Hammer No More The Fingers

North Carolina’s Hammer No More The Fingers have been credited with revitalising the Chapel Hill glory days when Polvo and Archers of Loaf reigned supreme. They are currently touring their J. Robins (him of Jawbox) produced debut “Looking for Bruce” but were kind enough to find time in their busy schedule to talk to Andy Maddison about their eagerly awaited debut and more…

Andy: The North Carolina area has a long and impressive musical history, are all of the band members local and why do you think it is that this particular area is so musically fertile?

HNMTF: Jeff, Joe, and I are all from Durham, NC. Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh make up the “Triangle” region of NC. Durham has always been known as the gritty, blue collar step brother to Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Raleigh is the big city, more conservative, but getting hipper everyday. Chapel Hill is the smaller college town with a big indie music scene. Durham is really coming into it’s own though. There are a lot of bands and music venues opening up in the area. I think one of the reasons this area is so musically fertile is because all three cities have large universities. Kids come from all over the country. There are a lot of transplants from New York and California. Many students just stay here after they graduate. Almost everyone plays an instrument, runs a venue or a label, or is a big time show goer. All three universities have great radio stations. WKNC 88.1 at NC State (Raleigh) is very proactive in the local music scene. I think the DJ’s are required to play a certain number or local music on the air per day. UNC (Chapel Hill) has a student paper called Diversions, which promotes local music like no other. WKNC and Diversions work together on a lot of projects. Durham is the city where a lot of younger artsy people move, because Raleigh and Chapel Hill have become fairly expensive. But all three cities work together to make one big scene. It’s an exciting place to be for music and art

For those not familiar with the sound of HNMTF, how would you best describe it and what are your influences?

I think our sound is reminiscent of the early days of Chapel Hill indie rock. Bands like Archers of Loaf and Superchunk are big influences. As are Pixies, They Might Be Giants, Deerhoof, Outkast, Foo Fighters, etc. We’re a three piece; guitar, bass, and drums. We try to make the backbeat as steady, punchy, and funky as can be. Then the guitar and vocals takeover the melody. Sometimes we get intricate, and sometimes we keep it simple. Sometimes we’re energetic, and sometimes we’re spacey. But basically we write three minute pop punk songs. It’s the Hammer version of pop, whatever that is…

You recently played with Superchunk at The Cats Cradle in Carrboro, how was that?

Opening for Superchunk was a blast. Probably my favorite show of the year. We practiced our asses off. They were on fire. They tore through their set, oldies and newies, and ended up playing three encores. They’re the nicest people too. I hadn’t seen them live in years before that. It was so cool to open for them at their home base, The Cat’s Cradle. Definitely an experience for us.

Your latest release ‘Looking For Bruce’ is packed with abstract, off the wall songs with titles such as ‘Mushrooms’, ‘Concrete’ and ‘Automobiles’. Who writes the songs and where does the inspiration come from?

All three of us write the songs in some form. Joe will write the music for a verse. I’ll write the music for a chorus, or vice versa. Jeff will determine the speed and feel of the overall song. We definitely piece together the songs in band practice. We’ll jam on one part for hours until it starts sounding right. Then we’ll jam on the next part, and try to piece everything together. Sometimes it works beautifully, and sometimes it doesn’t work at all. Then it’s back to the drawing board. We’ll play a song live long before it’s complete, just to figure out what we need to change. I’m usually the main lyric writer. Jeff and Joe have a lot of input though. I usually just write about anything that I’ve been reading about or hear on the radio. The song “Radiation” is about a girl who rides her motorcycle through Chernobyl. I went through a big “urban decay” phase; “Automobiles” is about dying Detroit, “Fall Down, Play Dead” is about homeless people in LA, “Concrete” is about a homeless friend of ours in Durham. I went through a big John Lennon phase as well, the lyrics to “Poison Apple” are about him. “Mushrooms” is definitely about mushrooms. I try not to write about girls, although occasionally I have to. Maybe I should keep all this a secret though.

In the current musical climate and with the style of music the band plays, do you sometimes feel that HNMTF are swimming against the tide a little?

As far as local shows go, it couldn’t be better. This is a great area to be a band. We definitely feel like we’re swimming against the tide of musical trends though. You just don’t know what’s going to hit next. Seven years ago, it seemed like the media was praising garage rock, then the disco rock thing, then the Bruce Springsteen/Arcade Fire/Hold Steady thing, then it was the experimental noise Dan Deacon stuff, Now it’s the folky thing. Hopefully funky indie rawk will be one of the next things to catch. (Sorry, I’m being condescending as hell!!). I love all that stuff, I just wish there was more room in the blogosphere for the music that we play. But we’re having the time of our lives. And in the end, we’re just happy to be touring and writing music that we love. People seem to dig our jams for the most part!

What do the band have lined up for the future? and will we get to see you over in the UK any time soon?

We would absolutely love to play in the UK. We’ve thought about saving up for plane tickets and renting a car and music equipment when we get there. It’s definitely a huge, huge dream of ours. Hopefully in the next couple of years! I have a lot of family in northern England. I’m actually going to be there in September 09. We should meet up for a beer! Other than our imaginary UK tour, we’re getting music together for our next record. We have a gajillion parts, we’re just in the process of completing the songs. We’re planning a pretty extensive US tour for October/November 09. We’ll have new music and tour dates on our website soon. We’re helping some friends of ours open a new music venue in downtown Durham. We’re also going to start planning for the second anniversary of Viking Storm. It’s our giant viking themed music festival that takes place in April. We’re just trying to do as much as possible, even if it destroys us.

I’ll be over in NC in a couple of weeks, anything that you recommend I go see?

Hmmmm, good question. Our friend, Betsy, is having a big musical cookout at her place on July 25. You’re definitely invited. You should see a show at Cat’s Cradle, Local 506, and The Pinhook. Disc Golf is always fun. Take a visit to Merge Records. There are a bunch of hiking trails and places to do urban exploration. Plenty of good, cheap restaurants. Plenty of good, cheap vintage stores. Nasher Museum of Art is pretty funky. We drink a lot of beer and go swimming and what not. We’ll show you a good time!!

Andy Maddison
Inhaler Records