“We didn’t do it correctly the first time around”: Jason Black on the return of the Draft

[Photo: kannemilo photography]

In late 2005, beard punks the world over mourned the end of Hot Water Music, the long-running post-hardcore band who were hugely influential yet never broke through commercially. But just as quickly as HWM dissolved, THE DRAFT—featuring every member of Hot Water Music minus vocalist/guitarist Chuck Ragan, who was replaced by Todd Rockhill—came together, immediately jumping back into the game with extensive touring and recording. Maybe too immediately: The band released a killer full-length, In A Million Pieces, as well as a handful of 7-inches, but quickly disappeared in late 2007—just in time for Hot Water Music to announce their reunion. HWM made a triumphant return to a punk scene desperately missing them, playing the biggest venues and selling the most records of their career. Of course, now Hot Water Music are taking a short break this summer, which means the Draft are being dusted off for a quick tour, which kicked off July 17 in Washington, D.C., and running through July 28 in St. Louis (plus an appearance at the Fest in October.) Confused yet? So are we, so we turned to JASON BLACK, bassist for both bands, to set us straight.

INTERVIEW: Scott Heisel

Was there any discussion in the past couple of years about reviving the Draft for a show or two?
Not really, honestly. It wasn’t anything any of us had really considered. Phil [Battiato, booking agent] had brought it up at some point and the email sat in my inbox forever and ever. When we got back from our last Hot Water [Music] tour, we figured out that we would have a lot of time off. I was just like, “Do you guys want me to see what this is all about?” Everyone was just like, “Why not? Lets do something short together and see if it looks like it’s worth checking out.” It’s a very informal situation.

Given the fact it’s that kind of relaxed way of coming about, are there expectations that you have for this upcoming tour? Are there goals?
I’m just going to sit back and let it happen. I mean, hopefully it goes well, obviously. Nobody likes playing shows that aren’t awesome in one way or another. Whether it’s a ton of people or a lot of excited people, I think for us, everyone has put a very small amount of pressure on it. It’s not like things went amazingly well when we toured when the record was new. Now, it’s like six years old I don’t know if it’s going to improve or not. [Laughs.]

You could easily point to the fact that Hot Water got biggerduring their hiatus. The last time I saw Hot Water headline before the hiatus was at the Grog Shop in 2004 with 200 people and then in 2008 at the Metro in Chicago, which sold out.
Yeah, totally. I mean, hopefully that vibe continues for us. It’s just a different beat. I think the tour has been booked appropriately. The venues are the right size and nothing is too crazy or too weird. I would like to think that it will be successful on the mild set of expectations that we have for the whole thing.

The Draft’s catalog is roughly about 18 songs based on all the 7-inches and whatnot?
Yeah, something like that.

Are you going to be going through song one to song 18 or cherry-picking the catalog for your sets?
I wouldn’t say we’re cherry-picking it as much as we definitely don’t want to play a couple songs, so we’re not playing those and everything else is up for being included. Just to actually play a full set, we kind of have to play everything. [Laughs.] That’s pretty much where we’re at.

What songs do you just want to avoid no matter what?
We’re not playing “Longshot” off the record, and there are a couple 7-inch songs that are not in the mix at this point but could maybe get in there by the end of the tour. Other than that, it’s pretty much everything. We don’t really have a choice. [Laughs.]

It’s crazy to think that In A Million Pieces came out literally seven years ago. It doesn’t feel like it’s that old. Now that you’ve had this second wind of Hot Water between that and the Draft coming back again, where does that Draft album sit in your mind? What are some memories you associate with that or feelings you associate with it?
I mean, it’s got the similar feelings this time around where we’re like, “Well, we have no idea what’s going on with Hot Water so I guess we’ll play some shows with the Draft.”

It’s very much like a Descendents/ALL situation where when Milo wasn’t available, the other guys got somebody else.
Yeah, kind of. We don’t really have anything planned besides this tour and that’s one thing we’ve talked about. We maybe didn’t do it correctly the first time around when [we] jumped in with both feet as far as the Draft goes. I feel like we bit off a little more than we should have with the touring cycle, the record and how involved we got. We will definitely be taking it easy this time around. I guess that aside from this tour and the shows at the Fest, it’s literally all we have planned. I don’t know; that might be all that happens, ya know? We’ve talked about whether or not we want to do more stuff, but we haven’t come to any kind of conclusion.

Are you kind of viewing it in the same way you got Hot Water Music back together, too?
Yeah, absolutely. At this point, we don’t really have a solid lineup for the Draft. Addison Burns from [HWM/Draft vocalist/guitarist Chris Wollard’s other band] the Ship Thieves is playing with us on these shows. We would have to start at ground zero as far as “Okay, are we writing new songs? Are we writing them with Addison or are we going to try to not have it be this super-incestuous lineup?” There [are] a lot of things to consider when it comes to doing other stuff or new material.

That’s kind of what happened the first time around, too. It’s always kind of been the three of you. Before Todd Rockhill became the Draft’s official guitar player, wasn’t Brian Baker from Bad Religion playing with you?
Yeah, he helped write and did some of the demos with us, too. It really is just the three of us until we figure out what’s going to happen from there. Obviously, we have to cross that bridge when we get any steam going. Everyone’s super-busy with other stuff right now. Chris [Wollard] is working on a Ship Thieves record, I think. I have a new band up here called UnWed that I’m working on, which is pretty much full time. It’s kind of like we’re still scheduling where the Draft fit into stuff and what we would want to do. It’s a big, long discussion that will take forever to figure out.

[UnWed are] pretty much at the point where we have a record together. We’re trying to figure out what’s going to happen with that. I feel like Chris is, from the little conversation I’ve had with him—as much as all of us talk we don’t really talk about what else we’re doing besides stuff we’re doing together—but I know he’s working on some plans for Ship Thieves touring. I feel like he’s got that a little on the front burner right now. George [Rebelo, HWM/Draft drummer] has some possibilities going on down the road that I’m not free to discuss at this point. I still think the Draft would be second tier to all that stuff for everyone. It’s pretty hard to figure out what we’re going to do. We’ve talked about doing a record, we’ve talked about if we want to do anymore touring. At the same time, when the three of us start writing it has to be clear: What are we writing it for? Are we writing it for Hot Water stuff or are we writing for Draft stuff? We haven’t been able to clear that yet. 

Were any of the songs the first time around from the Draft pieced together from Hot Water Music leftovers or were they all deemed right away as Draft songs?
A few of the songs on the first record the three of us started writing with no destination in mind. Then, it quickly became apparent that they were not going to be Hot Water songs because there was not going to be Hot Water stuff happening. I can’t remember which ones they were for sure. Definitely “Wired,” which George and Chris and I had put together. Once we realized we weren’t going to be working on a Hot Water record, we thought, “All right, we like these songs.” It turned organically into this thing. That was a little bit of a different situation because we were all living in Gainesville, [Florida]. We were all like, “Let’s go to practice regularly.” Now that we’re not all in the same place, getting together to write is a little more [difficult]. We would have to go, “Okay, we’re writing a Draft record” to start working on anything. If we’re already writing stuff that’s deemed, “This is going to the Draft,” then we take Chuck [Ragan, HWM frontman] singing out of the equation. That puts a different spin on everything as well. Chris has to work more in one way or another. [Laughs.]

You said earlier how you thought the Draft went too fast too soon into the whole touring cycle for that record. Did you feel like that was the sole reason the band came to an end or were there other things that people weren’t aware of at the time?
I think that was a lot of it. I think that was most of it, really. We plugged it into the Hot Water template and it was far from the same kind of situation. There was some internal band strife, as well. There are still three people around, not all four of us. Nothing bad or anything; it just didn’t work out lineup-wise for everyone that was involved as well. I think just a combination of that stuff.

When the Draft started touring, the shows weren’t huge. You’re coming in with a band that has a lot more collateral than another. Anything you do, in your mind, you’re sitting there looking at two of the same guys thinking, “This should be the same.” Then you’re like, “It’s not the same. Why is it not the same?” Then you end up spending a lot of time thinking about that sort of thing, which is not really healthy. It’s that and a combination of all that sort of stuff. The Draft suffered for it, for sure.

When Chuck left Hot Water Music in 2005, did you ever consider, “Maybe we could just play Chris’ songs?” and move forward as Hot Water Music?
We made a pact, or however you want to frame it, that we wouldn’t do Hot Water again if it wasn’t all four of us. Obviously, we violated the hell out of that and took a fill-in drummer on a European tour, but I think you could do shows without me or without George because we don’t sing. I think going out with one of the dudes who doesn’t sing is a little wild. We never really considered that. There have been plenty of people, who aren’t one of the four of us, that have suggested that from time to time, but it has not been well received by anyone. [Laughs.]

Basically, know that if you yell for a Hot Water Music song at a Draft show, it would end poorly.
Well, it wouldn’t end poorly, but we just wouldn’t play it. Every time I go see the Revival Tour, someone ends up playing a Hot Water song. If it’s not Chuck, it’s Dave Hause. I think we’ll let everyone else do the Hot Water covers and we’ll just stick to our own stuff. [Laughs.] alt