You may already known them for that ubiquitous JC Penney’s commercial featuring “Too Fake” or maybe you witnessed them throwing beer at Lollapalooza. The band is Hockey and they are dropping their first US label release Mind Chaos, Sept. 14, so I dropped in on them at Lollapalooza to learn what this album and what they’re all about.
I spoke with bassist Jeremy “Jerm” Reynolds and drummer Anthony Stassi.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: What was your reaction with what happened with your Lollapalooza set?
Anthony Stassi, Hockey: Whatever. That happens.
PW: What goes through a band’s mind when you’re opening a huge fest and you lose tech support?
AS: Different bands do different things. I’ve never seen a band stand around and hang out.
Jeremy “Jerm” Reynolds, Hockey: We just hung out. We did a drum circle for awhile, which was positive.
AS: I ran a meeting behind the snares. We were like we shouldn’t just walk off, we’re trying to get people stay. We need to stay. So, I ran backstage, grabbed as many beers as I could possibly have and then I just ran up and started throwing beers in the crowd. People just loved that one.
PW: I’m sure they did. But what did the Lolla organizers think of it.
AS: I don’t care what the Lolla organizers think. I hate the organizers.
JR: The Lolla organizers lost power in our set for ten minutes.
AS: And our sound guy was a Bi…
PW: And I don’t think it was just you guys. Other bands seemed to have lots of sound problems.
AS: Really? See. I hope to get minors drunk on the behalf of Lollapalooza. If I had Ziploc bags of weed, I’d throw that too.
PW: People in the crowd would definitely like that.
JR: Oh sure. We made some fans today: “Oh the free beer band? Yeah! I love them. They’re great.”
PW: Oh yes, it is something that people will definitely talk about at least.
JR: Yeah.
PW: Played a few good songs then threw beer.
AS: Yeah. Hung out. 
PW: Ok, so going off that Lolla hiccup, how do festivals compare to doing smaller club shows?
JR: Festivals are really great. Festivals are like summer camp and club shows are like school.
AS: You just have to accept festivals for what they are. No sound check—you’re going to sound bad. The monitors are going to be insane. You’re not going to think it is going well or whatever and you’re going to be playing to tons of people that don’t know you. If you accept that and get past that, then they’re the most fun shows in the world.
PW: I did see you guys at Bonnaroo, so I did get to see a full set from you.
JR: Oh nice, Bonnaroo.
PW: You guys just kind of exploded. You had Mind Chaos out for awhile on CD Baby and then it sold out and all of sudden you’re just everywhere on blogs and commercials.
AS: Yeah. That was just a little demo that we had and we recorded and put out in our basement. The album that is being put out in the fall is kind of half that and half new songs all mixed together. The other thing was totally in our basement and done by us. It is weird.
JR: It is weird. It was quick. We went from our basement in Portland to playing in the UK without anything else: without establishing ourselves in Portland, without establishing ourselves in the West Coast.
PW: Is it just easier to go to the UK first or was there a reason?
AS: A lot of reasons. We got played on BBC1 and The Guardian wrote us up.
JR: They have kind of a different system of there. They have naturalized radio, so if you get played on Radio 1, you’re everywhere. The US doesn’t work like that. It takes a lot more coordination and a lot more hard work to go to every city.
PW: Do you have a preference on a system? Do you wish the US had a naturalized system?
JR: I don’t know.
Dr: We don’t really know much about the US vs UK system.
AS: US seems like it is just big. It is overwhelming. There’s a lot compartmentalized areas.
PW: But you guys are getting help here and getting a lot of ad play.
JR: Yeah, just recently we got added to modern radio…alternative radio…whatever, here in the United States. Getting played here is kind of a big deal for us.
PW: So on the Mind Chaos that is coming out Sept. 15, I feel like I have seen tons of album covers for it. Did you guys do the album art and what is going on with it?
JR: I did the album art, actually. The four covers are all the cover. The cover is actually divided into four panels. The reason for that is that just as a theme, mind chaos is about many different ways of seeing the same thing. So, having a cover that is four covers is really just…it so
rt of just fits the concept. Also, four images is an ancient religious and philosophical kind of theme that we wanted to channel. It’s sort of like the history of human beings on the four covers starting in the left corner and moving into mind chaos, which is modernity: 2009 – white scribble.
PW: Interesting. Is philosophy something that’s always interested you?
JR: Yeah, yeah. I think there are a lot of references to religion and history and philosophy on the record and there are themes that creatively we like to reference.
PW: And you used crayon for the cover?
JR: I cut up old books. I got old books at garage sales and things like that and took the paper and glued it together. I used paint, crayons, marker and glue. It is all very childish, but it is just a hobby I guess.
PW: It’s cool. Now why did Mind Chaos’s release date get pushed back? It was supposed to come out earlier this summer, right?
JR: I think among other things, more dirty behind the scenes industry things, I think that we are such a new band to a lot of people. The idea was that we needed to tour and generate some kind of interest or at least get our name out there so that when the record finally does come out there will be people that are there that will be interested.
AS: We’re still finding stuff on the record that we hated. Awhile back it was us battling the label to delay it. We just like two weeks ago had a meltdown about one of our songs, so we went by ourselves into a studio and remixed it. We just totally redid and we were like, “You guys got to put this out. Put this on the record and take the other version off. You got to do it.” They were like, “What? You can’t do that. We’re about to release it.” And we were like, “You got to do it.” They were like, “Fine, but we have to push the record back.”
PW: So do you guys have a hard time listening to your original EP or demos?
AS: Oh, yeah.
EEEks-Virgins got super loud in the background with their sound check here.
AS: Do you have problems?
JR: No. It stands as an accomplishment for us and an appropriate representation of the band at the time.
AS: The other version came out and we got signed. The old version.
JR: We’ve remixed and stuff, so it is still there, but different. The songs are there. We’ll have to see happens in the big bad world.
PW: Working with Capitol and a label for this release–did they have a lot of say in it?
JR: Interestingly, they didn’t have much to say. They basically said, “Look we really like this record you put out by yourselves. We think there should be a few more songs. Otherwise, it’s great.” And we were like, “Sweet. That was easy.”
AS: One of the reasons we went with them was because they were one of the only labels that was like, “Don’t change anything.”
JR: It was cool. They liked us for who we were. They liked our basement album—our demo, basically. It was something that we did on our own and it was important to us, so it was important that it was something the label could get behind. We needed them to like us for that and not something we were going to become because what we were going to become was based on that. We worked hard to get it the way we want it to be.
PW: Ok, well, it is getting loud with The Virgins’ sound check behind us, I read somewhere that you were all vegan, is that right?
AS: Not anymore.
JR: The two of us were vegan for awhile and then I think one article said we were vegan and it spread into the world, which is fine.
AS: I liked it.
PW: Well that ruins my question. I was going to ask what festival-friendly vegan food there is.
AS: Most of them have gotten vegan friendly. We just did a bunch of festivals in the UK and a lot of them were some of the best places for it. They all had vegan options.
PW: Bonnaroo was really good about it.
AS: Oh yeah.
PW: This festival has been more meaty.
JR: Well it is Chicago.
PW: Ok, well, let’s be done so they can do sound check. I’m glad to have heard at least three songs today and hopefully I’ll here more in KC soon.
AS: Yeah.
PW: You here all three days?
JR: No, we’re leaving tomorrow for New York.
PW: Too bad. I know you’ve done a lot with Passion Pit and Friendly Fires.
AS: Yeah. It seems like we’re always following them around and staying in the same hotels.
PW: Haha. Well have a safe flight to New York.
Hockey: website | myspace | @ lollapalooza | tour dates
