‘Every artist should make a loud, fast dumb rock record once in a while.’, says Jeff Shelton. His band Hot Nun just released Born to Blaze.

It might be ‘dumb’. It, for sure, is ‘loud’ and ‘fast’. Most of all, it’s GREAT!

 

 

 

What was the biggest fun during the making of the last album?

 

Over the years, HOT NUN has been an outlet for me to explore the more aggressive side of power pop…to release the barriers, crank the distortion and cut loose. The most fun and liberating aspect of making music are not limiting yourself to any boundaries. Every artist should make a loud, fast dumb rock record once in a while.

 

 

 

 

Can you still recall the moment music became important to you? What happened?

 

Spring of 1982 when the local Top 40 station switched over to “new wave” and opened the door to a floodgate of modern rock artists I had never heard before…most of whom were making extraordinarily unique and ground-breaking music. Will there ever be another Wall of Voodoo or Oingo Boingo? I doubt it.

 

Which is the song you wish you had written every time you hear it? And why?

 

Just the other day I was listening to Kirsty MacColl’s original version of “They Don’t Know”. This one ranks right up there with God Only Knows…or the best of the Beatles. Not a note wasted or out of place. To this day it’s one of the most glorious pop songs ever written…and I lament the fact that she left us way too soon.

 

If the budget was unlimited, how would you record the next record?

 

It probably wouldn’t be a HOT NUN record because I would go full on Sgt. Pepper and ask for every instrument under the sun …and hours upon hours of time in a huge warehouse studio to amuse me. Mellotrons, pianos, organs, walls of synthesizers….a string section at my beck and call and an interpreter to score melodies for them to play. I wouldn’t waste money on engineers or “producers” but on time and toys!

 

Every family birthday, same story. Again, you have to explain what kind of band you are in. What’s the story this time for aunt Jenny and uncle Clive?

 

For people who don’t know “power pop” or the nuances of indie & alternative music, I would describe my album as music you can hum along with and pump your fist to at the same time. If your mom likes it AND it also rocks, it might just be HOT NUN.

---

Hot Nun is Jeff Shelton (former Spinning Jennies/Well Wishers) and Braden McGraw (Disastroid/Headslide)

---