Rock: An Interview With No/Hugs

Boston based No/Hugs is a blues infused rock n’ roll outfit that was established in 2015 by prodigious lead singer Narcissus A-Ngel. Over the past few years they have performed tens of dozens of shows and effortlessly won over fans, both locally and nationally. With 2 US tours and multiple headliner/guest shows in the U.S and Canada under their belt, its been said their performance is not one to be forgotten and the raw energy they pour onto the stage is undeniable and pure.

The band had some recent great news to share with the addition to this year’s Warped Tour and a new single to be recorded in studio.

We caught up with them to talk about those high octane performances, what it means to be selected for such a notable musical celebration like Warped Tour and whats coming down the line for them. Read on folks.

RLR: The band has been praised for your high energy live sets and after watching just a few live videos it is plain to see that this praise is fully justified. What does it mean for you all personally to go out to a gig, get on that stage and just leave it all there be it for 20 people or 2,000 people? What pushes you to get up there and share your music and passion with folks?

For us, being on stage is like a drugless high. It’s a paradox, a contradiction between being selfless and selfish, and indeed something very personal and public at the same time. Whether it is for 20 or 2,000 people it’s an amazing feeling to know that the performance will influence, change a perspective and help others.

“Being in front of a crowd demands to wear your heart on your sleeve.Take a deep breath, and just go for it.” Narcissus

When everything reaches its peak – you see the crowd moving, staring, feeling, crying – you become those feelings and manifest them into craziness and having a good time.

“When you perform you can give so much to the crowd, while at the same time you are also giving your soul everything that it needs.”

-Kat

RLR: Similarly, is there anything in particular you all do to get ready for a show leading up to taking a step onto the stage?

Of course. Other than the quintessential; vocal warm ups, neck massages, body stretches, etc. we all have our little rituals here and there:

We actually both tend to need to have some alone time before we come together as a unit, and do our thing on stage. It helps us to have a clearer mind and to feel less uneasy.

Narcissus needs to be left alone for 15-20 minutes directly before we hit the stage. She wanders off and finds a quiet corner and sits there, facing the wall. We all just know not to disturb her. Having absolute concentration before her performance is a necessity, because the minute she steps on stage for sound check, she is already in character and ready to go.

Kat likes to go off in a back room or even outside in the van. The less people/noise, the better. She runs through the set in her head while tapping away for 10-20 min on her drum practice pad, with and without the click track. She knows that it’s a must to warm up her muscles, just as it is for vocalists to warm their voices. After all, she is responsible for keeping the band tight and together, along with most of the cues. She visualizes the execution of the set beforehand, and plays every single detail in her head. She believes that remaining fully hydrated makes a night-and-day difference with the conversation between her brain and muscles.

“I’ve played shows dehydrated and under the influence of alcohol before, it never ends well. I sort of crash halfway through the set. My mind wants to keep going, but my body feels like sleeping.” -Kat

RLR: This probably should have been my first question, but as you all are a newer band to me, what is your back story. How did you all meet and what is the genesis of you all as a group today?

No/Hugs was formed by Narcissus soon after graduating from Berklee College of Music, and made its first run in 2015.

“How we met is really simple. We were co-billing a show and Kat thought it was a good idea to come up to me and tell me to go eat. She eavesdropped in on a conversation  where I was explaining that I hadn’t eaten in 2 days because of recurring gigs and work. So she rudely interrupted by scolding me and I told her to go f…. well… it wasn’t polite…It was meant to be.” -Narcissus

In the beginning, the band consisted of a handful of various members, each sort of molding around Narcissus’ voice and stage presence. It wasn’t until 2017, when drummer Kat Dukeshire joined the band, that it began taking what we would call a clear-cut shape. What we mean by this is having a full group of players who put in the work/passion both on the stage, and off. Our goal is to have each member shine equally, to be just as energetic and over the top on stage!.. not just feel comfortable playing in the background. Like anything else in this world, it just took time, and trial & error so to speak. It takes a very specific type of personality, and a driven dedication to establish yourself in a band and say “This is going to be my dream too, and I’m willing to wake up every morning with this band being the first thing in my mind.”

The genesis of No/Hugs as an all-female rock band was a step in the right direction, and something bound to happen sooner or later. Within the oppression and double standards of the music scene – we dare to “not care” and take the extra effort to only play with women who strive to show that they can be just as much of beasts on the stage!

“Don’t get me wrong, just because you’re a woman, and you play guitar doesn’t mean that we will automatically hire you. The talent, commitment, and attitude must go with it.”

-Kat

 

 

RLR: So, at RLR we sometimes find ourself in a bit of a bubble in the “folk-roots” realm of things and most of what we cover tends to fall into some iteration of such. But we also run under the ideal that “good music is good music” and if we dig something we want to shed some light on it. Part of why this whole thing exists is community and talking about music that deserves a little extra light shone its way. The band identifies as “alternative rock”, which is a pocket of New England music I am not intimately aware of. How have you all found that community in and around Boston (and beyond) to be over the course of the life of the band? Is it strong and growing, stable, etc? Do you have any hopes for it in the future?

This is a great question and we are happy to get to answer this, as we are a band that serves Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin in the same set with our original music. Despite being best-defined as “Alt Rock,” we have the Blues as a very strong base to what we do. We even welcome some Americana instruments into our sets from time to time. There would be no Rock without Blues, and no Alternative, and so forth. Out of all of the songs that we have written, no two sound alike. We feel like when the genre doesn’t limit you, your best bet is to call it Alternative.

As far as the scene; It’s a nice scene to be a part of, because the sound varies so much, that anyone can attend without being labeled as a “genre lover.” You can enjoy No/Hugs whether you like Iron Maiden or Janis Joplin, you’re 16 years old or 59, you live in Boston, or Alabama. You get the point. That’s the beauty of our genre, and we have been very fortunate to discover that as we tour the U.S. We bring people together. In that moment, people just lose themselves and they forget their age and social class. In that moment they are listening and feeling with No/Hugs, and that’s all there is to it.

Our only hope for the future can be nothing else but for the scene to keep growing and for people to support it.

RLR: Speaking of support, the band was just selected to perform at Warped Tour this year. That’s a pretty big deal with a big following. How did that come about and seriously, how pumped are you all for the opportunity?

Yes! This is true, we will be playing the Mansfield, MA stop on July 27th. After 23 years, Warped Tour will be running their final one this year, it was now or never! It’s been an array of different emotions… In all honesty, the way it happened and how it happened took us by surprise.

Narcissus, actually had a pretty serious accident back in January and had to get surgery. We originally had postponed all of our plans for the summer, as her healing pace was very up in the air. Of course, we were not going to perform without her. Luckily, she’s been recovering extremely well. Even though we knew that we were pushing it on time, we decided to go for it and reach out to Kevin Lyman (Warped Tour founder.) Kat has been attending Warped every year since she was 12 years old.

To our astonishment, we got a reply from Kevin just 15 minutes after sending the email out. “…It will be fun to add you to the show…Glad to have No Hugs on…”

There we were, a broken leg, and 3 years of hard work later, being acknowledged musically by a colossus in the alternative scene – Kevin Lyman himself. It meant more to us that he had clicked on our music video links and enjoyed them!

“I mean… Over the years, Kevin gave this same validation to thousands of bands; from Green Day, to My Chemical Romance, to Katy Perry. We are truly humbled and more than PUMPED to represent Massachusetts and our music!”

-Narcissus

We’ll be on the Full Sail University Stage, on July 27th. Hope to see you all there.

RLR: What else do you want to plug? Anything in particular to mention?

We’re super happy to announce that we’ll be recording our first single this coming June, at No Boundary Studio in Rhode Island. We plan to release it right around the Vans Warped Tour date. The single will be followed by an album release next Spring. We have a clean slate and plenty of new ideas that we are excited to share with the world!

We really want to encourage people to support the various non-profits that follow the Warped Tour. This is something that as a band we feel strongly about. We are going to be supporting Feed Our Children Now!

The amount of food donated during the holiday season is endearing. However, what a lot of people don’t realize is that food donations are in especially high demand during the summertime. This being, that kids are on summer vacation, and can no longer rely on lunch provided by the schools. Music brings people together and we want to help encourage people to get involved in organizations like this!

Our Facebook/Instagram will be updated daily from now until Warped Tour. Search for @nohugsband or #nohugsband on social media to follow us on our crazy journey!

We would love to see some new faces at our shows and spread our message into more and more hearts.