Hassler studio 3 session

We recorded this session on the second day that Hurricane Stacy had hit Toronto. There was lots of rain outside and the lights lit up the playing field on the bak of Hart House showing off the mud pit it had become. Large puddles on display with little grass to show for it.

I wasn't sure who was in the band other than Jon and as I started reading up on them before we met up it appeared there was some pretty serious punk time that had played a part in the members past. The band is made up of Jay on vocals who was the singer in Bad Skin. Jon is the guitarist and he has played in so many bands ranging from Chokehold and Hacksaw and more recently Brutal Knights, Rammer, Career Suicide, and the Suicide Dates. Erik was the bassist in the Reprobates and they keep coming up in reviews I read about this band. And then there is Al who played in loads of bands but most recently he was in Toxic Holocaust and Rammer. It is the Rammer connection that seems to be the basis for this band. John and Al wanted to start something new up and Hassler is that band.

It wasn't until they started playing that I had forgotten how explosive a singer Jay can be. His constant pacing reminded me of a more together Darby Crash. It makes it extermely frustrating for someone trying to take a picture of him because they minute you get him framed he is off somewhere else. This energy makes Jay and engaging singer. And as far as cerebral metter is concerned Jay downplays this in songs like "Amoral" or "Trainwreck" by uses of self-character assassination, however songs likje "Retaliation" and "Enlightened" demonstrate deeper meanings to their songs the same way Total Trash are deceptively philosophical in their approach to lyrics.

The music is a modern day mash up along the lines of what Double Negative are able to pull off. I had the same paradigm shift experience with Hassler's music which played out as an endless game of name that part from punk's rich past. I think Double Negative and Hassler share the same make up of scene veterans from different generations of punk that work together at making simple flowing hardcore that speaks to all of their collective experience. It can't help but be a wealth of ideas, hyperkinteic in structure, and fascinating to hear unravel as it is played. Given their humble nature the band downplays the significance as some organic method of song writing, but as I listen to it I find the songs complex and rivetting and representing something new in hardcore writing which is ultimately waht the band is trying to achieve. Breakdowns that magically appear out of some raw d-beat riff with blown out distortion. Invisible Guy describes the sound as "Raw-Fi" which captures this idea embodied in bands like Urban Blight and Violent Future, but through back to a style hammered out by Confuse and G.I.S.M. Hassler have an approach and a background for this that can't be replicated and will be looked back on as a new approach to hardcore writing.

This session was recorded and mixed by Jonathon Hawkes. The songs we recorded at studio 3 include the following:

1. Amoral
2. Trainwreck
3. Retaliation
4. Escape
5. Apathy
6. Creeper
7. Asphyxiate
8. What I See
9. Beatdown
10. Pig Pen
11. Enlightened

The session was videotaped by Aldo Edric for Punks n Rockers and a clip can be seen below.



The interview we did for this interview was transcribed and then we did a follow up interview. We editted the two interviews together and submitted it to MRR. They published the interview in the April 2013 (#359) issue. Martin Sorrondeguy took the photos used in their layout when he was down for the Varning and NDY fest shows. Here is a preview of the piece.