CHIRP: The Chicago Independent Radio Project

Erik Roldan writes

CHIRP + Coach House Sounds Session With The Hit Back

The Hit Back are a new group in Chicago comprised of Seth Weidman and Jesse Hanabarger. Their piano-based rock recalls a young Ben Gibbard, with more atmospheric instrumentation. Their debut album, “Who Are These Weird Old Kids” came out on April 26th with gorgeous pacaking by Chicago’s Sidedown Audio, and it was partially produced by Swedish producer Lindefelt.

Coach House Sounds will release The Hit Back Session on May 10th, 2011. Stream it at coachhousesounds.com and check out their in-store performance at Saki, 3617 W. Fullerton, on May 14th at 4pm.

What the dumbest thing you’ve ever done in a basement?

One of the dumbest things I ever did in a basement was try to start one of my first bands with some friends in high school. There were five of us, and we called ourselves 5 Card Stud. We built our first and only song on a riff I had come up with. We were pretty proud of ourselves until the end of the summer when we starting hearing the song “Right Now” by SR-71. Turns out we pretty much wrote that song. I can field questions later about the hip hop crew I also had in a different basement.

Can you tell me about one time when you realized this was YOUR city?

Growing up just north of Chicago, in Evanston, I always felt a strong connection with the city. I would even claim it as “my city” when I lived up in Minnesota for a few years in college, but it probably wasn’t true at that point. I’d say that a couple years ago, once me and my sister and my parents all ended up here in different and wonderful neighborhoods of Chicago, that’s when it was truly my city. It’s full of so many people and places that I love, too many to name. It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else.

Describe a scenario where The Hit Back could be someone’s life coach and the top 2 life lessons you’d teach them.

First of all, we would call our life coaching seminar Learn to Hit Back: Jesse and Seth’s Approach to Treating Life’s Obstacles as a Punching Bag. We would probably lecture from a boxing ring in the middle of the room, or at least have a mic hanging from the ceiling.

Then the lesson we would teach is that people should surround themselves with other people that they trust and respect the hell out of. The Hit Back is a good example of that. A lesson about regularly using a sinus rinse or neti pot would probably follow.

Tell me about your CHS session—what did you like about it? Was there anything that surprised you or was spontaneous that came out in the recording?

The Coach House Sounds experience was all positive. Matt and his crew are doing such a great job with this project. Doug, Mike and Neal are all crazy good at what they do.

We ended up recording our session a few days before a show, so it was a nice little rehearsal opportunity for us. We basically just ran through a shortened version of our set, trying out a couple new things for some of the songs.