In late March, Nos Da released their self-titled debut album via Recess Records. The band’s lineup is comprised of singer/guitarist Isaac Thotz, (The Arrivals/Treasure Fleet) bassist/singer Jamie Morrison, (Pale Angels) and drummer Mike “Jimmy” Felix, (Toys That Kill). Since making the record, they’ve added Victoria Yarnish on Moog and Jacob Gaxiola on guitar. We recently caught up with Thotz and talked about how the band got together and how the album was made. We also discussed what some of the songs are about, their tentative plans for the future and more.
Bill – How exactly did the band form?
Isaac – Jamie Morrison does this project called Light + Noise with his friend Josh Coombes. He wrote to me in late 2017 to ask if he could stay with me when they did the project in Skid Row. I knew Jamie only by email then. We had corresponded back in 2011 when The Arrivals did a split with his old band The Arteries. He asked if I’d do a project with him while he was here as well. He was already planning to do a music project with Mike Watt and Jimmy from Toys That Kill, (that became Wish Granters). Jimmy and I had been talking about doing a band for a couple years by then, so Nos Da was the three of us: Jimmy, Jamie, and myself.
As it turned out, that was a bit of a false start. During the three months that Jamie lived with me, we only played music a couple of times. Jamie was very busy with Light + Noise and Wish Granters. I was very busy opening a music venue in San Pedro with Todd Congelliere, (Toys That Kill/Recess Records) and Barry Johnson, (Joyce Manor) called The Sardine. We shelved Nos Da and made plans for Jamie to come back to L.A. at some point. Jamie returned at the end of 2018 to do some mural art for The Sardine. By then, I had a full slate of songs ready to go and the three of us rehearsed in November and recorded in December 2018.
Bill – How would you describe the writing process for this record, both the parts you did on your own and when you guys collaborated?
Isaac – Pleasurable and easy. Over the past few years, I got in the bad habit of sitting down and demoing straight into Logic and I’d get to multitracking and fleshing out a song. I’m sure a lot of people write this way and for a lot of stuff it works fine. For a punk band, I think it’s a terrible approach. I went back to just demoing ideas into the phone with acoustic guitar and mumbling a vocal melody. When I had ten ideas that I thought were decent, I sat down and in one day laid down a drum machine track, scratch guitar, bass and vocal melody, and made ten short songs that I showed Jimmy and Jamie. When Jamie got back to town, the three of us got together, played the songs and pretty much everything they came up with was perfect for every song. The lyrics came just as easy. I had a good idea what a song would be about from the time of the original demo and I’d write the lyrics when it was time to record vocals over the course of about a month.
Bill – That’s great. It definitely seems like things came together naturally. Where did you record the album and what was your time in the studio like?
Isaac – We recorded the basic tracks at Jeff Watson’s studio, Industry Ave Sound. Jimmy knows Jeff because Jeff took over drumming for Jimmy in The Icarus Line. Jimmy introduced Jeff to that band as his replacement. Recording at Industry Ave Sound was a snap. Everything was set up before we showed up and we rolled our amps in and Jeff had someone come in and record us. This is terrible, but I can’t remember the name of the person who engineered the recording. Sorry to that guy. We tracked at Industry Ave Sound live. Then I did guitar, Moog overdubs and vocals, and Jimmy did percussion at the studio in my backhouse. At first, I didn’t labor over the recording. I would go back and write the lyrics and sing a song all in one sitting. Then with just basic tracks and vocals, I showed Todd the recording, asking him if he’d be interested in putting it out on Recess. He was like “Eh, sounds like a good demo.” That sort of lit a fire under my ass and I went to adding more Moog and vocal and guitar layers, and taking a more heavy-handed approach in arrangement during the mixing. It took so long to finish because I’d always be sending stuff to Jamie and Jimmy to get feedback or approval and to see what direction to go next. By late 2019 the record had mostly taken shape. Jamie recorded some vocals in London, singing along to the tracks. He just did that on his phone. His wife Victoria sang on “Human War” and my daughter Nitsa sang with Jamie on “Teeth.” And that was pretty much the finishing touch. I showed Todd again and he was like, “This isn’t even the same record!”
Bill – You really can’t ask for a better reaction than that. What are some of your favorite aspects of how the recording sounds?
Isaac – (Laughs). Well, I mixed the record, so it’s not very fair of me to answer this. Jamie writes great bass parts. He writes great songs and understands how to write parts that make a song better. So that’s a highlight to me. I had been talking to Jimmy before we started doing Nos Da and we were still just talking about doing a punk band that uses a bass Moog to get a lot of sub frequencies. This was just an idea I had. It turned out Jamie always plays with a distortion pedal that makes it very guitar-like and gives it a lot of high end. So, it worked well to try my bass idea with Nos Da. I like the way that turned out and think it differentiates the recording. Jimmy has told me he really likes the way the drums sound. In particular, he said he likes that they sound to him the way his drums sound when he’s playing them. That makes me happy that he’s happy.
Bill – That’s certainly good to get that kind of feedback. The song “Human War” is definitely one that stands out the first time you listen to the record. What inspired its creation?
Isaac – I was thinking about how people justify terrible acts either because they feel empowered by being part of a group, or because they feel empowered by technology, or by anonymity, or empowered feeling they have the moral high ground, or all of these things at once.
Bill – I hate to say it, but there’s definitely lots of examples of that in today’s society. In terms of another song, “Last Kiss Today” is one of the most straightforward rock songs on the album and also one of the catchiest. How exactly did this song come together?
Isaac – Like I said, I tried to write these songs instinctively, and so this is just one that popped out. It sounds like an old Arrivals song. I mean literally the first part of the vocal melody sounds like part of the vocal melody from a song off the first Arrivals record. The Pixies record Trompe le Monde has two songs where it sounds like they started to play the same song twice. I’ve read interviews about how the writing for that record was very slipshod because they were sort of done being a band during that session. And as a listener I always thought it was kind of cute. So, I don’t care if they’re similar. And it sounds like an old Arrivals song in more ways than just the melody, so I figured I wouldn’t hide behind the similarity and made the lyrics about playing with The Arrivals.
Bill – That’s really cool. I think Arrivals fans are going to appreciate that. Is there a song in particular that you like best in terms of how it turned out?
Isaac – I like the way “No Haircut” turned out. I think that’s the one song that it wouldn’t have been as good as it is except for the performances. Jamie’s bass lines rip and Jimmy and Jamie are both spot on. It’s a very WYSIWYG recording. I think that’s the only one on the record that it’s just the three-piece arrangement with no extra bells and whistles in the mix. It was good just right out of the box.
Bill – Would you say there’s an overall theme with the lyrics on the record?
Isaac – I wouldn’t. There may be if someone else sees it. The lyrics were mostly written at the same time, so the theme may very well be there but I don’t see it. I think the music was expressive enough and I just tried to write lyrics that reinforced where the song was already going. When my son heard “No Haircut” he was stoked on it and he’s like “this song is like the bad kids at the private school going wild.” Or something to that effect. I know he didn’t get it from the lyrics, because that story is not explicitly in there and I don’t think he has a clue what the lyrics are anyway. But I love that he was able to get such a vivid picture from the energy and from the bits and pieces of lyrics he can make out. That was sort of how I approached writing lyrics to each of these songs. I just waited until I could see what the song was already about.
The one exception is “Foolish Times.” I’d actually been sitting on that song for a while. That was one where all the lyrics came to me at once with the melody and the song just sort of wrote itself. It’s a true story about my relationship with my wife Sue. That was easy to write too because I’ve lived it.
Bill – Obviously, you guys can’t play any shows for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, what does the band have planned for the remainder of the year? Do you hope to write more songs?
Isaac – It’s unfortunate, but we actually had a string of shows booked around Southern California for the end of March and all that had to get scrapped. So, we’ve never played a show yet! Jacob Gaxiola and Victoria Yarnish started playing with us, Jacob on guitar and Victoria on Moog. Both of them are incredible musicians and it was sounding great when we rehearsed, so I’m excited for when we finally do get to play out. But I’m not making any plans right now for anything in my life.
There’s one song that Jimmy, Jamie and I rehearsed for this last record and we thought we recorded it, but somehow it turned out we forgot to ask to hit record or something. We came away without a recording. So, there’s that one and I have a couple other demos I cooked up already. I’m always writing. I’d like to do it again the same way for Nos Da where I just sit down and try to squeeze it out of me, but I don’t have much control over that. Once we started playing with Jacob and Victoria, I wished we’d had them on the recording. So that’s something I look forward to, making a record with them.
