HIT BY A SEMI
by Christer Davidsson, May 2006
Hi! How are you all doing? Iceman: Everyone is doing quite well. Our Guitarist Steve Hostile and his wife recently had a baby girl, so hes doing the family thing. Our Bassist Ryan (aka Gimp) recently had another leg surgery, so hes still recovering (but doing incredible considering they replaced 75% of his knee). Rich and myself (Bryan, aka Iceman) are both doing good as well. At the moment, I am just trying to get some band things done. Getting some shows confirmed for the upcoming months, checking our email/ myspace account, etc.
Hit By A Semi has been playing together since late 99. Where are you guys from originally?
Hit By A $emi was formed in Chico, CA (a small college town in Northern California) in late 1999.
When did you guys first meet?
The bass player Ryan, and myself grew up in Chico. I have actually known him since before we were even in Kindergarten (we lived right down the street from each other our whole lives). We took music lessons from the same teacher and started our first band together in Junior High; continuing to play in bands together throughout high school. In the summer before our junior year, when we were having band practice in Ryans Garage, two guys (who were fucking wasted) rolled up on bikes. They introduced themselves as Rich and Chris from a local punk band called BEAN FIGHT and said that they heard us playing from their apartment down the street, so they came to check out the noise.
At that time in Chico was overrun by hippies, so Rich and Chris were stoked to see kids at our age, still in High School, playing fast, straight up punk rock. They wanted to see us play, so I think we butchered Misfits cover for them, and then they were on their way. Bean Fight was one of our favorite local bands, and they were by far the best punk band in town and little did we know our paths would cross again.
It wasn't long after, that Bean Fight made the decision to move down to San Diego, but their drummer Sean decided to stay in Chico. Strangely enough, just weeks later at a random Party, Ryan met Sean, and shortly after, Ryan and I became really good friends with him. We started hanging out with Sean all the time unaware of what was to come in the near future (and eventually lead to the formation of H*B*A*$).
During our Senior Year in High School, Bean Fight (who at this point was just Rich and lead singer Zac) informed Sean they would be moving back to Chico soon, and that their current drummer planned to stay in So-Cal. They asked Sean if he wanted to rejoin as the drummer and he said yes. However, they also informed Sean that their long time Bass player Chris had also made the decision to stay in So-Cal, and asked him if he knew any Bass players in the current scene. Sean told them not to worry, because he knew a Bass player and so Ryan immediately started practicing. When Sean couldnt practice with Ryan, I would practice with him, (unfortunately it meant Ryan leaving our High School band, but I was stoked for him and little did I know it would pay off for me in the near future).
Only a couple of months later, Rich and Zac returned, and Rich realized that the Bass Player Sean had found was the kid he met that day in the garage! Ryan, knowing all the old Bean Fight songs, began practicing learning all the new material, and almost instantly they began playing shows locally. However, after returning from Southern California, Rich and Zac had decided they wanted to step it up a notch and take the band to a more serious level, start practicing more, play bigger venues, and tour. Unfortunately, they didnt see things eye to eye with Sean and so he and Bean Fight ended up parting ways. They were instantly in need of a new drummer and were seeking someone who wanted to do nothing but play music. I had been a fan of Bean Fight throughout High-School and as I mentioned, I had practiced with Ryan while he learned their songs, so I asked (Ryan to ask Rich and Zac) if I could audition. I was only 17 at the time, but they said yes, and so I went in there and it only took 2 songs before they stopped me and said, Alright, you are in. I practiced twice more that week and played my first show that same Friday (It was crazy, I had to learn 12 songs in 4 days). With our new line-up we started practicing relentlessly, writing new material, and headed out on a West Coast Tour. Things seemed to be going great, but it was on this very tour our lead Singer Zac blew his vocal chords out one night in the middle of a set and was unable to continue. After trying to sing 2 days later at the next show, he only made it through a few songs and we had to cut the set short, playing only a few more songs that Rich did lead vocals on and we quickly realized that was it. Zac knew he was done. He had damaged his vocal cords beyond repair, and shortly after returning home, he made the announcement that he was leaving the band.
With Rich being the only founding member of Bean Fight left, we were not sure what to do at first. The only thing Rich, Ryan and I knew, was that we still wanted to continue on. It didn't take long to decide that we didnt want to go through finding a new vocalist and continue on any longer as Bean Fight. It was time to start a new project! Bean Fight had changed so much over the years, especially with the addition of Ryan and Myself, that we were all in agreement that it would be better to just start a new band. Rich decided he would take on the lead vocal duties (while still playing guitar), and without much time passing at all, we began to rebuild, starting virtually from scratch. It was only a matter of a few days practicing though that we all decided that we wanted to have a second guitarist to give the new project a more full sound (Bean Fight had only one Guitarist Rich. We wanted the new project to have the full sound of two guitars).
In another strange coincidence, we found our new guitarist Steve Hostile (aka Stevil), through our ex- Lead Singer Zac. Steve happened to be dating Zacs sister much of the time Ryan and I were in Bean Fight. He moved up from Orange County, went to Chico state and even lived on the couch of Rich and Zac for many month. Stevil had always expressed interest in Bean Fight, and we could tell he would make for a killer guitarist (although he said he hadn't played guitar since High School we could just tell he had the energy and stage presence), and so when the opening came up, we knew we had are man! It was funny because we just simply asked him, "Hey Steve, you want to play rhythm guitar for our new band?" and he simply replied sure. And so Hit By A $emi was born.
Were you playing in any other bands before forming this one? (Ha ha) Funny you should ask I guess I basically just gave you our whole history of how we all met (and the bands we played in). As I mentioned before, Ryan and I have played in bands since Junior High, but only one of them (the one we formed right before Ryan left to join Bean Fight our Senior Year) called the Unlucky Bastards ever performed. We played our High School quad once and then once in the Cafeteria, ha ha. It was funny because we thought we were the shit playing at our school, and then just months later, we were both playing in Bean Fight (this band we spent watching all through our high-school years). We ditched school for a week to go on a California tour during college spring break and rented an RV. It was an awesome experience (for everyone), but especially for Ryan who was 18 at the time and myself who was only 17. Both of us were still in High School and the best part was that when we got back from our tour, our High Schools Spring Break started.
Other than the bands Ryan and I played in, Bean Fight was the only other band that any of us played in together (as I mentioned Rich was a founding member and Ryan and I were joined for about the last year of its approximate 5 year existence).
On a side note, the first officially advertised Hit By A $emi show was not played under the name Hit By A $emi. Although we did have our complete line-up of Filthy Rich -Vocals/ Guitar, Ryan the Gimp Bass/ Backing Vocals, Stevil- Guitar/ Backing Vocals, and myself Iceman- Drums, the first real Hit By A $emi show was actually performed under the band name the Toilet Bowl Destroyers. We had agreed to play a show at a bar with our friends band, and yet we hadn't even decided on a name, ha ha. However, he made flyers and told us he needed a name, so someone came up with that, and on the flyer it went.
What does Hit By A Semi mean?
The name Hit By A $emi is actually taken from a true story. Our Bass Player Ryan was 13 years old and was riding his bike when he literally was Hit By A Semi. He is much better at telling the story than me, but I'll give you the short version. Basically he was riding along side of a Semi on a bicycle and apparently the guy didnt see him. The driver turned and pulled Ryan right under, going over him with 2 sets of wheels and also dragging him in the gravel and pavement. Since then Ryan has had WAY too many surgeries (I honestly dont remember the exact number, but its around 15 or so), with the most recent being just a couple of months ago.
At first Ryan really did NOT like the name, so we created a long list of names and went through them all, but when it came down to it, I (as well as Rich and Steve) really thought that Hit By A $emi was the best nothing else had the effect that the name Hit By A Semi did when you would say it out loud, or see it on a flyer. Although it was based on a personal experience that Ryan had (and we understood why he wouldn't want to name the band after that), it just seemed to be the best choice to the rest of us. It's a powerful sounding name. It's original. And unlike most bands, our name has a true story behind it (rather than it just being a random group of words). Eventually he came around and he accepted it. To be honest, I can't picture us having any other name. Hit By A $emi is who we are.
Can you name any bands that has influenced your sound? There are so many way too many to list them all. We listen to all kinds of music. Although we all share a common love for Punk and Rock N Roll, everyone definitely listens to different stuff as well and we all bring those different influences to our song writing. We just got Sirius Satellite Radio in our Van, so depending on whose driving well have anything from Reggae to Outlaw Country playing in there (unfortunately there is no Punk Rock Station on there, but there is some good stuff). And then we also have Ryans I POD hooked up, and he has a huge variety of music. He listens to a lot of Traditional Irish, Folk, and Bluegrass, but also has a ton of Punk Rock and Rock N Roll and Some 50's Rock, Hip-Hop and 80's so like I said, we pretty much listen to everything.
There is a HUGE playlist of bands that well throw on that has stuff that we are all really into like: Johnny Cash, The Clash, The Ramones, Old Crow Medicine Show, the Sore Thumbs, Rancid, Street Dogs, Flogging Molly, One Man Army, Swingin Utters, AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Motley Crue, Dropkick Murphys, Social Distortion, The Living End (just to name a few), and so much more I could go on forever, but we are influenced by more than just other bands. We are influenced by everything in our personal lives, life in general, and lifes everyday experiences. Our songs tell stories of living life, death, fun, tragedy, drinking, drugs, addiction, growing up, getting old, making changes, moving forward things that people can relate to. Some songs we write are based on true stories, and some we write just for fun... our writing style is constantly evolving, and constantly being influenced by different things.
Whats the main reason for you guys to play music?
We just love to play. Its really an addiction at this point. I know I go fucking crazy if I dont play for an extended period of time (I think everyone else is pretty much the same way). Being a drummer, I dont have the luxury of being able to go home and practice drums every night at home I have my drumset at our rehearsal studio, so I have taken up playing a little bit of bass and guitar to get my fix, and also recently bought some turntables.
Also, weve been playing music together for so long, I just can't imagine it any other way. Ryan and I have been playing in bands together since Junior High, and then weve played with Rich for over 8 years, and with Steve (the 4 of us all together) for about 7 years so we just have such great chemistry together. We have all played in side-projects for fun, but Hit By A $emi is family. We are a very privileged band to get along as good as we do, we practically never argue about anything, and to have the devotion we have from each member sticking with it no matter what its just something you dont see that often. We have seen so many bands that have to replace members every few months, and I just cant imagine having to do that I don't think I would want to like I said, this is family, and we play our music the way we want to play it, and we love what we do.
You got two albums out so far. The first one got sold out without any distribution at all. How has the new album "Midnight Riot" been received?
It's been received really well actually. We definitely are selling copies of Midnight Riot faster than we did with the first album: "Friends, Booze, and Tattoos". But there are many reasons for that. Although we still dont have a record label, with distribution, we do utilize a lot of tools we didn't before, such as having our CD's for sale at www.interpunk.com (which has become quite successful), as well as the option for fans to order merch directly from us on our webpage using a paypal account. When we first sold out of "Friends, Booze, and Tattoos" we basically had sold them all of them at live shows (and from a handful of record stores in Chico while we lived there), but the use of internet stores has boosted sales immensely. It's cool because we also have a page on myspace where people come across our music all the time, and then they have all the info right there of where they can go to order it. That along with the Street Team, has led to us selling copies of not only the new album "Midnight Riot", but also "Friends, Booze, and Tattoos" in places weve never played, like New York, Florida, Texas, a few in Canada and even a couple in the U.K.
Another great new tool that has started to pick up is the MP3 revolution everyone seems to be into downloading their music, and thanks to a new website/HTML program called Blueo2, we can sell our music in MP3 form for 99 cents a song or $11-12 per album, people can buy what they like, there is no shipping, and the best part, is that we are technically selling a copy of our new CD (if they buy a complete album), but we dont have to pay any manufacturing costs, we simply sell the file. So that is starting to pick up and help us reach a broader audience.
How is the new album different from the first?
The New album is definitely a huge step from the 1st. The song structures are still pretty simple overall (some songs are a little more technical, but I'd say we havent strayed too far from our simple Punk Rock N Roll Formula). There is just a much larger variety ranging from song to song. And there is a major reason for that.
There was one song on our debut Demo/EP (2000), "Smoking Dope with the Pope" that Stevil wrote and sang the lead vocals, but other than that every other song we did on the Demo/EP and every song on our debut full length Friends, Booze, and Tattoos (2001), Rich sang all the lead vocals, while Ryan and Stevil (and myself) did the backups. As we started adding more covers to our list, Ryan and Steve started to sing some, such as Steve doing Rose Tattoo's "One of the Boys" and Ryan doing Cock Sparrer's "Because Your Young".
Eventually Ryan and Stevil both started bringing songs into practice that they wrote much of the music and lyrics to, and so they sang lead vocals as well. On our Split 7" with the Sore Thumbs (2003), Ryan does the lead vocals on the track "Roll with the Punches". We got a really good response from that song, and it became really apparent to us that we didn't just have one lead singer, we had 3. Over the next 2 years as we continued writing material for "Midnight Riot", Stevil and Ryan brought in more and more song ideas, and our writing style changed immensely and by the time we went into the studio and made our final choices of songs to keep, we had a completely different sounding catalogue than anything we released completely different from "Friends, Booze, and Tattoos".
"Midnight Riot" ended up having 13 tracks total with Ryan singing lead vocals on 3 songs, Stevil as well having 3 songs where he sang lead vocals, Rich doing 6 songs where he sang lead vocals, and 1 song where all 3 of them alternate doing 1 verse each of lead vocals. However, throughout the entire album, the backup vocals remain consistent and are sung by all 3 of them (actually, all 4 of us as I did back-up vocals on each song on as well). So we were able to pull off an album where almost every song switches lead singers, keeping it from getting repetitious, but at the same time every song manages to sound like a Hit By A $emi song. In addition to the variety of lead singers, we also took a different approach to writing the lyrics. For the most part, whoever sang the song usually wrote the basic lyrics and brought them into the studio, but there were many times when something wouldnt fit, or just didnt sound right once it was recorded, so we would go back and rewrite (that actually applied to both lyrics and music). Sometimes it would be as simple as cutting a few words out because something would sound too jumbled, and other times we would re-write entire verses. Everyone (including myself) took part in the writing of the lyrics, which is something we hadn't done on previous recordings, so it was definitely much more of a group collaboration this time around. And finally, the last thing that really separates this full length album from it's predecessor, would be the additional instruments on the final track, number 13 Away. This track took a completely different direction in our writing style with the addition of the Ryan playing the Tin Whistle and Mandolin, and special guest appearances by his brother Aaron on the Accordian and our friend John on the Bodhran.
Whats your favorite song of the latest record, and why?
I would have to say my 3 personal favorite songs are Velvet Ropes, Midnight Riot and I Cant See. The other guys in the band may have different choices.
What makes a song good?
Some bands write really technical songs, some bands write simple songs. I don't think songs have to be technical to be good, but there does have to be something catchy there (I am not saying it has to be poppy, but its got to have some type of hook). I hear a lot of bands of incredible musicians that write really long, technical songs (and they are amazingly talented), but sometimes it's just TOO much. Simplicity can go a long way. Sometimes a simple guitar melody is better than a crazy solo, or in the case of drums, one cymbal Crash can be so much bigger than a drummer is playing fills the entire song but it really depends on the song itself its really all about playing what fits that particular song. Good songs are just good songs no matter what style of music, or how technical or simple they are. For us, I think it really just comes down to the fundamentals: A good guitar hook, solid bass-line, and a driving drumbeat, they are the foundation add the verses to tell a story and a chorus that people want to sing along to and that's pretty much it we will throw in little solos here and there, but nothing over the top. We tend to write songs that are more anthem based, and that really get people singing along during the chorus. When the crowd is singing along, it really raises the energy level of the show.
How do you write songs and what do you sing about?
We sing about all kinds of topics. In the earlier days we would sing more about drinking and partying because that is what we were doing at the time. We also would write about things that were going on at the time, for example on the album "Friends, Booze, and Tattoos" there is a song called "Machine Gun Kids" because at that time there were a lot of school shootings going on here in the U.S. On the latest album we definitely changed the subject matter, because we are older and we live in a different environment ("Friends, Booze and Tattoos" was written in Chico, CA, a party town, and we moved to Orange County about 3 years before recording "Midnight Riot").
As far as how we write the songs, USUALLY someone comes in with a basic idea (myself included, sometimes it starts with a drum beat), and then well build off of that. That is how pretty much ALL of our first album was written. On "Midnight Riot", we did change it up a little bit. Ryan, Rich, and Steve would write complete songs and then bring them into our rehearsal studio. From there we would change them and add our own input.
You followed up the release with a tour. How was that? Unfortunately, we weren't able to do a complete U.S. tour. Gas prices were just starting to get really high and we had problems with the booking, so we decided to focus on the West Coast. We went from San Diego, Ca all the way up to Seattle, WA (heading as far east as Las Vegas, NV and Scottsdale, AZ). It was a little over 3 weeks long and even though we didn't get to do as big of a tour as we wanted it was still a lot of fun.
Whats the best thing about touring?
Just being out on the road and playing a new town every night. We all love to travel, and that is one of the best parts about playing in a band is that you get to visit new places and meet new people all the time.
You have been doing a bunch of shows with some more well-known bands such as Die Hunns, Union 13, Agnostic Front and F-Minus. Whats the best thing with supporting bigger acts?
The best thing about playing with bigger bands is definitely the exposure we get from playing for their fans. We are fortunate to play with a wide variety of genres too, from hardcore bands like (you mentioned) Agnostic front, to street punk bands like the Swingin' Utters. This results in gaining fans from all types of genres.
Are you hoping to come over here to Europe anytime soon?
We would love to. But we have no plans at the moment.
I read that you have a street-team helping you out a lot. Tell me about that.
Yeah, we have a street-team called the Hit Squad. It started on Myspace from people all over the place emailing us asking if they could help. After we got a few members, one of them came up with that name, and I thought that it was pretty cool, so we kept it. It really blew up right before the tour, and we started getting people joining all over the world (Europe, South America, Australia, Canada, and of course all over the U.S.). I was able to send promo stuff to the people who were in cities on the route of our tour after a certain point because too many people were joining and we ran out of promo gear.
It has really worked though. Besides it helping draw larger crowds to our shows on the Midnight Riot Tour, CD sales have increased online dramatically. What's funny is that we had one kid join in Florida, and then after a couple of months a bunch of kids from all over Florida started to join, and now Florida is the state we have sold the most CD's in (besides California) and weve never even played there.
You also released a split with the amazing Sore Thumbs. Good friends of yours?
We met the Sore Thumbs years ago at a show in Sacramento, exchanged CDs and thought they were a really good band. We ended up playing a few more shows together, and as time went by, we became really good friends with them, did the split 7" and have done countless mini-tours. They are definitely one of our favorite bands to play with and some of our best friends.
What do you think of punk rock in the U.S. nowdays?
I think there are a lot of great unknown bands in the U.S. right now but the bands that are popular, and get radio airplay Im personally not into (for the most part). I am not the type of person who automatically doesn't like something if its played on the radio (like I think Green Day is an amazing band), but for the most part, what is being called punk these days and is mainstream is not really punk at all to me and I'm just not really into it. But apparently a lot of kids are because these bands are selling a lot of records and its mostly the Emo and Screamo bands that are popular right now.
Are there any bands from Europe that youre into?
I like Mad Sin, they are a great Psychobilly band. I also like Turbonegro. The Hives. There are definitely many great punk/ rock/ psychobilly bands from Europe, and I'm sure theres A TON of amazing underground bands that I haven't had the privilege of hearing yet.
What would you like to say to everyone who is reading interviews here at Mutiny?
Support your local scene. The heart of the punk rock community world-wide starts in your local town. CHEERS!