Duane Peters’ “other” band Die Hunns (formerly known as Duane Peters and the Hunns) is suddenly his central focus. No longer will Die Hunns play second fiddle to his more well-known anthemic streetpunk band U.S. Bombs. With a new record out – the fun, energetic rock ‘n’ roll-infused ‘Long Legs’, a short stint on this year’s Warped Tour, and more touring planned throughout 2004, Duane avers that for the next couple years, he’s solely concentrating on Die Hunns. In fact, as of now they’re ripping shit up on the other side of the Atlantic till May 9th and shortly thereafter will be playing some U.S. dates for the rest of May, hooking up with the Punks vs. Psychos II tour June 1st until June 9th, and then playing Warped from June 25th till July 6th.
All right, all right. What’s going on here? First, why the change in band name? Duane is quick to note “it’s not a real change,” explaining what I had already surmised: he decided to replace the “the” with “die” (as in “the” in German) because it looks “cool” and also that the Website thehunns.com had already been taken – it’s a porn site…and unlike Rancid who experienced the same predicament and thus took rancidrancid.com, Duane wasn’t about to do the same, instead opting for diehunns.com. Plus, it helps that everyone else in the band concurred with the idea of changing the moniker to Die Hunns and, perhaps the most important reason, “it looks more threatening,” in Duane’s words.
Secondly you may be asking, why now the concentration on Die Hunns? Well, for one, Duane’s recruited Corey Parks (ex-Nashville Pussy) to tackle bass duties as well as lending some excellent vocals to the mix – not to mention she’s also his girlfriend… The inclusion of this veteran rocker is also a main reason why “Duane Peters” has been eliminated from the band name. “I didn’t really like the attention that much on me…and [Corey’s] a name.” And working exclusively on Die Hunns is also a result of his taking on too many projects at once in the past. As he relates, “Sometimes I wrote a Hunns record at the same time I was writing a Bombs record, and [with] skating and everything else, you just kinda go crazy. And then,” he adds, “you jump from one band [to the other], it just drives you nuts. And I’m skating more now than ever, so I’ve just been spread out too much.” (On the subject of skating, elsewhere in our conversation he states, “Fuck, I’m gonna be 43 in June and I’m doing better in skating than I ever have, and I was on top back in ’81,” which is undoubtedly amazing, to say the least…) In any case, add to his busy schedule the fact that the various members of the Bombs live all over the U.S. and Canada, it’s rough. All the Hunns, on the other hand, live around the same area, “so it’s like how it used to be, you know, when you first join a band and…you rehearse all the time,” expounds the vocalist.
In a way he sounds a bit, I don’t want to necessarily say relieved, but content that the Bombs are on hiatus for a bit. “[The Bombs] have been [together] for fuck, eight years! Ten months out of the year every year, and then in between that and my drinking [a vice he’s since quit], all the dysfunction and members switching out, and then you get home and write a record,” he goes on to say that with the band the personal factor of writing material had simply been lost. “It just kinda lost the love of what it was all about.” But with Die Hunns, Duane is feeling quite reinvigorated – what with being able to work with his girlfriend, sharing vocal duties, and just overall “having a blast right now playing,” he fittingly concludes, “I’m just gonna roll with that.”
When I compliment Corey’s EXQUISITE vocals – she adds much to the sound of the newly recorded material on ‘Long Legs’ - Duane is quite pleased, adding that “there’s more to come.” Duane and collaborator from the beginning guitarist Rob Milucky are also joined by a pair of newcomers, guitarist Jimmy Disco and drummer Joel Ronamoe, “youngsters” (to use Duane’s word) who were actually fans of the band. He correlates the lively, revived spirit of the band to the inclusion of Corey, who’s a seasoned pro, and thus well-versed in getting out there and touring and understands how everything works, as well as the opposite: that the fresh-faced new members are just plain hungry for playing – whether it be shows or simply practicing.
About this spirited record that’s unabashedly rock ‘n’ roll in tone and feel, released on Duane’s own Disaster Records (yes, he runs a label on top of everything else…), it’s basically a compilation of the band’s previous material – a “best of” you might say – along with some wonderful covers, like the raucous rendition of The Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today” - one helluva lead-off track - and the Sex Pistols’ “Did You No Wrong” to name a few, it’s far from a throw-away record. This marks the first album that includes Corey on it. Duane discusses how on the road people had inquired why they had not released anything with Corey since she’d been in the band for a while. So, a little best-of collection allowed them to go into the studio and “feel each other out” with the new members as well as trading off vocals between himself and Corey.
He declares they’re working on their next record, writing a song a month. “We’ve already dumped like 20 songs, but we’re just trying to really make a great next record,” so in the time being, they released ‘Long Legs’ and the guys, with the new name, are just “trying to see it as a brand new band, which it is.” Die Hunns (under the old moniker of Duane Peters and the Hunns) previously released three albums and so he decided to extract the best material from those records, tweak them a bit (i.e., changing choruses and arrangements, cutting stuff that they now felt wasn’t adequate, et al), and re-record them.
But before their next album of all-new material comes out either later this year or early 2005, they’ve released a couple singles and have one due out shortly – a split with Radio One, a new band on Disaster.
I had to know, after discussing all-things Die Hunns related, whether or not Duane had a philosophy in life - if he lives by a certain code. Without hesitation, the weathered punk discloses, “Yeah, I do. It’s an old one: live each day to the fullest, it might be your last, so live it like your last, and then you have a whole bunch of full days.” Another belief he adheres by is “expectation is resentment under construction, so don’t expect anything and that way it’s all gravy when it comes.” I don’t know; I’m a sucker for seeing people who’ve been through much, battling their own personal demons and just the trials and tribulations of life in general, beat the odds, come out on top, and have a positive outlook in the end…And of course, it’s always cool if they can keep rocking, bringing us inventive, truly enjoyable music as well. And Duane Peters and the…uh, I mean, Die Hunns do just that.