“The problem occurs when you’re just spewing out meaningless generalities just to “fit the mould.” You’re seeing that a lot more over the past years with the upsurgance of the ‘emo’ genre. Little sixteen-year-olds boo-hooing about getting dumped with the same lyrical impact of a Dr. Seuss book.”

With their third full-length album coming along nicely, things are about to kick off all over again for ‘Shooting Blanks’. So we chat to vocalist/guitarist Matt Hoffman to find out the latest… 

First up – the basics. The stuff that is asked in every single interview and the reason that most bands get tired of doing interviews altogether or some just make up answers to amuse themselves. At the end of the interview Matt was left surprised when he found out that we weren’t asking the same old questions, telling us we’d really done our “Shooting Blanks homework.”
   Well we tried, but we don’t really see the point of asking the same old questions over and over again because not only does that irritate the band, but it irritates the fans too. Especially seeing as most of the people who are reading the interview know all the basic stuff and if they don’t it’s easily accessible (such as the artist’s official website). But for all the ‘lazies’ out there, instead of asking the band themselves we’ve summed up the important facts about Shooting Blanks...

   Formed in 2001, even if the band finished tomorrow (though we hope they won’t) they’ve had a pretty amazing run. With an EP, a DVD, two studio albums and a third on its way, as well as big tours which included opening for Taking Back Sunday and Bayside as well as other well-known bands and TV appearances. It’s not all bad when you find out that this lot are a ‘DIY’ band and any success they’ve had, they’ve earned it themselves.

  Also known as ‘Drunk Punk’, the pop punk band consist of Hoffman on vocals and guitar, Brey on guitar, Deech on bass and vocals and Scott on drums. Today, we talk to vocalist/guitarist Matt Hoffman who shares with us the highlights within the band, Britney Spears, Green Day selling out and emo teenagers. Before we start the interview, Matt tells us that this interview is solely based on his opinions and isn’t representing the feelings of the other band members.

GARBAGE RECORDS: So you've done a number of videos to your songs, is there one in particular that you had the most fun filming, or one that you thought was so much better when complete than the rest?
MATT HOFFMAN (VOCALS/GUITAR): I'd say the most fun one to film would be our video for our Motley Crue cover of "Home Sweet Home", just ‘cause it was all footage shot on tour, and tour is complete madness from beginning to end. Other than that, our video for "Louder!" was extremely fun to film because the kids in it were great.  Also, getting all bloodied-up on the "She Loves Me Cuz I Rock" video was a blast.  On our DVD, there are some extras where you can see behind-the-scenes footage of those shoots.  Some funny stuff! I think all of us are pretty jazzed about how the "It's So Easy" video turned out.  It's the first video off our new album, so that's exciting - plus, all the "old guys" in the video are each of our actual fathers, so that was fun to shoot with them and to get our families involved.  Other than that, my personal favourite videos would either be "Ignore Me" (which was our first, but - in my opinion - shot the best), or "One Last Thing" (which is simple, but - again – shot very well).  Our bassist Deech is a big fan of the "Louder!" video.  Scotty likes our newest one for "It's So Easy", mostly because it's the only one he's actually in!  I'm not sure which one Brey likes the best.  He's kind of the "mastermind" behind all of them (doing most of the shooting and all of the editing), so he's probably got a certain affection for each of them.

Before Shooting Blanks started you used to be in a covers band, what covers did you play in that band? Were the covers the same style of music as Shooting Blanks?
Out of the current Shooting Blanks band members, only Brey and myself were in that cover and our 2^nd drummer, Mike, was also in the cover band.  The name of the band was ‘Mister Sparkle’, and it was basically a "party rock" band - spanning the generations of classic songs from the 70's through the new millennium and things that were popular at the time (anything from Kiss to Weezer  to Blink 182 to Twisted Sister). Generally, popular music that drunk people in bars could all sing along and dance to. We actually got a LOT of stage experience, and that's where I got all of my booking experience/contacts as well, so it was definitely a beneficial few years.  We got to play some great venues like the House Of Blues and the Vic Theater, and we also got to get kicked out of a lot of great venues like the House Of Blues and the Vic Theater.  Ahhhhh, yes - good times!

Did Green Day sell out with the 'American Idiot' album?
There's two ways to look at this.  One is the opinion that "selling out" is gaining huge mainstream popularity and cashing in majorly on it.  If you're looking at it that way, then Green Day sold out with "Dookie". The other way to look at "selling out" is that a band compromises their artistry for the almighty dollar. If that is what you're asking, then I still think Green Day has yet to sell out. Either way, sell-outs or not, we're all huge Green Day fans.  If you've ever seen them live (from over a decade ago through to today) you can tell that they love what they're doing and that they're having fun doing it.  That's the way a band should approach their profession.  I'll admit I was a little "jostled" when Billie Joe started sporting eyeliner and neckties, but I think (more so than many bands these days) they've definitely kept to their roots and continue to march to the beat of their own drum.

You're a DIY band, yet you've had some pretty amazing things happen to the band including studio albums, videos and TV appearances. If you had to pick one highlight of anything you've done in the band what would it be?
This is a really tough question.  Again I am speaking for the entire band here, so I may be wrong, but I think I can pretty safely say that we'd all agree that the most fun we've had is on tour.  Every year that we tour, it just gets more and more insane.  We're planning another one for this spring, and I know that we're all very antsy to get back out on the road and promote this new album. One particular instance that we all found pretty cool happened just recently.  I always find it such an honour to play shows with bands that we are also fans of, and we've been fortunate enough to have been in that situation more times that I ever thought we would!  A few weeks back we got to play a set after Local H, who we've loved since high school.  During our last song, Scott Lucas (the singer of Local H) came up onstage and sang with us.  Kinda surreal.

Is there any song you've recorded that you now hate and never want to listen to again?
We all have our songs that we don't like, I think. Except Brey - he's our biggest fan and loves everything. I, personally, could do without those campy trite songs like "Silly Goose" and "Hypercritical".  A 3-year-old could have written those.  Oddly, however, we get requests for our stupid songs all the time. So, who knows - it's impossible to please everyone all the time!  I think Scotty would have a hard time picking a song that he did want to listen to. Drummers are weird. I think we do a good job of keeping up with our catalogue of songs, though.  We try to maintain playing most of our material, and try to throw in an old/rare song or two into each set.

In the first track of 'Nuclear Family', a section of the lyrics were "I think I'll write about a girl / Since that's what
lots of people write about these days". Why is it you think so many bands write about the opposite sex? Is it because they just have nothing better to write about?
Well, I'll definitely be the first one to admit to being guilty of writing songs about chicks.  I do it all the time.  Hell, that's probably 90% of Shooting Blanks' lyrical content!  So, I can only speak for myself as a songwriter. I just feel that songs should have some sort of lyrical importance.  That's what makes a good song relatable to an audience.  If you go around writing every song about Britney Spears and the movie Top Gun, it kind of lessens the impact and is also easier to write your band off as simply a "novelty act". My songs are generally bitter, but I write about what I know and what I feel.  If you don't like them, fine - but at least they're honest.  And I think that comes off in what I write.  To relate that back to answering your original question, I know that when I'm listening to a song (as opposed to writing one), I definitely appreciate songs that give a little piece of the songwriter to the audience.  Love and hate (particularly in respect to relationship) are such universal emotions that it makes it "natural" for that to be a common topic/theme to write about. The problem occurs when you're just spewing out meaningless generalities just to "fit the mould". You're seeing that a lot more over the past years with the upsurgance of the "emo" genre.  Little 16-year-olds boo-hooing about getting dumped with the same lyrical impact and sincerity of a Dr. Seuss book.  I think if you mean what you're writing, then it will show … Did that answer your question, or did I just go on a rant?  My attention span sucks.

Do you still like Britney Spears?
Haha - no, my crush ended when she started going crazy (as girls so often do) circa 2003.  I then moved onto Avril Lavigne (who I wrote another song about, but it got scrapped).  But I became bitter with her too, after she married Deryk Whibley of Sum 41.  He's a short ugly guitarist in a poppy punk band, just like me - I felt I should've had my shot.  Maybe it's because I'm not Canadian enough... alas, there are currently no celebrity crushes for Matt Hoffman.  Stay tuned, though.

Is there a particular Shooting Blanks song that you're especially proud of writing more than any other?
Anytime someone comes up to me and says "I really like [insert shooting blanks song here]", then that makes me proud to have written it.  It's a cool feeling to know that someone takes an active interest in something that you've put your time and energy into. It’s like we've somehow etched a tiny little place in someone else's world.  Weird.

How is your new full-length coming and what can we expect from it?
The full-length is finally coming along!  This thing is wayyy overdue.  We anticipated having it out in August and touring....well....now-ish, but obviously there were some major delays. We currently have all the songs written and a couple recorded.  Our last day in the studio is October 17th, so it'll be fully tracked by then.  The CD release show is looking to be November 24th, so this thing is definitely finally happening! We're recording 16 songs, and we know we're not putting all of them on the album, but we're not sure just yet which ones will make the cut or how many we're using.  We just met today to discuss concepts for the album and the artwork.  We're recording in the same studio that we did "The Sticky Album" in, but it just recently had a major upgrade worth almost $100,000, so this album will turn out really amazing. As far as how it sounds, I think we've gotten the prefect mix of "Wasted Time" with "The Sticky Album". "Wasted Time" tends to be our more fun/poppy release, but the songs are relatively simple.  "The Sticky Album" has a bit more song writing depth and musical intricacies to it, but it certainly lacks the playfulness of "Wasted Time". With this new album, we've really written some great songs with excellent melodies and catchy hooks, but we've also kept that Shooting Blanks attitude of snotty raucous fun that I think characterizes our band.  We're all really looking forward to its release.

What's one question you've always wanted to be asked and never been asked?
"Hello, Shooting Blanks - this is [some bigwig] from [some big label].  How would you like a multi-million dollar recording deal where you can tour around the country, drink for free, and have an endless supply of women?"

Pretend we just asked you that question. What’s your answer?
Where do I sign?

Shooting Blanks play at The Rave in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with Less Than Jake on October 12.^th 2006.