Though their antics, personalities, stories, and even band name suggest otherwise, there is nothing funny about Ha Ha Tonka. Okay, the guys are humorous, but this quartet writes and performs seriously good music. Hailing from the Ozarks of Missouri, Ha Ha Tonka’s deviant Southern Indie rock is defined by their cultural dualities (their experiences in both Midwestern and Southern culture, their lifestyles’ mixing of unrestrained tomfoolery with sober faith). What results is a potpourri of lighthearted Southern anecdotes, dark portraits of socio-economic woes, rural images, literary allusions, religious humility, and social critique. And as if the themes aren’t extensive and resonant enough, Ha Ha Tonka’s sound blends soothing, four-part harmonious folk with piercing electric energy. The Inflatable Ferret’s own Ryan Waring got a chance to sit down with the boys as they stopped in Pomona, California. Watch and read the interview below, in which the four discuss diverse topics such as the Bible Belt, Obama’s healthcare system, Lollapalooza, Caribou Coffee, and playing in their underwear.
IF: Do you guys want to introduce yourselves and what you play?
Brett: I’m Brett and I play mandolin, and electric guitar and a little keys.
Luke: I’m Luke. I play bass.
Brian: Brian. I play rhythm guitar.
Lennon: I’m Lennon. I play the snare, the kick drum, the crash cymbal, ride cymbal, hi-hats. (To Brett) THERE!
IF: Is this your first time doing a show here in Pomona?
Brett: Yes it is.
IF: Not the L.A. area though?
Brett: No, we played L.A. last night. That was our third time in L.A.
IF: You were at the Troubadour last night?
Brett: Yes
IF: What’d you think about the venue?
Brett: It was awesome.
Luke: Great sound
Brian: The Soul Kitchen was exquisite.
Lennon: Although, the guy was a little creepy.
Brian: He gave out free fish for us.
Lennon Oh, he was awesome, yeah. He was a genuine fellow.
Brian: Apparently he served Jim Morrison there back in the 60’s.
IF: So where is everybody here from?
Brett: I’m the only one that’s not from West Plains, Missouri. I’m from Kansas City. But these three guys are from West Plains, Missouri.
Luke: Right above Arkansas.
Brett: But I technically, well, they have adopted me, I think.
Luke: We breast-fed him.
Brett: We are going to be grand marshals in the Christmas Parade in West Plains, Missouri.
IF: So how’d you guys meet?
Brian: Well [Luke and I] grew up together. And I met [Brett] in college.
IF: And who were some of your musical influences growing up?
Lennon: A lot of Cher. . . That’s pretty much it. (smiles)
Brian: Speaking for myself, basically anything from Bluegrass to R.E.M. I listened to a lot of R.E.M. growing up. And also a lot of country. Somewhere in between there would be the primary focus.
Luke: “We Built This City” – Starship, Alabama, myself, and Flaming Lips.
Brian: (to Luke) How big of an influence would you say you are on yourself?
Luke: I mean, I would feel really egocentric talking about it, but I am really, really good.
Brian: (to Luke) Follow up question: Do you ever get star struck when you look in the mirror?
Luke: It’s funny you should ask that. Three days ago. It got a little weird. I wrote my autograph down on myself and then signed my leg.
IF: Don’t wash that leg ever again. Gotta keep that.
Brett: Well, I only listened to two records for about four years. One of them was Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. The other one was Surfer Rosa by the Pixies. That’s where I get all my stuff from.
IF: And it was you two (Brian and Luke) in Amsterband.
Brian: Well we were other names, as well. But yeah, Luke and I kinda started a group and then Brett joined next and then Lennon. And then when Lennon joined that’s when we started touring.
IF: How did Lennon and Brett change the direction and sound of your music?
Luke: Well, we needed people who could play.
Brian: Yeah, I would say musical abilities. It brought a lot to our group because before we were mainly just a party.
Lennon: Well, we haven’t set aside our roots. Let me say that. We still party.
Brett: This will go to show you: the first time I saw Luke and Brian when they were in Amsterband, Luke took all of his clothes off except for his underwear on stage. That’s when I knew I wanted to fucking be in that band.
Luke: That was at battle of the bands, wasn’t it?
Brett: It was.
IF: And I read that your name, Ha Ha Tonka, comes from a state park in Camdenson, Missouri. How’d you go about selecting that once you decided you needed to change Amsterband?
Brett: Well the Ozarks is an area in Missouri where we all grew up. My grandparents had a lake house at the Ozarks, and that’s where Ha Ha Tonka is. And so I think it was one of those things where we had all been there as kids.
Lennon: I don’t think I had ever been there. But I thought the name was cool. And I liked the fact that it enveloped what is the Ozarks and that’s what we try to do in some way, shape, or form.
Brian: Naming a band is hard because all the good names have been taken.
Lennon: U2
Luke: Pearl Jam
Brian: Led Zeppelin. You know when I heard “Led Zeppelin,” I thought it was the best band name ever. Turns out there had already been a Led Zeppelin!
Luke: We google searched it.
Brian: I think Brett, when he showed up, said, “You guys can’t call yourself ‘The Led Zeppelins.’”
IF: (Conor) It’s a versatile name. I’m (from Minnetonka, Minnesota and people at my high school were always like, “Yeah, there’s this band ‘Ha Ha Tonka,’ I think they’re from around here or something.” It at least got people into your music.
Luke: Where’s Minnetonka?
Brian and IF: It’s near Minneapolis.
IF: Like 20 minutes outside.
Brian: Me and Lennon especially are big Caribou Coffee fans. If I could do the death charge, I would do it.
IF: Once you settled on your line up and your name, you released your first album, Buckle in the Bible Belt as Ha Ha Tonka. And then, that was recorded in a church, is that correct?
Brian: Yes.
IF: How does that sound compare, recording in a church vs. a studio? Or, I guess, the experience?
Brett: I think it was more the experience just because, if I’m correct, the control room is where the pulpit used to be?
Luke: I mean, it was a studio inside a church.
Brett: Yeah, he bought the church and converted it into a studio. So it still had that reverby sound in the room.
Brian: It’s the same producer we worked with on Novel Sounds, as well, Jason McEntire, who’s just incredible. He built a studio inside a church. It was his first studio. And he has since moved to downtown St. Louis. It’s a much nicer studio now.
Brett: Software Studios.
Brian: The church experience is unique. We’d lived there for a week, and they had the former preacher’s quarters, and we lived in those rooms. It was really neat.
IF: Well we detected, along with you guys recording in a church, a lot of not necessarily biblical references in your works, but there’s some sort of religious background there. H
ow did that play into you music?
Brian: I think that just stems from growing up in the Ozarks area, which is a very conservative, rural area. A lot of the stories that we tell or retell are tied in with religious fervor and that kind of environment.
Brett: The Bible Belt runs through Springfield and into the center of Missouri basically. So that’s where the name obviously, Buckle Down in the Bible Belt, comes from. It deals with all those things.
Luke: If you drive down a major thoroughfare in Missouri it’s either church, porn shop, church, porn
shop.
Brett: Jesus sign! It’s really crazy.
IF: Along with that, the album also expresses a lot of discontent with the American health care system. So I was wondering how you felt Obama was doing, about his proposed health care system, and how you think he’s done so far.
Brett: It’s great. I think it still needs a lot of work, but at least he’s trying to do something. I know Brian especially has had a pre-existent condition, so he can’t get health care.
Brian: I think they’re doing a good job. I think so far this presidency’s done well. On the health care issue, I think they should have pushed stronger earlier. The proposals out there now are a little watered down from where I would like to see them, personally. I think they should have opened up Medicaid to everybody. If you want to buy into Medicaid, you can buy into Medicaid. Right now, it’s really kind of confusing and convoluted what the exchange system is going to be. And then the House is a little more liberal than the senate, so the senate might not have a public option or the public option is so watered down that it might not be a public option. So right now, the jury’s still out on that particular issue. On most other things, Jesus, it’s been quite an improvement.
IF: How do you think Springfield, Missouri thinks about how Obama’s doing?
Brian: I think they wouldn’t approve vocally, but they would approve silently.
Brett: Financially, yeah.
Brian: I think the stimulus package worked by and large, granted unemployment is still really high. But you see it. Road projects, especially in Springfield, Missouri, that are under construction. Lots of building. At this time last year, when all those financial institutions were collapsing, I wouldn’t have thought that less than a year later it would just be, “Oh that was bad.” But now we’re just complaining about unemployment numbers and how to completely pull out of a recession. At that time, most people thought it was probably going to be a depression.
IF: And back to your music, how does your songwriting process work in general?
Brian: We pick a quote from Obama.
IF: So it’s all related.
Lennon: We play telephone with it. One of us passes it on to the others. And then however It ends up that’s clear.
IF: Your latest album, Novel Sounds of the Nouveau South, seems a lot heavier than Buckle Down in the Bible Belt. How did the song process differ on that album compared to your first album?
Brett: We spent a lot more time on Novel Sounds. With Buckle we knew exactly what we were going to do with it before we went into the studio, so we had five days and we just knocked it out. With Novel Sounds, we had been listening to the music a lot and trying to figure out more instrumentation we could add rather than just playing what we could do live.
Lennon: I felt like the writing process was a lot more enjoyable because when I first joined the band was when we started writing Buckle. So I feel we were still getting a grip on where everybody fit and what their role was. So I thought during Novel Sounds we weren’t afraid to say certain things, to voice our opinions a little more comfortably. To me, it was a lot more comfortable and a lot more enjoyable.
IF: How do you think your music’s matured overall since the band’s inception?
Brian: I like to think we’ve just improved, both musically and as individuals. I know we kind of joke about a lot of stuff, but we kind of found a sound that we can call our own, if you can say that, and tried to develop that. So we’re knee deep in that process.
IF: How have your upbringing and your southern background influenced your music?
Brain: I think that’s kind of part and parcel with the answer we gave to growing up in the Ozarks. It has its own, unique culture. It’s kind of like a mini Appalachia. It’s kind of mountainous, rugged. I think the best people in the world live there and I feel fortunate to have been raised in that area. I’m probably speaking for Lennon and Luke as well, and then of course we have adopted Brett.
Brett: I grew up in southern Kansas City. But I was raised in the Catholic Church, so we were forced to sing and all that stuff. I think that was a big influence for me because I actually really enjoyed a lot of the Catholic music songs. That’s really what kept me going to church at that point in my life. I hated church.
Brian: Is Frank Black Catholic?
Brett: Probably. He had probably been raised a Catholic.
IF: I know he’s got a lot of religious influence, too.
Brett. Yeah, he does. Actually, I think his dad was a preacher, if I remember right.
Brian: A priest?
Brett: No I think he was a preacher. He wasn’t a priest. So maybe he was Baptist?
IF: What are your thoughts on all the comparisons to Kings of Leon (before they got big), we heard some My Morning Jacket and Dr. Dog, there’s also the Replacements, I’ve heard, and the Band?
Brian: I think it’s great. Everybody sounds like somebody else to a certain extent, so why fight it? If somebody had said to Radiohead when they started out, “You know, you guys sound like U2,” it’d be a shame if Radiohead gave up and tried to change their sound. So they developed their own sound and it became their own thing.
IF: How’d you guys enjoy touring with the Clarks and Somebody Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin?
Brian: The Clarks was really short. It was like three or four days. It was fun, they were really nice guys. The Somebody Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin tours were just a blast because we started our bands together in Springfield. We’re really good friends with those guys. Personally, they’re one of my favorite bands. It was real wild.
IF: And then you guys did Lollapalooza in 2008, did you guys get to check out any other bands while you were there?
Brian: Oh, yeah!
Brett: Yeah, man! It was cool because we were probably the smallest band that played Lollapalooza, I’d say. We got to hang in VIP access and side stage. MGMT we watched on stage. Dr. Dog we watched on stage. Wilco we watched side stage.
Brian: Radiohead
Brett: Radiohead we watched back stage.
IF: How do you think your sound translates to an outdoor music festival?
Brett: Pretty well.
Lennon: It’s a little bit quieter.
Brett: Yeah, it’s not as rowdy as a club crowd.
IF: Had that been your biggest audience until then?
Brett: Actually, we’ve played in front of some big crowds. We’ve played with Ben Kweller and the Robert Randolph Family Band.
Brian: Violent Femmes. I’d say the single biggest crowd we’ve ever played in front of was in Louisville, Kentucky on the Violent Femmes day. It was an outdoor festival summer festival type thing.
Brett: It was a free event.
Brian: But the Lollapalooza play was probably the biggest thing we’ve done to date as a band.
IF: Are there any other outdoor festivals in the cards for you guys sometime soon?
Brian: Maybe. We’re in the running for a few next year. We’d obviously like to do the biggies: Coachella, ACL. Lollapalooza usually doesn’t have the same acts next year or two years later, so maybe we’ll get to do Lollapalooza again our next album cycle. But we love doing festivals – it’s a blast.
IF: And then a couple questions to finish it out, if you could share the stage with any artist ever, who would it be?
Brett: Wow. Actually Wilco, I think, would be amazing.
Brian: Any artist ever? The Beatles at Shea Stadium.
IF: And then, if you had a pet ferret what would you name it?
Brett: Luke, would you want to answer that?
Luke: Pet ferret? I’d call him Whiskey Weiner.
Brian: I’d name mine Ferris. Ferris the Ferret. That’s probably never been done.
Lennon: As you can tell by these sweet hair lips that we have going on, Luke and I are growing our mustaches out. Brett’s due to shave. We’re doing, along with the members of Meese and Ludo, a thing called Movember, in which we are raising awareness for prostate cancer and testicular cancer. So if you feel like donating you can go to our website.
(Luke brushes his ‘stache.)
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