Catching up With Dave Hause

BK: So, this 7" series that's coming up, is that something you've been thinking about doing for a while?

DH: Yeah, it's something that's been a while in the making. These are songs that have been done for a while. It just took a while to get them doled out to the labels and get the whole thing organized. It was a plan that I had about a year and a half ago, maybe. Or maybe it was a year, I don't know. It just took a while to get them recorded and distributed to the labels.

How did you pick which labels you wanted to work with?

Well, all the labels that are involved are labels that I have had friends that worked there, or have been friends with the people that owned them over the years, for many years. It just kind of dawned on me that if I'm not under contract that I should take advantage of that. So it worked out really well.

I was excited to see Jade Tree on that list, they've been pretty quit the last few years.

Yeah they have. I think with the industry being so different, they've  kind of gone slow on releases. I think they've done some reissue type things, but not a whole lot of releases.

And Chunksaah, obviously, you've known the Bouncing Souls guys forever, and Pete worked on Resolutions.

Yeah, Pete produced all the songs on this thing too. So, not only did we make Resolutions together, but we made all these 7"s together as well. So that was a no brainer, they've been friends forever.

So, this is all separate sessions from Resolutions?

Yeah, we finished that record up a while ago, and about a year later we started up the 7" stuff. It didn't take us too long to make it, it just took a while for the whole project to happen.

Are there gonna be any guests on these 7's?

Well, Pete plays on a couple of the songs, my sister Missy plays on one of them. There are a couple guests, but not like "guest stars" or anything like that.

No Brian or Chuck this time around.

Brian and Chuck aren't on this set of songs, no.

I think the three of you should just make a record together.

We've talked about it. It might happen, it's just a matter or getting everybody's schedules together and having time to write and record. But yeah, that would be fun. That would be a really, really good time. We were kicking that idea around in the fall.

I saw some YouTube videos of you guys playing together at the Revival Tour, it looked like a blast.

 Yeah, that was a great time. I just jumped in for a couple Revival shows last week, I did about four or five of them, just as a special guest. It was a great time. That tour is always a really fun thing to do.

I also just downloaded that PDF of your notebook from when you were writing Resolutions, and there are all kinds of cool notes in the margins. It seems like a lot of the time you didn't really know if it would be a Loved Ones song or something for your own record. How do you determine what songs will go where when you're writing?Well some of them are just obvious, but others a re a little harder to differentiate between where they should go. Songs like "Resolutions" or "Time Will Tell" could have been Loved Ones songs. When you get a big enough group of songs together, you can look at them one by one and figure out what the best way to group them is.

The lyrics on Resolutions seem a lot more personal to me.

I don't find that to be true. Maybe more so than the last Loved Ones record, but the first one is a really personal record. I don't see a whole lot of difference, to be honest with you, except that the Loved Ones is a little bit faster and louder.

And there was that political song on the last one, "Dear Laura."

Yeah, that's totally true.

That might be my favorite song on that record.

Thank you. We rarely play that one out, but I think it turned out all right.

Are you going to be doing solo stuff for the foreseeable future? Loved Ones seems to be a little inactive.

The last thing the Loved Ones did, we did some shows last year with the Souls. We've been kind of laying low. Everyone has been doing other stuff. I'm definitely a little bit more focused on doing solo stuff right now. Everyone else is kind of doing different things. We might do some stuff later this year. But yeah, I'm a lot more focused on doing stuff on my own.

Nice. You just made a really cool video for "C'mon Kid" for Record Store Day.

Yeah, do you like it?

I do. There seems to be kind of a theme of your body going through Hell is both of the videos you've made for Resolutions.

The Record Store day one is kind of jokey.

Yeah, and the other one is kind of a Scorcese parody, right?

Well, it's more of an homage. It wasn't really meant to make fun, it was more of a tribute. The "Time Will Tell" video was my concept. I ran that past my friend Jason and he wanted to make the video. The other one was a director that I worked with on a Gaslight Anthem video. He came up with that idea. So it's two separate ideas, but yeah, they are both kind of violent.

Is Record Store Day something that's really important to you personally?

Yeah, I got a lot out of a local record store in Philadelphia called Main Street Music and they really influenced my taste and guided me away from certain things that were kind of lame and towards thing that were cool. I think the community that can form around a record store is exciting and cool. I thought it would be a cool thing to tie into the 7" series. So yeah, it just kind of all worked out well.

For someone like you, trying to make a living off of music, it must be sad to kind of see things like record stores going away.

It presents certain financial challenges for sure, it keeps you on the road a lot more. You know, I feel fortunate to be able to do this to the degree that I do. I'm in a really small percentage of the population that are happy to go to work, so I'm just happy that people respond positively to the art that I make.

Have you done a lot of solo touring overseas for Resolutions?

I was there once before, and I've been over once since, on the Revival Tour, since Resolutions came out.

Do the European audiences respond differently than the American audiences?

Slightly. There's a little bit more of a premium put on shows over there. It's a little less of a throwaway culture, and that lends itself more towards what I do. But ultimately, people who get it are the same all over the world.

Well thanks for taking the time out of your day to speak with me, I know you're super busy.

Thank you man, I appreciate your questions and your interview. I wish you all the luck in the world.