{"id":2601,"date":"2018-07-19T18:18:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T22:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2018-07-19T18:18:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T22:18:40","slug":"interview-bad-bad-hats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2018\/07\/19\/interview-bad-bad-hats\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Bad Bad Hats"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Zoe Prinds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota-based indie rockers Bad Bad Hats have made a name for themselves since the release of their first EP in 2013. After the release of<\/span><\/i> It Hurts<\/span>, they continued to stun the scene with their debut album, <\/span><\/i>Psychic Reader,<\/span> filled with upbeat tracks like \u201cJoseph,\u201d \u201cSpin,\u201d and \u201cCruella.\u201d The hit songs \u201cMidway\u201d and \u201cPsychic Reader\u201d rocketed to over 3 million and 1 million streams on Spotify, respectively. The group is fronted by vocalist Kerry Alexander, with Connor Davison on drums, and Chris Hoge covering all other instruments. WTBU DJ Monica Sucic asked Alexander about Minnesota, inspirations, and the band\u2019s upcoming sophomore album. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Monica Sucic: Did you all grow up in Minnesota?<\/b><\/p>\n

Kerry Alexander: I was born in Minnesota, but I moved when I was really little, and grew up in Alabama. Chris is from Connecticut, Noah is from New Mexico, and Connor is from Texas. So, we’re from all over the place. But college initially brought the band together. That’s where Chris and Noah and I met. And Connor made some Minnesota connections when he was a on a cross country bike trip and ended up coming here to work. We were lucky to find him in the scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: How would you describe the Minneapolis music scene?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA: It’s small, but mighty. There’s lots of talent. There’s a wide variety of genres and styles. Something for everyone really. Everyone’s really supportive. And people in the Twin Cities love their local music. So there’s a lot of support there as well. Good venues. It’s affordable to live. I think it has a lot going for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: What\u2019s your favorite part about the Twin Cities?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA: I personally love the size. It’s big enough that I have everything I want from a city. Good restaurants, good museums, good bands touring through. I can walk or bike to a lot of what I need. But it’s not so big that I feel like a sardine in a can. It can be very cold in the winter. But that’s songwriting time. And when it’s not winter, it’s beautiful for walking around the lakes and the parks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA: Gotta say Dolly Parton. I’m sipping from my Dollywood mug currently. Or Sheryl Crow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: What music are you currently listening to?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA: We’ve really been enjoying Damien Jurado’s new record. We love Kacey Musgraves’s album. Just went and saw her in concert. We’re big on Natalie Prass in this family as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: If you could get a tattoo for any song, artist, or album, what would it be and why? And if you currently have any, can you share?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA<\/b>: Chris and I are tattooless. And I don’t think Connor or Noah have any tattoos that are song or album related. Hmm, this is something I haven’t considered before! I’ve always loved the image of a bison or buffalo. And Chris and I got married last year, and our first dance was to Laura Veirs’ “When You Give Your Heart” which has a line that references a buffalo. So maybe I would do a buffalo head in honor of that. Haha!<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: What were some of the biggest inspirations behind the new album,\u00a0<\/b>Lightning Round<\/i><\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA: Brett Bullion, our friend and producer, got us listening to Fleetwood Mac’s\u00a0<\/span>Tusk\u00a0<\/span><\/i>while we were recording. We also listened to a fair amount of Neil Young and JJ Cale. We tried to channel some of that classic “record live to tape” vibe. A lot of the lyrics were inspired by my friends’ experiences. I also wanted to write a few more songs about being in a long-term relationship, which is subject matter I haven’t explored too much in earlier releases.<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: How are some ways it differs from\u00a0<\/b>Psychic Reader<\/i><\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA<\/b>: I think the album feels a little more sonically mature. We toured quite a bit between\u00a0<\/span>Psychic Reader\u00a0<\/span><\/i>and the recording of this album, so we got more comfortable playing together, more comfortable playing our respective instruments. It also feels a little moodier. That wasn’t intentional, but it turned out that way. The sound of my youth fleeting. Haha!<\/span><\/p>\n

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MS: Was the writing\/recording process different for this album?<\/b><\/p>\n

KA<\/b>: Because we were a lot more comfortable playing together, Brett encouraged us to do some more live recording all together, as opposed to doing everything track by track. So I think that leant to a more spontaneous, natural sound. The writing process for the lyrics didn’t differ too much. I generally write the basic version of the songs by myself, and then I let the band kind of fill in all the blanks. But in recording this album, it was cool that some of those blanks were filled on the fly in the studio. You could feel the song becoming something new and interesting in the moment, which as a songwriter was scary at first, but ultimately very inspiring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bad Bad Hats\u2019 newest album, <\/span><\/i>Lightning Round<\/span>, will be out August 3rd.\u00a0They will be touring the West Coast throughout August and September. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota-based indie rockers Bad Bad Hats have made a name for themselves since the release of their first EP in 2013. After the release of It Hurts, they continued to stun the scene with their debut album, Psychic Reader, filled with upbeat tracks like \u201cJoseph,\u201d \u201cSpin,\u201d and \u201cCruella.\u201d The hit songs \u201cMidway\u201d and \u201cPsychic Reader\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[454,26,457,455,456,409],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2603,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601\/revisions\/2603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}