Me: Alright, let's talk about your projects. You have, what, Leeds Point Records and a band?

Scott: I do Leeds Point Records with a friend of mine from home, South Jersey right outside of Philly, and I'm in a band now. We're called I Control the Dinosaurs; we're all from DC. We recorded a record last spring, and we (Leeds Point) put it out over the summer. We all were in different places over the summer because each of us goes to school here (DC), but we got back together in the fall. We played a couple of shows. We played at Black Eyes, and a show with our friend's band Bazhena. We're just trying to get our stuff together. Just got the CD distributed by Dischord, so they're going to help us out and sell a few, hopefully.

Those are the two things that I'm doing the most right now. It's good because I can kind of coordinate the two. The band is directly tied to the label because we put the band out through the label, and plug the band through the label; have the label be helped out by whatever success we have here.

Me: I would say being added to Dischord is a success. How did that happen?

Scott: A friend of mine introduced me to the folks at Dischord. His band had a record out with them. So, he introduced me to them. They do distribution for people from DC. They're really interested in what's going on around here. They're fairly open-minded about things. Whatever they can do for us is obviously going to help us out. So, that's good.

Me: So, why'd you form your label?

Scott: It was weird because I had the idea of it while I was living here. I had been living in DC already for two years. I had it mind to do something that was based out of South Jersey. The reason, I guess, is because there was kind of a slow spot in where my friends and I had all grown up in South Jersey inheriting the punk and hardcore from the people that were a couple of years older than us. So, we played in a bunch of bands and stuff, but it was kind of upsetting because none of our bands really did anything. Nobody put out records , I mean obviously we're all kids and nobody could afford to, and whatever else. But, at the same time, there were a bunch of good shows and a bunch of good venues. Every VFW in every town was open and willing to do shows. It was a good opportunity for kids that couldn't go into Philly.

Me: So, you start up a label to help out South Jersey bands.

Scott: Right, right. We wanted to help out and kind of revive things. There was one point in time were all the venues were closed because nobody wanted to do anything. It was very stagnant. So we wanted to just brew some life into it. A lot of our friends were in bands, why don't we try to help them out and try and put out some of their records? If we could put out records by these bands, maybe it would be an encouragement and signify that things were actually going on. Sometimes, sadly enough, you have to have some sort of material good to show for your accomplishments as a band. A terrible thing, not really true in itself, but that's kind of how people measure it sometimes.

Me: Well, I don't think you need the material side in order for the band to be significant. It's more of a way to preserve what went on.

Scott: That's certainly true. That's what's most important for us. When I said signify I meant something as a representative. If you're in a band and you have a record it doesn't necessarily validate you as a band. But, other times, it makes you more accessible. You can get into more places. Back in the day, no bands every played outside of anywhere. And I think one might be able to contribute some of that to the fact that nobody had anything to show for it. If somebody's like, "Hey, can I hear your band?" You have to be like, "Well…no…" In that way, it doesn't validate your band, but it gives you a sot of advantage in making yourself known.

Me: Yeah, that makes sense. So, why are you a vegan? What made you decide to do this?

Scott: Moral reasons, really. I've been vegetarian for a long time. I became vegan my senior year of high school. It was always something that was important to me. When I was young, I could never stand meat. It was really gross to me. When I was a baby I had to drink soy milk because my parents thought I was allergic to milk, but it turns out I just really hated it. I think it was something I always linked between the taste and the idea. When I was really young I used to try and hide meat. Then I got older and everything just kind of clicked, and I thought, "Oh, this is what I should be doing." I've always felt that way.

Me: Wasn't it a hard transition?

Scott: As far as vegetarianism goes, it wasn't hard at all. When I was growing up, it was getting pretty well known that this was a way of life. A lot of people are doing this. It's actually very legitimate, and very intelligent. Becoming a vegan was kind of weird. I tried it for a week and it didn't really take. The first day I tried being a vegan I woke up and was like, "Man, I really want waffles. Like, I REALLY want waffles." So, I ate them. But, after a while, it just became completely natural. It's completely second nature to me.

Me: So, tell me about your band. I really don't know anything about it, at all.

Scott: Okay. Well, we're mostly instrumental. So far we're all instrumental. I don't know if we've decided to do vocals or anything, but right now it's just instruments. We play guitar, basses, drums… we have a drum set and more traditional African drums.

Me: Are you serious? How many people are in this band?

Scott: We started with two, my friend Dan and I. We started playing music in his bedroom. We just kind of wrote some songs quickly, and we ended up recording them.

Me: Did you use a four track or something?

Scott: We started on a four track, and they were terrible. Terrible. The quality was just unbelievably poor. But, he's a computer science guy. He knows a lot about sound recording. So, he started recording us. We'd just play a bunch and record instead of really practicing, trying to write songs. We'd write one thing and be like, "Oh, ok. Let's record that. That sounds pretty cool." And then we'd try and do another thing. After awhile we just had these awesome songs which were kind of collages. It was just the two of us, then we added a third person who played drums. We got offered a show at the University of Maryland radio station two weeks after we started playing together. It was really short notice, but we wanted to try and legitimate ourselves. So we did and it actually worked out really well. The drummer had never played with us before, so he just improvised the whole thing. That's actually what we did. We pretended like we were going to practice, but we really didn't. They recorded the whole set. We took two songs from it and ended up putting them on our record. The quality was great. They have amazing recording. So that all came together. So we had two songs, and we recorded two more. We put out an EP. Since then, we have about six members. People come in and out, kind of, and just play with us. But, um, usually when we try and get together we have about six. So we that, and also we have synthesizers. In addition to the drums, we have a drum machine that does play drums. We use it to create background noises, and see what kinds of weird things we can incorporate into it. I can't really think of another single band where I can be like, "Oh, we sound like these guys." Some of our influences, we really like Gaster del Sol. We have an emphasis on acoustics. We want it to be organic. I'm learning to play violin, so I want to learn what other sounds I can play, other than notes, on the violin to see if I can make it sound pretty awesome. So we'll see what happens with that.

In Control: An Interview with Scott Hammer
Interview: Kat Boyle
Copyright 2003 Sound the Sirens Magazine

Leeds Point Records: http://www.leedspointrecords.com/
I Control the Dinosaurs: http://www.leedspointrecords.com/dinosaurs/ 
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