We are no longer in a time where one’s age will serve as a barrier to playing in a rock band. We’ve interviewed several acts under the Three Stars banner which feature former members of legendary D.C. bands. Yet, there are certain expectations when people who used to scream their lungs out in their thirties continue to make music. Those expectations are either that the new projects have a mellower feel to them, or else that they’re going to attempt to recreate the decibel levels of their youth and fall short.

Regents does neither. The debut 7″ from the band featuring members of Sleepytime Trio, The Exploder and Frodus is just as brutal a hardcore offering as any of their previous work. The guitars are just as shrill, the drumming just as devastating, and the screaming just as loud. It’s no wonder that they’ve been called on to play shows with modern torchbearers of the genre such as Fucked Up.

However, life has definitely changed for the members of these bands, and their schedules and lifestyle choices are not the same as they were in the 1990s. As such, our chat with drummer Jason Hamacher (notably of Frodus) occurred during the wee hours of the morning and included, among other things, a few odd tour stories.

Find them online and buy their music: http://lovitt.bandcamp.com/album/s-t
See them next: Sunday at the Black Cat with The Fordists and The Aquarium. $8, 8 p.m.

So, for your full time job you’re a massage therapist?

And a photographer.

I didn’t realize that you were also a photographer.

Really? I’ve been working in the Middle East for the past six years in Syria. This is heavy duty stuff. I recorded the world’s oldest Christian music for the first time and I have a CD coming out with the Smithsonian. I have a book coming out about the city of Aleppo, Syria and I work for a museum in New York. I’ve done work on Syria for Yale Divinity. It’s like I’m a full time photographer and a full time massage therapist but obviously they don’t overlap. I’ve been going to Syria once or twice a year for the past five years. I was supposed to go in May but because of the uprising it was just not possible and not safe. I just kind of fell into this hole and just pursued, pursued, pursued.

I even made this little short film about it and it won some international film award. It was really weird! It was the first time ever that I was the subject of something that wasn’t an interview. In every band, I’ve always been the guy that coordinates everything. So, this film crew of nine came into my living room and I’m just sitting in a chair. I was like, “Do you want my help to adjust the lights?” and they’re like, “No, no, we’ll do the lights.” I was like, “Do you need me to call anyone?” They’re like, “Nope.” It was really weird to be the subject. It took serious amounts of restraints to let other people do stuff. I’m used to being the, for lack of a better term, producer.

Were you the one who would always organize the tours and stuff like that?

Yeah. Except for the hardcore band Battery that I used to play in, I did it for Frodus, when I started playing for a grindcore band Combatwoundedveteran in Florida, I used to do it for them, too. And, I do it for Regents, too.

Don’t you also do this for bands that you’re not in?

So, after Frodus broke up…you know the band Cave In?

Yeah.

Cave In recorded their record Jupiter, right around the same time we recorded the last Weapons record. We recorded both with Brian McTiernan, the same record producer. They wanted Brian to manage them and Brian’s like, you just have Jason. So, I started managing Cave In and I was also managing Darkest Hour, at the time, too. It was like, all of a sudden, I’m not in a band for the first time since I was…sixteen? It was like, seven or eight years later, but all of my formative years I was playing in a band or trying to figure out how to play in a band, you know what I mean? Then it was just, I’m not in a band. So, I’m like, “Now, what do I do? Maybe I’ll manage some people.” So, I was managing Darkest Hour and Cave In and then, I just had all these crazy things going on. It was too much all at the same time. So, I kind of sent both of them in a certain direction and then kind of bowed out of music for awhile.

How long is awhile?

Awhile for me. That was 2000 and we started doing Decahedron…maybe two years. Two years, like, not going to shows. Just, out. Not, I’m taking a vacation, I’m over it…then Shelby and I started playing with Joe from Fugazi as Black Sea/Decahedron and kind of progressed back.

How long have you been doing stuff with Regents?

A year and a half.

So, did this come together after the 2009 round of Frodus shows?

So, the way it started is when I came home from Syria in 2007, David who is the guitarist for Regents who was also the guitarist in the Rah Bras and Sleepytime Trio and all of those bands that we used to play with was like, “Hey, I want to do a band. Just the two of us.” So, it was him on keytar and me on drums and it sounded like Kraftwerk meets Led Zeppelin. I was actually really into it.

That is not at all what you sound like now.

No, no, no. So, we were doing that for awhile and then I got hired by this museum in New York the next year, 2008. Then, I went to Syria for, like, two months and it was this huge three month negotiation before. So, that knocked out a lot of 2008. I came home and then Shelby and I ended up doing all that Frodus stuff and in 2008 we did that random show at the Swedish Embassy that sparked all of that. So, that’s when we got offered to do SXSW and all of that stuff. Sleepytime Trio was also offered the SXSW show with us and they couldn’t get it together. So, the guitarist Drew from Sleepytime Trio moved to Seattle, like, ten years ago and had just moved back to the East Coast. He’d moved back to Philadelphia. And the original bass player, Dan, was in L.A. and had just moved back to Baltimore.

So, Dan approached David about playing in a hardcore band and David was like, “I had actually been talking to Drew about being in a band again. So, the day that we played SXSW, David called me and said, “Hey, I’m sitting here with Drew. I was like, “What?” Because, I didn’t know that they even were friends. I just didn’t know. He said, “We were talking about doing a hardcore band with Dan from The Exploder. Do you want to play drums?” I was like, “Sure. Let’s figure something out when we get home.” That’s kind of how it started. That was 2009. So we started doing it at the end of 2009. So, that was about a year and a half. And we had two songs in a year. It took forever.

That’s a really slow songwriting process. But it sounds like you wrote a song tonight.

We wrote two tonight. I’m pretty psyched. It was kind of like…Drew did not leave music but he hadn’t played heavy screaming stuff since Sleepytime Trio that broke up in 1997 or ’98. So, he was coming back to it, figuring out guitar and screaming and forming what we were going to do, what we were going to sound like. And not physically, “What does this song need to sound like?” but trying to see organically what it was going to be. And then my wife got pregnant. By me. …That sounded weird. So, that was, August 2009. So, in April of 2010, we were taking these birthing classes at the hospital to get ready for a kid.

So, I have had clients on Wednesday nights for, like, eight years. All of a sudden, I’m like, “I’ve got Wednesday nights open. I’m going to the studio by myself and I’m going to record these drum parts.” Because I have no idea when I’m ever going to be able to play these things again because I’m having a kid. I kind of felt like, “Well, my life is getting ready to end as I know it.” I was terrified. Well, not terrified, but I was like, “This is a change and I have no idea what it’s going to do.” Drew was off with his wife in Asia for like, three months. So, he wasn’t even here. So, I just told Dan and David, “Look, I’m going to go to the studio to record these drum parts and if you guys want to show up and play with me, that’s cool and if not, no big deal. At least we’ll have the drums down for two songs. They’re like, “We’ll come. We’ll come.” So, the two songs turned into four in the studio and that’s the 7″ that’s getting ready to come out. So, it was done kind of piecemeal, just like this record is going to be done as well. But, we’re psyched on it.

How many new songs have you written since that 7″?

One hundred percent completed, four. With two tonight, six. Four are recorded. We’ve already been in the studio a couple of weeks ago. Basically, the original idea before Dan left the band was to do it all live, together. But, Dan left. So now we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to do it. Then, our guitarist is moving.

Where’s he moving?

Alabama. He’s moving in October. So, he’s going to fly back once a month or twice a month for practice or whatever. We don’t practice that often.

I was wondering about that since it sounds like the three or four of you that are doing this don’t live in the same place at all.

No. We don’t. So, we practice in Baltimore. David and Dan live in Baltimore and David’s got a practice space in Baltimore. So, I drive up from D.C. and Drew drives down from Philly.

How often do these practices occur?

It’s sporadic. Like, we try to do once every other week but sometimes it’s like once every three weeks. Sometimes we’ll do two weeks in a row and then three weeks off. I mean, we’re all…I’m the youngest one in the band and I’m 35. David’s 39. Drew’s 38. I’ve got family, two careers…homeowners. Who’s an adult? I just joke around and say we’re mid-thirties-core.

Waitress asks him for the fourth time in roughly ten minutes if he wants coffee.

You know what’s weird? My entire life…this always happens to me. Always. Everywhere we go. Everywhere. If there’s someone that’s kind of quirky or whatever, they interact with me. I interact with them, too. But, I have limitless tour stories and video footage and it’s for eighteen years! It’s crazy. There’s a ton of them, but one of my favorites was outside of Chicago we met two high carnies at a gas station. This is all on video. One guy did the ring toss and the other guy I think did darts.

And they were both high?

Really high. And they told us. One guy spoke like Wolfman Jack and I was like…these guys are incredible. Jean shorts, serious mullets…well, the way they described them…bi-level. It was a bi-level. So, I have on film, these two guys.

Which band was this with?

This was Frodus. 1997. I have these guys talking to me and explaining how to grow out a bi-level. And then one guy, as this guy’s being serious and talking to me, the guy that talks like Wolfman Jack comes over and smashes a Twinkie in the dude’s hair. It was incredible!

Ross Hurt from Caverns submitted a few questions for me to ask and here’s the first: what is your connection to Evanescence?

Frodus 1997 Fall U.S. tour, we were in Little Rock, Arkansas and I had an asthma attack. So it was, either someone had an inhaler or I was going to have to stop and go to the hospital. So, I was like, “Does anyone have an inhaler?” and this guy gave me an inhaler. Fast forward eight years to maybe 2005 or something like that. The band Unwed Sailor was playing at the Warehouse Next Door. And the bass player for Unwed Sailor was in Decahedron. He played with this old band Roadside Monument and that was on that 1997 tour. So, he was like, “Oh, Jason, this is Will,” and I’m like, “Hey! What’s up, man?” and he’s like, “Oh, we’ve met before.” I was like, “Really?” He said, “I gave you an inhaler once.” “Well, what do you do?” “I play in bands. I play bass.” I say, “Oh, in what?” And he goes, “In Evanescence.” It was crazy! I don’t know if he was on a record or what, but, that was what he was doing. And his girlfriend or wife was living in D.C. going to school or something, so he would just, come to D.C. So, I was like, “The dude from Evanescence gave me an inhaler!” Kind of bizarre.

When people used to ask us if we were in a band — this was Frodus — we used to tell them that we were Weezer. It was like ’98 when people didn’t know what they looked like. Shelby had glasses. We were like, “Oh yeah, we’re Weezer.” There’s only three of us. Weezer has four. You don’t know. We don’t know. That’s fine. Then when people started asking if we were in a band, we’d say no, that I was an inspirational speaker. On the first Decahedron tour, we would eat at Cracker Barrels and at one, this woman was like, “Oh, are you in a band?” and they said, “No, no, he’s an inspirational speaker.” So, there’s video of this. She was like, “What kind of inspirational speaking do you do?” And I was like, “Just stuff about being American and freedom.” This was right around the beginning of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and I have a brother in the army. This was my back card. So she’s like, “Well, I support the troops,” and I go, “Well, they thank you.” Then, I asked her, “Do you want to hear a little?” She was like, “Sure,” and I literally just started to say patriotic words. It was like, “A bald eagle cries a tear and it turned into a cherry tree as it landed.” It was ridiculous and the woman made me sign a menu and they put it up on the wall. She was like, “Let me ask my manager. He can have you do one for the restaurant if you’re up for it.” So, I was like, “Let me do an audition for you,” and I took him over to the place where they sold CDs and pressed the Native American pan flute. He was like, “Get this guy out of here.” Just not having it at all.

Has Regents done any touring or have you just done the sporadic D.C. show?

We haven’t really been able to, yet. Our first show was at Rock and Roll Hotel in December. That was with the band Beasts of No Nation. We played Philly once a couple of months ago. We’ve mainly done D.C. and Baltimore. We’ve played a handful of pretty awesome shows. We played the Universal Order of Armageddon reunion show. We played the Fucked Up show. We played with Cave In at Black Cat. We played with Pissed Jeans at the Red Palace. We played with Joan of Arc a couple weeks ago in Baltimore. It was cool. Now that we’re getting stuff done, we’re doing a tour in October. It’s not that long — five days — but we’re down in Florida for The Fest. It’s just called The Fest. It’s the tenth year that they’ve done it and a ton of people come from all over the world for it. It’s pretty awesome. We’re going with the band Coliseum from Louisville, Kentucky. Then, I’m working on a handful of shows in the beginning of October. Probably Baltimore, New York, New Jersey, Philly, Galaxy Hut. Then we’ll probably do the second one and I’m trying to figure out the West Coast for February. We really want to get this full-length written and recorded. Then the guitarist can move and we’ll have a good chunk of this done. That way it’s not this big stressor. I’m also trying to do an Indonesian tour.

Why an Indonesian tour?

It would just be cool. The idea with Regents was to play the music that we have all grown up playing but to do it in cool places and have it kind of fund itself. No one’s making money and we don’t care. So, I’ve sort of loosely started working on a Japanese-Indonesia or Indonesia-Philippines tour. I don’t know. Something kind of remote and fun.

You may have just answered my question on what you want to do with this band.

When David called me and said, “Do you want to play in a hardcore band?” I said, “As long as no one sings. People just have to scream.” We didn’t follow it wholly but for me, it’s kind of a bum out where it’s like, you’re young, you’re in a punk band, you play in hardcore bands and after awhile you just mellow out and do whatever. I understand it. My friends have done it. I’ve never…I mean, I play drums. I just kinda wanted to embrace what we all used to do. Well, not used to do. We did what we did and it was enjoyable and it was fun so why not? When Frodus played with Sleepytime Trio for the first time it was at a house in Harrisonburg that my wife lived in. I did not know her then. She lived upstairs. Very weird. I met her, like, eight years later or something. It was devastating. I even called the drummer and said, “That was one of the most intense things I’ve seen.” It was always awesome, so, having the two guitarists in a band with me on drums…I was really interested to see what would happen. And that’s the 7″.

So, basically, you guys are lifers.

We were talking about this the other day. There’s no reason for us to not play. I think we’ve worked hard enough in the past that there’s, not a big audience, but a kind of built-in audience based on what we’ve done before. And when we played in Philly, I won’t ever forget this. This is one of the few times I was nervous. I don’t get nervous that often. I’ll get jittery but not nervous. This guy came up to me and was like, “Look, I gotta be honest, I’m really into everyone’s older bands and I’m kind of nervous about watching you guys play. I was like, “No pressure, dude!” So, I was like, “I’m gonna do my best. Let me know what you think.” Then he came up after and said that it blew him away and that it was so much more than what he was expecting and I was thinking that with a lot of dudes playing hardcore…there’s very low expectations. There is. I have one. If I know some guys getting back together, I have very low expectations.

What was the confusion exactly from which you changed from Regions to Regents?

So, David and I could not figure out a band name when we were doing that keyboard/Led Zeppelin thing. As a joke, I was naming the band Godzeera and then we just ended up going with Regions. And then Drew was just misunderstanding us for months. He thought we were saying Regents. Then when we went to spell it, he said, “Whoa, Regions? That’s a bank!” We were like, “What?” He said, “Yeah. That’s a bank! I thought you guys were saying Regents!” We’re like, “We’re not called Regents!” Back and forth and then we were like, “Fine…Regents.” It was just a complete misunderstanding. It was pretty funny. And then we kind of had to get used to it. Then, Dan got one of his friends to do the logo and I was super into it.

Regents is the first band I’ve been in in eleven years that has not been with any former band members. Decahedron was essentially Frodus with the guy from Fugazi. You can’t call that Frodus. I played in Combat Una Veteran but I joined that band. Regents is the fist new band since high school with new people. It’s pretty awesome. Did we even go over who is playing on this record?

No. Who is playing on this record?

I’m pretty psyched about this. So, J. Robbins is recording the record. The way that we’re approaching the new record is that we’ve already recorded four songs with just the guitarist and I. Just David and I. It was basically just get scratch tracks down and then do the drums and they can do everything else later. Then it’s like, “Okay, Dan quit. Now who’s going to play bass on the record?” It wasn’t like Dan got pissed off and then just left. His last show is Sunday. The 7″ release is Dan’s last show. I asked J. Robbins if he wanted to play bass and he’s like, “Ah, I don’t have time. I’ve got all kinds of other stuff going on.” Then I asked a million different people and timing was off for all these people. Then when we went to the studio, he was like, “I can put bass lines on this.” So, J. Robbins is playing bass. I mean, it’s amazing! His bass lines are really, really incredible. So, we’re not writing the record with J. We’re writing the record, he’s listening to it and putting his bass lines over it. So, instead of having this be the definitive Regents full length, I’m viewing it as kind of a bridge to phase two. But a well-constructed bridge. For the shows in October, we don’t have a bass player for those. Do you know the band Thursday?

Yeah.

The bass player from there lives around the corner from here when he’s not on tour. His mom lives around the corner. In October, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna fill in on bass and then we’ll figure out someone to be a permanent member in the fall. So, we’re just kind of piecemealing it until we have it figured out. It’s kind of cool, though. Everything’s kind of working. So, now that we’re not doing the record as a unit. We’ve decided to start having friends on the record. So, you know the band Refused? I think the singer from Refused is going to sing on one of the songs. I think Chris Thomson, the singer from Circus Lupus is going to sing on one of the songs. Not whole songs, but to kind of bolster up some parts and stuff like that. We started to approach it as if we’re not going to do this as a unit, let’s just make this fun and let’s get some other people who will think this is fun. So, Chris and Dennis have not sung their parts. They say that they’ll do it. It’ll be fun. I’m pretty psyched. And once we have the full length we don’t need to have another record for like, two years. So, that’s the idea, to buy us some time and then I can try to set up fun stuff like in remote parts of wherever.