Hot Water Musics' Chris Wollard is interviewed by The Pit Report

C: I tried to find a place backstage that would be quiet enough, do you think this is quiet enough?

J: Yeah, of course. Hey I like your shoes!

C: Thanks I just scored them

J: Do you think I can fit in them?

C: You can try. They we're only 20 bucks.

J: Where?

C: In England, they fucked up, they were supposed to be a hundred bucks. They couldn't get the computer to work right so I got them for 20.

J: Look where my toe is?

C: You got some mammoth feet there! (Laughs)

J: (Laughs) Nah but check these out (showing Chris my Classics)

C: Yeah Classics, I got a pair of those.

J: They're the only way to go.

C: Yeah, I bruise my heels on stage if I wear those though, from dancing.

J: Still, I might keep your shoes..sorry

C: But those are Clarks, those shoes are expensive!

J: Fine you can have "Clark" back.

C: (laughs) I like this (pointing at the bottom of his Clark shoes)

J: (laughs) definitely cool!

C: Aw man I know your not serious, but its okay. So you were in Fresno and now you're here. You just came to party didn't you?

J: Yeah that and do stuff for the website. Plus you know seeing awesome bands all the time isn't so bad either

C: That's so cool, and you get to do it on someone else's time too.

J: Exactly, hey Chris, what are you drinking?

C: Well it's a concoction, of Vodka Cranberry and Tangerine flavored Emergency, do you know what that is?

J: Uh something that makes you feel good before a show?

C: (laughs) Exactly! So let's talk about you. What are you wearing tonight?

J: Well seeing that it is an AFI show I knew I had to wear some article of clothing that is black.

C: That's hilarious. I feel stupid, I never wear all black. I am absolutely wearing like all black. We can match together now.

J: (laughs)Yeah so, I tried making this interview as more of a conversion instead of a "uh..Chris what's your favorite?" You know?

C: Yeah! What's your favorite kool-aid? (laughs)

J: What's your favorite color?

C: (laughs) That's hilarious, I get that so much.

J: (starts walking around backstage, keep in mind we're in Las Vegas) Hey, do you think I can hang on this?

C: I think they're for strippers

J: Hmmm..Interesting .You can hang all over those, hang upside down

C: (laughs) Yeah man, get all funky in that shit.

J: Oh hey, are you doing Warped Tour this year?

C: We don't know, they're not really filling the what do you call it?

J: Roster?

C: The roster, we're talking about it, we're contemplating it. We're gonna be doing another record this Spring, so it'd be a good idea to do it again. It's cool every other year, you don't get burned out of it. Our friends are going back out on it. I want to.

J: What were some of your favorite bands to watch?

C: Bad Religion, NOFX is awesome to watch live, they're hilarious. Flogging Molly is one of the best live bands going right now, they're fun as shit. There's tons of people that were on that tour last year, one of my favorite line- ups, it was awesome. As far as Bad Religion, that's the epitomy of Warped.

J: Yeah they weren't on it this past summer, I was kind of bummed.

C: Yeah there doing it this up coming year

J: I went to 4 different Warped Tours, even in Texas.

C: Oh my God, that's like the hottest one. That reminds me, in Phoenix last year. There was like a dust- storm. It came down and hit the merch tents. It pulled three tents up and destroyed them and people were hanging on to their tents and it was lifting people a little bit off the ground.

J. (laughs) That's the coolest thing I've ever heard!

C: Right there on the crowd it just came down. How weird is that?

J: Did it happen to your merch tent?

C: No it happened to some of our friends though

J: Well that sucks, if it was someone you didn't know then it would have been pretty funny, admit it.

C: Right right

J: Can you tell us about some crazy fan experiences?

C: Crazy fans man, oh! No wait I can't say that one, that's fucked up.

J: Oh come on, don't use names!

C: We know this one guy. This isn't like a crazy story but it's the first thing that popped into my mind cause its funny as shit. We know this one dude. He has a Hot Water logo, it's like on his back, from his neck to his ass, his entire back, full color and shit. And like we've known him for a couple of years, slightly. But last time we saw him, he showed us the new tattoo and it's just huge. But he goes,(laughs) then he busts out, he tells us what he does, like as his pastime, which I guess he's some kind of Swinger. I guess he's some kind of amateur porn guy. And he was like "Is it going to bother you if they film me cause a lot of times they get a back shot and your logo is gonna be huge. That was kind of funny. He was asking permission for like....

J: (laughs) To advertise your name in his porno? (laughs) That's great!

C: How weird is that?

J: That's cool, if you think about it.

C: I think it's totally cool.

J: How long are you gonna be on the tour with A.F.I.?

C: Till Fargo, which is October 10th.

J: Man you guys aren't gonna be at the San Jose show?

C: No actually, we gotta go home, cause there's a festival back home. Gainesville Fest. Then we do some demos for the new record.

C: You know this interview is going to be really funny. Did you get the part where you were talking shit?

J: (laughs) Hopefully not

C: Where's you favorite place to play?

J: Here right? Since I'm here.

C: Well it's too dry here, but I wish you could come to my favorite places then it would be cool. I like going to Australia and New Zealand. So like Melbourne, Sydney, just fucking gorgeous.

J: I've never left the United States

C: Oh really?

J: Yeah, I need to go travel. I was gonna go to the Reading and Leeds Festival in the UK

C: Oh those are huge!

J: Totally, I so wanted to go. Next summer though.

C: Those are brutal man. One of the things they do every year. I don't know why they do this, but they light the Pota-Potties on fire. Just tons of them, like at night when they're all wasted. Cause they've been in the sun all day. Everyone was just breathing in burning shit.

J: I hope there was no one in them

C: Yeah, no shit! (laughs) George, man, last summer on Warped Tour. Our drummer George has the worst luck. Holy shit. He was taking a shit at Warped Tour in the Porta Potty and it was like in the morning right before they were opening the doors. This dude came by in a Fork- Lift and picked up his Porta Potty and started driving. George was in there and It was moving around, so you can't do anything cause your off balance. So he was standing there and he couldn't move very much and he was trying to pull his pants up. He had to throw the door open. But it was facing away from the guy driving so he had to stick his head around the corner and be like "PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN!" and by that time there was people everywhere! Oh man that's funny.

J: That would have been so funny to see! That's great. I forgot to ask earlier, What's one of your favorite songs to play? Do a top three

C: " I Was On A Mountain" I like that one a lot. "Turnstyle" I like playing that but that's one of our older songs. The reason I like it is because we do a lot of improv. Any song where we take what the song is and say "fuck it I don't want to play that tonight" and everyone starts changing the song right in the middle and you have no idea what your about to do. We've gotten used to each other and how we work what kind of facial gestures and signals and shit. So that's my favorite stuff live, when it goes completely weird and works. I hate it when it doesn't work, someone just stops and is like "ok this is not working"

J: Do you have any shows that were most memorable?

C: The last Hardback show in an old punk club in Gainsville. It was where all the bands kind of grew up. Like us and Less Than Jake, it's where we all played. I think the legal capacity was maybe 100 people but we would put 500 people in there. You couldn't move, people were everywhere. It was the last weekend it was open, cause it got sold and was gonna close. The last weekend we had every band in town and every band that had played there regulary from other towns. There were all these people and we had a weekend long fest. It was from noon till like 5 in the morning, both days. We headlined the first night of it. We were playing and there's like no stage and the ceiling is right about your head and people are just packed in. I was looking out and there's this guy that was blowing fire in the Pit. People are just sardined, and the ceiling caught fire. You could see flames rolling across the ceiling while you were playing, which is just like a foot over peoples heads. People were freaking out and putting it out. This was mid -song but still nothing stopped, it was insane. The riot police came and the horse police came. After the last band, it all ended. People stole everything. I have one of the bar stools in my house , and I have the 13 ball. Chuck has the 8 ball from the pool table. All the pool sticks, pool balls and the front doors got ripped off. Even the metal Welcome mat, Chuck got that and was his houses' Welcome mat for a long time. People destroyed the place, everything. Took everything. All the windows got broken out. It was like "this is no longer our place", so everybody just destroyed it. The pool table was upside down. It was fucked up. And the riot police came at like 5 in the morning. There was like 500 people in the room and fuckin like 6 or 700 hundred people outside in the Courtyard. It was like a madhouse all weekend, everyone was fucked up. The cops were coming in with their horses into a drunken crowd so then everyone just went mental. It was a pretty memorable show.

J: I'd say so. If something like that happened to me, I'd say it was more than memorable. Hey I brought your CD so you can sign it, for a give away on the Website.

C: Which one is your jam?

J: "We'll Say Anything We Want"

C: Oh yeah, that's a fun song man. It's a challenge. The drummer challenged me to write a fast song that he'd be happy playing. I'm trying to play drums, I'm having a really hard time.

J: Really? I drum, it's hard at first.

C: Yeah my bass drum, I can only do really simple, like I can't do any fills or my other leg stops moving. What kind of music did you play in your old band?

J: It was more of a pop-rock and I really couldn't get into it. It was good experience though.

C: You did like radio Pop-Rock?

J: Yeah

C: Wow! That's wild. So what are you doing now, looking for a new band?

J: Sort of, I'm trying to do the whole school thing first.

C: Ah I see.

J: How long is your set usually?

C: For this tour, we get 45 minutes a night. We usually try to do an hour.

J: How's Bleeding Through, are they really cool people?

C: Yeah, they're really funny. They are all Straight Edge, and they're really funny. That dude's voice is brutal, fuckin heavy. I don't know how he does it

J: How are the A.F.I. guys?

C: They are really cool. We've been friends with them for a really long time. They are doing an interview, wait no they just did one, so they are probably eating. That made me kind of hungry.

J: I've been hungry this entire trip , everywhere I go in Vegas is like Steak...Steak...Steak.

C: What are you a weggie?

J: Vegan

C: I was Vegan for awhile, can't do that on the road. Blow so much money, trying to eat vegan. I like to eat cows now.

J: It's okay I'm really happy paying 10 dollars to go eat fruit and veggies at a buffet here.

C: (laughs) Oh yeah I'm sure you are.

J: Well it was great talking to you but the show is going to start any minute now. Thanks for talking with me!

C: No problem it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy the show!

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