Interview with Hurst frontman Trevor Hurst

On the night of his most recent stop in Toronto, former Econoline Crush frontman, Trevor Hurst, sat down to chat with Aaron Willschick to discuss the forming of his new band, Hurst, the end of Econoline Crush, the new album among other things.

How you doing Trevor?
Trevor: Very good, very good.

Ok well, I was just wondering, you’ve been on tour for a little while now, how’s it been going so far?
Trevor: Very positive, um, the lineup is brand new you know with the new bass player and our bass player becoming the guitar player, very exciting, um, yeah it’s been really really, like the energy on stage has been phenomenal, phenomenal.

Before getting into your current projects, I was just wondering, of course everyone knows the band you were in before, Econoline Crush. The band sort of quietly went away without any big goodbye or breakup announcement. I was just wondering if you could let us in on some of the reasons why the band called it quits.
Trevor: I think there was a lot of issues at the end of the tour. We wanted; I wanted to move into a different direction with the band and it didn’t seem like I could make that big of a leap with that sound and then the guys also wanted to do different things. We never formally closed the door because we never formally shut down the band, we just wanted to do something that was ah, I wanted to do something different and them and everyone else did. We’re actually talking right now about trying to put a collection together of songs and favorites or something for a package but we don’t know if it’s going to happen or not. But this is my main focus, Hurst, and it’s been very, very positive.

So after Econoline Crush called it quits, we didn’t really hear from you for a few years. Why the long layoff in between releasing new music? What did you occupy your time with right after the band broke up?
Trevor: (laughing) I was writing, ah, I worked, ah with Ross Childress who I co-wrote the record with so I was back and forth to Atlanta, to Toronto, to Vancouver, to Winnipeg and just writing and writing and writing. And that’s basically all I’ve been doing, I’ve just been cataloguing a ton of songs. And then, when Ross decided he wanted to stay off the road kinda, we, um, we put Hurst together and finished recording the songs and basically that process took that amount of time.

Speaking of Ross Childress, what assets do you think he brought to the table in the making of this album and do you think he’ll ever play live with the band or will he always be behind the scenes?
Trevor: I don’t know if he would want to tour again, you know I mean that band sold twelve million records or something worldwide, it’s like massive and I think what he brought to it was wicked production skills; he’s been involved in some big records, worked with some big producers. I think as a songwriter, we complimented each other, he really likes to listen to melody, he really likes to listen to, ahh, I don’t know the way that we put songs together as a team, it just worked. And you can’t really put your finger on why, you know, because sometimes you write with somebody and it works, you gel, and sometimes it’s just not happening. It happened with him, it was good, and ah, he may play with us, I mean he may come and play some shows. I know he loves to play live, but it’s just like he’s done it for a long time and right now he’s having fun in Georgia, he’s producing bands, he’s doing all kinds of things so you know, I wish him the best of luck. I wish he would come play because he’s wicked live.

Now we’re all aware that the new band Hurst is a much different musical approach than your previous work. What made you want to completely get away from synthesizers and embrace a more stripped down, guitar, drum and bass approach? Do you see any chance in the future of Hurst embracing these electronic elements in its music?
Trevor: It’s funny because on the drive down we were talking about it. It’s, I don’t know yet, you know, I think we write the songs and we’ll see where it goes, but I enjoy the fact that it’s so stripped down, I like the rawness of it, I like the fact that we’re not chained to a sequencer that if, we decide, okay, “we’re going to do this big blowup drum ending with a smash guitar and ah, you know and slide into a Zeppelin song and then end it with some Nirvana…” Nothing can stop us, we don’t have a sequence to figure out, we don’t have a jib to work with, it’s just us and we make those choices and I love that. It’s great having a sequencer sometimes because it’s a consistent band member, the guy never gets drunk, he’s never late, he’s always on time, he’s the perfect band member… and he doesn’t snore. But ah, this is unique for me, this experience right now and I’m like, I can’t tell you how liberating it is, it’s like, you’re just up there and it’s raw rock and roll.

Now you were previously living in California, but then relatively recently you decided to return to your childhood home of Winnipeg. Many people, including musicians speak of the wild lifestyle that can go along with living in L.A. Was this part of the reason for your move back to Canada?
Trevor: (laughing) No, it’s the cost of living. It costs a lot to live in L.A. But partially, too, it was getting back to my roots. If you go back to where you started sometimes you remember why you’re in a band in the first place and L.A.’s a town where the lead story is usually about the latest development in Botox and I wanted to get back in somewhere where it was like a real city with people that were concerned with, you know, everyday living, not how beautiful or not beautiful they are.

It says on your official website that violence and uncertainty in the world helped you decide to move back to Canada and come back to your rock roots. Would you consider Wanderlust to be a concept record?
Trevor: I think it’s more of a collection of songs, I think it’s what I thought would be the coolest representation of what we were doing at the time. Um, you know we put a ballad on there with “Surrender” and we put a couple of mid-tempo tunes and some rock tunes…. We really just wanted to put the best collection, our best foot forward, and um, yeah there was really no concept about it. I do like the name Wanderlust ‘cause it does accurately describe my kind of quest, for ah, you know for just, I’m curious and I love to travel and I love like all the aspects of rock and roll so for me, I’m always, like, yearning to get out and play, yearning to write more songs, you know there’s just this drive. And so it’s a perfect title, I think it, it fits.

You mention on the website that you’re happy to be doing Hurst your way without the constraints of a major label. Many musicians talk about the stranglehold of major record labels, is this something you felt or started to feel in your days with Econoline Crush?
Trevor: Well, one of the things with the major label is that it will, they move forward, they start to kind of get going on a path, like say their marketing plan was to, I don’t know, whatever, they pick a marketing plan and they just start running with it and if it’s not working, it’s hard to turn that giant ship around, you know, you’re like “whoah, whoah, whoah we don’t want to spend money here, no we don’t want you to take out ads there we want to tour, we want to play shows.” And they’re like “well we want you to stay, we want to do this, or we want you to wear this” and you’re always fighting with them. And after a while, you start to question “well maybe they’re right, you know, maybe I should be wearing a leather bomber jacket with a fur collar,” you know, it starts to kind of erode your sense of self. So for me, yeah I want to be on a major label and I love their money and their marketing and I love, there’s a lot of creative people in the music industry but at the same time, it’s sure nice to have the freedom to just go out, do what you want to do, pick the songs you want on your record, put those songs on the record and play the songs you love and have nobody telling you what to wear or what to do. And they don’t always try and control, but you know they get in your head.

Just this past week, we found out that your band’s guitar player Derrick (Gottfried) has left the band and in turn Mark Gomulinski will be joining the band. Can you maybe let us in on the reason for the move? How do you think this will affect the band’s sound live if at all?
Trevor: It’s really simple actually, I mean it’s financial for Derrick, he ah, plays part time and now full time in Harloquin and he’s able to do that and make a pretty good living. Um, and indie rock doesn’t pay so well (laughing), so it’s basically that. But also for us, having The Kid, we call him The Kid, you know Mark, come on board and play bass, he’s a real bass player, we had converted Paulo from guitar to bass so when bass is your first instrument, you really can tell the difference between a guitar player converted and a real bass player so I think the band now gels a lot better than it had before. Derrick was, man he put his heart and soul into the band and we love him dearly and it’s, it really made us sad that he’s not a part of this tour, but I understand why. Indie rock isn’t easy, you’re sleeping on the floors, you’re doing your thing, but um, yeah Mark brings a real fresh face to the band and Paulo is really comfortable on guitar and he is just a good showman and it just really helps with the show and the vibe. One of the things in bands, like lots of people don’t really kind of know about is I think is that half of the time it’s the relationship between the players that causes the music to either suck or be great, you know, if you all get along and you all understand each other and you can look across the stage at a guy and kind of give him a look out of the corner of your eye you know he’s going to do something kooky and you know that because you know him so well, it just makes the show like second nature. And that’s what it was like with Econoline near the end, we knew each other so well, we played so tight, the band was really slamming. That’s what’s happening with this band right now, I can feel it gelling and it’s just like, yeah you can feel that chemistry, you’re so empowered so I’m very very happy with the way things turned out. I was very sad when Derrick left and I thought, man we’re screwed, we’re never going to make it happen and Mark came out of no where and it was like, no way, this is going to be cool and we rehearsed for a week and I knew it was going to rock.

The Wanderlust EP of course has been out a few months now, but I’m sure fans are getting anxious for a full length album from Hurst. Do you have any news on when we can expect a full length proper first album? Will it be all new material or will the songs from Wanderlust show up on the album?
Trevor: That’s a good question, because it’s really kind of like, what do you do, people have already purchased this (the EP), um, we’ll see, we’re still negotiating, trying to find money from a label, trying to put something together. We have some people coming to see us tonight. It’s an ongoing process, if I could get enough funding, I’d like to get a spring full length done, but if not we’ll battle on and see what happens. It just depends a lot on money and whether we would re-record some of the stuff from the EP or just use it as it is, we’ll have to see what happens, um, but yeah I mean I’m itching to record some more stuff. We’ve got some really good stuff, we played this song called “Haunt Me” and it’s been going over really well every night and the guys, and yeah there’s a couple of others, “Wave and a Smile” that just are really going over really well so we’d like to get in and record them better. I have them demoed, but with these guys, I think it would sound really cool if I could get in the studio (with them).

It’s always cool to find out what artists are listening to. What new bands or other music have you been listening to lately?
Trevor: Wow, um, ok. I like weird stuff that people listen to and “what do you listen to that for?” Uh, Kings of Leon, I really really dig that record, I love that a lot. And uh, just recently, I was kind of like, you know how sometimes you go into your cd collection and you’re like “what are some of those things I use to listen to over and over?” So I was listening to some Urge Overkill, I hadn’t for a while, and some Afghan Wigs. So that’s what’s going on in my head, Afghan Wigs, Urge Overkill, Kings of Leons. Plus, the other day, I was listening to Soundgarden’s Louder Than Love, yeah so, I’m all over the road.

Where do you see this band in the future? Do you see it as more of a short term project that you’re taking one day at a time or is this something you’d like to be working on ten years from now?
Trevor: I… one of the reasons that I started this band, ah, left Econoline, or put Econoline on the shelf and moved on and did these things was um, partially because also I wanted to try to do something musically that I could foresee having a longer life say, maybe than Econoline and something that was maybe, the organic thing makes it economical to tour, you don’t have to bring all the production that Econoline had to bring. So, to answer the question, I saw this picture of Bob Dylan with Charlie Sexton with everybody in the front lounge of the bus laughing and I looked at that picture and I thought, man, that’s where I want to be in twenty years, I want to be sitting in a lounge with guys I like, playing some cards, playing rock shows.

Just as a final question, a lot of artists, most recently Audioslave, have been embracing songs from their past bands and playing them live in concert. Would you ever consider playing any Econoline Crush material in your live sets with Hurst?
Trevor: We do actually; we have three songs in the set. We reworked them, we don’t use any of the keyboards obviously, it’s all stripped down and they go over really well and I like it. I think that you can’t hide, I mean I never understand that when artists bag on their past material like “oh that stuff sucked and now I’m all better” it’s like, everything that you did led to where you are today. So, for me, paying homage to Econoline Crush songs, I mean that’s what got me to this point, I mean, yeah it was a wicked band, good guys so yeah, I play those songs every night, 2 or 3 and I enjoy it.  [ END ]