Interview with Hot Buttered Anal

One of the most 'weird' band's that I had the pleasure of reviewing in the last couple of months has been Hot Buttered Anals, so naturally I could not resists asking the band a few questions. We talked about their name, their inspirations and their massive stage destruction scheme the would execute if money was not an issue.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and let’s get started:

First of all, where does the name Hot Buttered Anal came from?

One day we were just goofing around while one of our buddies was eating some hot buttered popcorn. We all have a tendency to say odd things so Chris said, “ Hottttttttt Butttttttterrrrred….” But he paused for just a second and I blurted out the word, “Anal!”

We all found it funny at the time but forgot about the goofy saying. Then a few months later as we were starting the band and trying to decide on a name that would fit our style, one of our most conservative friends said, “Just call it “Hot Buttered Anal” after hearing the combination of nutty songs and twisted music.

Somehow the world “anal” has become associated with grind bands but we could really care less. We thought it was perfect to get peoples attention and described the twisted approach to our music.

What is the overall concept of the band?

There are two concepts to the band really. 1) To have fun, and 2) to play what we want! Somehow even “underground music” started to become so mainstream and predictable in the 90s. Suddenly bands either came out as Grind, or Death, or Black, and the Thrash scene and Punk scene faded.

We are all grown men so we could care less about trying to fit into a certain genre. More importantly, we just wanted to play what we felt like. There were so many record companies that said, “We would love to sign you but we don’t know how to market you!” 

We find that so funny because underground music, (yes I am going back to the early 80s) was started to escape the mainstream styles of music and play what you wanted. Unfortunately,  many of the people running the companies or labels were still in first grade back than so they may not realize that this style of music is about playing what you want first, and making money second!

Where do all the ideas for the band’s lyrics come from?

I like to tell stories about things that may seem so absurd but actually have a meaning if you can figure it out. Our debut, Please Kill Me has some goofy stuff but they still have a message.

Flaming Robots “is one of the goofiest songs ever but if you look at the lyrics, it is actually saying, “Thanks to the liberals, everyone thinks they have every right in the world… what is next, rights for gay cowboy robots?” “You’re Dead” is simply a song about someone threatening another person but putting it in the context of a song… to avoid any criminal charges. “Freedom for the Lobsters” is a story from a lobster’s point of view before he is cooked.

Our second Cd, Lies is a bit angrier and has more “serious songs” but still has some twisted stories as the Cd moves on. “Daddies Little Girl” seems the most disturbing to many listeners. Most people think we are making fun of incest but we are simply telling a story of the horror that a little girl feels when daddy comes knocking.  Some of the other songs on that release have a humorous side, (Choke the Bitch) but it turned out much darker and meaner then we expected.

With the album “Please Kill Me” the band seemed to be experimenting with their sound and with “Lies” the sound is a bit more refined, can you tell us more about this process?

We certainly agree. When we recorded Please Kill Me, we would get together once a week and lay down a track here and there. The song ideas were more diverse and honestly, life was good at that time so the songs came out mainly funny but twisted.

When we approached recording Lies, life was going shitty so the songs and vocals turned out much meaner. We also decided to record the tracks all at once to have a more consistent sound from song to song. Both albums have there positives and negatives. 

Life is good again so it is looking like the third release is going to go back to the style of the first Cd in regards of lyrics but we want to keep a more consistent sound from song to song as on Lies.

It’s been a while since the release of “Lies”, is there any new album on the works? Or what is going on over at the HBA camp?

We have about 7 tracks for our third release and some of the songs are so disturbing but funny that we can’t wait to lay down tracks. Lies was released in Oct. of 2008 so we agree it has been a while but we are still plugging along. Again, we do this for fun and to vent some anger so there is no pressure to release stuff once a year. Even so, we are sure that we will have the new HBA release out by the summer of 2010.

With so many funny as hell songs, which one would you think is your favorite one and why?

Great question. I think we all like the cd Please Kill Me more for a few reasons. It was much funnier for one and it was totally different than what most bands were doing at that time. It had a sort of old school “punk/thrash” feel.

Lies was a bit more serious and it served it purpose but it was a bit to predictable to me for the first seven songs… then it started getting nutty.  Again, this band is so great because we don’t feel like we have to sound a certain way so I can see our 3rd Cd being more along the lines of Please Kill Me with just a touch of Lies!

One favorite songs for each of us is so hard to pick out because they are so different.

If you guys had unlimited budget for a live show, what props or things would you use on stage (and why)?

Hahaha! My first thought is we would have a giant popcorn maker over the audience and a machine that kept squirting out butter! It would be a mess but funny to watch. We could have dancing gay robots on stage stabbing girls with screwdrivers as well!

Our guitars would be shaped like chicken bones and Chris’s drums would be giant pots of water that you could see through and watch lobsters being boiled to death. Finally, we could have some girls getting choked for not having dinner ready on time or having the house vacuumed when you get home!

We could tie each song into a stage prop which would be disturbing to watch while the song is played!

Anything else you want to add for our readers?

Check us out at www.myspace.com/hotbutteredanal and www.hotbutteredanal.com. Chris, Ziggy, and I want to thank you so much for the interview and for supporting our crazy music! It is so cool when someone actually gets what we are trying to do and you nailed it!

Again, Thanks for the interview!

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