In addition to having a very successful and prolific career as a Folk singer, Chuck Ragan has also been active as vocalist, guitarist and songwriter in the legendary, massively influential Post Hardcore / Punk Rock outfit HOT WATER MUSIC. They truly helped define a sound, one that is both melodic and raw and that has a deep emotional density. Chuck’s voice is a big part of that, as it carries his heartfelt, sincere words with immense power and intensity. It makes for very passionate music, and that passion translates to their always great live shows as it is evidently lived and shared by the band and the audience. They are currently on tour to celebrate their 25th anniversary as a band and they are playing their classic albums No Division and Caution in full. Make sure not to miss them when they roll through your town! Hot Water Music’s latest EP, Shake Up The Shadows, is available on Epitaph Records.
What have you been listening to the most lately?
Well, I have a four and a half year old boy, so there’s a lot of children’s songs and he also likes to listen to me! He’ll actually request Papa songs.
Is he more into the solo stuff or Hot Water Music?
He likes the loud stuff. He likes Hot Water and he has his guitar and his own drums, he has instruments all over the house. He loves to set it up and play guitar and he has a little microphone and PA in the room. So that’s a big deal but we listen to all kinds of stuff. Lately, he really liked a lot of old RAMONES that we were playing. He’s pretty open minded, there’s only been a few times where we put something on and he says, “I don’t like this.” Having kids, it’s funny. My wife and I both have a lot of music that we enjoy and most of the time, we’ll listen to music when we’re cooking, or just in the house.
What’s your favorite vibe that you’re looking for when selecting music, depending on the setting? May it be while cooking or if you’re driving or whatever.
Cooking, I’ve always loved CALEXICO. BEDOUIN SOUNDCLASH. All good cooking music. WILLIE NELSON.
What’s the album you believe you’ve listened to the most in your life? What makes it special to you?
That’s a good question. Probably that LEATHERFACE Mush record. I wore a couple of those out. Many things make it special. Lyrically, it’s poetic. You have these beautiful emotions in the lyrics and in the melodies but it’s mixed with this harsh kind of dirty just pedal to the floor Rock and Roll. I just love that concoction.
What are some of your favorite lyrics? It can be a line, a song or just the general body of work of an artist.
You could ask me that question every day and I could come up with a different answer. One line coming to mind right now is a song that Stubbs (from Leatherface) wrote, Do The Right Thing, and it was “Don’t underestimate underdogs. They can beat the world and come back for more. They can dance and romance and drink the night into coma.” It’s a beautiful one.
Do you remember the first time music had an impact on you?
Absolutely. On my mother’s side of the family were all Cajun folks and some of my earliest memories of music were listening to my mama and papa play. My papa played accordion and my mama used to just stand there, banging on a knee with a tambourine, and they’d sing French songs. So I grew up kind of listening to them play Cajun music. My brother and I were on the floor, just sitting there, listening. When I think about it, it’s crazy, I can almost smell the room. They had this old stone fireplace and used to have good fires going in the winter and the whole house smelled like that, you know? That and good food. Wonderful memories. But yeah, that was my first impression and I think the first time I can remember loving music.
From there, what has been your milestones in terms of musical discoveries?
There were so many of them along the way. I grew up in Christian schools and in churches, and in that world, there was a lot of singing. There was a lot of choir and we sang the Hymns and the Gospels and all this. And then, I found skateboarding, right! Major milestone. All of a sudden, I was introduced to this entire new world of music that exhilarated me. I mean, it scared me. This gnarly Punk Rock and aggressive, loud, angry music. I grew up with nothing like that and just the whole scene and the whole energy of it, I was just really drawn to.
What were some of the first bands that you discovered?
Well, I was never allowed to have records so, I used to have friends who would make me these mixtapes. Some of them, they would write on them, but a lot of tapes, there’s no writing, there’s no nothing. They’re all these songs. There were many years where I had these tapes that I listened to, and I didn’t even know the names of the bands. Some of them I did know, because we would all listen to them together and I just knew, “oh, this is BAD BRAINS”. I remember when I would be over at a friend’s house or we’d be skating somewhere else, and a song would come on that they were listening to and I’d go “I know this. Who is this?” They would say, “this is GBH, or this is MINOR THREAT”, you know what I mean? This was music that I had heard, or had on the tape until, you know, my mother found it and threw it away.
So they were really against it?
Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. They’re pretty conservative. This is a very religious upbringing that I had and Punk Rock or anything Metal, that didn’t mesh well! I mean, at that age too, like anybody who grew up skateboarding in the 80’s, there was such a wide range. I mean, I would be listening to Minor Threat one minute and then BEASTIE BOYS and then METALLICA. Anything, really.
I love how pure this way of experiencing music is. Just having a tape and it is what it is. It’s not about the band being cool, ’cause you just don’t know. You get into it and let the energy drive you.
Yeah, that’s really cool. The music is very much linked to memories too. Like, every time I hear old Metallica, it immediately reminds me of skating vert. I remember learning how to drop in, listening to Whiplash. That was a big deal in my life, learning how to drop in on a vert ramp. In so many ways, I look back on it now as conquering fear and finding confidence and doing something that just didn’t seem possible and making it happen. I mean, music’s a powerful thing.
Circling back to your musical evolution, what have been some of your main eye opening discoveries, as you grew older?
After that is when I kind of was interested in learning how to play. I had a good friend, this other punk that I hung out with all the time, Chris Prater, he is like a brother to me. I used to run away from home, I used to skip school, and he was already kicked out of school so he was never in school anyway. He was the bad kid. He was always hanging outside of the school, or he was at his apartment. His dad wasn’t around and his mom was never there at the apartment, she was always working so he had this apartment. I think I knew him for a year before I even met his mom. So I used to skip school and just take off. Him and I used to go hang out, give each other homemade tattoos and play guitar. I knew very little about guitar at the time, but I just knew it was something I wanted to do. It was him, in that little apartment in Florida, who taught me how to play a barre chord. My mind exploded! It was like “What!? I can just do this and move it back and forth?” All of a sudden, it was now learning songs and listening to songs and going “okay, that’s how you play it.” It just opened up all kinds of worlds to me, you know? That was a major, major discovery. From there, it seemed like anytime I would play with someone else or some of these bands that we would start as kids and, anytime I’d play with someone else and figure out how you would play with that person, it always would open your mind to play a little bit differently. Not to mention, you would find out what music they were into and send you in another direction.
What was the biggest local band in your area growing up?
There wasn’t a whole lot of bands where I was, until we moved out of Sarasota. Well, Prater’s band, I mean, they were big to me and I ended up joining the band down the road. They were called HCA, which is kind of a gnarly abbreviation that stood for house call abortions. I don’t know if you want to print that? *Haha* It was just a bunch of angry punks.
One of my biggest show I think I’d saw was also one of my first like real concerts. My parents didn’t know I was going and it was about 45 minutes out of town, in another town. I jumped into a buddy’s car, he drove us there, and we saw SICK OF IT ALL, NASTY SAVAGE and DRI. It was probably the most violent show that I’ve ever seen in my life. It was ’89 or ’90, whenever Blood, Sweat and No Tears came out. That’s when many things just came together. You go out and see all these punks and metalheads and skins within the same walls, just tearing each other apart. Bunch of animals. I loved it!
In recent years, what are some of the best shows that you’ve seen?
The WHITE BUFFALO, Jake Smith is his name but he works under the artist name The White Buffalo, and he’s incredible. His voice is just like a big, heavy blanket. He’s cool. I really like him a lot. I’ve had a chance to play a number of shows with him. We did a tour with him and every single night, it never ceased to amaze me, it didn’t get old. I got to play with him again recently and yeah, he’s just incredible.
Any other examples like that of a band that you toured with, and you just add to watch their set every night and it never got old?
Well, LEATHERFACE was definitely one, when we brought them over. It was their first tour in the United States and at that time, they were a band that we didn’t think we would ever see. They got back together to come do that tour. It was insane that we had a part in helping make that happen. Every night, we were right there on the side of stage or in the crowd, before we played! It just never got old.
Is there any other bands that you thought you’d never get to see but finally got a chance and you were blown away by them?
Yeah, JOE STRUMMER. Before he passed, I got to see him a few times. One time in Toronto, actually. It was him and the MESCALEROS. He was a person that a lot of us respected and looked up to and admired. We had no idea we would see him. Our buddy was like, “Hey man, I can get us tickets. Let’s go!” We were like, “What? We can do that!?” We were on tour and we ended up in the same city they were playing and it just worked out.
To the contrary, is there any bands that you’ve always wished you could have seen but you never got a chance?
Yeah, I’ve seen BAD BRAINS before but I would have loved to seen Bad Brains years ago, in their prime. THIN LIZZY, QUEEN…the list is endless.
Is there any band or artist that you either didn’t like at first and grew to really love? Or maybe something that you feel you were late in the game in discovering them?
Sure. I think if I would have heard STEVE EARLE at a really young age, I would have absolutely loved it. Incredible songwriter and the dude tells some wonderful stories through music. When I was a kid, I got into Punk Rock, but there was also part of me that liked different things. One of the friends that I used to have that used to build skateboard ramps when we were little, his favorite band was CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL. When he would be out in the yard, building our ramps and we would be helping out, he would let us put our tapes and play some stuff, but then he would say, “Alright boys. Now, we’ll listen to my music!” and he would always put in Creedence and just blast it. Dancing around, hammering and sawing and I just always related it with good times, you know? Good energy. CCR became one of my favorite bands but it was kind of odd because I was very split. I loved music like CCR but then at the same time, I loved Minor Threat. It’s like two worlds apart.
Did you ever get to see John Fogerty, or that version of CCR with the other guy singing?
Not Fogerty, no, but I’ve seen that CCR. I enjoyed it, as long as you close your eyes! *Haha* They were great actually. I had a friend, Matt Stanky, who was working with them and invited my wife and I to go see a show. And we’re like, “It’s not the same but we’ll go check it out” and I was really impressed. Some of the songs, it just sounded perfect.
Can you name three songs that you consider to be perfect? What makes them so unique to you?
Not Superstitious, a LEATHERFACE song, that’s pretty damn close. Just the melody, mixed with the structure and arrangement of the song, it flows perfectly.
While we’re talking about CCR, As Long As I Can See The Light. Same deal. Incredible story, arrangement, everything.
And then, now that I think about it, one of my favorite songs of all time would be True Believers from the BOUNCING SOULS. The first time I heard that song, the melody, the energy, the lyrics, everything just grabbed me. But when I really realized how special it was, was when we learned it. We learned this song and immediately realized that it’s the same three chords that are repeated the entire song, whether it be the verses or the chorus. When you listen to it, it doesn’t sound like that, it sounds like it’s changing. But when you break it down and learn it, it’s the same throughout the entire song until literally the last three chords, and it reverses. I thought that was the most brilliant thing. I don’t even know if they realized what they were doing when they did it, or how it all went down but to be able to play the same part for an entire song and have it have that much movement and depth and still feel new is incredible. Every time the chorus comes around, or every time the verse comes back around. That’s hard to do. I don’t even know if you can do that by trying to do it. I think it’s something that just happened but it’s so cool. I was like, “Wow!”
Is there any up and coming bands or artists that you would like to recommend?
There’s a few artists that I play with back home and one of them is this amazing young woman by the name of HANNAH JANE KILE. She is just out of this world. Incredible songwriter, incredible vocalist, and a smoking guitar player. I mean, she has it all. We actually listen to her a lot. My son really likes her, he calls her “The Girl”, like “I want to listen to The Girl.” She’s wonderful.
There’s also a duo, these brothers in my town called the WOLF CREEK BOYS and they’re wonderful. I listen to them.
In closing, is there any projects that you’d like to promote?
Yeah, I’m actually writing a new record myself. It’s been a while since I’ve put one out and it’s time to do it. I’ve got a pile of songs that we’re working on. In fact, after these shows, I fly directly to Florida and we begin pre-production on a new record that’ll be coming out on Rise records. Most likely, in the summer.
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