Ottawa’s own NECK hit up House of TARG on Jan. 15. After The Fandemics, Quarter Tank, and Audio Visceral had warmed up the crowd with strong performances and perogie jokes galore, the three-piece took the stage.
Their high-energy performance was well worth the wait, and despite the late hour, the crowd head-bobbed and cheered their way through the band’s loud and enthusiastic performance.
Before the show, The Charlatan sat down and talked to guitarist and vocalist, Jeff Martin, about their new album, Hate to Read, weird experiences, and live shows.
The Charlatan (TC): So your album came out last month. How do you feel?
Jeff Martin: We’re really happy to finally get it out. Took us quite a while to finally get organized enough to get it done. It’s been like two years because we had recorded a lot of it originally, but we just never got around to mixing it, so we just decided to record it all over again with our new songs. For me, more than most people I think, I was sick of it the second it came out, but we had to get it recorded. We’re really proud of it too, we put a lot of work into it. Just ‘cause we’re sick of it doesn’t mean that’s happened for anyone else.
TC: And how’s the feedback been?
Martin: It’s been good! It’s been great. I don’t know why? I’ve played in a bunch of bands and this one for whatever reason people seem to enjoy it. It’s just lots of fun, we just have fun, so if anyone else has fun, that’s even better.
TC: In your own words, how would you describe your music?
Martin: I would call it “Ramones-core.” I don’t like the term “pop-punk,” I think it’s a derogatory term. I would agree that we’re a “punk-pop” band. The emphasis is reversed.
TC: Have you ever had a really weird fan experience?
Martin: Well, I had someone steal my sailor hat in the summer. We did this Jackass thing where we went to Toronto and we were wearing white t-shirts, blue jeans, and sailor hats with tennis shoes, and the idea was we were going to pretend we were sailors, but all day we wore them in downtown Toronto, walking around, and we were called some names, and people said things to us and we would always say, “Hey we’re just friggin’—we’ve got dock-leave and we’re just checking things out,” and maybe we were asking for it, but yeah—some raised eyebrows, some name-calling.
TC: And then someone stole the hat.
Martin: We wind up back here, and this girl steals my hat. Actually it wasn’t my hat, I was wearing Kevin, our drummer’s hat, because I’d put mine away and grabbed his, and she takes the hat. I go up to her and go, “Haha, listen, that’s funny, I need that hat back,” you know? And so she wouldn’t give it back to me, so I stole it from her, and then I had it again, and so I had it on the whole evening, and I was just hanging out by the front door, and she was leaving I guess, and she ran by, grabbed it, pulled some of my hair out, and took off.
TC: How do you hope people feel after they see you guys play?
Martin: I hope that they—well, one: are drunk, really drunk, and two: have a compelling urge to buy our record and t-shirt, and then go home, wake up, be very hungover, and look at the record and go, “Oh my god, I can’t believe I bought this,” but then listen to it later on and then be happy they bought it.
TC: Is it too early to be thinking about the next album?
Martin: Oh no, we’re already thinking about the next one. We already have a bunch of songs that we’ve been working on. We’ll play three or four of them tonight, in fact, so yeah, there are plans, it never ends.
