The legendary Hot Water Music stepped back out onto the road recently for a short stint through the Midwest before they head to Europe in August. Scene Point Blank was lucky enough to sit down with bassist Jason Black to catch up before an intense show in Detroit. There we tried to get updates on their new album, writing between Hot Water Music and Senses Fail, and whether or not eager fans would ever get to see their favorite albums performed in full.
Scene Point Blank: So how was Krazy Fest?
Jason Black: Good, it was awesome!
Scene Point Blank: Who’d you watch when “The Rapture” was supposed to be happening at 6?
Jason Black: We were getting rained on trying to set up the outside stage, so I didn’t watch anybody right then. [Laughter] I mean, I caught a little bit of a ton of bands. As far as full sets go, just 7 Seconds. There was kind of a lot of hanging around, and messing around with our friends and then go watch 2 songs. Then—
Scene Point Blank: How about last night?
Jason Black: Last night was good! It was Milwaukee—Sunday—you know? Fun show though.
Scene Point Blank: I heard it was one of the best ones in Milwaukee.
Jason Black: It’s the best show we’ve ever headlined there for sure, so I can’t complain about that.
Scene Point Blank: So what’s the writing been like for the new album?
Jason Black: Um, slow mostly. [Laughter] Yeah, it’s hard ‘cause Chuck lives in California and goes on tour a bunch. I went on tour a bunch and live in Georgia. Rest of the guys live in Florida, but we really--literally—just kind of started getting to it a few weeks ago. Kind of just going to see how it goes. I would like to think that maybe we’ll spend a decent amount on time when we’re in Europe, since we’re over there for a few weeks and try to hash some things out too. It’s one of those things where we haven’t put out a record in so long that it’s not really a huge rush to get it out either.
Scene Point Blank: You’ve gotta get back into it and—
Jason Black: Yeah! Like, I mean, we wanna get it out sooner rather than later but—
Scene Point Blank: It’s been what—like 5 years—
Jason Black: I think it’s been 7, so it’s like, “if you’re gonna wait that long, why rush and put out a shitty record?”
Scene Point Blank: So you haven’t debuted any new songs or anything?
Jason Black: No. No, nothing’s ready to be played yet. We’ve got a couple that are pretty much finished, but we haven’t got them ready to play live yet.
Scene Point Blank: Cool, so are you still looking to put it out next year?
Jason Black: Yeah! I would—if I had to predict—say it’ll be out in like late Spring or the Summer.
Scene Point Blank: Alright! Are you going to try to get into the studio this year?
Jason Black: Hopefully. It’s a lot of e-mailing tracks at this point, you know?
Scene Point Blank: I know you’ve guys all have tours coming up—
Jason Black: Yeah, so it’s a little—I think that we’ll piece it together. I dunno. We haven’t even decided who we’re gonna record it with or release it with or anything. Right now, it’s mostly about getting it done—getting it together—and then we’ve gotta figure it out from there.
Scene Point Blank: Is it difficult jumping between Sense Fail and Hot water Music when you’re writing?
Jason Black: I don’t really write much for Senses Fail, so no. It was initially when I got used to it, but now that I’m comfortable in that band too, it’s basically easy.
Scene Point Blank: You really do no writing for them?
Jason Black: No, not really, but we've had a couple more member changes, so were gonna start writing this summer. I’ll probably write more—maybe? I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes. It’s not—nah, it’s fine.
