An interview with David Hayden of BOATS! By Tanya Harding
Boats! are a Sacramento power pop punk band, brother band to The Enlows and typically could fit nicely with the Tranzmitors, and I am sure have before on tour but here and now they are coming to town, right at the start of PUNK WEEK playing with our punk princes and princesses The Jolts and White Lung on May the 15th at the New Brandiz.
Boats! are fresh faced young lads and I met David before at the Alf House when he played there with his other band the sugary swweeeeet Enlows, so I am going to ask him a few questions....
TH: How old are you now, David, and what do you want to be when you grow up? How old is Boats! as a band?
DH: I’m 23 years old. I have no clue what I wanna be when I grow up. When are you considered grown up? Right now, all I have on my plate is touring, booking a music venue here in Sacramento and bar-tending during the day...Definitely, not what I want to do all my life. The band part I wouldn't mind so much, but even being on tour all the time can be exhausting.
TH: What's the difference in sound between your two bands? And which one do you like better to tour with?
DH: Boats! is more of a punkish band. More Clorox girls/The Briefs influenced. Our musical ability is less since Matt (guitar/vocals) is mainly a drummer - an excellent one at that. So, guitar solos are usually him faking it, and the chords, well they are all power chords lol. The Enlows have more of that younger Lookout! Records Queers/Screeching Weasel sound.
TH: Would you ever move to Vancouver?? In other words, just tell us that it sucks here and tell us how there is a venue on every corner and an audience any day of the week in Sacramento.
DH: I'd way, way love to live in Vancouver if it wasn't so cold. Or any where in the north west to be honest. We do better up north than anywhere else. Sacramento isn't the best place for a music scene. Kids here are very slow at coming out and supporting. It’s really based on favouritism. We used to play several times a month, which less and less kids came out to. Now we're a once a month or every other month band in Sacramento. We've had nothing but good experiences in Vancouver. Who knows though, maybe we've just played with the right bands every time we've come up and we're secretly disliked – lol!
TH: Have you ever water-skiied? Or why call yourself Boats! besides the ‘making waves’ reference.
DH: I have indeed water-skiied, I was pretty damn decent. My mom’s ex-husband Kyle Kidder (Yes, "KIDDER" is real last name) owned a boat. In spite of him being an asshole, I'd go every now and then. Took me a while to get up on the skis, but once I did, I was scared of falling down. Though, the name Boats! came from having no other ideas for a name, we wanted something simple. Our friend Jaz Brown (formerly Helper Monkeys) suggested it, we went with it. It’s a really a dumb name, but who ever really likes their band’s name? Secretly, I wouldn't mind having our name be "Tranzmitors" but that’s kinda taken now isn't it, lol?
TH: Do you guys smoke a lot of weed in Sacramento?
DH: Matt and I are "EDGE" – lol - not really, but neither of us do drugs. He drinks maybe one beer and that’s it. I drink none, as I can’t hold much, one beer gets me wasted, and one time while in San Francisco playing with Seattle's "THE GIRLS"
I shit my pants, though, no do do was in my pants? It was a wild night. Jef though is the pot smoker of the band. Let’s just say he's the butt of the joke for the band! "SMOKE WEED EVERYDAY!"
TH: How hard is it to cross the border for you?
DH: Last time when The Enlows came up, it was a big ordeal. They stopped us, searched us, questioned us. I ended up admitting we were a band coming to play a show. Since we did an early house show, that was considered non-profit and ‘cause of my honesty, they let us in. If we had told them we were playing The Rickshaw after, I think we'd have been turned around. Hopefully, hopefully this time around, we don’t get stopped.
TH: What bands could you give a shout out to right now that you like and why?
DH: Haha I’m bad at "Shouting out" as I am really tiny and my vocal chords don’t allow me to "Shout" too loud but I'd have to holla holla to Tranzmitors, Zip Guns, Prima Donna, Clorox Girls, Autistic Youth, Rough Kids, Greatest Hits, The Pranks, Boss Martians and The Cute Lepers, just ‘cause all the bands are super rad, great people and always are super accommodating to us with sharing gear/playing the shows and promoting them with/for us! Kind of a silly punk rock family to some extent! ;p
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