Touring six months out of the year and covering the country with more than 600 shows since their debut, it’s a safe bet to say that the Hard Lessons are the hardest working band in town.
What started out as a blues cover band in 2003, Augie Visocchi (guitarist and vocalist), Korin Cox (keyboardist and vocalist), and Christophe Zajac-Denek (drummer) signed up to play their first show as The Boll Weevils at a Michigan State University battle of the bands.
After being informed that they could not perform covers, the trio scrambled to put together a few original songs within a week. During their debut set, Augie announced that the band would be known as the Hard Lessons, named after the “hard life lessons” that provided inspiration for the band’s first songs.
The Hard Lessons may have taken second place at the competition, but their perseverance and ability to pull together as a band laid the groundwork for their future success.
Over the next few years, the band would face their own set of hard lessons, juggling late night shows and bachelor’s degrees. All three band members graduated from MSU; Augie and Korin earned teaching certificates in secondary education, while Christophe finished with a degree in telecommunications.
In between recording their debut record “Gasoline” (released on No Fun Records in 2005) and the band’s most recent “B&G Sides” box set (released a few weeks ago through Quack! Media), Korin continued taking classes, earning a master’s degree in history.
Moving from basement shows to European tours, playing with OK GO and Motion City Soundtrack, one of the bands’ many impressive accomplishments was noted during last April’s South By Southwest appearance at Stubb’s BBQ.
To The Hard Lessons’, their electric live performances and on-stage antics are all in a day’s work. Yet, after opening for America’s latest flash in the pan Vampire Weekend at Spin Magazine’s day party, the trio was asked to play a second show to wake up the audience from their 30-minute Vampire nap. Pioneering a whole new avenue of rock and roll, the band took on the unheard-of task of opening for themselves.
Now, just a few days to go until Friday’s main stage performance with Blues Traveler and Rusted Root at the Chrysler’s Arts, Beats, and Eats festival and their headlining spot at Detroit Metromix’s official opening day after-party Encore, Visocchi takes a minute to tell his tale.
The Hard Lessons are playing the main stage at Chrysler’s Arts, Beats, and Eats this year. What are some of the challenges that come along with being a local band on the national stage?
When we play big shows, we know that we really have to go all out and win the audience over because they’re not our regular fans. We really look forward to the challenge of playing to people who have never seen us before.
What do you find most appealing about Chrysler’s Arts, Beats, and Eats?
There are only a few fleeting months (in Michigan) where is it beautiful outside and people can get together. Arts, Beats, and Eats celebrates the end of summer. We love playing summer festivals, especially ones that involve food! Food is definitely the highlight (of Arts, Beats, and Eats) for me.
If you could design your own festival stage, who would you book?
I’d want The Hard Lessons to open for “Doggystyle” era Snoop Dogg, “Nevermind” era Nirvana, an 18-year old Aretha Franklin for the home crowd, and something for everybody...the Sex Pistols!
After five years of being with the band, Christophe is planning to move to California. Do you have a new drummer lined up, or will you play a couple of shows as a two piece until you get that figured out?
Right now, Korin and I are recording a new album with Electric Six’s Zach Shipps, so Christophe will be playing with us through September. Quite a few drummers have approached us and have offered to help us out, so we’ll see what happens. We’re waiting for something that feels right to fall into place.
The Hard Lessons just signed a record deal with Quack! Media. What drew you to them?
We did things by ourselves for so long, so it’s really cool to have someone else in the family who can do so many different things. When we asked to do an animated video, they were on it. When we pitched an idea for a Youtube video, they ran with it. Quack! Media is really resourceful and are willing to do things that are out of the box.
Speaking of out of the box, tell me about the “B&G Sides” box set you just released.
“B&G Sides” is really unconventional compared to a regular record release. We would have made more money if we put out one CD, but we’re hoping that our fans appreciate our story and what we’ve put into these songs. With “B&G Sides” the concept was to get music to our fans as quickly as possible. We recorded three tracks at a time; the songs were pressed immediately, and put out. That way, our fans got the music much sooner than if we had put out a traditional 10 or 12 song album.
For us, it’s fun to get into the studio; the freedom of recording is exciting. “B&G Sides” can be purchased on vinyl or CD as a box set or if you had purchased volumes 1-3 separately at our shows, you can by the fourth volume separately and you’ll get the box for free to complete the set.
You and Korin both have teaching degrees, but The Hard Lessons are constantly on tour. Are you able to substitute teach at all while you’re home?
We both love to teach, but you can’t teach and be in a full-time rock and roll band. We always gravitate toward doing everything 110%, so we’re not ready to be in a band that plays a couple of times a month and puts out a record once every few years. We are fortunate to get some teaching opportunities while we’re home. Korin will be teaching a night class during the week [this fall] and we’ve both subbed in the past, which was interesting.
There was one time, a year or so ago, when Korin taught as a long-term sub in a Brighton high school. It became this scenario where kids were yelling, “The singer from the Hard Lessons is in 280!” and 20 kids were crammed outside of the door. Later on, one of Korin’s students had a band that opened for us. They ended their set by thanking “Ms. Cox for doing such a good job teaching their class about Nixon.”
What is your favorite city outside of Detroit to play?
We love the big cities, like New York and L.A., but I think people in L.A. hate music. It’s cool that everyone is over the idea of celebrity, but no one seems to enjoy going out and seeing a show. Austin is probably my favorite city to play, because the people in Austin really love music.
We also like playing small towns. There was one time when we drove to Lindsay, Oklahoma, after a fan wrote us a letter and asked us to play his home town. We found out that Lindsay wasn’t too far out our way from our next stop on the tour, and we had a day off, so we showed up and played a show for few kids in a town that had a population of about 1,000. After the show, we spent the night in a funeral home and then continued on with the rest of the tour.
Was sleeping in a funeral home the weirdest moment of the tour?
Meeting Larry the Cable Guy in a truck stop was the best. We’re not exactly fans; we just like to make fun of him. When we told Larry we were from Detroit, said he knew Kid Rock…it was hilarious. He even took pictures with all of us, which are up on our Myspace page.
The Hard Lessons play live at Chrysler’s Arts, Beats, and Eats’ Million Dollar Madness Stage at 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29 or catch the band later (or do both) that evening when they headline Encore, the Detroit Metromix official after-party at The Crofoot in Pontiac.
