Over the course of the past four-plus decades, esteemed bassist and songwriter Greg Norton has played with a variety of groups, including Hüsker Dü, Porcupine and The Gang Font. With the recent release of his band UltraBomb’s second album Dying to Smile via DC-Jam Records, Norton feels he’s making some of the strongest punk music he’s made in years.
“We’re convinced we’re playing the best punk rock on the planet at the moment,” Norton says. “And we’re also convinced that we’re recording the best punk albums that are coming out right now as well.”
“Playing in UltraBomb has that same feel of the early nucleus days of Hüsker Dü,” he continues. “The dynamic, everyone working together and developing songs and the sound. It feels really good. It takes me back to my youth, keeps me young.”
Completing the trio’s sound is Finny McConnell (best known for his three decades as singer/guitarist of the Canadian Irish folk-punk band The Mahones) and Jamie Oliver (who spent 15 years playing drums for UK punk group UK Subs). A few years ago, Norton got a message seemingly out of the blue from McConnell to join him and Oliver for an impromptu session. They instantly found a tight musical connection with each other, leading them to form UltraBomb and record the band’s 2022 debut Time to Burn.
While that debut is one that showcases the trio finding its footing and laying the groundwork for its identity, Dying To Smile finds a much more confident group that’s played together a bunch and has a better grasp of what it wants – a real band, Norton notes.
“For our second album, we’ve actually been an actual band,” he says. “We’d actually been out on tour. We had a better idea of what we wanted to put together.”
The group is looking forward to taking the new music on tour, with tours of Europe and the U.S. in the works for later this year.
Scummy Water Tower caught up with Norton to discuss what makes this group special, why punk still matters and how the Japanese phrase “Ichigo Ichie” keeps music interesting for him.
Your band UltraBomb recently released its sophomore album. How do you feel about getting another new album out?
I feel fantastic about it. I really love this new record and I’m happy that we recorded it at the beginning of December of last year and here it is, the beginning of June and it’s out. That’s great. We tried to put the first one out ourselves and we didn’t do a real good job. We kind of messed up with that, so really happy to have partnered with DC-Jam Records and I think the record’s going to do really well.
How did your goals making this one compare to the debut album?
Well, the debut album, the band basically got together online, and we had a concept to just kind of get together for laughs and play some cover songs and then Finney was like, “Hey, I’ve got studio time booked in Berlin. Jamie’s going to be here.” I had never actually met those guys, so I just decided on a flier to book a flight to Berlin and go and see if this was actually going to be something, and it turned out to be great. That first record was recorded, literally the first two days that I had met these guys.
The first time that we had ever been together was that first afternoon in the studio and it felt like I’d known him forever. It felt like we’d been playing together forever, really happy with how the songs that we came up with for Time to Burn. For our second album, we’ve actually been an actual band. We’d actually been out on tour. We had a better idea of what we wanted to put together. Again, this record was written in the first two days in the studio. We wrote 12 songs, not necessarily how we want to continue making records, but we had a better idea of how the process was going to work. And I really think the band is really starting to develop its own style, its own sound. We sound like a band, not that the first one didn’t sound like a band, but we’re really coming together now into our own.
You’re no stranger to being part of a trio. What do you like about that format?
I love playing in power trios. I don’t know, just something about it just really has always worked well for me. Playing tight with the drummer, having a great guitar player, and just the dynamic of the three of us. Also, it makes it a little bit easier because it’s only three of us instead of say four or five or six. Or I think if you go beyond that, you got to start adding horn players and then you turn into a ska band. I just really enjoy that dynamic of a trio.
It looks like most of the songs were ones that you wrote.
I wrote all of the lyrics for the first record and all of the lyrics for this new one, with the exception of “West in the Summertime,” which Jamie actually wrote. Jamie actually plays all of the parts on it. He laid down the guitar parts, I laid down the bass parts. Finney sang his lyrics. But yeah, all of the rest of the UltraBomb songs, all the lyrics have been written by me.
How does what you’re able to do as a songwriter with this group compare to other groups you’ve been part of?
Well, in Hüsker Dü it was more of a thing where if you wrote it, you were also responsible for the music. I mean, I had some co-writes with Bob [Mould], where Bob wrote the music, I wrote the lyrics. But with this, I mean I’m constantly writing lyrics, constantly writing down ideas for lyrics, and I’ll put them together into what I feel is a finished song. When we get together [as UltraBomb], Finney writes the guitar parts. We take those, we turn it into a song, make an arrangement out of it, tempo feel, where the verses are, where the choruses are, if there’s a bridge, if there’s an intro, outro, whatever. We put it into an arrangement that we’re all comfortable with. And then it’s actually after that is when the lyrics get matched up with what we’ve laid down musically. So, it’s an interesting dynamic because as I’m writing lyrics, I may have an idea for a melody in my head as I’m writing it, but then it ends up being applied to music that I wasn’t expecting, and I think it really turns out right that way.
You said that it was kind of a spur of a moment where the other guys invited you to come over to play?
Yeah. Finn contacted me through Messenger and we saw that I was no longer playing with anyone and just suggested we start a band with Jamie. It’s kind of a crazy idea to get involved with two other guys that live in two different countries. I mean, we’re an international trio, which certainly has its challenges to even logistically get together to talk about and make plans. But it’s been working out so far with the internet and being able to FaceTime with people. It’s a lot easier than 40 years ago. It would’ve been impossible to have a band with a guy in Canada, a guy in England and a guy in the States.
Yeah. What is the story behind the name UltraBomb?
We were trying to come up with a name for the group and it was a friend of Jamie’s that came up with UltraBomb and we just really kind of liked it. It was one of those names that could go either way. Either you could be really great, and you’ll be the ultra bomb, or you guys could have really been horrible, in which case it would’ve been the ultra bomb. So that was pretty funny, but I think it works. I like it.
Why did you feel the album’s title, Dying to Smile, is a good fit for this collection?
That was just kind of an idea that Jamie had come up with, and I think there are a lot of situations in life where you want to be happy and you’re dying to smile, but sometimes you can’t, and you have to do things in your life to get to a point where you can smile and be happy and feel good about yourself.
What were some of the biggest surprises writing and recording this album?
There are definitely some great fast songs that are outright punk, rock bangers that turned out really great, but we’ve got a few other songs on the record that have kind of a really a real different feel to them. Little different tempos. “Woke Wars,” “Never Better,” “Just Cut” and “Isolation” are four songs that I think are a bit of a departure from what we had been doing, but I think they all turned out really well and I’m really happy with them.
You recorded the album in London. What did you like about recording over there?
London is one of my favorite cities on the planet. We recorded with Pat Collier at Perry Vale Studios. Pat was the original bass player from the band The Vibrators. He’s very efficient and I think he really captured a great base tone for me. And I knew he would. But being familiar with the city, it just kind of felt like being at home and being able to go to the studio and had time to burn when we recorded it in Berlin. I had never been to Berlin before, and so that was a very different experience for me. But yeah, it was very comfortable in London.
What’s tour life been like with this band?
Being on tour with these guys is great because we’re good friends. We get along with each other as we’re moving forward. Obviously playing on bigger tours and bigger venues, you’re a bit more tied to a tighter schedule where everybody needs to be on the same page. That’s still a little bit of a challenge but moving forward that’ll get better and get easier.
I imagine the tours are quite a bit tamer than ones from the past.
Well, the early days of Husker, I mean it was literally the Wild West. It was all DIY. You were dependent on getting contact phone numbers that you would write down in a notebook and finding a payphone and calling somebody to see if you could set up a show. And then we were young and didn’t have any money, so we were always looking for a place to stay, and oddly enough, when you’re a touring band and somebody says, “yeah, you can stay at my house,” that’s usually where the after party ends up and everybody wants to keep you up all night and at a certain point for who we were like, okay, we can’t keep doing this because we have to.
The next city is going to be the same thing, where the town you just left, those people could call in and take the day off or sleep all day, whatever they wanted. We had to do it all over again touring. Now we’re staying in hotels or if we do have friends that have a place to stay, it’s a lot more calmer. It’s important to take care of yourself on the road, and I would say that’d be the major difference.
What are some of your wildest tour stories?
The early Hüsker days, like I said, there were a lot of after parties, wherever we ended up being housed for the evening. Or it would be I’d drink coffee all night and then we’d load up and I’d drive overnight to get to the next city because it was a 6, 7, 8 hour drive out west. A definite highlight for Hüsker in our last years was playing at Glastonbury in England. That tour, we actually had a tour bus, so that was actually a pretty crazy experience and just the fact that we played the main stage at Glastonbury was pretty wild.
I’d say it was a definite highlight for UltraBomb playing at Punk Rock Bowling [music festival] last year was fantastic. It was my first trip to Vegas for Punk Rock Bowling, and it was literally a life changing experience for me. I liked it so much. I went just a couple weeks ago for this year’s Punk Rock Bowling just to hang out and see friends and listen to new music and it was great.
There was a segment recently on John Mulaney’s latest Netflix show called “Old Punks.” Fred Armisen got Mike Watt and a bunch of others together to ask them different questions about punk music. I found that to be very interesting.
I’m going to have to watch that. Fred has been a longtime fan of Hüsker and punk rock and he’s good friends with Bob Mould and we’ve corresponded through emails over the years, but I’ve never actually met him, but that’s really great. Like I said, I’m going to have to watch that because that’s pretty cool. I’m sure Mike Watt had a few interesting things to say because he’s Mike Watt. He always does.
Yeah, for sure. What do you think about how punk rock has aged over the years?
I think a lot of it is held up really well. I mean, sure, some of it may sound dated and I think there is a fantastic younger generation coming up that’s playing punk rock and a lot of them are coming up with real original things, but it has that same spirit and energy. I think there are some bands out there that are still just doing what they’ve always done and people like it and that’s great, but I like to see them share a fresh take on it. I actually feel that UltraBomb does have a fresh take on it. We’re definitely not a nostalgia act. We’re not out trying to recreate the past. We’re writing music for today. I just hope it holds up as well as the older records have. In my opinion, those records are all timeless.
Why is punk rock still important to you and relatable to you?
Punk rock is important and relatable to me because punk rock is more than just a look or a style of music to me. Like I said, going out to Punk Rock Bowling was life-changing because it’s one of those things where it’s like, Hey, I’ve found my tribe, I’ve found my people. It’s a community, it’s all inclusive. People are there to help other people and that’s what I think is the important thing about punk is that sense of community and the fact that we all do better when we all do better, and that’s what everybody’s there for is to help everyone else just be better. And that’s all I want to be. I just want to be a little bit better myself. So, keep trying to be better every day.
With the new album, what’s a song or two that really surprised you and how it came together?
“Just Cut.” It definitely surprised me how that one turned out. I really love just the whole feel of the song and how I think it’s got a very singable chorus. Also, “Never Better” and “Woke Wars,” both of those songs surprised me how well they turned out. So, I love the new record. I think it’s great, and I hope all your listeners love the new record and think it’s great as well.
What type of bass guitar are you playing these days on stage at home?
Well, I have been touring with a G&L Kiloton [bass], which I got probably about eight years ago. Really liked the bass. G&L is Leo Fender’s company that he started after he left Fender. But right after I got back from this tour, I got a new bass from Reverend Guitars. I got one of their basses called a Thundergun, and I really like it a lot. Reverend is the company that makes the Wattplower Bass, Mike Watt’s custom bass. Linh Le from Bad Cop / Bad Cop plays a custom bass that they built for her. They’re really great instruments. They’ve got a great sound, a great feel. I can’t wait to actually get out on the road with this bass.
It sounds like the band will be going on a couple tours later this year. What can you tell me about them?
Well, we’re working on them right now. It’ll probably be fall when we get out, but hopefully we’ll tour the West Coast, Pacific Northwest down through the Southwest back to Texas, and then another tour back to the East Coast and probably at the end of the year we’ll get back to Europe and England. But yeah, right now that’s our focus is to get out on the road and play as many live shows as we can and keep exposing UltraBomb to new fans and we’re convinced we’re playing the best punk rock on the planet at the moment. And we’re also convinced that we’re recording the best punk albums that are coming out right now as well.
When you started playing with the other two guys, were you familiar with their previous bands?
Well, I mean, of course I knew who the UK Subs were, but I can’t say that I was listening to them a lot and I wasn’t familiar with The Mahones until Finney actually reached out and friended me on Facebook, and this would’ve been about nine years ago. The Mahones have a really deep catalog. I’ve heard a lot of it, but not all of it as well as the UK Subs. So, I had to do my homework and find out who these guys were. I like to listen.
What’s one project you’d love to work on but haven’t had a chance to? That could be either music or non-music.
Well, there’s kind of a music project that I play in with. The other guys in the band are all top-notch jazz musicians. I mean they’re world renowned as well in their own world. In the jazz world, the band is called Gang Font and that’s a really fun group to play with. It’s not jazz, it’s not rock, it’s not punk, it’s not progressive. It’s kind of all of those things kind of combined and it’s just a really interesting project to play with and a lot of fun. But because they’re all world-famous touring jazz musicians, it’s really tough to get together. We used to manage about one gig a year, but we haven’t played together now in about five years.
Anything else that you’re looking forward to in the future?
Getting back into the studio and recording the third UltraBomb album. We already basically have the riffs and the lyrics ready to go. But really mostly I’m just looking forward to getting out and playing, getting the band out on the road, keeping the band out on the road and playing live because every performance is unique and special. I believe there’s a Japanese phrase [called “Ichigo Ichie”] which means “this moment will never happen again.”
So, everything that you do, you are doing it for the last time. It keeps you in the moment and keeps you focused so that you make the most of it and you enjoy it. Every UltraBomb show is different in that respect. Everything that we do in our lives is different every time that we do it, so it’s kind of a good way to keep focused and stay positive
It also seems like a good way to keep yourself from getting too complacent.
Right. Complacency, that’s the worst thing that can end up being. I think you need to continue to evolve and like I said, just try to be better every day in everything that you do. I’ve never shied away from negative criticism because in my opinion, that’s the only way that you actually will learn and grow. I think if you get surrounded with people that just tell you that, “oh, you’re great, that was great. Everything you do is great,” eventually your mind hears it so much that you end up believing that you’re great and that you can’t do anything wrong. And that’s bullshit. We all can fall flat on our face every single day, so you need that criticism in order for you to grow and keep being better.
You can follow UltraBomb on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and Greg Norton on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. You can listen to the band’s music via their YouTube page.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
