The rules are simple...there's a hat, this hat is filled with many questions ranging from the personal to the off beat. We pass the hat, and artists gets a chance to answer the question they choose from said hat. Fun is had by all.
Taking the Spotify world by storm, joan crept into existence from Little Rock, Arkansas releasing one great pop bop after the other. We caught the joan boys before his show in Philly for the latest Chat in a Hat.
Without further ado, here's our Chat in the Hat with Steven and Alan of joan:
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Chat in a Hat: joan
Alan Thomas + Steven Rutherford
What’s the stupidest thing you did in your teens to look cool?
Alan: When I was growing up, having big baggy pants was popular, like JNCOs. They would be so big they would hit the ground and get scratched up under your shoe, but I don’t think I had true JNCOs, I think I had the off brand so they weren’t as long and baggy so I would cut with scissors to make them look ratty.
Steven: This would be very young teens for me, but I bought these tattoo sleeves that would could put on and you could wear with short sleeves so it looked like you had a tattoo and you’d have to put a wristband over it. I wore those all the time.
Outside of music do you have any hobbies?
Alan: I’ve built a lot of my furniture. I never knew how to build things growing up and I just figured it out from YouTube. Mine and my wife’s bed, our dining room table, our coffee table. So that’s a hobby, woodworking.
Steven: I do design stuff so I guess that’s my hobby, but I also get paid for it so it’s not really a hobby.
What is your zombie apocalypse plan?
Steven: Mine would be to die. I did watch an interview with Post Malone and Joji. They were saying you should keep a seed bag with you. You’re supposed to collect seeds of the important plants so you can plant what you need.
What is your guilty pleasure song?
Alan: I don’t know if it’s a guilty pleasure cause it’s such a good song, but “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry
Steven: Growing up in the church you got your fair share of weird comedy Christian music. There’s a guy named Ray Stevens. He has this song called “When The Squirrel Went Berserk”.
The apocalypse is tomorrow, what’s the last thing you would do?
Alan: I don’t mean to sound too sentimental, but I would send every last waking second of it with Lola, my wife.
Steven: ok, but what would you guys do together?
Alan: I’d probably recreate our first date, which was driving out to this remote place in Menifee, Arkansas and parked down by a lake. It would be special, and then we’d die.
Steven: I would also go to Ruth Chris and get a steak, and bring my wife.
What’s your best party trick?
Alan: I can make a chicken out of a napkin. I learned it from this show that used to be on PBS called Zoom. You can take a square napkin and fold it in a certain way to make a chicken.
Steven: I can’t think of a single one.
Alan: I guess that makes me the talented on.
If you could have any super power what would you want?
Alan: I think hands down it would be invisibility for me, I’ve always been fascinated by it. Just being able to zip out whenever you want.
Steven: You know what else would be cool..
Alan: Flying?
Steven: Flying’s always been cool, but I’ve always wanted to read people’s minds. If you think about it, if you can read everyone’s mind you’d never have to talk to anyone ever again.
If you could be a character in any action movie what character would you be?
Steven: I really loved Daredevil, but that would mean I’d be blind so I take that back. I would want to be Spiderman
Alan: I feel like Superman is a good option, he’s strong, he can fly.
What is your recording and writing process like?
Alan: It generally starts with one of three things. Some kind of theme, melodic idea like a voice memo or a melody, or a track of some sort like a four bar loop. We write every single day. Not so much on the road, it’s tough when you’re a support act driving your own van and everything. But when we get home it’s a Monday through Friday thing, we’re usually at my house by 9 or 10 and then we go until the girls are off work. Recording we take it as far as we can and feels good on our end. We usually have someone help on our end to polish it and add some production and mixing.
Steven: We usually write and record at the same time. While we’re writing we try to do as much as we can get done.
Alan: The minute there’s a melody and a lyric it’s getting recorded just so we have it and a lot of times that ends up making it.
What is your favorite city you’ve toured to?
Alan: There are definitely different cities that you might enjoy more. Like Atlanta on this tour was nuts, and I like Atlanta, but it’s not on the top of head. West Coast and New York are always cool. Little Rock isn’t a booming metropolis.
Steven: First time in Boston last night was really cool. I’ve never seen Boston before.
Give your bandmates a review like you would on Yelp:
Alan: 5 out of 5 - Funny, good dancer, great drummer. Spicy. A little too spicy.
Steven: 7 out of 5 - The atmosphere is great. The food is usually decent, but the company is better than I could ever imagine.
What was the first record you ever bought?
Alan: Afroman. He sings “Because I Got High”. I bought it back in Arkansas at a WalMart, back when they had cds there still you could only get the clean versions. I wanted to get it cause I was a bad boy. I put it in the player and I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying because it was edited out. I was just exploring music.
Steven: I think the first one I bought was Aaron Carter
What is the coolest venue you’ve ever played?
Steven: This is actually a really cool venue [The Fillmore / Foundry in Philadelphia]
Alan: I was going to say this one or the Cowboys one in Texas. It was right next to the Cowboy’s stadium in Dallas.
Steven: You could see the stadium from the stage
What’s your favorite scary movie?
Steven: The Strangers
Alan: The Ring freaked me out when I was younger
What are you listening to right now?
Steven: “Parked Down By The Lake”
Alan: Julia Michael’s new album, and the song “Deep”. It’s a great pop song.
