This is an interview with Andy Jackson from the Vagrant band Hot Rod Circuit. They are fresh off the release of their latest album Reality’s Coming Through, and are going to head out with Straylight Run in October. We cover topics such as the new album and what their name has to do with the Simpson’s… They have always been on the verge of breaking but they’ve never really risen to mainstream status. With this new release I’m sure they’re shooting to get more listeners.

SDP: So this is the last day of the tour… How has the tour been?
AJ: Awesome, yeah it’s been a lot of fun

SDP: Let’s talk about the new album for a second.
AJ: Alright
SDP: When is the release date?
AJ: August 24th
SDP: The name?
AJ: Reality’s Coming Through
SDP: Number of songs?
AJ: Eleven, I had to think about that one, yeah it’s eleven.

SDP: Why’d you guys change the name from Social Butterfly Disorder?
AJ: That was the title that we came up with that we thought was pretty cool, it kind of went with a cover idea that we had for the record.
SDP: Kind of like Moneen?
AJ: No it was actually a picture of Jay flying through the air nude.
SDP: Nice…
AJ: Yeah so we thought it was like social butterfly disorder and we thought it was really funny and we told the label and they liked it and they kind of went ahead and made stickers and press before we ever said “hey that’s actually the name of the record” and then a couple of days later I called cause we came up with the title, they were like “oh no, we already printed like the stickers…
SDP: Of naked Jay flying through the air?
AJ: No no, it’s just the HRC stars and then on the back it says Social Butterfly Disorder. On our CD it’s going to have enhanced footage of the flying nude Jay, it will be quite a treat.

SDP: So where’s the new drummer from? Is he just one of your guys’ friends?
AJ: He’s from Richmond, but he’s been a friend of ours for years.
SDP: Was he in any other bands?
AJ: He was in a band called Lazycain, have you ever heard of them?
SDP: I’ve heard of them, but never actually heard them.
AJ: He actually played with us like four years ago, right before Mike joined the band, we lost our drummer and Hot Rod was touring with Lazycain and we’d become friends and we asked him if he wanted to come fill in and so he was in a band so we weren’t going to ask him to join our band and he did a full U.S. tour with us, and then his band broke up actually.

SDP: Did you guys add a third guitarist to this new album?
AJ: Yes.
SDP: Is he doing live shows with you guys too?
AJ: He’s doing everything, I know as of now he’s a member of the band, I know there’s no pictures of him on the website.
SDP: Yeah I was totally surprised, you guys have Casey, you guys have Andy…
AJ: I think some people are kind of freaked out about it when they hear about it, but everybody that has… even that response you just had right there, they think that after the show you’ll see why it’s been done, even everybody at the label last night was just like “When we first heard you guys got another guitar player, everybody was just all like oh crap whatever…” but after last night they were just like “Now I know why you did it.” The thing about Hot Rod’s sound is I’ve always written structured songs and Casey plays over them so much, he (the new guitarist) adds a texture that doesn’t take away anything he does, basically Brian is playing a lot of the same stuff that I’m playing and there’s some stuff we do on records that we don’t do live, he’s doing the extra stuff, he’s doing some vocals and it’s really rounding out the band. He was our guitar tech for a few years and he’s been a great friend so he was definitely the first person we were
going to ask.

SDP: So what’s the relationship like with Mike now?
AJ: Awesome, he actually works for the band, we hired him on with our management team, I actually talk to him more than I talk to my manager. So we just do everything through him, which is awesome cause he knows about touring and what we need what kind of shit we deal with and he takes care of it. He knows that we don’t want to be doing stuff we don’t want to do.
SDP: Are you guys going to record with him any time in the future?
AJ: Um… no I record too, so any of our demos of anything we do, I record them all. I mean I guess yes if we were around and he had some free time but we will probably continue working with Tim O’Hare, I can see ourselves doing another record with him.

SDP: Is this going to be your last album on Vagrant?
AJ: This question keeps coming up, I believe it’s an option, they have the option. So if they don’t want to put out another record we won’t do another one with them and if they want to put out another record then we have to. Unless we sign to another label and they want to sell us or something. I like Vagrant exactly where we are so…

SDP: Is Safety in Numbers ever going to do a proper tour?
AJ: We’re about to do eleven days on the Face to Face tour.
SDP: East coast or West coast?
AJ: Unfortunately it’s going to be on the East coast. We’re going up from Orlando to New York City.
SDP: Is Ryan Pope going to be the drummer?
AJ: Not for that gig, Ryan called me and he’s going to do a lot of the gigs when we do a full tour, he’ll be the drummer. The Get Up Kids are taking a break for a little while, so he’s wanting a gig.
SDP: Well Reggie’s going to tour soon too right?
AJ: I don’t know, I don’t know, I saw Corey the other night and Esoteric his band is on tour for forever so if Reggie does something it’s
going to be a whole new line up, which is not unusual, I haven’t played in a while with Reggie so.

SDP: Yeah you weren’t on the last Vagrant tour… So how’d you guys get the name from the Simpson’s?
AJ: I want to say it’s the soap box derby episode: Mr. Burns has on a race suit and they’re at a soap box derby race and he asks Smithers if he looks good and he says “It’s not like you’re in the hot rod circuit or anything.” I don’t know we were stoned and looking for a band name and we thought Hot Rod Circuit that sounded cool, everybody liked it and we just kind of went with it.

SDP: Is Casey working on the new Josh Berwanger album?
AJ: He recorded pedal steel on the whole record yeah, so it’s done it’s awesome.
SDP: He’s working with everyone isn’t he?
AJ: Yeah he did some stuff on Say Anything on their record, and Max from Say Anything sang on our record.
SDP: Didn’t he do some stuff with Eisley?
AJ: I don’t think he did it yet, I think he’s supposed to go record with them, actually I know he hasn’t, Sherry contacted me the other day asking me where Casey was so he hasn’t done it yet.

SDP: What’s going with Diamond Jay in the Rough’s album?
AJ: They’re drinking beer and having a good time. They’re just a bar band Jay loves doing his thing.

SDP: Any last words for the fans?
AJ: Go check out our new record, we’re really proud of it, it’s the best thing we’ve ever done.

SDP: One more thing… That Cure song you guys recorded forever ago, is that going to appear on anything?
AJ: What happened was Ryan McCarren has been so busy, every time I try to call him, what I was going to do was, we never did the vocals all the music was done so I was going to try to get the tracks from him and record it in my home studio but every time I call him he’s in the middle of recording a record and it’s him taking time out of his life to sit down and get the tracks done cause it was done on tape, it takes time and he costs money. I hope that it would come out, we have a Tom Petty cover we just recorded it turned out pretty well, we’ve been playing it live.
SDP: What song is it?
AJ: “Won’t Back Down” the only other cover we’ve been playing recently is from Archers of Loaf and we’re all fans of that band. We’re going to record that one real soon actually.
SDP: Well thanks a lot for your time.

Hot Rod Circuit interview done Summer 2004 by Jay Ponce.
http://www.hotrod-circuit.com
http://www.vagrant.com

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