The Hush Sound Interview – July 26th, 2007

Recently I was able to sit down with The Hush Sound’s Chris, Darren, Bob and Greta for an interview (Dupage County, IL) on their lives in the music world so far. Upon entering the trailer where the interview was conducted, I found the band casually lounging around along with a shirtless Darren munching away on nachos. It did not take long to see that these guys were an outgoing bunch who genuinely cares for their fans as well as their music.
*A huge thank you to THS, Nicole, and Bryce for helping set up the interview and to all of the security guards that finally let me through backstage!*

– Your first album came out just 2 years ago, “So Sudden”, and it perfectly describes your progression into the music business and into fame. Within a year you went from playing tiny local shows to touring with All American Rejects and Fallout Boy. How did you deal with the quickness of your success?

Greta: It’s not something we necessarily deal with, because it’s really fun. In music you think of the people you get to tour with, and writing the songs and becoming a better musician, so when you’re on the road it’s really enjoyable.

Bob: If you keep a love for music, than it’s not that big of a deal, it’s just something awesome to do.

– Going back to the duo days of Bob and Greta, how has your sound changed and evolved into the foursome band that we know today?
 
Bob: Well we have definitely learned about a lot more music. When Greta and I started, Greta had a small amount of musical knowledge, and I had a small amount, since than we have really made it a point to learn as much possible about different styles of music. And of course they had different musical backgrounds and now we have grown with each other.

Chris: Yeah, we have definitely rubbed off on each other.
 
Greta: Our tastes have rubbed off.
 
Bob: We have just learned a lot more music and been playing together a lot more, so we are a lot more…together.

– In the earlier days of the Hush Sound did you face any criticism or was everyone pretty supportive of you reaching your goals and trying to become famous?

Greta: Well we aren’t the kind of band that is all “Yeah, let’s be in a band to be famous!”, if we were just trying to be famous we probably would all be–

Bob: –Homeless (laughs). Well we were all just trying to have fun and play together and than we got offered a deal. Greta was planning on going to college, but we just wanted to play music together for as long as we possibly could.

Greta: The other thing is we’ve all been playing music pretty much our whole lives, it’s not like all of a sudden Darren picks up a drum set, plays one beat, and than gets signed to a rock band. It’s like, it’s a natural progression.
 
Chris: We didn’t just become a band or just in a band, we liked playing music in general before this. And if fame and fortune comes? That’s fine.

Darren: Yeah, it didn’t just happen; we played for fun before we became a band.
 
Greta: We definitely aren’t one of those see and be seen kind of bands. We’d probably rather stay at home and actually play than go out in a packed place and just kind of play.

– At previous shows you showed us a little glimpse of your new album by playing the song “Honey” from it, which hopefully you will do tonight?

Greta: No (laughs). It’s in a period of being worked on right now, so we actually aren’t going to play it. Bob and I are both singing it together now. It’s way neater.
 
– How is this album different than your others?

Greta: It is going to feel more like a Hush Sound record, not like in our last record where it was kind of being like a Greta song, a Bob song, it’s very distinct—our writing styles are very distinct— and I think that this record will be more like a collaborate effort, and hopefully just more energetic, more lyrically in depth, more everything.
 
Chris: More good.
 
Bob: More better.
 
Darren: More mature.

– How do you go about writing your lyrics? Do you have a special time or method to do it?

Greta: No it’s definitely whenever. I usually don’t actually write anything down, like I just keep a recording going until something happens and than I go back and think about them.
 
Bob: My best lyrics just kind of come out and than I just shape them later. I work a lot better when I write the song, then I write the melody, than write the lyrics. I almost hurry, than take my small time, than of course shape them later and tighten everything up; make everything final.

– So you always write the music before the lyrics.

Bob: Yeah, usually. Sometimes I’ll have an idea and I’ll be writing about it and than find a song or recall it at random.
 
Chris: Yeah a lot of times the melody will bring lyrics to mind, but it can all work the other way around; bringing a melody to mind.
 
Darren: Yeah. I was going to say that nothing is really constant in our band. It all depends.
 
Greta: Every time is like a different story.

– Is there a continual theme that runs throughout most of the music?

Greta: I don’t know if there is a continual theme.
 
Bob: I think there is but I just don’t think we can find it.
 
Greta: I guess what we are trying to go for essentially is having like a timeless record. I want to write songs that will still be hummed in 15 years. I hope that our lyrics don’t have that kind of nostalgic quality so that we can’t necessarily date them. Like apple computers…or Cadillacs—
 
Bob: —I think Cadillacs are pretty cool still.
 
– Do you have any bands or people in general that have inspired you?

Greta: Oh yeah. I mean this is a half hour long answer.
 
Darren: The Flaming Lips—

Greta: —Mo Town, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Elliot Smith. A lot of 20’s and 30’s.
 
Chris: Yeah, a lot of classic rock and older music. 

Bob: One band that really inspires me is called This Is Me Smiling. I don’t know if you know them, but I just really admire the way that they all play with each other. They are an amazing band.

– What are some things you can’t live without on tour?

All: WATER.
 
Greta: My keyboard; my guitar.
 
Darren: We couldn’t live without each other…our instruments.
 
Bob: Chris can’t live without cream cheese, as was overtly taken from a recent article.
 
Chris: Right. I could live without peanuts but I can’t live without my cream cheese.
 
Greta: Chris can only live without peanuts.
 
– Are there any hobbies, aside from music, that you like to do now or did do when you were younger?
 
Darren: I was Darren the daredevil; I did little stunts. My friends would tie me up with duct tape and I’d like flip off of things.
 
Greta: I was into magic for a long time. Not the cards though, like actual magic. I was a magician.
 
Chris: I liked dragons. Dragons were amazing.
 
Bob: I used to think I was in the Truman Show forever. I remember doing things that would look cool on a TV show. I was on an archery team too. I played a lot of sports…football, baseball, basketball.
 
Chris: Arm wrestling.
 
Greta: Disco dance…karate…I played archery also.
 
Bob: Star wars.
 
Darren: Yo-yoing, video games.
 
Greta: Okay, pretty much any hobby that was ever a fad in America.
 
– My last question is for you Greta, how does it feel to be around boys constantly?

Greta: Aw I love these boys so much—
 
Bob: —Men.
 
Greta: I could honestly not imagine touring with a bunch of estrogen-emitting women all the time. I really love it. I have a brother and I grew up around him and all of his friends, so I’m used to that kind of camaraderie. They are way more laid back than a lot of my girlfriends, and that’s really nice.
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