The quiet town of La Mirada, California may need to brace
itself for a little excitement, as the rock band The Hard is shaking
things up. The Hard, vocalist Brad Williams, guitarist Eric Ferguson, bassist Ron Lucker
and drummer John Peel, has been garnering some great gigs, including
opening for The Smithereens and grooving the Hollywood scene. But what makes this
extra special is the group is back after a 21 year hiatus.
"Ron (Lucker) and I started, we've known each other since
about kindergarten," Ferguson says. "In high school we talked about
learning to play music, play guitar, so we both picked up a guitar and we started
playing our senior year of high school.
"It was just the two of us and he (Lucker) bit the bullet
and went to bass because we couldn't find a bass player. He was playing
bass and I was playing guitar and he booked our first gig and we didn't have a
drummer or singer yet. That was back in freshman in college, so we had to
go out and find a singer and drummer quick."
The Hard's first gig was at a Mormon dance.
"It was kind of weird because the drummer we had was a
little crazy, he was playing in a friend of ours' punk band," Ferguson
continues. "We were at the gig and one of the directors came up to us, he was really
strict, and asked us what our lyrics are and that we didn't cuss."
The men admitted that they had one "damn" in their songs
and were asked to change it to "darn." They played with a band called the
Dead Cats, who played all original material so the crowd didn't get immediately
enthused with The Hard's original repertoire.
"On the fly we decided to thrown in the Beatles' 'Twist
and Shout,' which we had practiced maybe twice, our second song we did
that and when we did, everyone started dancing and we just kept the momentum
going. We went over pretty good for our first gig," shares Ferguson.
"We were gigging all the major clubs in Orange County, we
had gone through all the ups and downs," Lucker continues the story.
After four years, their singer left to do a solo project.
The band had already undergone a few member changes (both Peel and
Williams took turns drumming), plus it had opportunities to make an album and tour, which
fell through for various reasons. Now the men also had careers and
relationships, so after five years, it was time to let the project go.
Ferguson and Lucker remained friends and played poker
together.
Ferguson says, "We always talked about how we always
wanted to our music. We felt kind of upset that we never had anything
recorded permanently."
Lucker picks up, "I ran into Brad (Williams) after church
and he said he wanted to get back together and I said, 'Call Eric.' So he
and Eric got it together and called me back. I was reluctant, I didn't really want to do
it, but I said what the heck. We got together and I'm glad we did because
we're getting back into it and it's a lot of fun. I think the
main thing we've accomplished with this reunion is closure with our songs.
We always felt we had really good songs, we want to put them on some kind of
recording and see what we can do with them."
The Hard plays raw alternative rock, influenced by late '70s-early '80s
British groups like The Jam and Clash. Live, they play originals, as well
as some cover, including an imaginative reworking of Barry
Manilow's "Mandy" that they rightly claim you won't recognize right away.
Lucker calls their writing process democratic.
"I wouldn't say we did together, but we would take a
person's song and come up with ideas," agrees Ferguson.
Lucker adds, "Most of the songs were written by Eric and
I, but we're not rigid, we think if you've got an idea, let's hear it.
It's been a pretty good formula."
I ask The Hard how their music has evolved.
"We're sticking pretty close to the originals on the
songs, which was a problem with a couple of them we had to throw out
lyrically in a sense because they were talking about school and stuff," Ferguson responds.
"These have been kind of frozen, we're just going back and
we're learning what we used to know and it sounds pretty much the same,"
says Lucker.
Ferguson admits, "We haven't really taken the songs and
reworked them for the most part."
With two decades of music gone by, The Hard has had an
opportunity to give its place in the scene a good look.
"We were ahead of the curve," Ferguson says of the past.
"By that time the synth sound has taken over, Human League, so we were not
playing what was real popular on the radio, but then about a year or two after we busted up was
when they started going back to (music like ours). Right now, I don't know
how we'd fit in. There's definitely a wider range of music now."
"I remember in the late '70s/early '80s it was the punkers
versus the metal people," says Lucker. "You didn't accept people if they
were from a different music background Now look at the age groups, there's a
big variety, anybody can go see a band nowadays and there's no big deal
about it. It was a rivalry, you had the punkers, you had the metal heads, but now
maybe something good's come out of all this. I look at the advertisements
and all the old bands are coming back now- they're all our age. In that sense we'll
fit in because we're old."
"I thought about the age issue, that it would be kind of
weird to be on stage," remarks Ferguson.
Lucker says, "Look at the bands nowadays, they're older
but they're playing the same stuff. It's a good thing. I think if we can
get over the hang-up of being the age that we are and once again the music's what's
going to matter. That will be our deciding factor how much further we're
going to go with this."
The Hard plans to record the material they have already
(from the past) and then start writing some new material.
"I want closure on this chapter," explains Lucker. "I think there's a lot
of bands out there that have a lot of good stuff that just never gets
heard, a lot of it is who you know in this industry and I say this with
humility, I really thought we had some good material that never had the
chance to be heard. This is a second chance that we've been given and maybe who
knows where it will go, but we'd like to give it just one more shot. It's
also more fun this time around, there's no stress."
The band member would clash in the past.
"We were immature, we thought it had to be a certain way,"
Lucker says. "It was a struggle trying to get things done, but this time
around there's no stress.
We're having fun this time around, but (in the past) there
was a level of seriousness and that this is our career, we've got to get
this done. Now we have our careers and everything's fine and dandy, this is icing
on the cake. If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, if it does, it does,
you couldn't ask for abetter situation."
Catch The Hard to relive your past, as well as make new
music memories at www.thehardband.com
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