DS Interview: Inside the Hammerbomb’s Half of “Bombs Away!”

Cover Photo Credit: Jessica Tercero

Today marks the release date of Bombs Away!, the split EP by Tsunami Bomb and The Hammerbombs released on Rad Girlfriend Records. You can read the interview with Oobliette Sparks of Tsunami Bomb gushing about working with The Hammerbombs on this EP.

The Hammerbombs’ half of this split kicks off their side with a take on the 1950s B-Film-tinged “The Invasion From Within.” The classic Tsunami Bomb track gets Hammerbombed in the best way by lightening the mood a bit, which is blatantly clear in the outro. The switch to male vocals pushes the song in a different direction that fits the Hammerbombs and is respectful to the original. One thing is clear, there is mutual love between the bands.

Their original song, “Phases,” keeps the theme of writing a song in the vein of the other band, with the Hammerbombs writing a song about a werewolf. They close their side with “Sinkhole,” originally found on Tsunami Bomb’s 2019 LP, “The Spine That Binds.” The Hammerbombs took time out of their drinking schedule to answer some questions about their songs on the “Bombs Away” EP.

Dying Scene (Forrest Gaddis): How did it come about that Tsunami Bomb and the Hammerbombs recorded a split?

Rob:  “I didn’t learn the songs, then I got mad because I was tired and my tummy hurt, then Matt didn’t use any toms, but then played the keyboard real good, and Jen’s warewolf song should be on the radio and Ilya practiced and played all the guitars and I got to sing like Dave Smalley

Matt:  Since the invention of the radio, mankind has become hellbent on turning music into light. Music is a mechanical wave, only able to travel through physical media like air, water, and concrete, at the slow speed of Mach 1. Light, on the other hand, is an electromagnetic wave, able to travel through a vacuum, and at the speed of light (e). Radio? Television broadcasting? WiFi!? CELL PHONES!!?? All of it now carrying compressed digital music. WHY!?!?

Because, we’re trying to teach sound how to escape the planet.

Think about it. Music used to die where it was born. Trapped in air, crushed by walls, slowed by distance. A drumbeat was local. A song belonged to a room, a tribe, a moment.

Because sound is human. But light is universal. A photon leaving Earth is indistinguishable from one born in a dying star. Just information riding pure speed.

And Hammerbombs need you to know this.

Jen:  Some of us and some of Tsunami Bomb were at Pouzza or some shit and talking about those BYO split albums where bands cover each other’s songs at that secret mystery puzzle drinking game bar thing or something.  And we were like yea lets do that, it’d be dumb and fun.

Tell me about the songs on the EP.

Hammerbombs collective thought process:  We did 2 covers. Tsunami Bomb did 2 covers. Jen wrote a wolfy song and it got Hammerbomb’d.  Tsunami Bomb wrote a song about being Hammerbomb’d. It was quite possibly the sweetest nicest thing anyone has ever said or done regarding us, and we are incredibly flattered and touched that our friends would write a song about how they wish they were us.

How did you decide which songs belonged on a split versus an EP or full-length album?

Hammerbombs collective hive mind:  I like turtles.

Did working on this split move either of you in a different direction musically?

Hammerbombs:  Same beers same songs same stuff

There’s a sort of yin and yang in the two bands and the type of songs each releases. Tsunami Bomb is musically darker in sound, and The Hammerbombs sound brighter. Was that on purpose?

Jen:  So, does anyone actually think we THOUGHT about what to do???  HAHAHA NO WE DO NOT THINK.

Ilya:  Its Spookybombs.  Not THE Spookybombs.

Do you feel there is a theme or thread between each of the songs?

Ilya:  …….we only have one spooky song.

Will the two bands be playing any shows together to promote the split?

Ilya:  Don’t play shows with us, we’re going to steal your beer. It’s just going to happen. 

Jen:  You’ll think there’s beers and then there won’t be any.  Cause we drank them.

Rob:  All of them.

Matt:  This is a better question for Tsunami Bomb’s very cool and totally normal manager and booking agent. 

Thanks to the Hammerbombs for their time and be sure to pick up the Bombs Away! EP on Rad Girlfriend Records.