Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Hits Like a Girl gives it all just to be liked by listeners
By Russ Corey
Staff Writer
FLORENCE -- It's not exactly the money that drives Hits Like a Girl to play as many shows as they can while juggling jobs and college.
What the band really wants, guitarist John West says, is for people to like their music.
Why else would the four young musicians sleep outside a mall in the band's Aerostar van the night before a show
Why would they agonize about the intro to a song again and again just to get it right before a-performance.
"We give it 110 percent," said the slender 19-year-old, nicknamed "The Kid."
Like many bands, Hits Like a Girl has gone through changes since it was formed in late 2003.
Singer and lead guitarist Michael Hauser is actually the only original member.
"The style changed a lot," West said. "It used to be more pop-punk."
Bassist Jacob Greene said they were going to change the name, but were encouraged to keep it.
After all, they already had T-shirts made and the 21-year-old Green spray-painted "HLAG" on his guitar case.
Unpacking from a recent mini-tour, the band shared its thoughts about success.
"Success is like being happy with ourselves," Hauser said, a 24-year-old film major at the University of North Alabama.
It's also about being happy with what they're doing as a band and if the people that come to see them enjoy their experience.
Athens resident Greene is studying business at UNA, while 20-year-old drummer Ryan Stidham, of Decatur, is studying aerospace manufacturing at Calhoun Community College.
West is taking a break from school and is working at Papa John's Pizza.
He jokes that if the band doesn't make it in seven years, he's going to become a trucker.
Hits Like a Girl got started in 2002 during Hauser's freshman year at UNA. But the other band members "got girlfriends," and they went their separate ways.
He then hooked up with Stidham, who he had been in bands with when they were younger.
Green and West also were at UNA at the time.
"We were all in the same area at the same time," Hauser said.
They left the pop-punk days behind and worked on a more progressive rock sound that's punctuated by Hauser and West's guitars.
West said each of the members contribute a different sound to the band, like Green's bluesy base lines and Stidham's jazz influenced drums.
"Before we were going for a style," Hauser said. "You do what's popular. When you get older you see what you want to do."
Stidham said he is excited about the band's sound.
"I like what we're doing now," he said.
The band has released a single of "Standing George," a song's whose title is inspired by another band's bassist who had a habit of "standing and pacing around."
The single is packaged with a bonus disc that contains a music video of "Standing George" that Hauser directed as a class project.
According to the band's Web site, the band also recorded a three-song ep "Live to Regret This" with engineer/producer Chris Mara in Nashville, Tenn.
The band enjoys support at out-of-town venues and is hopeful that the local music scene will continue to grow.
One might wonder where the band came up with the name Hits Like a Girl and all Hauser will reveal is that is has something to do with a former girlfriend hitting him in the face.
Only she didn't hit like a girl.
"She hit like a guy," Hauser said.
COREY/TimesDaily
WANT TO LISTEN?
# Hits Like a Girl will be performing Jan. 13 and 27 at The Smokehouse in Florence and Jan. 14 in Corinth, Miss., with On My Honor.
# Visit the Web sites:
myspace.com/hitslikeagirl
hitslikeagirl.net - Times Daily
Discography
Live to Regret This EP (2004)
streming radio: www.bhambuzz.com
Played on WBUZ 102.9 The Buzz, Nashville TN
and WMSR - STAR 94.9 in Florence, AL
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Hits Like a Girl (consisting of Michael Hauser on guitar and vocals, Ryan Stidham playing drums, John West on guitar and Jacob Greene on Bass) began playing together in late 2003. They spent their first few months together writing their music and playing high energy shows while acquiring an ever growing fan base in their adopted hometown Florence, Alabama. On Halloween night, 2004, the four cut the “Live to Regret This” EP with engineer/producer Chris Mara in Nashville, TN. The three track CD includes the hard hitting song “Clueless”, “Dunn” (which was featured on Nashville’s 102.9 FM the Buzz), and the stimulating, “September”. This recording has giving them the boost they need to become one of the most demanded and entertaining rock acts in the southeast.
"When I think of Hits Like a Girl, these words come to mind: Four Hard Working Guys. The key ingredient to every successful rock band is hard work and these guys have it in spades. They are on the fast track to becoming a well known band due to the right combination of youthful enthusiasm coupled with professionalism and a hint of reckless abandon that will prove to be a great show time after time." -Chris Mara, Nashville rock producer
Links
