Hundredth | Free Your Mind
By Jameson Ketchum

nconventional and loving it, Hundredth doesn’t waste time worrying about genres, labels, sub-labels, tags, styles, genre bending, creating the most brutal of breakdowns or any combination of the above mentioned hot topics. They’re just here for your listening pleasure. The new record Let Go has been one of those long awaited gems finally peeking through the looking glass this month. Vocalist Chadwick Johnson, who’s current profile photo is Zack Morris with a familiar neck tat, is one of the politest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure of bumping into randomly in LA. We’ll let him fill you in on all the details.

Your long awaited second full length is out and it’s been in my car stereo for weeks! Firstly, talk to us about the cover art. It screams indie act not hardcore.

Chadwick Johnson: (Laughs!) I’m glad you are jamming it! The cover art is based around two photos by Daniel Mountford, a photographer from the UK who is known for his double exposure photos. We had no idea what we wanted to do for the cover and then we stumbled across his photos and I knew immediately that was it. It gives a vintage/nostalgic vibe to the record and I think the photos say a lot. I can see where you are coming from on it being indie, and not hardcore. Are we even a hardcore band? The term hardcore is too broad these days. I know what it WAS, but I’m not really sure I know what it IS. We just played a couple of shows with a band who normally dedicated a song “to all the hardcore kids” and it was just one slow breakdown the entire time. That’s when I decided maybe I don’t know what hardcore is anymore? All genre, subgenre-talk aside, we are stoked on the cover!

The record itself feels a lot more diverse, heavy and haunting than your previous record. What were some of the collective goals of the band going into writing and what are some of the passionately covered topics here?

CJ: Going into our second record, we made some goals known. We wanted to push the typical “modern hardcore” record expectations aside, and do what WE wanted to do instead of fitting the mold. In order to accomplish that, we didn’t hold back any creativity and we didn’t force things into our songs that did not need to be there. Whether that be coming up with a tasteful singing part or not hindering our creativity by settling for an open chugging breakdown (I hate that word) in the middle of a song. Granted there are a couple of those open chugging things that we feel are tasteful. Overall, we really wanted to focus more on staying melodic, emotional, and driven. Lyrically, the record is passionate. Whether it be about personal struggle or refusing to accept the beliefs commonly held by the masses, I made it known from the beginning I didn’t want to hold back anything. You’ll find open and honest songs throughout the record and hopefully some of it steps on toes. We stand behind a message of hope and getting rid of violence is the first step to that. There is no use for our band to exist if we aren’t attempting to do something we believe in, so we didn’t hold back on our questions and our challenges to the world. Overall, the lyrical content of the record hits very close to home and I hope it has the power to do the same for the listener.

I hate to use the word “mature” because of its overuse, but this new record is…progressive! Do you think this was something that was done consciously or did it just come with being a few more years into your career?

CJ: I always find it tough to compare a band’s different records because I believe every record should be different. If a band isn’t progressing and trying new things, not only are they going to be miserable and bored playing the same stuff, but the listener doesn’t get to experience them as a true artist. It’s like if Da Vinci would have just kept painting the same painting over and over but just changing the colors. That being said, I am totally going to compare our records right now (laughs). Our first record was every song we had written since the beginning, because we needed thirteen songs. Our new record, we were able to actually focus on it in a certain time period, rather than over two years. I think that explains it’s more focused sound. I can see us progressing and getting better at certain things. I think we are finally finding our real rhythm with this album.

This is your second release with Mediaskare, how has your relationship with them grown from your last release to this one?

CJ: We have definitely gotten closer to Mediaskare with this record. We had complete freedom with Let Go, to the point where we were able to self-produce the album and even engineer a good bit of it ourselves. They truly believe in us and give us an amount of freedom and support a lot of other labels wouldn’t dare. They have really let us develop as artists instead of forcing us to fit a certain mold, in order to get records off the shelves.

We love Mediaskare’s diversity over here! I’m sure you’re asked this often but your label has some extremely heavy acts, not to say you guys don’t fit that mold stylistically but is there ever a feeling of a bit of an underdog mentality either because of your style or because of your beliefs?

CJ: We aren’t ever intimidated stylistically or because of our beliefs, because Mediaskare and everyone on our team know and understand we are going to march to beat of our own drum. We end up playing with a lot of heavier bands and we are okay with that. We are cool with being the softest band on a super heavy tour. We aren’t there to make people mosh or their ears explode with drop G chugs. We are there to free minds, which most times involve losing ours.

Back to the new record. What are you most excited about regarding fans hearing the new songs?

CJ: I’m mostly excited to see if people relate or are inspired by Let Go. There are certain parts on the record that I am super ready for people to hear, both musically and lyrically. “We Can Take Them All” is a song I’m really excited to get out because of its lyrics. I hope it challenges and inspires people in a positive way. I’m also excited for people to hear “Soul” because of how dark it is. We also have a pretty funny video coming out for one of the songs on the record, which I am stoked to get out. It’s for a poppier song we put on the album. Above certain song parts and lyrics, I am excited to see how many people make it to the end. We tried to make a record that you could listen to the whole thing and not get bored or it start to sound monotonous. I like to think of the record as a bit of a ride, with some stops along the way. It’s steadily moving and knows its destination, but not quite sure how to get there. I guess that’s the kind of interesting part about it.

On “Monumental II” you can hear a voice giving a speech in the background of the track. What’s happening here?

CJ: That’s a C.S. Lewis speech from a BBC radio broadcast in 1944 called “Beyond Personality — Mere Men”.

And on “Soul” you chose to end it with the chorus of a great Smiths’ song. Why choose that ending?

CJ: When we were listening to the song as it finished up, that Smith’s song just popped in my head, almost as an answer to my questions in the song. It sums up the song’s eerie vibe… And instead of trying to explain it myself, I figured we should let one of the greats do it.

Any interesting stories you care to share regarding the writing/recording process?

CJ: Only three of us (Alex, Koontz and myself) flew out to the studio and we were there for a month. Our bass player (JP) tracked his parts at home in Nashville. We completely lost ourselves in the record and ended up engineering a good bit of it ourselves. Obviously with three of us locked in a studio for a month, there were a lot of laughs and a good amount of beer. It was stress-free and a lot of fun. Laid back and no boundaries, we all really liked the vibe of recording this record. We hope that comes out through the music.

Anything else you’d like to add for our readers?

CJ: Search for something real in the music you support and listen to. Don’t settle for cookie-cutter mindless, meaningless, nursery-rhyme nonsense that involves no creativity other than replicating other peoples words and putting them over chugs, in order to put cheeky lyrics on t-shirts to up merch sales and go home from tour with a pretty penny. Authentic creativity should be appreciated as art. Mindless music following a trend is nothing more than karaoke. Hope is a reality. Come see us and free your mind.