1. Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
All of our influences vary pretty much from month to month. We just try to surround ourselves with great music both new and old and draw from that. There are some stalwarts of course for all of us such as The Beatles, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Motley Crue (our drummer is huge into Tommy Lee), The Snake The Cross The Crown, The Who… I'll stop here; this list of course could go on for days. We also read a lot. We write a lot based on our lives and the things that we observe in our daily routines.
2. How did the band form and come up with "One Hundred Hurricanes"?
We were going by the Getaway originally. Just try searching that on MySpace. Almost everyone has something like that or similar. So we tossed around a couple of ideas, but nothing really stuck. Our bassist was listening to MC Chris at the time and drew a line from one of his songs for the name. MC says, "I've got nothing but a hundred hurricanes in my way. AKA People saying quiet down and behave, fucking lame like the mother fucking trucker hat craze." We took that as meaning people standing in the way of doing what you want to do, telling you that you should just sit down and shut up cause you'll never get anywhere, so why try. We really liked that idea, and the name has a really nice ring to it.
3. There is a definite emphasis on prioritizing the live aspect of the music, but out of curiosity, how did you approach the composition and recording of "60 Years Under the Stars"?
That's pretty much the way we wanted it, really. Of course we would love to have the many bells and whistles that a huge recording studio would have provided us with, but for these songs they stand on their own without a lot of post-production. As far as the approach to recording we didn't have a set concept, I guess, for the way we wanted to track them. Mark Poole, who recorded our album, has an amazing way of leading you to the right conclusion for a song without forcing his will upon it. All of the rhythm tracks (drums, bass, rhythm guitar) were done live together and then we just pieced the vocals and lead tracks onto that. I think that's where a lot of the energy comes from in the songs. Also I think the sense of urgency with which we had to record the tracks contributed for better or for worse.
4. It is becoming more and more common for bands to be part of a "scene" or have some gimmick up their sleeves. One Hundred Hurricanes, however, seems to stand out from those classifications; how is this an advantage (or disadvantage) to getting the word out about your music?
It is a little of both (advantage/disadvantage). We have never been the type of guys who subscribe to a "scene" or a "gimmick," even before we got into playing music. As far as advantages go, I think it makes people pay more attention to what we're doing musically than to anything else, be it clothes or onstage antics. Also I feel it makes it more accessible, which is what music is supposed to be about: emotions, and drawing on them both the good and the bad. Disadvantages are numerous, with a scene or anything like that you'll ultimately have people that will like you just because you are a part of something they are. So that can be tough to try to make people who normally wouldn't like or go to your shows get past all of that B.S.. Also it can be tough booking because some bands will only book with other bands who are of the same genre or the same content. For us we go out every time we play and leave it on the stage and people can think what they want about it. We really enjoy what we do, and I think that carries over to the audience, if they are willing to give it a chance.
5. You guys have played your own shows and festival situations. How do you find you have to switch up your approach to playing and performing in order to connect to your audience in different situations, venues, or locations?
That is one of the benefits of our style, all we have to do is control our volume. Of course our set list will change to fit wherever we are playing, you can't really rock out a coffee shop. But generally we go about it the same every show; 'Steal Ears' is something we often say before we play, it just means play your heart out and make people listen and pay attention. You're never going to be loved by everyone you play for, that's just the nature of the beast, but if you play like you give a damn people will too.
Keep up with One Hundred Hurricanes at their homepage, MySpace, and Facebook.
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