SPIll Your Guts: A Ska Punk International Fest interview with Hans Gruber and the Die-Hards

Ska Punk International‘s SPI Fest will return for another weekend of ska and ska-punk in 2024. This year’s event taking place on 17 May and 18 May, has relocated to a new, all-ages venue known as 25 Central Street in Windsor, CT. Tickets can be purchased here. The annual festival will feature Catbite, Mutiny, Stop The Presses, PWRUP, Call Me Malcolm and our SPIll Your Guts interview guest Hans Gruber and the Die-Hards. Check out out what the band has to yippee-kay-say below.

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! You are gearing up for SPI Fest in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to individual artists like yourselves?

Chris: Ya know, I don’t know if we could have really answered that before last year. While we had done a fest fest (including a few years at few) we hadn’t really had a fest circuit feel till recently – and it’s awesome, but it’s a lot of driving. Like a lot. And sometimes if you’re fortunate enough to be offered multiple you might unfortunately have to miss a few – which as music lovers hurts just as much! We get so much FOMO in this band. 

I won’t call it a ska revival because ska is something that’s never gone away, but there is a massive rejuvenation of the scene with Dissidente, Catbite and Hans Gruber and the Die Hards.  What is going on out there that has gotten so many people back on their boards to ride this latest wave of ska?

Chris: I mean, there’s just a lot of great poeple making great music right now, across all unground genres of music. Look at hardcore right now, just killing it. I know there’s so much more to this to delve into – but I’m sure a convergence of the state of the world over the last few years, including the politics, the treatment of underrepresented groups and women, the overall vibe of hate we sometimes feel from others, the decline of discourse, covid and the issues of isolation, and so on and so on – this creates music, this creates music with intent. That intent can be to add to the conversation, that intent can be an allegory, the intent can be a moment of fun distraction. That intention of connecting with people via music, especially live music, I think that’s where some were able to find those especially in ska, who tend to be a very inclusive community, to connect with and all the sudden we’re seeing new fans, and new fans also means more influence on another generation of musicians – and now because of Catbite and Dissidente people will have to listen to ska for another generation or two. When does it stop!!!!

What does HG&TDH have planned for us beyond SPI Fest?

Rosey: Finishing out our “NO GENRES NO PANTS” tour with our buddies in protest punk metal for weirdos from Austin Bondbreakr! Also hopefully some new releases on the horizon, recording this summer, and 2 tours this fall. Keep your eyes peeled! 

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

Kurt: Being able to look back and see some of these wild shows that have happened (Supernova, Manchester Punk Fest, Pouzza, The Fest) has been an amazing experience that is simply unforgettable. That said, one of the weirdest, unexpected shows we played was the Punk Rock Saves Lives “Punk Rock Hoedown.” We had been selling “Grube Tops” (tube tops with our logo) for awhile and we wind up at this biker club that can only be described as Coyote Ugly vibes but the all female bartenders hurl insults at you (particularly if you are a macho dude) & dance on the bar (of course) all throughout the night. Well before the night began, the owner of the club came and and saw we had tube tops. She told us “hold on a sec, lemme see how many of my girls want one” she comes back and buys 20 total, one for every bartender. The rest of the evening every bartender is dancing on the bartops, shaking their chests, with our logo bouncing around, and of course at the end of “Eternal Beach Ball,” Rosey, Danger, Mike and I are also on the bar playing and dancing with them. From time to time we get tagged in posts from friends who visit that bar and see a staff member still wearing our Grube Top! Pretty wild free advertising if you ask me.

Speaking of live shows, what are you most excited to bring to the SPI Fest audience? What do you want those in attendance to take away from your set?

Rosey: Honestly we are excited for our SPI Fam to join us in the chaos of our outro/last song “Eternal Beach Ball.” So I think it’s more that we are excited for what the audience is going to bring us 😀

We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

Kurt: There are definitely shows we’ve kicked ourselves for not taking, as well as interpersonal band decisions that should have happened differently. But one of my biggest regrets was not putting my foot down with certain recording decisions on our second album. Particularly there were a handful of songs we let our old singer take the lead on that should have gone to Rosey, our former guitar player, or me.

Hans Gruber and the Die Hards are from Austin, TX. It’s such an interesting, diverse and generally overlooked place that has bred so much amazing music.  Why do you think the area churns out so many brilliant musicians and songwriters?  How does the area feed into the music you are writing, if at all?

Rosey: I think because there is SO MUCH music and SO MANY bands and musicians, it’s like iron sharpening iron. We get to see such talented people all the time and it pushes us to be better as musicians and performers. When we come back to Austin from touring (especially in our first year’s of touring) we’d do a local show and be like holy shit we forgot how good local/ATX bands are! Also, having the opportunity to see multiple genres of music any night of the week definitely helps with inspiration as well as being exposed to different music cultures! So in my opinion it’s more because of the people – other musicians, it’s rich history of and vibrant night life of music that breeds creativity rather than the place itself. Although, I must acknowledge that place informs people, right, so you are correct. The place and the people connected to the place informs that there is Tejano, punk, cumbia, psychedelic, country, norteño, metal, ska, reggae – a whole myriad of rich cultural genres all in one city (like every night of the week too)…so you are right after all! Haha.

The ska scene gets a lot of flack from every genre of music (including ska itself) but is also almost always at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. What is it about the scene that attracts such a welcoming fanbase?  What is it about ska that leaves itself so vulnerable to mockery in the music world?

Kurt: Hahahaha to be honest the mockery really is only present in the USA. Outside of here it’s just another genre (often wildly popular). But this is a question for another time (or novelette).

We are living in a “just deal with COVID” world and everything about this timeline is some level of completely fucked, and the upcoming election sure as shit isn’t cooling any temperatures.  What impact, if any, does the current cultural and political landscape have on the band and the scene in general?

Rosey: In some ways, I think people’s responses to a pandemic have separated the wheat from the chaff so to speak (this happened in our band). But, I feel we have a tighter & more inclusive following because we all bonded over people not taking COVID seriously (this goes for us as a band and I think also ska as a genre in the US). In certain cities though, where we had a big following before, we are having to completely rebuild our fan base because many people in those areas ended up being upset at us for some of the decisions we made during that time (firing 2 members who refused the COVID 19 vaccine).

Which one of your songs is John McClane humming along to in the air vents of Nakatomi Plaza? Relatedly, how sick are you of shitty and unoriginal interviewers like me asking you about Bruce Willis Christmas films?

Chris: Traditionally I get tossed all Die Hard questions because I am quite a fanatic about the movie, books, comics, and history, etc – so I want my mates to answer as well. Cause we haven’t been asked this one before. My answer is “Drive Everywhere,” because I hear the same tone McClane has with the line “come to the party they said, have a good time” and hear “let’s drive everywhere they said, let’s destroy the environment” in that same sarcastic voice, but ya know – a hum. And to follow the second, only when it’s the same question does it get meh – but we’re not gonna not answer something, but we’re also not going to always  be honest either……….

There’s a karaoke machine at the SPI afterparty, what song are you playing? 

Rosey: OMG such a hard question. Probably “King Kong” by PWRUP or “Chaos Magick” by Mega Infinity.

SPI Fest is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?

Chris: We’re going to be there for both days of the fest because we could never really answer this question without saying all of them. But Mutiny, cause we haven’t seen em yet. 
Rosey: flip side band I’m most excited for OTHER people to see is Böndbreakr who we are touring with!