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It’s been a rollercoaster ride to rock ‘n’
roll success for post-hardcore outfit Hundred Reasons. After picking up
a Kerrang! Award for Best New Band in 2000, the band signed to Columbia
Records in 2001 and went on to collect another Kerrang! Award (for best
album) as well as notching up album sales of 200,000, six Top 40 singles
and a huge list of tour dates.
Then, in 2004, despite selling 58,000 copies of second album,
‘Shatterproof is not a challenge'; they were dropped by Sony BMG, parent
group of Columbia. With no plans to jack it all in, the band signed a
new deal with V2 records in 2005, releasing their third album, ‘Kill
Your Own’ last year.
Currently getting stuck in to a rescheduled UK Tour, The LINC caught up
with Hundred Reasons’ guitarist/producer Larry Hibbitt a few hours
before their impressive show at Manchester Academy to talk about their
past, and more importantly, their future.
 So, a new year is upon us again, what would you say were the highlights
of 2006 for Hundred Reasons?
Making our last record, ‘Kill Your Own’, was a highlight. Just the fact
that we managed to make that, you know after we got dropped by Sony, we
didn’t want to do a DIY record or do anything half-a***d, because that’s
not really our point. So it was a bit touch and go as to whether we were
gonna get a label, but then we found V2 and they put a lot of trust in
us, and we’re back making albums again, which is brilliant.
And the low points?
The low point of last year was probably the tour. This tour we’re on now
we were originally supposed to do in October, but we had to postpone it
because of Colin’s [Doran, vocals] voice.
We’ve cancelled maybe one or two gigs in the past because of illness,
but never a whole tour, so that was pretty bad, we were just kind of
going ‘oh great, we’ve gotta wait ‘til January now!’
How’s Colin doing now? All better?
He’s fine now. It wasn’t voice-threatening particularly, but he could’ve
done himself some serious damage had he gone out and done the tour. So
it was more preventative you know, basically it was like, ‘if you’re
gonna go and do three and a half weeks’ worth of shows, you’re gonna be
screwed.’
How’s Ben [Doyle, new guitarist] settling in?
Ben’s settling in great, thanks. This is his fourth gig tonight, it’s
the first tour he’s done with us. It’s great and we’re all sounding
really tight.
We’ve rehearsed loads and loads but you can’t really rehearse properly
for shows if you don’t play ‘em.
And are you still in touch with Paul [Townsend, former guitarist]?
Yeah, you know there’s no hard feelings at all between us. He’s just had
enough of the whole lifestyle I guess and wanted something a bit more
stable were he wasn’t away all the time. It was more that than he hated
us and wanted out or anything.
What have you got planned for 2007?
The one good thing about us moving this tour is that we’ve had a lot
more time to write new songs over the last couple of months and we’re
ready to go and record again. So in February we’re gonna record album
number four, we’re going to Latvia to record in a studio over there.
So that’s the plan after this tour’s done, and that should be all
finished by March. Then we’ve hopefully got the festivals to do, then
touring again and the album should be out in the winter.
You’re noted for being a ‘touring band’ and being out on the road a lot,
what sort of places are your favourite to go out and do a show?
Just the ‘odd’ places you get to go to like Japan or the festival we did
in Istanbul. I mean, it’s always nice to tour the UK but when you get to
go abroad that’s really cool, especially somewhere like Japan where it’s
like 13 hours on a plane just to play a gig.
Don’t you ever get tired of being on the road all the time?
Not really, I mean it’s not so constant. I’d get bored being at home to
be honest, so I’d rather be away doing stuff than sat at home doing
nothing.
You’ve toured with loads of bands, from Incubus to Idlewild and loads in
between, how does playing with other big-name bands compare to doing
your own headline tours?
Supporting is fun because there’s very little responsibility involved.
You’re playing for half an hour and it’s pretty early on so, you know,
you can go out and have a drink afterwards and it’s more of a laugh.
You get a different attitude when you’re supporting because you have to
go out and impress a crowd, so you go and you play really full-on for
half an hour and then go.
But then, say on this tour we’re playing for about an hour and a
quarter, so we’ve gotta think about stretching the set and making it
move up and down.
It’s nice to do both I guess, but I think headlining is my favourite,
you know you’ve got people who are there to see you and when you get a
couple of dates in and really worked out the set, it can be wicked.
Are there any bands who you haven’t yet played with that you’d still
like to go out and do a show with?
I don’t really know. I’d like to play with Muse again; they were so…such
a great band to play with.
Oh, and we’ve played with AC/DC, that’s the other one, so no [laughs].
Speaking of the Muse tour [back in 2001], for us and probably a lot of
other people, that was the first time Hundred Reasons were starting to
really get people’s attention. What was it like being on that tour; did
it feel like you’d finally ‘made it’?
You don’t really realise what’s happening at the time because it’s the
first time you’ve done it, it’s the first time you’ve been out
supporting big bands and you just kinda think ‘well this must happen to
everyone’, which it doesn’t.
It’s only when you look back at it and go ‘actually, that was really
cool, really special’, but at the time you don’t have anything to
compare it to so you don’t really realise how special it is, you’re just
a bit like rabbits stuck in the headlights!
What do you make of the current music scene?
I don’t know that much about it to be honest, probably because I’m
getting old! There’s a lot of bands out, I know that much, like a load
of bands. I’m sure there are more bands than there were, or maybe I just
find it hard to keep up with them all!
I think it’s cool though. I’m not really a fan of going on the internet
[for music] other than to buy CDs. You know, that’s how I grew up,
buying CDs, having a file on a computer isn’t really a record to me, and
the quality can be quite bad too.
So you’re a big fan of Myspace then?
Not really. You listen to something on Myspace and it just sounds
horrible, it’s no way to listen to music. I don’t know, hopefully it
will level out and some of the quality will come back, whereas at the
minute it just seems like there’s loads and loads of stuff out there,
but there’s not that much of it which is any good.
So you reckon it’s all about quantity over quality at the moment?
Yeah, exactly.
What sort of stuff are you listening to at the minute?
I listen to a lot of Smog [A.K.A American singer-songwriter Bill
Callahan]; I’ve always listened to him. What else? I don’t normally
listen to a lot of rock stuff, more weird stuff like [eclectic
songwriter and harp player] Joanne Newsom or anything that comes off
labels like Domino.
I’m definitely into a lot of country music too, a lot of Johnny Cash and
acts like that.
Is that because you’re surrounded by rock music a lot with Hundred
Reasons and want a break from it when you’re just chilling out?
Yeah I suppose so, but then I’ve never really listened to that much
rock, I just like playing it, and I’ve always listened to the other
stuff too. I guess yeah, because I’m surrounded by it all the time, it’s
hard for me to get excited about a new rock band when there’s so much
other cool stuff out there.
What’s your favourite Hundred Reasons track to play live?
At the moment it’s ‘Kill Your Own’, it’s just got a massive riff, and
it’s got that cool stabby bit in the middle. When it all comes together
through the PA it’s really cool.
Any advice to young people who are looking to form a band and make a
career out of it?
Be thick skinned about the whole thing because you’ll probably have a
lot of ups and downs. If you’re lucky you’ll just have ups, but I don’t
know any bands who’ve had nothing but success.
Be prepared to work hard, don’t worry about being signed or making money
or all that stuff that doesn’t really happen much, just concentrate on
being a good band and writing good songs.
Our manager always tells us ‘Just write songs, write songs all the time,
you can never have enough songs.’ Which is true. If you get signed and
you’ve written fifteen songs, well that’s your first album sorted, but
then what?
Is writing you’re favourite part of being in a band then?
Yeah, ‘cos that’s the point. You’re in a band, you write songs, that’s
what you do. The point isn’t to hang around trying to be cool, it’s
about doing it because you really want to and you can’t do anything
else, or you don’t want to do anything else.
And finally, if all this ended tomorrow, how would you like Hundred
Reasons to be remembered?
As a band that made three great records and gave a lot of good music to
people, No matter how many records we do, I want us to look back and say
‘we made four great records, five great records or whatever’, that’s the
only way I want us to be remembered.
Check out a review of the band’s Manchester gig over in
‘Entertainment’.
RECOMMENDED LINKS:
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www.hundredreasons.com
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www.myspace.com/hundredreasons
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