The evolution of The Draft

Mon 11th Sep, 2006 in Features

There is always stigma that comes along with a band break up and for American band The Draft it is no different.

Made up of three of the ex-members of the now defunct punk rock band Hot Water Music, The Draft is finding it difficult to start afresh despite there being no hard feelings with frontman Chuck Ragan, who left the band at the beginning of last year.

Ragan cited family as his reason for wanting to be off the road after 13 years and nine full length albums, but for the remaining members – guitarist/singer Chris Wollard, bassist Jason Black and drummer George Rebelo - all they wanted to do was keep playing and keep playing they did.

The trio recruited a new guitarist in long time friend Todd Rockhill and recorded an album titled In A Million Pieces (no reference to the HWM’s breaking up), which is due out in Australia on September 9.

Black, who is spokesman for the band, laid it all out in a very matter of fact way.

Amy Lou: In your own words, why did Chuck leave?

Black: Pretty simply it was a case of him not wanting to tour anymore. I know he is doing some solo shows in California and what not now. But in hindsight, I am sure that there were a lot of other factors that weighed in on it for everyone. He expressed his thoughts for a while to slow it down and I think he finally hit the wall about not wanting to be gone (from home) anymore.

AL: You had a break earlier in your career, how long was that for?

B: That was because we were all pretty young and we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. It was because we’d been on tour for a long time. It was also because we were in our first tour in Europe and it was a god-awful tour. Spending five weeks in Germany with no one coming to your shows, and not knowing how to talk to anyone, and not having any friends – it is kind of depressing. There was not much that could save that tour. A break up wasn’t necessary, a break was and that is what it ended up being.

AL: So there are no hard feelings with the new band The Draft coming out?

B: Not that I know of. Somewhere deep down everyone has a ‘fuck you’ for this kind of thing. We were all friends for way, way too long for anything. It would very much only be petty complaints.

AL: Did you ever think to go on as a three-piece under the HWM name?

B: Maybe if it wasn’t one of the two lead singers, we may have considered it. But we’re the four of us and that is it. I also don’t know how much it would have done for us being three parts of HWM. Maybe there are a lot of people that don’t know that HWM has split up and The Draft is the new HWM band. I have no idea. It is very hard to tell. I would like to think that people who were avid fans would have worked it out a year and a half later that we’ve got a new band going on and its pretty much where its at. While there would have probably been some benefits to keeping the name, it was something we never considered doing.

AL: The album has a similar sound. Was keeping HWM’s fans one of the reasons?

B: It is what we do naturally. It is a natural tendency of the three of us (Rockhill excluded) working together. As much as you want push things, there is a point where you would sound false, and try to sound completely different and not anything we ever wanted to be.

AL: Would you prefer people to look at The Draft’s music with an open mind?

B: Yeah. But I don’t think that is ever going to happen. In a perfect world, yes that would be great. I think the only people who are going to look at it that way are people that didn’t listen to HWM music. I think people who didn’t like HWM are going to look at it like they don’t like us, and so on and so forth. I mean it would be great if people can remove themselves from it, but that is a lot to ask of somebody.

AL: Has Todd fitted in the band quite well?

B: Definitely. Obviously there is a little period of adjustment for all of us all the way round. Playing new songs and being in new bands, but I think we are pretty well stitched up at this point.

AL: Has Chris warmed up to the idea of being a frontman?

B: I think it took him a little while. I think it is almost more of an endurance of singing every song every night instead of singing part of every song every night. Now I have to sing some back ups and that works me out too, so we are all kind of adjusting to our new roles.

AL: Did you have all the songs written before Todd came along?

B: Pretty much, but every song that we ended up using suffered some change when Todd came in. We just kept working and working on thing and got an overall band feeling going on.

AL: You chose Brian McTernan again, who produced HWM. Was that because you were familiar with him?

B: Yeah and because he was the first one there that said, “HWM broke up, do you want to record a new band”. He was right there for us from the beginning. We trust in his abilities and he is a good friend. A lot of people were like why didn’t you use another producer and we were like because he is good. He was willing to do the things that we wanted to do. We wanted to try different things and make this record in a different way than how we made any of HWM’s. He did this record entirely different than any of his other records as far as the execution of it.

AL: How much did you change the recording process?

B: The process completely. We kind of did every song at once instead of doing the drums for everything and the bass for everything and the guitars for everything. Not every song at once, but every song would be entering the same stages of completion at the same time. Where as these three songs are now ready for vocals.

AL: Did it make it faster to all be in there at once?

B: No, I think it made it slower actually. But I think it sounds better and it has a different character than if we were doing the quick robot studio version like we’ve done before. It took a month, which including mixing and everything is pretty good.

AL: Do you feel like you are starting out again?

B: Definitely. We are trying to look at things that way because it is pretty much the reality of the situation. We are all being afforded a lot of opportunity because of our past, but we still have a lot of things to accomplish on our own, so it is not healthy to look at it any other way and it is actually exciting too. We’ve had a nice little break and I think I have perspective on things. We are on the right track with this band as far as getting something going that we are going to be able to sustain for a while.

The Draft plans on touring Australia early next year and are not scared of mixed public opinion from the droves of HWM fans.

The past should be left in the past because The Draft is the future, and it is a very bright future going on the 12 powerful tracks on In A Million Pieces.
For full coverage on The Draft click here