Too many writers now are just transcribers of press releases, public statements, and received wisdom. It’s a problem in all genres of criticism and journalism! But Hard Drive’s official description on their Bandcamp and website captures so much of their character – their seriousness about old-time music, but also and the absurd humor which paints the edges of their work, that it’s worth reproducing here: “Hard Drive is a hard-driving aural modern traditional old time authentic millennial bluegrass collective made up of Tatiana Hargreaves, Aaron Tacke, Sonya Badigian, and Nokosee Fields. From brother duets to raging fiddle tunes, Hard Drive brings a sense of deep intuition and silliness to the world that encompasses old-time, country, and bluegrass.” Hard Drive know their stuff backwards and forwards, but are part of the present’s musical and cultural world. It’s beautiful stuff (check out Random Access Mash), playing with more whimsy and downhome joy than the more down-the-middle trad groups around. What’s not to love?
Hard Drive Lineup: Tatiana on fiddle, Aaron on banjo, Sonya on guitar, and Nokosee on bass. The interview answers below are the distilled product of a group phone call between all four band members. Like Gibson & Toutant before, they treated the proceedings with a suitable amount of seriousness. Enjoy!
Capsule summary-style, describe your band(s) (its members, home, history)
We’re a band that plays fiddle music, traditional American music. We started playing together in 2017. We independently had been playing old time music, most of us for a lot of our lives, we all grew up playing music at home, part of musical communities. We collided when a few of us moved in together in Durham, sort of by accident, now all of us have spent time living here. At first we didn’t really go out much, we were just building a weird little world in our house with music and each other. Over time we’ve built more of a community and also became part of the community that already had been built here.
Most slept-on, underrated North Carolina artist Gail Gillespie is the shit. Travis Stuart … I don’t think Jake Fussell is slept on, nor is Joseph Decosimo, although he might be sleepy. Rob Fong and Maggie Schroder in Weaverville.
Favorite North Carolina musical memory/moment?
We first discovered we were a band in Mount Airy, North Carolina, in a cloud of hot dog steam. We were at a fiddler’s convention playing tunes really late at night, it sounded weird, we decided to record it.
Favorite non-musical North Carolina memory/moment?
We had a cockroach collection in our freezer once, our landlord found it and took it out of the freezer and left it out on the kitchen table like a dad finding a bong or something. He never asked us about it, but we stopped collecting.
Has North Carolina been a good place to be a musician?
There’s an intergenerational lineage of musicians here that are really supportive, a lot of fiddle festivals, a lot of opportunities to play for people who appreciate what we’re doing.
What's a question you wished you'd been asked and your answer to that question?
Q: Do you love each other?
A: Yes, we do.
What are the important shared sensibilities between you and your collaborators? Divergences?
We obviously share a sense of rhythm, maybe just from hanging out with each other too much, but also we all have overlap in our listening habits (Manco Sneed, Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotions album), and the places that we don’t overlap means we bring new sensibilities to the table (Tati loves the Oliver soundtrack, Nokosee loves Cats the Musical, Sonya loves Josie & The Pussycats, Tacke loves Charlie XCX). We also have a shared sense of humor, and we share an agreement that if it’s not fun we don’t do it, although now we are here having this phone meeting…
Are there misconceptions about you and/or your music you'd like to correct?
Because it’s based on a shared repertoire, a lot of people conceptualize this music as something you can just sit down and play with anybody. And while that’s kind of true - part of the beauty is you can sit down and play it with anybody - the real beauty of the music comes through relationships you build over years, the music that happens with people you’ve invested in on a personal level.
Do you view your music as self-expression? Or is it more abstract? Or both?
It does feel like a form of self-expression, even though it’s music we didn’t compose. It isn’t how we’re taught to think about self-expression today; there’s a cultural idea of self expression as originating completely from the interior, or that you can’t be original unless you’re playing music you wrote. Whereas really all ‘original’ creativity is a reflection of a time and a place and your influences … and maybe in some ways playing from a traditional repertoire makes that clearer, and makes us stand out more clearly against the backdrop of it. A lot of our favorite traditional artists have really distinct styles, and that’s inspired us to find our own way of expressing ourselves through this material. Traditional music has always been a means of self expression. I also feel like playing with Hard Drive is an expression of energy, a container for a specific sort of wildness. Beyond the music, a place for us to be outside of ourselves, throw ideas out, a growing, a part of ourselves that isn’t available elsewhere.
Tati: Also musically it allows for an outlet, a way of playing that I don’t feel able to access with other people.
Does humor have a place in your music?
Yes, it’s one big joke. Usually Tati pees her pants laughing during rehearsal at some point.
Is music a job, a vocation, or hobby for you?
All of the above and a source of trauma to boot.
Are genre concepts meaningful to you?
We’re actually a fusion band, people don’t get that (haha). We’re drawing from a pretty blended array of styles… Texas fiddle repertoire with early country music, bluegrass, switching between early string band repertoire and composed tunes from the ‘60s. I think from the outside it reads like we’re doing one really straightforward thing, and that’s because we’re being consistent with our approach, our presentation, and even our sound as a band.
Hopes and schemes for 2025 and beyond?
We have an album that will be released at some point … we’ll also be recording a new one in the spring.