 "Photo: Photo Courtesy of Jess Davis")
On the 16th of October, the band The Click Clack Boom will be playing at the 8X10 Club in Baltimore. The Click Clack Boom is a group of five from Central Pennsylvania and New York City.
Originally, The Click Clack Boom started off as a solo project by the guitarist and lead singer, Nathaniel Hoho. The Click Clack Boom has been around for about a year and a half, "…although members of the band have been playing and growing together as musicians for the last 11 years," says Hoho. "We have all been playing together in and out of bands for a long time, but just recently The Click Clack Boom has formed."
Playing with Hoho are Will Markley, Bill Newman, Rachel Leah and Grant Wilson. Hoho says that, "The project began as Nathaniel Hoho, then Nathaniel Hoho and The Click Clack Boom, now [just] The Click Clack Boom. I had been playing as a solo artist for approximately three years. I would often play with Grant and Will. Whenever they couldn't make shows, I would play solo. It was much easier and cheaper to go play shows. I could just throw my guitar in the car and show up. With a band, we have a lot of gear. The van - in comparison to my car - is a gas hog, and there is a lot more that we have to set up and tear down. It's also a different writing process, working with a band… I'll come to everyone with a song, and every member will put their own spin on it with their part, [and] sometimes the structure of the song even changes. It's refreshing to get new ideas thrown into the "creative pot'."
These guys tend to place themselves in the indie rock genre, though Hoho admits, "…I don't know what [that] means." Hoho grew up in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, and this highly influences his music. "Where I'm from, who I grew up around, and the musicians I grew up playing with are the reason I play music," Hoho says. Although Hoho's influence came from Pennsylvania, nowadays his influences are different.
"The artists that influence us are ever-changing," he says. "I currently am listening to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Pearl Jam, Local Natives and Elvis Costello. Of course, the Beach Boys [and] The Beatles are great. But if you were to ask any other member of the band, you would probably get a totally different answer - with exception to The Beatles and Beach Boys."
Hoho's first EP, called "Wait Until the Story Ends," was released in the fall of 2007. Currently, all physical copies of the EP are sold out, but the songs can still be downloaded on iTunes.
In the process of creating The Click Clack Boom's new EP, "An artist and dear friend of ours, Ben Sperry, came along when we started writing the album. He sat with a typewriter and camera and documented the entire thing," says Hoho. The entire documented processes can be see on The Click Clack Boom's MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/clickclackboomband, underneath the "Wachakanda" picture album.
Hoho says that the band has been working on the album for approximately nine months, which he admits is "…well overdue, but it sounds great." The band started working on this album shortly after "Wait Until The Story Ends" was released. "A few of the songs happened on the road. One track in particular, "Howling," was written in a hotel room in Las Vegas, in the middle of [a] two-month tour. Another song, "Wild World," was written in Utah, [while] staring at the snow. These songs were then taken to Wachakanda, and finished."
The way that songs come about is a tough question for Hoho to answer. "Lyrics and melodies just kind of happen. People ask me this question a lot, and I really never know how to answer. I am living, [and] I try to reflect that."
As for playing at the 8X10 Club, they've never played there before, but they have played at the Ottobar about a year ago. "I've heard nothing but great things about the [8X10] club, and [the] people running it," Hoho says. "I'm also looking forward to playing in Baltimore again."
The Click Clack Boom likes to keep in contact with their fans, and they do so in different ways. "We have email sheets that we set out for people to sign, but I think [that] Facebook works best for keeping touch with fans - Facebook and phone numbers. I'm a big fan of Facebook events and unlimited texting."
As for the debate between using MySpace or Twitter to keep in contact with people, Hoho knows what he likes best. "Does Twitter offer free music streaming, photos, and video?" he asks. Guess that's one for MySpace.
Check out The Click Clack Boom on their MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/clickclackboomband or their website at http://clickclackboom.com.
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