If you ask any band who their influences are, they’ll gladly seize an opportunity to rave about their musical idols. Legendary punk band H2O took things one step further and recorded an album of cover songs in tribute to their favorite bands. The new disc, “Don’t Forget Your Roots” features a variety of acts that the members of H2O credit for inspiring their career –Bad Brains, 7 Seconds, Rancid, Dag Nasty, The Clash, Sick of It All, Warzone, Verbal Assault and more…

ChinaShop recently caught up with H2O’s Toby Morse, Rusty Pistachio, Adam Blake, and Todd Friend to discuss their latest tribute endeavor, crazy Indonesian fans, and the band’s “beef” with Bob Dylan.

Is it true that H2O originally started as a side project and then morphed into something a lot bigger?

Toby: Yes. It was a joke.

It was just supposed to be a one song thing?

Toby: Yep. We just started with one song and we started liking it and everyone was like, “Why don’t you do a band? Why don’t you start a band?” and I said, why not. I was a roadie at the time and this became something real. We started going to shows and saying, “Can we use your equipment to play one song?” We’d do it as an encore – something funny – and then we got a band together and we were like, “Can we jump on your show and open up for you guys and play like 5 songs?” and it started building like that.

You are known for defining the term “melodic hardcore.” How do you feel about that?

Toby: I think that’s cool.

Rusty: It’s definitely fitting!

Toby: We were inspired by melodic hardcore also like 7 Seconds, Dag Nasty, Verbal Assault… There were a lot of bands that were doing the same things that we were doing but they weren’t per say from the New York hardcore scene.

How does it feel to have inspired so many punk bands after you?

Toby: It feels good.

Rusty: You definitely never know who is going to catch on.

Toby: It’s pretty awesome because that’s how we got inspired to start the band was because of other bands we liked. So for us to be a role model for somebody else, that’s pretty awesome.

Who inspired you guys?

Adam: Well I have to do a quick plug here. If you listen to our brand new record, “Don’t Forget Your Roots,” you’ll hear a list of covers of bands that inspire us.

Toby: But Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, Ramones…

Todd: Bad Brains

Toby: The Clash, Sex Pistols, Circle Jerks, 7 Seconds, there’s so many bands…

How is your latest studio album, “Nothing to Prove,” different than your past releases?

Toby: Well there was a 7-year hiatus from the last one to “Nothing to Prove” and I think for “Nothing to Prove,” we stripped it back down to the raw and basics of what the band started as. We got caught up in the one before from being on a major label and all kinds of weird pressure and annoyance and we made an over produced album. I think a lot of those songs on the “Go” record could have sounded like “Nothing to Prove” if it was stripped down and produced by the same person.

Adam: I think sometimes to realize who you are as a band, you really have to explore and experiment. The 2 releases before that and the EP after that had a lot of that going on. We kind of realized by doing that and got perspective and figured out what kind of record we wanted and what kind of band we were. That is what you hear on “Nothing to Prove.”

Toby: But we feel that our sound on our latest album, the covers album, is our best sound yet.

How do you feel when you listen back to your original records?

Adam: Listening to your own records is dangerous because you always want to change something.

Rusty: We wish we could rerecord our original stuff when we listen back.

Toby: It would be fun to redo our first album and record the songs again to see what the energy would be like.

“Nothing to Prove” is said to have some of your most honest lyrics to date. What inspired some of the songs on there?

Toby: I feel like for me it was that I didn’t write much on the record before that and there was a 7-year hiatus where I left New York and moved to California and became a dad. I had more things to be inspired and write about and things to get off my chest and so the hiatus was really built up around things I wanted to talk about. I had nothing to really talk about on the last record before that. Everything came out naturally. A lot of it was personal. I feel like H2O’s always been a band that wears their heart on their sleeve and speaks their mind and doesn’t hide anything. We’re very open to expressing ourselves.

What were you all doing during the hiatus?

Toby: All kinds of shit.

Adam: Getting drunk…

Toby: I had a side band called Hazen Street. I became a dad. I was working some shit jobs. My brother was in Juliette Lewis and The Licks. We didn’t not tour, we went to South America and Japan. We just didn’t put any new music out.

Rusty: We definitely wrote a whole bunch of songs and put them on the backburner knowing that we’d be in the studio.

Toby: It just ended up being 7 years, which was pretty crazy.

Adam: A long time for 28 minutes of music!

Toby: Now all the kids that like us either have kids or it’s their kids coming to see us. We played Chain Reaction last night and the whole crowd seemed like they were teenagers. It was insane. We’re getting older and they’re getting younger. It’s just weird how that happens.

Adam: Even the opening band looked like children to us.

Toby: It’s just funny because with a lot of bands, it’s the opposite but the kids actually waited for us.

Rusty: We’ve been around long enough now that people think we’ve been along longer than we actually have. People are like, “Oh I saw you guys back in the 80’s.”

Adam: I like when they are like “We saw you like 20 years ago.”

Toby: Rusty, some of the kids last night were even born when our first album came out.

Todd: That is crazy. We’re old.

Are you working on new material now?

Toby: Not really.

Is it going to be another 7 years in between?

Adam: Well, we just did the covers record.

Toby: It’s only been 3 years so I’m not inspired to just do another record. I don’t wanna do it just to do it. I don’t want to be that band that puts out records just to put out records. I wanna make something that’s gonna kill the last record.

Rusty: When you put out a record, you might think it’s the best we can do. You have to wait until you’re inspired to do better and let time tell.

Toby: And we’re still touring on that last record that came out 3 years ago, at least overseas we are. It’s crazy!

Rusty: We go to Russia in June. It will be the first time we’ve played Russia.

Toby: We’re still going to places we’ve never been before.

Do you have any big fan bases in any really obscure countries?

Adam: Apparently Indonesia. They constantly harass us. Everyone in this band that has a Facebook or Twitter is getting harassed by Indonesians all the time.

Are you going to play over there?

Adam: Never! We haven’t decided. We’re either going to go or every time a kid hits one of us up on Facebook, we’re going to say that we’re not going for another 3 months till they finally calm down. We’ll probably end up going. We’ll probably have to at some point. All kidding aside, if people want you that bad, you kind of have to go play for them.

Yeah I’ve heard crazy stories about playing in Russia… China too. Bob Dylan was there when I was there and he had to censor a lot of his songs…

Adam: Bob Dylan and H2O actually have beef. There’s a club called The Rave in Milwaukee and he was playing upstairs and we were playing downstairs with The Misfits and Sick of It All. We were supposed to play simultaneously and Bob Dylan was like, “I’m not going to do my show if there’s a show going on downstairs.”

Rusty: We had to wait till he was done.

Adam: We unfortunately had to push doors to our show. The first band at our show was supposed to go on at 7:00 and didn’t end up going on till like 10:00 because Bob Dylan was a rock star dick.

Rusty: It was fun at soundcheck when we made fun of him. We were like, “How does it feel? It feels kinda shitty.” It was funny! We went up and watched him. Here’s a guy who is strumming on his guitar and he makes one step forward and the crowd erupts.

Adam: I saw him live twice and I just didn’t get it. I was bored. I was like, “At least act like you give a fuck. Act like you care.”

Toby: God bless him. Just enough of that dude.

What made you guys decide to do the covers album?

Toby: We’ve wanted to do it for a very long time and we just never got around to doing it. So we did it and I feel like we missed a lot of bands. We’d like to do a part 2. It was fun to do. It’s funny because a lot of the kids don’t even know who these bands are and that’s why we did it, for the new kids to see how we were inspired and to get educated on the roots of the music.

So you’re thinking about doing a volume 2?

Toby: Sure! If it prolongs us doing a real album.

Adam: In the next 10 years we’re gonna do another covers record and another album. We’re not sure what the order is.

Toby: It’s been 4 years since our last album?

Adam: 4 is barely a toddler.

Toby: I’ll tell you what. We’ll put our last record out when Rusty turns 50.

Adam: We better start writing then!

Are there any bands that you guys are listening to that nobody knows about?

Toby: This band Coldplay is pretty awesome…

Rusty: Title Fight, Polar Bear Club

Toby: Coldplay. I like them.

Rusty: U2.

Words by Nicole Pajer (@NicolePajer). Photos by Catie Laffoon (@CatieLaffoon)