A Conversation with Larry Hibbit of Hundred Reasons

This is the original transcript of the interview, only minor editing has been applied for readability. This has been the basis for articles but has never been published in the original form.

Wortraub: You have received several awards, you have headlined huge festivals, your singles have had chart entries. In the UK there has been quite a recognition of your music. On the other hand your first album Ideas above our station is only available as import in Germany. Your second album „Shatterproof is not a Challenge“ has been largely ignored by Sony and by most of the German audience. How would you introduce yourself to the German audience?
Larry: We would like to introduce ourselves with this record in a way. It is the one we are going to be touring with. Hard-working British rock band that you will like. How about that? That’s rubbish. It was a pain in the ass with Sony records. We want to get some tours so that you can hear us playing, cause that’s how we do it in the UK. It is important for us that people see us live because I think that’s when they will understand what we are all about. Better than hearing the records. Our music functions best live.

Wortraub: How would you describe the sound of the new album „Kill Your Own“? How does it differ from the first two albums?
Larry: I think it is meaner and it’s got a bit more of a twisted streak running through it. But also there are some sugary moments. I like it. It has got a nasty edge this record, which does not exist on the other two. We did not want it to be a particularly comfortable listen and the more you listen to it, the lyrics, the sound of the music, the more it drags you back to it. You will be more and more involved, the more you listen to it.

Wortraub: The lyrics seem personal, intense dealing with relationships especially when you take a softer approach as in The Chance or This Mess. Have there been personal experiences that influenced the music?
Larry: A lot of it has to do with relationships, but it is what happened between members of this band over the last year or so. Colin does not like talking about the lyrics because they are all very personal. This is why he does not like the press. „Kill Your Own“ for example is about the pleasure you get from hurting people that you normally care about. It is like going out of the way to make people feel bad, which are the people that you normally protect. This is what you go through as a group of people learning to deal with each other. It is an evil thing to write about this.

Wortraub: Your music has been labelled as emo rock or even emocore … how far is this accurate? Does emotional involvement determine your music?
Larry: Surely that determines any music ever written. I don’t like the emo tag. We always try to get away from that. This record does not sound like an emo record. We wanted it to sound like a British rock record from a British rock band. And that is the only label we have ever given ourselves. Emo is a stupid word. There is no reason for it. I don’t understand what it means. There was this emo-thing that happened about fifteen years ago, which seemed to make sense. But since then it seems to be vaguely melodic punky metal-rock. I never understood that.

Wortraub: There are two tracks on the album that actually go back to hardcore roots, also the lyrics are more aggressive. The rest of the album is straight rock, homogenous in a way. Why did you include the two tracks in the album?
Larry: We always liked playing that sort of stuff. We were into hardcore. We came from there. We’ve heard this stuff, so we wanted to put a couple of these songs on the record. Make it a bit different. They are so much fun to play.

Wortraub: There are influences beyond the hardcore roots. Sometimes there is a very straight song writing element, sometimes a vocal element that reminds of the rawer stuff of Bush. What influences do you have, or do you recognize?
Larry: Stuff from D.C. like Minor Threat, Fugazi, Youth of Today, Helmet, Quicksand. These are the bands that we identify with. I know we sound closer to Bush than to Minor Threat. As songwriters we don’t think about that when we write.

Wortraub: Is there a philosophical influence from hardcore as well? DIY? sXe?
Larry: We took on the work ethic. The respect for people that you work with. We took the idealism and did not want to become rock star idiots.

Wortraub: One of your lyric lines says are „we nothing more than this / a list of pinnacles achieved“? It does seem to have a personal touch, like saying our relationship is nothing but the good stuff we remember. But also it has this wider scope? Are your lyrics personal or do they have a broader sense to read?
Larry: I suppose you could read that into it. But it is not how Colin writes. He writes from within his own experiences as opposed to some sort of commentary. But then we put a lot of work into the lyrics. We did a lot of thinking about each line. And they are just good lyrics, and good lyrics will be read differently by different people. That is important. Colin writes in a slightly abstract way, that is his style.

Wortraub: Now, finally we do need some of the got-to-know-stuff: like how did you meet?
Larry: We met in London, we were all in different bands. We got together some time and it worked out and we stuck together.

Wortraub: What has been your purpose for doing music?
Larry: I don’t think it is a simple answer. People in bands stay in bands because they can’t just not do it. It is like the world’s worst drug addiction ever. You spend all your money on it. You put personal relationships with friends and family in jeopardy because you spend so much time on it. No matter how well or how badly it is going, you still do it. It is an addiction, not a choice.

Wortraub: How do you work together?
Larry: I don’t know the answer to that. You just do. You come together and you just end up the something at the end of the day.