Anybody who's heard the Champaign, Illinois band Hum has already heard one-half of Honcho Overload; both bands share two members a taste for all things loud. While Hum has been (rightfully) generating its fair press, though, Honcho Overload has often been overlooked in the wake of Hum's success. That may very well change with the imminent release of Honcho's second full-length album, POUR ANOTHER DRINK. Was it Husker Du who said that "everything falls apart"? Well, here Honcho puts it all together again. Think of a more idiosyncrastic and bizarre version of Sugar and you're inching in the right direction... but even then you'll never quite get there without hearing the band. So buy their new one when it comes out and enjoy... make them rich and famous so I can hear them on the radio instead of the Black Crowes or whatever is the flavor of the month....
So anyway, I literally happened into a spur-of-the-moment interview with Bill Johnson (it's a long story), Honcho's lead ranter (and just a pretty swell guy), who was kind enough to sit still long enough to answer DEAD ANGEL's many, many questions. SO READ ON... STUDY HARD... there WILL be a test later....
DEAD ANGEL GETS MISERABLE WITH HONCHO OVERLOAD:
BILL: Hi.
DA: Hello! What's happening?
BILL: Not much. How are you?
DA: Oh, OK.... You know, how I found about about the band was that I ended up ordering the Corndolly single because it was mentioned in ALTERNATIVE PRESS, and then it was like "Hey, this is cool! I think I'll investigate all these bands!"
BILL: Heh heh, great.
DA: And I really like the [Honcho] singles a lot.
BILL: Yeah, that's cool.
DA: Matter of fact, one of the things I've always wanted to ask you was how come you left "On the In" off the CD. That's my favorite one.
BILL: We talked about doing it again [on the new one]; I don't know why it didn't happen. We decided to do "Wish" on the CD, and decided to keep it to just that, since we had already put "Miserable" and "Sugarfoot" on too. We didn't want to redo everything, you know?
DA: Didn't want to overload it... [BAD DEAD ANGEL PUN, NO SHAME HERE]
BILL: Heh, exactly! I did make an effort to get it on the new CD, but was shot down pretty quickly.
DA: Well, I guess I'll just have to have this obscure single... that collector mania....
BILL: Yep.
DA: So how's the new album going?
BILL: It's all recorded, and just a matter of sending it off to the CD plant, getting some pictures scanned into computers for the artwork and stuff. But it's pretty well set to go. The music's done, so now is actually where the hard part comes in-- we're better musicians that we are artists!
DA: How do you do that? Do you just have someone else do the artwork, then go approve it?
BILL: Actually, no... most of the guys in the band are too busy forgetting they're in the band to get anything togethre, so I do all the artwork together with another guy. Bascially, I take it to them at the end and say "This is the CD cover, how do you guys like it?" They either like or they don't like it, and it's over, pretty much....
DA: And if they don't like it, you're out of time, and they're out of luck....
BILL: Right! I'll be more than happy to let them do all the work for the next one! They get little ideas of what it's going to look like as it goes along, but they're too busy with other things or whatever to really feel like helping. Which is okay, I more than happily take the role on myself, because then I know I'm going to like it.
DA: Cool. So then is the band satisfied with the first one, SMILES EVERYONE?
BILL: Yeah! Yeah, everyone liked it a lot. I think it was a nice, well- rounded release.
DA: Oh, I like it myself too. I like that a lot. I thought it was one of the better albums to come out last year.
BILL: I thought it was real nice as well. I like the way that Adam Schmitt produced it.
DA Who's producing this time?
BILL: We're doing it with him again, although this new one's a little different. We're a little more comfortable as a band, the songs are a little bit better.... The last time, whereas I think Adam did a really good job, I think he did a lot better job this time. The first time we just basically went in and played our songs, you know, and got to know each other, and pretty much played them straight through. This time, now that we're kinda pals and stuff-- we all live in the same town-- it was a lot easier to go in and goof around, and instead of just playing the songs straight, there's a lot mroe "goof-off-in-the-studio" kind of stuff on there. So I think it makes for a little richer album. I like the words on the new album a lot more.
DA: The lyrics on the first one are pretty amusing. They sound like they were written kind of "off the cuff"....
BILL: Yeah, many of them were. Others weren't, but I like this one better. I mean, I'm happy with what i did for the first one, but this one I like better.
DA: How long had the band been together when you made that?
BILL: We're about 3 years old now, a little over 3 and a half years old now, that came out in September, so I guess about 2 and a half years old.
DA: How's it working out having one or two members splitting time in Hum? Is it one or two?
BILL: It's two.
DA: How has that worked out?
BILL: It's typically fine. Every once in a while something comes up where....
DA: You have to be in two places at once?
BILL: Right. And someone stays home instead of getting to go. But it's typically fine; we've all been friends for ages, you know, and the bands kind of started out at the smae time, so it's always been something we've worked with, it's not a new surprise or anything. It's something we've always dealt with. The bassist for Honcho sings and plays guitar for Hum and the guitarist for Honco plays bass in Hum. So there's two guys.... But typically it works out real well. You can take two stances on it -- be real belligerent with each other, you know, have it work that way, but that sounds a little more disruptive, so we're hopefully going to turn it to a positive. Anytime anyone asks me about Honcho, I'm more than happy to plug Hum, hopefully get people to listen to the two bands....
DA: They're a pretty different band.
BILL: Yeah? I have more trouble seeing that, because I'm in the middle of it. How do you see it?
DA: Well, to me -- I haven't heard as much of Hum as I have of Honcho, but it seems to me that Hum is a little less structured, and a lot more toward the noise end of things, where Honcho is a little closer to pop....
BILL: Right, I would agree with that.
DA: Although they're both coming from the same basic concept....
BILL: Right, right. That's probably a pretty good assessment.
DA: And since I tend to lean toward the noise/pop thing, I prefer Honcho. Although at this point, as much Japanoise as I'm listening to, I may need to go back and listen to the Hum single again!
BILL: That's true! Well, their full-length CD [ELECTRA 2000] is really, really good. They recorded that with Brad Wood up in CHicago, and it's real good.
DA: Have you tried to tour together?
BILL: Nah....
DA: Kind of a nightmarish thought, is it?
BILL: Yeah. We're so drunk by the time we're done playing that I can't imagine the rest of the guys trying to follow it up, so that'll never happen. We've never even played the same party, I don't think. We may have done that once, but that's something we stay away from. Too much trouble. We all get our turns to play out, so it's fine, the split works fine.
DA: Has Honcho been touring?
BILL: We went out to the East Coast at the end of May... end of May? Beginning of May. Played out in New York and Phildelphia, Richmond and stuff. That was real fun, that was the first time we'd ever done that. We've basically jsut stuck around home, playing easy Midwestern places, so that was a real treat to go out there.
DA: Any plans to play Texas? [DEAD ANGEL wants to see 'em] Will you come around when the new album comes out?
BILL: Probably, actually.
DA: Everybody seems to want to play Austin now.
BILL: Well, It's just supposed to be a phenomenal city to go see as it is, you know?
DA: It's not bad. I prefer it to Dallas. [NOTE: That's putting it mildly... VERY mildly... Dallas should just be razed to the ground, oooo, don't get me started]
BILL: Yeah, I would imagine that's true. As far as I'm concerned, touring is just a great vacation.
DA: If you come over here, you have to go to Hippie Hollow.
BILL: What's that?
DA: That's this big rock lake where in the summertime where the water is about, oh, 65 to 70 degrees... and everybody swims naked.
BILL: Oh! Sounds like a nice place to visit!
DA: It is! I like it myself.
BILL: That's pretty cool.... [back to the subject of touring:] We can't decide; it was originally going to be September, but it will probably be October now. We're probably going to go out for like six weeks and see how that goes. That's something we're going to start working on in the next copule of weeks, getting something booked. So that'll be a nice treat.
DA: Maybe by then I'll have enough $$$ to go see you....
BILL: Heh, maybe we'll have enough to get out there! It's pretty lean living on the road, when you're a no-name band.
DA: Have you ever heard of a band from Austin called Girls in the Nose?
BILL: Uh-huh.
DA: They're a lesbian band, and they're going to go play at the Stonewall/ Gay Games in New York, and in order to do it-- they're so broke that they're having to raise the $$$ through benefit gigs to go play a benefit gig.
BILL: Wow, heh, really?
DA: Which I thought was kind of strange.... [NOTE: perhaps IRONIC was the world DEAD ANGEL was searching for....]
BILL: Yeah, that's rough. Worth doing, though. Seems like you gotta go play New York to get anyone to see you. Kind of a shame, but kind of understandable all at the same time.
DA: Yeah, those big city blues.
BILL: Yeah. But I was suprised at how much I actually liked New York City. I figured I would hate it.
DA: There's lots to do there!
BILL: Yeah, I figured I would just despise it, that it'd be dirty and freaks everywhere....
DA: And you only halfway-despised it.
BILL: Actually, I thought it was great! I had a phenomenal time. Not a bad thing happened, and I'm amazed at how much I liked it. We were there for three days and I really enjoyed it. I liked Philadelphia as well, that was a pretty nice city. I look forward to going out there after having this new album out.
DA: So when is the new album coming out? Have a date yet?
BILL: Should be able to have all the artwork done [soon]. After that, it's probably just a matter of six to eight weeks... so it'll be out sometime in August.
DA: And of course, I'll be the first to buy it....
BILL: Heh, that's right! I think people are going to like it.
DA: Sounds pretty good.... Well, thanks for filling me in!