school, like, all the time.  In middle school
I had the record for like skipping and tardies and stuff.  But then as
soon as high school, I found out that you can just like skip. Like you
just don’t even have to go.  And it was just over from that haha.
Omar: Dave our bass player got suspended for being late too many times. Hey! There he is!!
Kevin: There he is now!!
(Dave walks into room and joins interview)
Omar: Dave got suspended, like it started off like, detention, and then
like two detentions and then I think after his third he got fuckin’
suspended.  That is like next level shit right there!

Nate, what kind of a student were you?
Nate: Um, I just tried to pass. 65? Haha

So there as a lot of skipping, a lot of fights, maybe?
Nate: Well I was a wrestler so I kind of fought that way. I was already a
fighter!

If you could go back to high school, what, if anything would you do
differently? If nothing, what is your favorite high school memory?
Omar: Dave and I actually played in bands together since the seventh grade
since like middle school and stuff.  And like or freshman or sophomore
year of high school we played in the talent show and we won first place,
and that was really cool.  Cause it was like, you know.
Kevin: My high school band we won first place in our like battle of the
bands too.
Omar: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun!
Kevin: We won 50 bucks.

Split or each?
Kevin: Just the band.  The band won 50 bucks haha.
Omar: I think we won like, $25 haha. For four people. Awesome!
Kevin: I don’t know if I can really pick like, one high school memory.  I
had a lot of fun in high school.  I mean, when I actually showed up.
Omar: was it like actually in high school though?
Kevin: Oh, like high school days?
Omar: Yeah.

Well it can be like, high school in general, the whole four years.
Kevin: If I could change anything I would probably like, live it up a
little bit more.  Like, I never went to like a dance.  Or anything like
that in my whole life.  I never went to a dance.
Omar: Football games.
Kevin: Yeah, like I never went to a football game cause I kind of stayed
away from sports and stuff. I still kind of lived it up a little bit, but
things like that I wish I could go back…even if it was just to ruin it for
everybody else!  If I would have just shown up, I would have that to look
back on you know? Or go to prom or something.  It would have been nice.
Omar: I was prom king!
Kevin: Oh yea? I got asked by one of the popular girls haha.
Omar: The funniest thing about the whole prom thing though was that, Dave
and I went to school in like rural Ohio.  And I feel like for that year
for prom court, they got together and made like a minority prom court.  So
it was like me and this black chick. And so I think they were like ‘Let’s
do something really nice!’ and we won.  It was totally the vibe.
Dave: ‘Let’s just vote for the black people!’
Omar: Hahaha and I felt like that was the kind of vibe. It was fun though!
And it was the first dance I went to, too, it was my senior prom.

You guys have been on some major tours in the past with big names, and
right now you are out with Chiodos, Motion City Soundtrack, and Person
L…when this tour ends you pick right up with the Sassy Back tour.  You
guys pretty much tour constantly year-round. What is your idea of the
perfect tour?
Omar: that is a really good question. The perfect tour.
Kevin: I’m going to say, Def Leppard. Richard Marx.

Haha, with you headlining!
Kevin: Yeah, they are opening!
Omar: I would just say that the perfect tour is just where like, we are
with all of our friend’s bands.  Because there are a lot of tours you go
out and there’s like dudes you don’t even get to meet, and you just get
bad vibes from or whatever.  We get along for the most part, with
everybody that we tour with but I think that would be like amazing, a five
band bill with just our friend’ bands.

Pick em’! Who would it be?
Omar: I Am the Avalanche.
Kevin: Yup.
Omar: Fireworks.
Kevin: Yup.
Omar: The Swellers. And…Set Your Goals!
Kevin: I’m going to throw in New Found Glory.
Nate: I’ve always wanted to tour with Saves the Day.  Who else would be
awesome?
Kevin: Who else would be awesome? I really like the Person L guys.
Dave: Oh yeahhh.
Kevin: Yeah, pretty much friends.  Friends makes the best tour.
Dave: Yeah. We aren’t friends.  So you know…Why don’t we each get our own
bus.  That way we don’t even have to talk to each other.
Nate: Yeah we will get a screen so I don’t have to see you too haha.
Dave: Then I would just have to see a silhouette of you.

What was your very first performance as Hit the Lights like?  How does it
compare to your performance now?
Dave: Well.  They weren’t there! I was though! I think the first
performance was like somewhere outside of Columbus, Ohio and we just you
know, we played, and we were kind of…didn’t know what we were doing back
then.  I mean some of us knew like somewhat, because we had all been in
bands before.  But like now, doing like tours that are these size, you
have to come in and know about setting up all of your gear, getting on
stage up and off on time, all the crazy organization stuff is the biggest
difference I think.
Nate:  Well, it’s funny, my first performance with the band was actually a
video shoot.  A live video shoot.  Kevin tell about your first performance
haha.
Dave: Yeah, haha how many practices did you have before it?
Kevin:  There were four small practices beforehand.  But we never did back
up vocals we just practiced the songs and then just played the shows like,
okay, lets go, lets do this!
Kevin: One thing I still have, from my first show I ever played ever, is
every night, right before we go on, I have to pee SO BAD.  And I still
have never actually gone pee.

So you die the whole set or what?
Kevin: No! It goes away.  It is like a nervous thing.  But I never think
I’m actually nervous.  But from the very first show I ever played, it was
when I was like 15 years old…
Omar: You’ve always felt like you had to pee?
Kevin: Yeah. And that was like, 10 years ago.
Omar: YOU’VE BEEN TRYING TO PISS FOR TEN YEARS?!
Kevin: And I’ve never actually gone!
Dave: Kevin. It’s called a urinary tract infection.  You need to call
somebody about that!

Omar, what was your first performance like?
Omar: Hmmm.
Kevin: OH wow, I thought you just had a toenail ripped off or something
Everyone stops and stares at Omar’s toe.
Kevin: Is that blood or ketchup?
Are you saving it for later or what? haha
Omar: That is actually catsup! That is tomato soup! Haha. But where was
our first show? The first time I played was before we started playing-
Dave: Oh, she said as Hit the Lights before.
Omar: As Hit the Lights. Our first show was in the basement at Bernie’s.
Dave: Was it?
Omar: Yeah.
Dave: I thought it was maybe outside Grove City.  For some reason.
Omar: It wasss. Wait!!
Kevin: Haha you don’t even know!
Omar: Between one of those two, it was either Grove City or Columbus.
Yeah dude, you’re fuckin’ right! I can’t believe that. I think it was
Grove City.  I don’t know it is kind of a blur!
Dave: It was at a church.

When you go on stage every single night, does it get old or routine?  I
know that going to a lot of shows, it is so different for every show,
there is always so much anticipation and talking about it leading up to it
and then talking about the show after, does it get too routine?
Omar: It’s exciting for me, because I know the kids that are there, it
might be routine for us but,
Nate: I think that when Colin was in the band we all started taking it for
granted because we played over like 300 shows in a year or something, so
you just couldn’t even remember the show the night before and you’re
already on stage playing another one.
Omar: Yeah…
Nate: After that all happened, everyone took a lot more appreciation for
it all.
Omar: It is definitely easy to fall into a routine, but what I like to
think about is when I was going to shows.  For the people there, it is
maybe, I don’t know how often kids go to shows now, but like, maybe that
is their show that they are going to for the month, or maybe a couple for
the month. So it might be routine for us, but for the kids there, they are
stoked and excited and I think…
Kevin: We know they just want to have a great time when they come to the
show.
Omar: And I feel like when the crowd is reacting it is easy to feed off of
that.
Kevin: We have to work to make it not routine.  Like when we set up, I
feel like it is definitely routine, you’re just kind of plugging in stuff,
tuning, getting stuff ready, before you play like, the second you go into
that first note, the kids are stoked and it just changes it into something
special.
Nate: Except for when things are going horribly wrong up there and you are
like, get me off stage!

What is the worst thing that has happened on stage?
Dave: Omar did a backwards summersault once.
Omar: Yeah, I fell - I think we have all fallen on stage before.  Except
for Nate is yet to fall off of his…
Nate: I passed out once when I was playing though, one time!
Kevin: I threw up in my mouth before and I was forced to swallow it.
Dave: On the New Found Glory tour, I fell backwards, I was kind of doing
like a pogo jump thing,
Nate: BIGGEST SHOW OF THE TOUR.
Dave: Haha yeahhh. It was in Atlantic City.
Omar: House of Blues.
Dave: And I fell backwards and unhooked some wire to his cabinet or
something and knocked a lot of things over…
Omar: But that is just what happens, gear shits out, you fall…
Kevin: I tore my ACL.  That is definitely the worst for me…cause it is
still, torn after all these years. And it still messes with my life.  It
is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to me.  There is not
much that can top it.  Unless I just explode.

Just spontaneously combust!
Omar: just combussst! Yeah!
Nate: Maybe you will catch fire.

Can you describe the experience you had recording your new music video for
“Stay Out”?
Omar: That was…
Kevin: There were pirates, actually.
Omar: We recorded it on Treasure Island in San Francisco.  Cause it was
zombie themed, we were playing in a graveyard.  So we pretty much shot at
night.  So we got there around 6pm and we didn’t start shooting until
maybe 9pm?  And we got done at like, 7 the next morning.  It was like
super cold, but I don’t know the video turned out really cool – it was
worth it.

What is something about your music or writing/recording process that
people might not know?
Omar: The last song on the record, Dave was like writing it for, literally
for like two years, and finished it as we were recording it.  And Rob like
every day was like, what’s up with-we call it the Tom Song, it is called
“On and On” – but everyday he was like ‘What’s up with Tom’s Song, Dave?’
and Dave is always like, ‘I’m workin’ on it!’ And then next day we would
come in and Rob would be like, ‘‘What’s up with Tom’s Song, Dave?’ and
Dave would still always say, ‘I’m workin’ on it!’ And we literally
finished it, while we were recording it.
Kevin: He would have the loop playing for hours.  He would sit there for
hours and hours and hours.  I would walk away by him after going away and
hours later he would still be sitting there.  Six hours later and-
Omar: And he would still be sitting there, staring at a notebook. Like, a
blank piece of paper.
Kevin: I remember just the nights after recording in the studio all day
Dave would just be sitting there all night long for hours on end with his
headphones on, for nights on end.
Nate: Whenever he was working for the verses for it, he would sit there
with his headphones on and you’d see him kind of like humming along but
not really singing out loud. Everyone starts imitating the humming he
would do.

Dave do you have anything to say about this?
Kevin: Rob still texts him asking him what’s up with Tom’s Song!
Dave: haha and I still tell him that I’m workin’ on it.
Kevin: But it came out great in the end. Now that it is done.  It was
totally worth it.
Dave: Ha – it could have been better.

He’s still secretly working on it!
Nate: He’s still writing in that notebook about it haha

The next couple questions are questions from your fans!

Do you listen to heavier stuff than you tend to play?  Because although
you have a genuine punk sound, you tend to have a lot of chants and beats
that are associated with the hardcore genre.  Has that been an influence
in creating your music or is it more of an unintentional byproduct?
Omar: Definitely, we are into a lot of everything.  I’d say there is.  I
feel like definitely the heavier edge shows a lot on this record.
Kevin: I used to play in a hardcore band right before this band too. So
yeah, we all listen to hardcore, but we all listen to like, Indie too, and
R&B and...just anything that’s good.  There is a lot of influence from
every kind of genre out there that shows up.  As I think happens with
every band.

What is your favorite Popsicle color: red, orange and purple? Rank them
from your favorite to least favorite.
Kevin: Mine is root beer.
Omar: Well mine is green so that is crazy to limit the colors.

Haha you have to go with the original colors!
Kevin and Dave: I’m going to go with red.
Which one wouldn’t you eat?
Kevin: Lenny’s popcicle! That is the one I wouldn’t eat!
Omar and Kevin: And you can print that! He’ll like that one!
Kevin: I actually don’t like popsicles at all.
Nate: He actually hates them.
Kevin: They killed my cat!

What is your favorite ice cream?
Everyone: ooooooo!
You guys just all got so excited!
Dave: Mine is Superman.
Omar: That’s a lie! It’s cake batter!!
Dave: It’s mine, not yours!
Kevin: Mine is cake batter and the more sprinkles the…merrier! Oh man…
Dave: Is that a flavor?!?! Haha
Omar: WOW. The more sprinkles the merrier…That is my new twitter hahahaa.
Omar: Mint chocolate chip. All the way. And then if we’re at UDF, you get
the cherry cordial.  Take it and mix it up.

I’m actually glad you mentioned the Twitter, I was wondering, if you think
that the current trends and use of MySpace, Twitter, Blogging, and other
networking or personal accounts is overwhelming in that it crosses too far
into your or really any musician’s personal life?  Does putting yourself
out there so accessibly to the public ever get to be too much?
Omar: I mean, if you want it to…
Dave:  It is mostly inside jokes for us.
Omar: A lot of people use it for like, drama and I feel like a lot of
people divulge too much doing that stuff, but I think we keep it light,
you know what I mean? We keep it real.
Dave: We all changed all of ours at the same time the other day.  But we
were all drunk and didn’t mean to do it and it was the funniest thing.
Kevin: It was out of control, ridiculous. And people probably had no idea.
Omar: And half of it didn’t make sense.  It was probably only funny to us
haha.  But I feel like that is all that matters.
Kevin: I mean it is cool though, for kids to follow bands that they like.
And if that makes them feel closer to the bands and the people in the
bands, then I’m all for it, you know?
Omar: Dude, I would have loved to have that shit growing up.
Dave: It isn’t like you want to see someone in the bathroom peeing…
Kevin: But you’d love to read about that!

What is on your wish list right now? If I were to hand you $1000 dollars
right now, what would you do with it?
Omar: Save it!
Kevin: Lots of Pez.
Omar: I’d saveeee ittt.

Pez?!
Kevin: I’d fill my house with pez!!
Omar: I’d put it in a shoebox, and save it haha because right now it is
like, the apocalypse is upon us!
Nate: I’d get tattoos.
Dave: Trade it for gold!?
Nate: Cash and gold.

Are you planning any tattoos right now?
Nate: Eventually.
Omar: We are talking about a contest where fans design a tattoo that we
all get.  That would be kind of crazy.
Dave: We all have the lip tattoo that says HTL on it.
Omar: (To Kevin) Yeah, you need to get yours!
Kevin: I would never do that…Mom! Mom I would never, ever get a tattoo,
never! (…Maybe later!)

Is there anything else you wanted to share with the readers at For the
Sound or anything you were hoping to talk about?
Omar: Thank you for coming and hanging out! I hope it wasn’t too
noisy…with those really RUDE bands SOUNDCHECKING.
Dave: Like demon cricket hiding in the wall!
Omar: Ha yeah that is going to be really annoying when your listening to
the interview.  Like a pterodactyl.
Kevin: I would thank fans for just coming out lately and for being wild
and just being awesome.
Omar: And if you haven’t checked out the band give it a listen, and if you
like it, come check us out on tour and say hiiii.  Thank you!!


Thank you to Mike Cubillos for setting this up and to Hit the Lights for taking the
time to hang out and chat! Check out Hit the Lights on tour now with
Chiodios and on the upcoming Sassy Back tour.  Dates and cities can be
found on their Official MySpace, HERE. 



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