WHO ARE THEY?
Hair Police are a Michigan-based, Lexington, KY-bred, harsh noise band featuring Mike Connelly (also of Wolf Eyes), Robert Beatty and Trevor Tremaine. Since 2001, their sonic assaults have been gnawing at the periphery of the indie-rock underground thanks to an exponential output of music, relentless touring and the near-fanatic championing of Thurston Moore.

BUT IS IT NOISY MUSIC, OR IS THE MUSIC SIMPLY NOISE?
They don’t call it harsh noise for nothing. Depending on which permutation of Hair Police you’re listening to, it can sound like one of punk/industrial pioneers Big Black’s agonizing feedback jams — or sometimes it’s more in the sonic spectrum of the white noise generated by jamming an ancient TV set between channels, at top volume. According to Connelly, “We’re interested in the structure and the song, but a song doesn’t necessarily have to mean it has melody…. To me the idea that it’s progressive or a form or progression to start writing a melody, I don’t buy into that. I think it’s just kind of an excuse. It’s just a normal way of thinking.”

HOW EXACTLY DOES ONE “GET INTO” NOISE MUSIC?
While Connelly describes a gradual progression, beginning with the usual alternative affections for Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, he did have what you might call a moment of revelation. “When I finally heard pure noise,” he recalls, “like Merzbow or something like that, you know, in the ‘90s, it definitely hit something in me. I knew that these were the kinds of sounds that made the most sense to me.” His roots, however, still show through in a few odd places. “I’ve never been in a normal band,” he says. “But the one thing I enjoy is the fact that we are a band. I do enjoy playing with two other people; I think a trio is the perfect amount of people for me. Even being a kid in second grade and listening to Aerosmith, I was always into the idea of a band.”

DO YOU ENJOY THE PERVERSE SATISFACTION OF UNLEASHING THIS MADNESS ON THE PEOPLE?
For a time, when Spin did a feature on noise bands and Sonic Youth took them under their wing for a couple of tours, Hair Police polarized the hell out of their crowds. “You know, we did a lot of shows like that, especially early on... where it’s like an unexpecting audience,” says Connelly. “But at this point, it’s not something that interests us anymore. You know, we’d rather just play to people who want to hear the music. We’re kind of, like, over freaking people out. It’s not really interesting. We’d rather just play with our friends and our people.”

WHAT CAME FIRST, THE LIVING ROOM RECORD LABEL OR THE HARSH NOISE CASSETTE RELEASE?
Connelly and the other members of the band each run their own respective record labels, all of which put out both the scads of Hair Police releases as well as other, non-HP noise projects, in every manner of format from vinyl to cassette and beyond. While such endeavours are a huge part of the noise scene, they’re also a great way to make connections nationwide. Connelly says this tour is really just an excuse to hang out with friends and see all his favourite bands in other cities.

As for their own output, he explains, “We live sort of apart from each other, so any time we get together we try to get as much recording done as possible. [We do it] just to kind of document all the sides of the band. And because, at the end of the day, this is still not a normal band and this is not normal music, we don’t do things the normal way. It’s like if Coldplay takes five years to record a record, they’re not going to put out some CDRs and live tapes. We’re not interested in being like that. We’re just interested in putting things out. There’s really no thought process behind it, we’re just purging these things out of our skulls.”
 
UNLESS THEY MAKE FOR A REALLY RAW PLAYBACK, ONE CAN ASSUME THAT GOLD RECORDS ARE OF NO CONCERN.
“Like I said, this isn’t rock music [and] we’re not a rock band,” says Connelly. “That world is not interesting. What is interesting is my friends dubbing their own tapes and handing them out or putting out records and just kind of destroying sound, one release at a time.”