Photo by Taylor Boylsten

Fresh off the heels of their debut LP Potential Moximizer, Hit Bargain are bringing their unique style to O’Brien’s Pub on Tuesday 6/19 with support from Edge Petal Burn, Leopard Print Taser and Sister. With a loud, ferocious sound coming out of Los Angeles’ noise punk scene, Hit Bargain blend audience engaging theatricality into their live shows, making for an often unexpected experience. Coming from vocalist Nora Singh’s background in performance art, some of the group’s most notable shows have seen her in positions often unseen at rock shows. Recently, she performed an entire set standing on a trampling fetishist. We spoke with Mike Barron, the guitarist form Hit Bargain, about what it’s like to play in a group where you never know what’s coming. 

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me! You’re coming to Boston on June 19th to play O’Brien’s. Have you played here before as Hit Bargain?

No, this will be our first time. We’ve all played there in previous bands, and some current bands. Anton [Hochheim], our drummer, still plays with Beach Fossils and tours with them as well. Sean [Robert Monaghan] plays guitar in Cold Beat, and he tours with them.

Are you excited to be back? Any favorite spots in town?

I haven’t been there enough to have any favorites. I have a good friend who lives there, and I’m hoping she can take me to some good spots. We like food recommendations. Most of my experience in Boston is actually in Chelsea, MA. I played in a band when I used to live in New York, and we recorded our record [there]. It’s a little strange over there. I’m excited to actually be in the place where there are things to do and there’s good food to eat.

This kicks off a couple of East Coast dates for you?

Yeah, we’re doing two weeks. We’re starting in Canada, where our label Buzz Records is based, then we’re ending in Canada as well. We’re doing four Canadian dates. We’re doing a loop through the Northeast, all the way to Chicago, then back up to Toronto. We’re flying, then renting a van. Just another piece of the puzzle and a pain in the ass to figure out. We’re flying with guitars, but we’re not bringing amps or drums, so we’re either using backline at the venues or doing a gear-share with bands. Just another thing to figure out.

Are you looking forward to spending that quality van time with each other?

We all get along quite well and we’re all legitimately friends. We don’t just happen to play in a van together. I do think two weeks in a van with anyone is definitely a trying experience, but I like traveling with everyone. It’ll be fun. I think we’re all looking forward to spending a little bit of time outside of L.A.

Speaking of the bands you all have played in before (Beach Fossils, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Cold Beat, and more), some of them have vastly different sounds than Hit Bargain. How did this project come together, and how was that transition adapting to HB’s high energy, noisy style?

I feel like the genre of music that I’ve always come back to is punk music and noisy rock. It’s always been my favorite thing to play, write and listen to. I played in a similar noisy band in New York about 10 years ago with Anton, who is also the drummer of Beach Fossils and ex-drummer of Pains of Being Pure at Heart. So I’ve had a musical relationship with [him] for a number of years. He moved to Los Angeles before I did. I moved out [there] about four years ago. I was going to take a little bit of a break from playing in a band, but that did not last very long.

A friend introduced me to Nora. We all lived in New York at one point or another, but strangely enough, I didn’t know Nora at all [there]. But we met up, and it turned out we were both looking to start a noisy rock band. Our musical visions and what we hoped to accomplish aligned. We recruited Anton, who was pretty excited to play loud music again. We had two bass players before Sean, but he’s been a part of the band awhile now. He really helped write Potential Maximizer. We’ve all played in different genres, and I guess we kind of returned to the thing we liked in our formative years.

You’re known for the high energy, ferocity and theatricality of your live shows, especially from Nora. There’s a video from your debut show back in 2015. It starts, and right off the bat, she’s is wrestling with someone.

It’s great for me because I am as much a performer as I am a spectator on stage. Oftentimes, I don’t really know what to expect from our live shows. I’m as surprised as an audience member sometimes as to what will happen. It’s been a very fun experience to play in this band. At our last show, there was a person laying in a kiddie pool that Nora was dumping soy milk [into]. Someone in the audience was dragging this kiddie pool full of soy milk around and it was just getting everywhere. People were covered in soy milk. It was insane. We try to keep a sense of humor about everything, but at the same time, we like to provide the fullest of entertainment to our spectators.

Then is most of Nora’s onstage activity off-the-cuff? How do you match that energy level as a band?

It’s hard. I feel like I probably don’t match her energy, and I don’t want to take away from the show in that regard. I think some of it is off-the-cuff and some is planned, but I think oftentimes, Nora likes to keep the planned stuff to herself until the day-of-show. Then we’ll find out what the plan is. It’s a good dynamic. I never know what to expect at the live shows, which is great.

After the fact, do you ever ask her, “How did you think of that? Why did you want to do that? How did you get that setup?”

Honestly, no [laughs]. I just kind of let it happen. I like to leave the creative direction in her hands, because she really has a vision for that. It’s pretty inspiring, too, to be a part of something that’s half punk show, half performance art piece.

In addition to the theatrical quality to the performances, there’s a lot of cinematic qualities in the lyrics and videos, too. Can you walk me through what’s happening in the video for “Capitulate?”

The main character is running through different parts of Los Angeles. The song tackles some very serious issues, like consent. It was hard to decide how to tackle that subject without coming across as an after school special. The video ended up being this interpretation of that where the character is kind of in this dream-like situation, where they tackle these identity issues. It kind of leaves some questions up in the air. It shows the struggle between this kind of dream self versus woke self, and I like how that was demonstrated through the video. I think it was handled very nicely. I’m happy with how it came together. Really, we were just trying to keep it ambiguous.

Does this sense of performance comes from being based in L.A.?

I guess partially it comes from our surroundings. But Nora’s been involved in the performance art world for a long time. Her previous band from New York, These Are Powers – their live shows were more than just seeing a band onstage. She had a real big hand in making this more than just being a punk band play onstage. So I attribute that to her, and us wanting to break the mold of being another loud band with guitars.

What is some of the other subject matter you’re trying to tackle?

Throughout this record, there’s songs about consent, gender politics, current politics. The lyrics are all written by Nora. We sit back and let her craft the tone. The lyrical content [deals with] heavy subject. It’s nice to have a voice and to talk about these things. I think it’s important that subject matter but also… not to be a band that’s so negative and upfront about belief.

To me, the way that it’s portrayed through the music and lyrics really comes across when you see a live show. It’s equal parts political and equal parts comedy. It creates an understanding for people that I think is lost when it’s all serious. It’s a nice thing that sticks with people, in my opinion. I like to let Nora take it away, see what she comes up with. I’m always impressed with the way she can phrase certain things about serious subjects.

What’s the order of your songwriting? Do you figure out the subject matter first or come in with music ready?

We all kind of create our parts equally. I’ll usually come in with a part of a song or a thing that I think is a song, and we’ll just completely break it down, each craft a part and by the time we’re done with it, it’s a different, better song. Nora will hear the rough take, then basically write a bunch of lyrics, which will condense down. It starts as kind of a small novel and becomes a poem. It’s a nice way to make things more concise.

This is your first LP? How does it feel putting that work in and now having it released and ready for tour?

We did release an EP in 2016, but this is the first LP. It feels really good for it to be out, because releasing music is so annoying. You have a finished product, and you’re always just sitting on that product for quite some time before it actually comes to light. We recorded this in July of last year, and it was finished in the early fall. It was a considerable amount of time, but I guess that’s normal for putting out records. But it just feels like forever! You have new songs, you’re playing shows.

After awhile, to you, the music doesn’t feel new anymore. To everyone else it does, because they haven’t heard it. But once it’s out, and people are writing and talking about it, it feels new again. It’s pretty exciting to have that. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with Buzz. They’ve been really good to us, and we’ve really enjoyed working with them thus far.

Can you explain the title “Potential Maximizer?”

It was kind of a nickname that Nora gave to herself while she was dating in L.A. and didn’t have a good streak for a little while there. She created this nickname based up on the fact that a lot of these people she was dating kind of seemed to be looking to her to help them figure out what they were or to, basically, maximize their potential. It’s been a running joke for a little bit. When we started working on the record, she was instantly like, “This record’s going to be called ‘Potential Maximizer.’” We all liked that.

Is the cover art an ice pick?

It’s actually a butt plug with a shiv. One end is a shiv and the other is a butt plug. We kind of enjoy that the ambiguity will carry through with all sorts of things: the music, the performance and the artwork. I like people’s different interpretations, but some people are like, “Wait, is that a butt plug?” So that is what that is [laughs].

Thanks for clearing that up. As you were saying, you’ve gotten to play these songs live for awhile now. What are some of your favorite songs from the new record to play live?

I really enjoy the first song, “Hell Is Real.” I’ve been quite drawn to that song. I feel like it’s the best opening song I’ve ever written. I really like playing “In Quiet Streets” live because it’s so short and kind of ferocious. I also like starting a show with it. It feels so good to go from that moment when the sound person turns off the music, and you can hear the audience talking, then all of a sudden we play this minute-and-a-half song, then it’s over. I like that energy. “Tourist of My Desire” and “Tourist II” are both really fun to play. I feel like those are the songs we’ve had the longest. We’ve been playing those songs for maybe two years now. I don’t really get tired of those.

I was going to ask what we should expect to see during the performance in Boston, but it seems like you won’t even know until then, and even if you did, you probably wouldn’t tell.

Correct. But I ask that as well. I don’t know what to expect on tour. I’m pretty much as clueless as the next person. That’s what keeps it fun. It’s never a dull moment. Lately we’ve really been trying into this “maximizing your potential” vibe. Kind of this TED Talk aesthetic. This Tony Robbins vibe of increasing your self-worth and how to achieve “success.” We’ve incorporated some visuals and performance aspects that pay homage to the Tony Robbins and Steve Jobs TED Talk style. That’s all I’ll elaborate on for now.

So you’ve adopted what was once Nora’s nickname as sort of a band philosophy?

It’s really gone from a joke about dating life to fully encapsulating the record and the theme of the shows and the band. It’s gone farther than being a joke.