Interview with Bennet Mains from Holding Onto Sound

Interview by: J.Moncrief
Big Wheel Staff Reporter


Punk Rock Bowling has lined up some great bands to open up the festivals shows this year. One of those bands is Las Vegas' very own Holding Onto Sound aka HOTS. They took a few minutes out of their busy schedule to give our viewers some insight  on their band and some cool shit to do in between wrecking your liver at PRB this year.
 

How and when did you guys all meet/ come together to Form HOTS and how did Bob come to join the band? 
Zabi and I met through a mutual friend. We started jammin and hit it off pretty early on. We went through a couple drummers/guitar players before we met Vanessa through an online musician machine and settled on being a 3 piece. Once the 3 of us settled in together we didn't want it any other way. Bob had been my close friend for about 8 years before he joined the band. We weren't necessarily looking for another guitar player but once he was free from his other project we figured we should give it a shot. He came down and practiced and the rest is history.

What bands do you feel have inspired influenced HOTS sound?
We have ALOT of influences. All of us come from different musical back grounds. When we first got together though, we all agreed on RX Bandits, Choking Victim, Sublime, NOFX, a lot of punk and reggae stuff. But we're big into Mastodon and Mars Volta as well as Johnny Cash, the Clash and Atmosphere. So we're pulling from everywhere. Too many influences to list.

How was it opening up for NOFX on New years and how stoked are you to be sharing the stage with them at Punk Rock Bowling this year?
It's awesome. They're wouldn't be a HOTS without NOFX. Simple as that. Meeting the Stern brothers and them being so generous towards us and our town has also been huge. Mark and Shawn are letting us bring in Nevada Homeless Alliance to set up a booth at PRB and we are grateful for that and for the opportunity to play with bands that we love, like NOFX, Rancid and the mighty Hot Water Music. Very stoked to answer that question.

Your music is versatile in the way that it can be categorized in many different genres of Punk. If you had to describe your sound, which category do you feel like you would most likely fall under?
I got nothing. I'd say Punk in attitude. We're definetly DIY, but you have to be in this day and age. But calling yourself punk isn't very punk is it? I don't know what we are. Aggressively-smooth.

Being from the Las Vegas punk scene, how do you feel it differs from LA ? 
No clue. Haven't been a part of the LA scene. I will tell you we're different than every scene. Nowhere is like vegas. You gotta fight to be heard here. There are so many great bands. The Core, The Quitters, Nothing With Numbers, Deadhand. I could go on and on. The thing is I feel like if our scene was anywhere else we'd all be "blowing up" so to speak, but we literally live in a city that doesn't want to see us go anywhere. Nothing to distract from our casinos. Venues open and close faster than you can say...oh shit, another venue just closed.

Do you have any cool, hole in the wall, local spots(record stores,restaurants, dive bars etc..) you would recommend to all the out of town festival goers to check out while they are in Vegas this year for punk rock bowling?
Zia records, Alternate Reality (for the comic book lovers like myself) The Bunkhouse is a bar we play at pretty often and we see some great bands play there. During PRB there will be some great shows there. There's a sweet little spot downtown called the Emergency Arts center, It's a little coffee shop with a cool small record store and a few great comics. They also have an awesome open mic on Monday Nights. The whole downtown Las Vegas art scene (not the fucking strip) is pretty rad. We've had a real rejuvenation downtown and I love it personally, we're becoming a real town!!! YAY!!

Can we expect HOTS to play any of their old songs in the set at Punk Rock Bowling, or will you be showcasing mostly new material?
It's going to be a lot of new stuff because that's what we have the most fun playing, but I'm sure we'll find some room for an oldie or two.


You guys recently released a 7". I heard that there is a cool story with how it was made, can you tell our readers all about it?
Brick Gun Records approached our boy Shahab at GC Records who approached us about doing the 7". They went in together on the cost of pressing it up and we did the recording. We are very grateful to everyone involved. his tour I am facing him on stage and that's a great way for us to integrate together very tightly. It’s a joy to play with him!

Do you guys have any plans for upcoming tours in 2012?
Yep. But nothing solid yet. Just keep your eyes on the horizon and soon enough you'll see us coming over it. On horse back of course. We are still cowboys at the end of the day. Desert Rats from Las Vegas.

You can also catch a special performance from HOTS to benefit Nevada Homeless Alliance at Yayo Taco, 4632 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas NV 89119 on May 25th!

 

http://www.myspace.com/hotsmusic

https://www.facebook.com/holding.onto.sound

http://nevadahomelessalliance.org/

 

 

 

 

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