I had the pleasure of doing a thoroughly insightful Q&A session with Wesley Hoskins, the drummer of Miami rock band No Traffik, which you can read below.
TT: What genre would you classify No Traffik?
NT: The easiest answer to the hardest question is that No Traffik is a heavy rock band. The early incarnation of the band had more of a straight forward alternative rock sound, which you can hear on our demo "All Lanes Open". But after that release and several lineup changes we scrapped those traditions and started to put more of our identities into the music. We have a particular sound in our heads that we're chasing together as a band and I feel like with each release we get closer and closer to it. We spent a lot of time crafting the new songs for our new record "A.W.I.T.W." which has a longer title but I can't say just yet. But the sound of the record has traces of hardcore punk, metal as well as progressive and experimental sounds mixed with the alternative music we grew up listening to of course.
TT: How did the band form?
NT: The band originally formed about 5 years ago with almost completely different members. They all had different ambitions and our singer Chris was sort of left as the last man standing. Our guitarist Ryan Mcleod was first recruited to play drums but he eventually transitioned over to guitar with myself and Nick Avila joining on drums and bass. The current line up has been together three of those first five years.
TT: What is your recording process like?
NT: Each time we record it's always a different scenario. We've recorded in typical professional studios and not so typical studios, like bedrooms, and the middle of a friend's living room. We just finished our latest project with Dave Humble at his studio Eternal Studios here in Miami and it was the most exhaustive yet positive experience thus far. We learned a lot about preparation beforehand and having discipline in the studio. It took us months tracking our first full length, I think partly because we wrote songs that were too hard for us to play and pull off on record at the time. When it comes to the work it's pretty normal. We track drums first, then guitars, bass, and vocals, then we record effects and extra percussion last since it tends to take less time to record. This time around we didn't use a producer so we all kind of had to take charge in policing each other and approving takes. In the end it made us appreciate each other's opinions and perspectives. Listening back to what you've recorded is always trippy because it's like taking a really hard look at yourself in the mirror and all you notice are the flaws.
TT: What bands or artists are your biggest influences?
NT: The artists that sort of inspired us to pick up instruments and try to do something with it I think were bands like Deftones, Incubus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pantera and the Seattle grunge stuff was all equally important for all of us. Once we got the band growing as a family together we gravitated to other bands and expanded our taste. Bands like Tool, Neurosis, Black Flag, Radiohead, Meshuggah, Mastodon, Animals as Leaders, WAVVES and Dredg helped us to think about our instruments in a different way and listeners will be able to hear that on our new record. Besides that we like other genres besides loud obnoxious rock music. For instance we listen to loud obnoxious surf music, old school hip hop, dark ambient trap music, extreme death metal and grindcore, and aggressive electronic music as well.
TT: Are you part of a label? If not, what are the pros and cons of being independent?
NT: We operate completely independent of any labels. Some of the benefits to that are being able to work undisturbed without any outside influence and business tends to be way easier to discuss between the four of us. It gives us the ability to dictate our art in whatever direction we want to take it. However, not being on a label means we have no other financial support so it does take longer to release our projects. Also we miss out on opportunities to tour with more established artists or festival slots which labels can help you with that exposure. We've had to learn a lot of things through trial and error because we had no A&R guy or management to help advise us. But it's all good we love being indie and in charge of our own destiny but we're not against record labels either. We've seen bands who have managed to sign record deals and maintain their integrity.
TT: Have you toured at all?
NT: We've done out of town shows and weekend warrior trips. That sort of thing where you get out of work and school early and drive hours to play the show and you're back for work and school the next day. Which sounds exhausting but shows like that tend to be more fun than you would expect. Then you go back to work full of adrenaline, feeling like these people don't even know what I just got into last night. But we are gearing up to support the new album with a full tour of the states starting with the east coast.
TT: What are your goals going forward?
NT: Our goals are to make this band more of a full time outlet. We want to put these songs out that we've slaved over and play it for different kinds of people from all kinds of subcultures. We have a few projects in mind that involve other artists planned after we release our next record that I cant give away just yet. But expect a new album from us this year with visual art to go along with it and we'll be hitting the road to play some loud rock & roll.
To keep up with No Traffik, check out their website:
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