{"id":838,"date":"2005-03-17T16:35:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-17T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=838"},"modified":"2024-04-03T16:36:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:36:50","slug":"hella-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=838","title":{"rendered":"Hella busy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drummer Zach Hill plays for more record labels than he can count, but he really just wants to make burritos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Hella\u2019s
Hella\u2019s Zach Hill and Spencer Seim face off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hella, a Sacramento-based duo formed out of the<\/strong> ashes<\/strong> of the now-legendary band Legs on Earth, has been wreaking considerable havoc in just about any establishment its agent can hustle it into. However, in contrast to its earlier years, the band is now enjoying success both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zach Hill, Hella\u2019s drummer extraordinaire, is a master of multi-tasking. Aside from Hella, Hill has played or plays with Tough Guy Fantasy, Arctic Boys, Crime In Choir, Nervous Cop, Flossin\u2019, Onibaba (featuring Mike Patton and Kid 606), Les Claypool, Team Sleep (featuring Chino Moreno of the Deftones), John Zorn, and the Holy Smokes. Last year, he even played a benefit at Los Angeles\u2019 Greek Theatre\u2014as a solo performer, no less. The show, which featured System of a Down, was held on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Hill currently is signed to multiple label deals with several different acts, he still remembers Hella\u2019s early days with great pride. \u201cOur first tour was pretty slow-motion,\u201d Hill recalled. \u201cWe booked it ourselves with the help of Ben McOsker [of Load Records]. It was a lot of laughing, and we broke even [financially], but it was scattered. Lots of, \u2018Call Benjamin Franklin tomorrow \u2019cause he knows blah blah.\u2019 Dude! I remember we played Chicago, like, five times in one week. It was mostly all-ages clubs, houses and art spaces; very crumbs and pennies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides recently signing a one-album deal with Patton\u2019s Ipecac Recordings, Hella will release an ambitious double-CD project on March 22 via Suicide Squeeze Records. Church Gone Wild<\/em>\/Chirpin Hard<\/em> features guitarist Spencer Seim\u2019s music on one disc and Hill\u2019s music on the other. \u201cIt was an exercise in trust of each other musically,\u201d said Hill. \u201cWe didn\u2019t hear a peep of the other\u2019s until it was turned in. It was probably the healthiest thing we\u2019ve ever done for our friendship. It\u2019s both sides of the brain, assuming our group has brains \u2026 and it\u2019s my favorite Hella record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What started as merely a hobby and a new form of experimental expression for the members of Hella has now turned into a business and, more importantly, their livelihood. \u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate to pay rent with sound, but any day I could be back to washing dishes,\u201d said the humble drummer. \u201cI\u2019ve thought about getting a job at Taco Bell, just for the daydreams you get in those environments,\u201d Hill continued. \u201cI think fast-food and dishwasher jobs are actually gold mines for personal epiphany. It\u2019s valuable to be uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hella records for multiple record labels simultaneously with almost concurrent release schedules. \u201cWe\u2019re on probably about six or seven \u2026 it\u2019s hard to exact,\u201d Hill admitted. \u201cUp until the present, we had never held a paper to pen for music. It\u2019s all been high-fives. All of the labels are on good terms with each other. When we signed to Ipecac a month ago, that was our first experience of actual signatures. That doesn\u2019t suggest less trust. We just thought we should start getting a little organized and futurist about things. It\u2019s still high-fives, and we are vibrant about the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if they weren\u2019t already busy enough writing, playing and recording separate solo albums, the guys in Hella plan to tour for the better part of 2005. \u201cWe\u2019ve played all over Europe, the Eastern bloc, all over Canada, Texas,\u201d Hill said. \u201cWe leave in a week to do the States twice, Japan, Canada, Europe, U.K., and then Australia later on. Then we do the same thing in the fall when our full-length, Concentration Face<\/em>, comes out on 5RC\/Kill Rock Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah. Team Sleep\u2019s long-awaited new opus, also featuring Hill, finally will see the light of day on April 26 via Maverick Records. It\u2019s tiring just thinking about it. With all that touring, Hill probably won\u2019t have time to make quesadillas and burritos. Maybe next year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(SN&R)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drummer Zach Hill plays for more record labels than he can count, but he really just wants to make burritos Hella, a Sacramento-based duo formed out of the ashes of the now-legendary band Legs on Earth, has been wreaking considerable havoc in just about any establishment its agent can hustle it into. However, in contrast to its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}