Punk Rock Zen

Local punk rock quartet Hit By a Semi has a long history in the Chico scene. Having come out of the remains of Beanfight, quite possibly Chico’s most hated punk rock group, this band — Ryan Davidson (bass; he was actually hit by a semi about eight years ago, and still undergoes medical treatment), Steve Paustell (guitar), Brian Schuler (drums) and Rich Silva (guitar and vocals) — has struggled long and hard to get some legitimate recognition from a scene that prides itself on continuously reaching for that brass ring.
It’s not like these guys are slackers, though. This foursome, plus manager Sarah Wristen, have been working hard for over two years now, and with one six-song EP and a newly finished full-length CD, Friends, Booze & Tattoos, on the market, these guys are definitely getting their music out there. On top of that, they’re addicted road dogs. To hear Hit By talk about being on the road, you’d think touring was nirvana. And though these guys are out of town almost every weekend and seem to be spending their fair share of time in the studio, talking to them, it all doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. It’s not like they don’t care, but there’s an almost Zen attitude to their whole approach — the band and their music exists for the sake of itself; they play what they like, and that’s that.

In a recent conversation with the band and their manager, Hit By a Semi talked about their new album, playing on the road and what it means to them to be punk rock.

After Beanfight, how did Hit By A Semi come together?
Rich: That ended and Brian and Ryan and I still kept playing, but we ditched that entirely. Steve was kind of still learning how to play guitar, and we just asked him to join the band, and said we’d teach him as we went. So we kept playing and making up songs, but actually, the songs we started with we don’t even play anymore.

None of those songs even made it onto the first EP you released a couple of years ago?
Rich: No, they’re not even on that. They’re songs we wrote just so we could play at parties.

How did things evolve after that?
Rich: I don’t know, it just kind of all clicked together after three months, and we just started bangin’ out songs and started learning from each other.
Ryan: We got used to playing with each other, and after that it just started getting easier.

How long was Friends Booze & Tattoos in the making?
Rich: Over a year.

Did you start working on it as soon as you finished the first EP?
Rich: Uhhh…We actually never set out to do an album, we were just writing songs. We just kind of came across this situation, but we didn’t have enough songs. David [Singletary] at Sacred Art Tattoos offered to help us put out a full-length, and we had to make up three more songs to fill it up, and busted it all out in three weeks.
Brian: It was definitely a learning experience.

How so?
Ryan: It was really easy, the songs were really easy to write.

So you discovered that you work well under pressure.
Ryan: I guess so.
Rich: The lyrics were done in the studio, right there. I had never sung them to the songs before. We just did it right there.
Steve: He didn’t even know how he was going to sing them until he did it.

Where did you record it?
Rich: At Grizzly Studios in Petaluma. The engineer guy’s name was Roger.

Why’d you choose that place over, say, Sacramento’s Puss Cavern, which seems to be the studio of choice for local bands lately?
Rich: Well, price, and one of our friends, Sarge, from the city, does stuff with TKO Records and they used to record where we did our EP, Spout in S.F., but that place got bought out by the dot-com people buying all the warehouses in the City. So Grizzly is where TKO goes now, so we just went there.

Did you guys self-produce it, or did you bring someone in to do that for you?
Rich: That would be the Sarge. He kinda’ helped out in the beginning, and helped us structure the album.
Sara: Yeah, he helped us put the songs in order and made some suggestions, but other than that, it was pretty much all the boys.

Was that a learning experience for you?
Rich: Actually, the last one was actually more of a learning experience because they [other band members] had never recorded before.

So what’s the most striking difference between being in the studio and being on stage?
Brian: There’s a lot of pressure when you go into it. Like, there was this one song that I just couldn’t get right. We had to start that song eight or nine times before I relaxed enough and we hit it. There’s just way more pressure being in the studio.
Steve: We just tried not to think about it, just act like it was practice. I didn’t look through that glass window and watch the people watch me while I was playing. We just pretended like we were practicing, and it made things a little easier.

How did it come about that Singletary offered to fund your album?
Rich: He just asked what was holding us back, and then offered to do it as long as we did it under Sacred Art Records. It’s pretty much — like a real record company deal would be — a loan, but we would never have this if he hadn’t done that.

Did you have any other options?
Rich: We had a few, but not as much as what he paid.

Your sound pretty much encompasses all kinds of punk rock ‘n’ roll. What actually goes into your music?
Steve: I think we draw off of everything.
Rich: It’s bass lines that take the whole thing away. Even with a rhythm guitarist, it’s nothing without strong drums and bass. Without that it’d be pretty boring.
Steve: I think it’s easier to say what we didn’t want to sound like.
Ryan: Yeah, we didn’t want to sound like a Fat Wreck Chords band. We didn’t want to have that cheesy, overdone feel that so many other bands have.
Rich: And when we did our record, we didn’t over-produce because you can make a good song sound really bad by trying to add too much shit that you can’t do live. So we stayed away from that.

The album sounds really good, but it’s certainly not polished.
Brian: We recorded it all live, everyone playing together, so you get that sound, and that’s what we’re going to sound like at the shows.
Ryan: People don’t want to see a band playing and think they sound one way, and then buy their CD and find out that they sound totally different.

Lets talk about live shows. It seems like you guys play out of town as much as possible.
Rich: We’ve got everything we need in the van. We’re not at home unless we’re in the van. That’s when it feels like home.
Ryan: It’s the best feeling in the world. It’s always fun. Every moment is fun.
Rich: We’re always headed somewhere new.
Ryan: New places, new people, new bars…
Steve: It gives us an excuse to go on a road trip, it’s vacation.
Rich: And sometimes it works out to be free, which is really nice.

How often to you guys leave town?
Rich: We try to go out almost every weekend, then sometimes, it’s like five days, four days.
Steve: We average, like, two big tours a year.
Rich: We’re doing a three week one this summer, starting July 1^st.

How do people outside of Chico respond to you?
Steve: We get a very good response, especially with every show we’ve played lately.

There’s been a lot of talk lately, with the death of Joey Ramone and the recognized 25^th anniversary of the creation of punk rock, about the history and vibe behind punk rock. What’s your take?
Ryan: It’s just about living your life the way you want to live, and don’t worry about the little shit.

Is it something you guys even think about?
Steve: I never think about anything.
Rich: Ya’ know, my mom asked me that, and I said, if you don’t understand it, you never will. It’s a lifestyle and you can’t explain to someone what they can do to be punk. If you don’t understand it, then forget about it.
Ryan: It’s a state of mind.
Brian: Definitely, more than how look or how you act. I don’t think you have to have a mohawk to be a punk.

Aside from the personal story behind the name, how does it fit the band?
Steve: Aside from the personal story? Well, we get wrecked, it seems, every other night.
Rich: Yeah, you know, I think the Whitewall Slicks are the only local band who can drink us under the table. Those guys drive the semi that hits us. I’m not going to mention any names, but some local bands are scared to get drunk, but for us, it’s a live show — they’re giving us free beer and paying us money. Why not take advantage of it? Maybe when we’re playing to 80,000 people, it’s something we’ll worry about.

Is that something you guys are thinking about?
Rich: Playing to 80,000 people? Maybe if we go on tour with Backstreet Boys.
Steve: I don’t have high expectations of where we’re going to go so that we won’t be disappointed. Why build ourselves up just to get shit on?
Ryan: Just go where you go and just work hard at it and see where it takes you. If you get there, then great, if you don’t, then just try to have fun.
Brian: If it’s not fun anymore, then…
Rich: Yeah, but it just keeps getting more fun.

Bookmark: