Interview: Jonny Hawkins Of Nothing More

I saw down with Jonny Hawkins from Nothing More after their set at the Welcome To Rockville Festival, we talked about their upcoming album, stage tricks, favorite concert experience and more. Nothing More are currently out on tour with Lacuna Coil, Kyng and Twelve Foot Ninja, be sure to check out any remaining and future tour dates from the band. Nothing More will be releasing their upcoming self titled album on June 24th via Eleven Seven Music, I recommend everyone to check it out.
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Q – You guys played your set early on in the day, I personally enjoyed it, but how did you guys feel about it?

Jonny – It felt really good. We had some technical issues and it was hot as hell, but other than that we all had a great time, just all around a good day.

Q – Your upcoming self titled album is set to be released on June 24th. What are your overall expectations for the album?

Jonny – I don’t really have expectations at the moment, I’m just really excited about it getting out and getting to people’s ears globally. We’ve been really fortunate to have signed a really good deal with a label that really believes in us, they’re called Eleven Seven Records, and they’re globally minded just like we are, we don’t just want to be a band in the U.S, we want to be a band everywhere we can possibly go. Next year is going to be the first time for us to go to Europe, and over time we’re going to branch out even beyond that.

Q – What’s the one place you would most like to play?

Jonny – I think Japan is going to be a really exciting one, just cause I’ve never been there and it seems so much different, whereas Europe is definitely different it has it’s obvious history and connections with American culture.

Q – I’ve noticed you guys have been posting some very interesting art pieces on facebook (ie. a picture of ink underwater). Does the band take influence from different arts outside of music?

Jonny – Absolutely. When I grew up my mom was a painter, she did water coloring mainly, and I think I was fortunate enough to learn at a young age that art is beyond one specific medium. If you’re an artist, you either do or appreciate multiple formats. We get inspiration not only from visual art and movies, things that aren’t musical or audio specifically, but we also get inspiration from philosophers and authors. A lot of that can influence your songs in ways that typical influence from listening to other bands in music can’t provide, so we’ve found it to be a very unique and creative force.

Q – You guy have been announced to play Download festival this year. What are your expectations for the festival, and are there any band you’re personally excited to see?

Jonny – Almost every band on that bill I’m excited about. I saw that Aerosmith is playing which should be interesting. I’ve never seen them play live. I guess because of the way my hair is or the way my face looks I’ve had some people say that I look similar to Steven Tyler, and so it’ll be funny after all the years of hearing that here and there that I’ll actually get to see the band live.

Q – Nothing More have an incredibly unique live show to say the least. You guys do cool tricks with a bass guitar, you have percussion pieces, and even more. What influences you guys to try these things?

Jonny – There’s quite a few, but the biggest one that I can think of is that I was in drum line in high school, we had a very competitive school that really put a lot of emphasis on the performance, somewhat treated us like slaves for a year beating it into our head(laughs). All of these different performance things and I gained a lot from that experience and that bled into Nothing More and what we do with our drum sectional. The other experience that our bass player David and our guitar player Mark, they worked for UPS together when they were in college and they would work the graveyard shift while they were taking classes during the day. They said it was one of the worst experiences they’ve ever had because they never got around to having any sleep, and not having the same schedule as all of your friends and they just wanted to hang out and whatnot. So they ended up having this month or two where they were in this constant state of delirium, and they were in the belly of a jet one night moving boxes, and it just came to them, this idea that they could both play the bass at the same time, and they tried it out one day during rehearsal, and I saw them do it and was like “Well, what id i jump on too and start playing with sticks?”, and that’d where it began. And over time it evolved through a series of twists and turns. Our bassist started learning how to weld and he started building things and we started building this stand that we put it on that can flip a few times around and even upside down, and rotate another direction as well. And that all became what it is now.

Q – So you guys are the ones who actually built the metal contraptions that hold the bass and the drums?

Jonny – Yes. Everything that you see in our live show, to even the van that we’re touring and living in was built by us, we’ve always been a very DIY band.

Q – What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended that you didn’t play?

Jonny – There is one concert that I remember very vividly…In my senior year of high school I went to see Dredg and Circa Survive show in San Antonio, and I had one of the craziest experiences of miy life. I had been a drummer since I was seven years old, which is really my starting place as a musician. There was this song they(Dredg) came up too, it was in a very small and intimite venue, they were right there, you could see everything they were doing. They decided to stop at this one point in the set and they said “Who knows the song Triangle? Somebody needs to know it on drums because we want you up here playing it.”, so my friends literally grabbed me by my shirt and against my will and launched me up there. So I got up on stage and played the whole song with them, never having played or practiced the song, just by memory of what the song was, and then I got off stage and crowd-surfed off into the abyss of people. It was probably the craziest experience for me, and they were both amazing live.

Q – What are some of your favorite music releases from the past year?

Jonny – I’ve honestly been in sort of a bubble the last year or so because I’ve been so busy focused and tunnel-visioned on our own stuff, it’s just been snowballing really fast. I was really excited about the new Karnivool record that came out a little while ago, it’s a little more abstract and weird than their other stuff. I’ve been listening to a lot of M83 lately, which is totally out of our genre.

Q – What’s the one band you’ve never played with that you wish you could tour with/open for?

Jonny – Incubus, that would be amazing to open for them. Either them of Foo Fighters would be an amazing experience.

Q – I know that Octane have been a very big help for you guys. Does it ever seem surreal at how many people are discovering you through them?

Jonny – It is very surreal. Up until now, everyone who knew who we were was either by word of mouth or they were at a show locally. Being on Octane, the DJs there really embraced us, they spin us so much it’s been monumental in our past. It’s been snowballing and escalating so quickly, we’re just very grateful for the whole experience.

Q – After your current tour is finished, and the album is released, what’s next for Nothing More?

Jonny – Touring and more touring(laughs). Maybe we’ll do another video, probably work on some new live show stuff, we’ve got some ideas in the works. Mainly we’re just going to tour our asses off, we’re still kind of the new kids on the block, so lots of touring.

Q – Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. Is there anything you’d like to say to any fans of Nothing More, or where they can check you guys out at?

Jonny – You can just Google us, link up with us on Facebook or Instagram and Twitter. We do our best to check all of the messages and comments, to this day we’re still trying to be as personal with every fan that supports us. Just check us out online, stay connected, and come see us when we come to your town, we’d love to meet you and shake your hand.