WITHIN PUNK ZINE INTERVIEW WITH
NICK WOODS/DIRECT HIT BY EMAIL
JANUARY 06,2017 COURTESY OF
MELANIE KAYE PR
Direct Hit is one of those amazing Milwaukee bands that came out of nowhere. If it’s one thing they are known for in their ten years on the scene it’s knowing how to do it, and how to do it without losing yourself or your wallet. Since the bands conception in 2007 their formula and direction of sound hasn’t changed only amplified and refined. Their overall direction of aggressive poppy punk mixed with refined anthemic chants and lyrical content is something you can relate to, it’s no wonder why this party train isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The overall party feel good content strikes deep in the psyche of the listener causing delusions of drunken ill repute and erratic behavioral rampant of toxicity. It’s no wonder why Toby Jeg noticed these guys from their hard work ethics of laying down some serious E.P’s and previously known for their splits, it wasn’t long until they made it to the attention of Fat wreck Chords Fat Mike. Of course the end result was “Wasted Mind” a follow up to an amazing catchy pop favorite “Brainless Gods”.
J.B: So first of all I’m over forty but when I listen to “Wasted Minds” I oddly find myself drinking more, are there hidden subliminal messages strategically placed in the mastering? NICK:Several. It’s hard to hear though unless you’re drunk. So drink more. J.B: Cause dam it’s hard when you’re older to pop a couple hits and slam some beers and streak down the Cul du sac! You have a lot of explaining to do in the morning, do you feel it’s harder to keep up now with being a punk rock parent? NICK:That question assumes I could ever keep up in the first place. I’d never really tried drugs until I hit my 30s anyway, so I was always way behind the curve. J.B: This release “Wasted Minds” you have a lot of different vibes going on from Poppy and edgy to that hard hitting dirty maniac feel on ‘Paid In brains”? But it also completes it with that almost circus risqué organs? That holy shit am I ever bent feel? NICK:Yeah I mean, mind-altering chemicals kinda blow up your range as a human being, right? Really high highs and really low lows. So writing an album about drugs, we kinda wanted to reflect that. We aren’t the kind of band that’s ever picked a single sound and then rolled with it. We like playing different stuff. J.B: Of course that was the song you guys picked for that epic video?
Of course things are really different from back in the eighties all the stuff that’s out these days is all pretty much made in some make shift laboratory and some mad scientists giving it some whacked out street slang name? I mean what ever happened to the good old simple shit? NICK:People got bored of it I guess. As I get older, weed makes me more paranoid and anxious and sleepy, just like alcohol does now. So if you wanna keep broadening your mental horizons, I guess you gotta figure out new stuff to try. J.B: Have you ever seen someone truly bent out of shape, my buddy thought he was a mosquito once and tried stinging people with his penis butt ass naked in winter at a bus stop. Was there anything that ever stood out in comparison to that during touring? NICK: Someone in our crew under the influence poking strangers with their dick because they think they’re an insect? No, that’s never happened to me. Sound like your dude’s a wildman. J.B: So what was the overall creative process on “Wasted Minds” cause dam “Brainless Gods” was amazing from start to finish. Of course though there was a lineup change also in that process do you find that “Wasted Minds” had more creative feel to it now that everyone has settled in? NICK: Wasted Mind’s creative process was definitely more collaborative than Brainless God. By the time we got around to writing that album, our current lineup had been solidified for a couple years, and everyone brought ideas to the table. Almost all of “Forced To Sleep” was written by Devon, minus a couple of lyrics I worked on. “Another Dimension” was based around a riff Steve wrote. A lot of the rest was based on arrangements that I came up with, but every album we make I do less of that and the other dudes pick up the slack. J.B: Of course Brainless Gods you guys had the whole concept video or I should say Short that followed the whole concept of the album. In the short
Chapters VI-VII you guys have play on the whole religious thing with the whole cult and touch a lot of topics from suicide to being in a toxic relationship and a serial killer. Since “Wasted Minds” is also a concept album are there any plans of bringing that storyline to life in maybe another short? Perhaps directed again by Dylan Brown? NICK: Nah, probably not. All the extra media behind Brainless God that we produced was a near-Herculean effort - The number of hours we put in creating, planning, and then crafting. All without any kind of budget, which meant everyone was working on it because they weren’t busy, and because they wanted to do it. Now that I have a kid, and everyone in the group has a steady dayjob, being able to put in that kind of time would be nearly impossible. Eric, our art dude, is an instructor at fucking Northwestern now, you know? He doesn’t have the time to illustrate a 50-page comic book for no money anymore. So some day if a giant pile of cash lands in my lap, I’d like to do it again, but if I can’t pay people to help me out I don’t think it’s doable anymore. We all have other shit that takes priority. J.B: You guys started out doing the E.P’s that you released back to back along with some really fantastic splits with Mixtapes/Haverchucks and most recently the Brokedowns. Is there any band out there that you would be stoked to have a split with? NICK: We’d love to do a split with PEARS. Masked Intruder. We like putting out records with our pals. J.B: So of course the religion topic on ‘Brainless Gods” and now you have the cover art for “Wasted Minds” with the play on the last super? What was the thought behind that? NICK: We’ve always liked to mock human ego - Bands that try to puff themselves up like some kind of self-important blowfish. I had some guy the other
day tell me about his band, and about how they’re working on “their own version of Pet Sounds.” I think that attitude is just ripe for parody. So when it comes to our album art, I always think it’s funny to laugh at the classics and cover them in cartoon skeletons. Hence the Sistine Chapel thing with Brainless God, and the Last Supper thing with Wasted. It’s kind of a statement about laughing in the face of self-importance. Humanity will eventually be extinct, and then the sun will eat the earth afterward anyway. So the idea that anything is important is a ridiculous one, much less our band’s pop-punk concept album about mushrooms and acid. J.B: You’ve mentioned that in the creative process you start with the Do ah’s and add to that, but this album was produced tracked and mastered all in different locations. Do you find it’s easier to track with pro tools which gives creative freedom and come back at it in the studio? NICK: Yeah, definitely. I mean we’d sound a lot less cool on record if we had to track everything 100% live. We overdub a lot of stuff, and do wacky bullshit in the studio that would be impossible to pull off live unless we had a boundless budget to hire on extra musicians to play. Pro Tools makes it a lot easier to realize visions. It widens possibility at the expense of authenticity. J.B: Did you find it easier to record at Bobby Pero with Mike Kennerty producing this one’s direction then having it mixed and mastered by Andy Carpenter? Because Andy over at All music has done some great sounds with Dwarves/ Strung Out/ Bouncing Souls? NICK: We didn’t know Andy before Mike recommended him to mix. And I count Mike as a friend as well as a producer now. So really that’s the motivation behind that one - Mike’s a lot more fun to work with by virtue of the fact that we get along as people, which makes me trust him a lot more than anyone else when it comes to producing our stuff. J.B: Some say that after the end of Honest Don’s Records there was a gap and that gap got filled with Toby Jeg leaving Fat and starting up Red Scare Industries. And of course everyone knew that Honest was a subsidiary of sorts within the family of Fat Wreck Chords. So do you think you guys got noticed from being on Red Scare Industries and then it all kind of fell in place for being signed to Fat? NICK: Of course. But I also think we got noticed because we write catchy, high-energy music that doesn’t weigh too heavy on anyone’s conscience, and because we work hard and do what we can to not be a burden
on anyone. We don’t ask for much. But we still produce media that gives people an escape from or motivation despite life’s obvious pointlessness. J.B: And talking about Red Scare you guys did “Bad Trip on Holy Ghost” for the 10 yr of your dumb bullshit release? NICK: We did. It was a song that probably would’ve ended up on Wasted Mind if we hadn’t written it already when Toby asked us for a tune to contribute. J.B: You’ve also done a stripped down acoustic version of that song, a lot bands are doing some acoustic releases now any thought on releasing some material maybe an E.P of acoustic stuff? NICK: I’d never do that. My voice is pretty bad, and the “punk guy playing acoustic songs” is a shtick done terribly by the vast majority of people who try it. Obviously that’s not always the case. But it is the vast majority of the time. J.B: So you’re doing some touring right now then starting the tour with Bally Ho and Anti-Flag and some ska legends Reel Big Fish? That’s a crazy lineup for a tour? NICK:It is certainly crazy. Crazy first and foremost in the sense that I spent all of high school watching my friends cover songs from both those bands in suburban church basements. The Mormon kids in my town growing up fucking loved Reel Big Fish. I still know how to play the solo from “Beer” on guitar, kinda. So I’m pumped to revisit that. I haven’t checked out Ballyhoo! yet, but I get to hear them play every night for 3 weeks so I’m sure I’ll be way more familiar with them than most by the end of January. J.B: We always end with a famous book or a famous quote that inspired your life? Since wasted minds is inspired by Hunter S Thompson and Burroughs is there anything that comes to mind? “ I would of have thought this release was inspired by Huxley’s (Doors of Perception)” “Nothing is fun when you have to do it — over and over, again and again — or else you’ll be evicted, and that gets old.” - Hunter S.