Seth Bogart: Hunx and His Punx
Tags: music, SXSW, hunx and his punx, seth bogart, Too Young To Be In Love
Hunx and His Punx are a Bay Area punk band fronted by Arizona transplant and sometime hairdresser Seth Bogart, a.k.a. Hunx, that have a Ramones-like musical philosophy: take ‘60s Phil Spector-ish girl group music and simplify and speed it up. Their songs are mostly direct odes to love and sex, sung in Hunx’ distinctly nasal delivery, supported by the lovely harmonies of his all-female backing group. Having just released their first full-length album, Too Young To Be In Love, and played a solid week at SXSW, Hunx and his punkettes are now embarking on a nationwide tour -- so I was lucky Seth found a few minutes to talk with SuicideGirls about why SXSW sucks, getting stoned, and French perverts.
Keith Daniels: So where are you at right now?
Seth Bogart: I’m on my dressing room floor.
KD:
[Laughs] What city?
SB:
I’m in San Francisco! I mean, I’m on my dressing room floor in every city.
KD:
I have to tell you I’m a little nervous because I’ve read that you don’t like phone interviews, or music writers either.
SB:
Where did you read that?
KD:
An interview with you I was just reading. You said you thought phone interviews were boring.
SB:
Weeeeell, I’ll be nice to you. I’m not mean! I just like to be face to face.
KD:
Yeah, well I wish we could go to the bar or getting fucking stoned and do this, too.
SB:
That would be so much better!
KD:
Believe it or not, it’s often boring for the people asking the questions, too. People don’t want to say anything too interesting or they might get in trouble.
SB:
That’s true.
KD:
I read that you quit smoking cigarettes recently. How’s that going?
SB:
I quit, like, a month ago! My butt got way bigger. It’s so cool.
KD:
You do tend to gain little weight. I’ve been eight days without and it’s killing me.
SB:
It all went to my butt. So you’ve been eight days without a cig?
KD:
Yeah.
SB:
Did you just quit? Oh my god, let me turn down my music. [Silence] Sorry. I was up in my closet. So, are you having a hard time [not] smoking?
KD:
I wasn’t having too hard of a time, but this is the first interview I’ve done since...
SB:
...ooohh yeah, you always smoke when you do it.
KD:
Yeah, I know, man. It’s such a good prop to talk.
SB:
You’ll get over it. How did you quit?
KD:
Just stopped, y’know?
SB:
Yeah.
KD:
I really like your music because, to me, it’s about what rock’n’roll is supposed to be about: sex and love, simple emotions.
SB:
Thank you.
KD:
Is that how you feel about it?
SB:
I don’t know what rock’n’roll is supposed to be like, but I know we’re really good. I know that live we’re way better than most stupid dude bands.
KD:
You’ve got all these guys with these long beards trying to be so serious.
SB:
So boring. I just want to entertain like it’s Poison playing or something. You know what I mean?
KD:
Like it’s the Sunset Strip in the ‘80s?
SB:
Yeah, like some costumes and stuff.
KD:
If you had a big budget, what kind of show would you put on?
SB:
Ohmygod, I don’t even know. There would be, like, elephants and motorcycle entrances and a million dollar light show. It would be crazy.
KD:
You’ve said that you’d like for people to either hate your music or be obsessed with it. Do you feel like indifference is the worst reaction?
SB:
Don’t you think? I think it is. When we play, people either get really into it, or they’re in the back shaking their heads in disapproval. And... I’m wondering if I should eat this chocolate weed thing I found in my room.
KD:
[Laughs] Like a pot brownie or something?
SB:
Mmm. It’s like a truffle. I bought it the other day, and I ate a little bit of it last night and got really stoned. Then I realized that me and my friend were imitating a Gremlin for, like, an hour. Then I was like, “Oh, I think we’re stoned!” [Laughs]
KD:
[Laughs]
SB:
What was I saying? I don’t remember what I was saying.
KD:
We were talking about indifference.
SB:
Oh yeah.
KD:
But as you get bigger that’s going to happen more, as you get out of your home town. You get those guys who just stand there with their arms crossed. What happens when people who don’t get it start coming to your shows?
SB:
I don’t know, because that’s never really happened. I don’t notice, anyway.
KD:
What are you thinking about when you’re onstage and you’re looking out at the first couple of rows?
SB:
Usually I’m so wasted I don’t know what’s going on.
KD:
[Laughs] So you usually get drunk before a show? Stoned?
SB:
I get wasted. I don’t get stoned because one time I did that and then I was laying on the floor screaming at my band -- telling them that they were playing way too fast even though they were actually just playing regular. I don’t think [we’re] very good music to get stoned to.
KD:
Do you [do that] because you’re nervous? Or to get in character...?
SB:
I feel like it’s an anxiety-slash-nervous thing, and I also feel like... I don’t know, I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot because I kind of don’t want to be drunk for a whole month, but sometimes when you go on a tour you’re like in a car all day. Then you get to a club and you’re there for like, six hours, and it’s so much funner if you can just get wasted. I just feel like it can be so boring to be stuck in a bar all night -- so why not get wasted? But I get scared because sometimes I get bummed out when I drink that much. I’m kind of struggling with it.
KD:
How was South by Southwest?
SB:
The worst. Hated it.
KD:
Why was that?
SB:
We’ve done it the last three years in a row, and every year I’m like, “I’m never going back here,” but we had a record coming out so we got pressured into going.
KD:
But why do you hate it?
SB:
Because it’s a bunch of assholes! You play, like, 20 shows a day and then have to do a bunch of really stupid interviews, and it’s just not fun. We didn’t even get to hang out. Also, we were taking the bus and, like, walking everywhere, and sleeping on our friend’s floor. Meanwhile, all the record label people have, like, some fancy hotel. It doesn’t make any sense. Maybe I’m just being a baby.
KD:
You’re going to be playing in Tucson in a couple of days. That’s where you’re from, right?
SB:
Yeah, hometown!
KD:
Is this your first time going back with the band?
SB:
We played there a year and a half ago with the band Girls. My mom and my brother were there. Hopefully they won’t come again.
KD:
Did you feel like that held you back a little?
SB:
Oh! I just found a Valium on my floor. Cooool. Um, it didn’t hold me back, but it was just, like, weird.
KD:
From reading your Twitter, though, they sound pretty supportive.
SB:
Yeah, they’re rad, but it’s just awkward or something.
KD:
I would have a hard time getting up in front of my mom...
SB:
My mom thinks I’m a porn star.
KD:
[Laughs]
SB:
I’m not kidding! She saw my weiner. She saw me naked on the internet.
KD:
Well, so did anybody who saw that Girls video.
SB:
She didn’t see that, thank God. She saw some photoshoot that was in Paris.
KD:
Is that the thing you mentioned for Playgirl?
SB:
No, it wasn’t Playgirl. She saw that, but she was cool with it because I was wearing a jock strap and you could only see my butt. She saw this one where I’m in this old car and had a boner, in Paris. She saw that because someone posted it on my Facebook thing. So she was disappointed.
KD:
Oh well, not like it’s the first time your mom’s ever seen you naked.
SB:
I know. I just told her it was art, but the truth is this French guy was a total pervert and it made me horny. He told me to take my pants off and I was like, “OK!”
KD:
You’re touring with four girls now. What have you learned about women from being stuck with them in such close quarters for so long?
SB:
Well, I feel like I already am like a girl, so it’s just like being with the girls, you know what I mean?
KD:
Nothing surprising?
SB:
Well, I’ve been touring with girls forever, so it’s nothing to me.
KD:
I’ve read that you’re... 31? Is that right?
SB:
Wow, you know a lot.
KD:
[Laughs] I do a little research! We’re actually the same age. I’m wondering if you’re as scared of getting old as I am.
SB:
To some extent. I feel like an old lady and a young teenage guy at the same time. I guess I’m scared, but not that scared.
KD:
How do you feel like an old lady?
SB:
Just... like an old grandma.
KD:
“9 o’clock, time for bed”?
SB:
“Time to get under the covers and watch some TV!”
KD:
If you were God and could recreate the world, what would you change first?
SB:
I’d probably make money, like, gone.
KD:
Something like Star Trek where money doesn’t even exist?
SB:
Yeah, because I feel like that’s the root of every problem. Not every problem, but a lot of them.
KD:
So tell me about Hollywood Nailz. Is that coming along? I saw your Kickstarter.
SB:
We’re halfway done with the first episode. We had like a 1-900 phone sex from outer space commercial. We had a gay judge... it’s like Judge Judie but with Judge Barry. We still need to do the other half. We’ll do it when I get back from the tour in July.
KD:
So it sounds like you’re doing skits, SNL style?
SB:
Yeah, it’s skits, mostly. There’ll be some talk-show elements to it.
KD:
Do you watch a lot of reality shows?
SB:
I love Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Have you seen RuPaul’s Drag Race? Because it’s my favorite show.
KD:
Just the clips they play on The Soup, to be honest. I don’t watch a lot of TV.
SB:
Neither do I, but ohmygod, it’s, like, the best show. Oh my god I just opened my email... crazy.
KD:
You’ll never win that battle.
SB:
So, what I was saying? Oh, RuPaul’s Drag Race. You’ve got to see it. I only watch that and Gossip Girls.
KD:
Are you planning on doing more Hunx & His Punx records, or will you move on to another project?
SB:
I’ve written two more records that I’m going to finish when I get home. They’re like solo albums. One’s like ‘90s high energy dance music. The other one is really sad, acoustic... not all acoustic, but like Hunx & His Punx, only sadder and not as oldies-sounding.
KD:
Are you a decent guitar player?
SB:
I can play every instrument but, like, really shitty. [Laughs]
More information on Hunx and His Punx can be found at Hardly Art.
More information on Hunx and His Punx can be found at Hardly Art.
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