LVHRD: From reggae spewing comic editors to sexy burlesque dancers, the LVHRD DRTS series aims to keep you informed about the wild diversity that lives within LVHRD’s lavish lap. And today, we’re talking to Rob Hudak, who dabbles in anything that just feels right to him. So, Rob, before we get started, please state what you do.

Rob Hudak: Interactive Design, Creative Director.

LVHRD: So you mention interactive director and the like, but no music. What do you consider your music then? A creative release? An outlet?

Rob Hudak: I mentioned interactive cause it’s what I consider my occupation at this point. There was a time when music was my occupation. From age 14 to about 24, I made my “living” playing in a band. And if we could cerebrally punch in a time clock, I would say that music would take up most of my day.

LVHRD: What was the name of the band?

Rob Hudak: The band was Boogie Man Smash. I can’t take credit for the name, though. The name came from a seven year old. He was asked to name the band and made a crayon drawing of a monster with the words Boogie Man Smash on it.

LVHRD: Where does your music come from? Being from Ohio, it has a bit of a twang to it.

Rob Hudak: Yes, it does. My father worked in a Steel Mill and I was allowed to stay up very late as a kid. We lived atop a valley and the mills were down in there so when he worked the graveyard shift, I’d go for a ride when I was 3 or 4. There would be this big, black building with fire coming out of it. So when I’d get home, I’d hear the trains blowing from down below in the valley, bringing the iron ore to the mills, so my first songs were when I was five and sitting on the stoop in our kitchen.

LVHRD: What was your first instrument?

Rob Hudak: I had a plastic guitar and I’d bang on it and sing about the trains. I was a big fan of “I’ve been working on the railroad,” back then. So I was always singing my own versions of it.

LVHRD: So tell us about Full Tilt Records.

Rob Hudak: It’s a label that I started with a friend of mine. Initially, it was used to release 7” singles for the Newborn Naturals, which was a band I was in while I lived in New York City. Then we put out a record by Purple Wizard, who are a great band but have no outlet to release the recordings they were doing in their basement.

LVHRD: We know you live in New Orleans now, but before we get to that, how did you go from living in Ohio to doing advertising in New York?

Rob Hudak: Well, I guess I grew up with the notion [that] you always had to have something to “fall back on.” I went to college in my hometown for Graphic Design. So I did that while I was in the band. Then I got out and into the real world and the band broke up just like the Bryan Adams’ song, “Summer of 69.”…so New York was the ONLY other place in the world as far as I was concerned. I was in a bunch of other weird jobs before finding something in advertising. I even drew patterns for baby clothes.

LVHRD: Did you draw the patterns for your own baby’s clothes?

Rob Hudak: Ha ha, no, I haven’t. My son is due Feb 28th, so my wife and I were in Babies R Us.

LVHRD: Being a New York lover, what was it like to move to New Orleans?

Rob Hudak: I only had romantic notions of two American cities and they were New York and New Orleans. New Orleans is hard to describe…you want to say it’s very European, but really, there’s no other place like it. I was thinking the other day about movies that are filmed in New York and how when you live in New York, it’s exactly like that-there’s no mistaking the feel of it. It’s the same for New Orleans. It can’t be duplicated. It has a soul and a spirit that shows up on film and it’s music.

LVHRD: What have you taken away from New York?

Rob Hudak: I’ve taken a whole lot from living in new York. The obvious things have to do with the work environment. You can’t get a better education in a workplace than being employed in New York…It makes you feel prepared for anything. But I am still getting used to having neighbors and a back yard. In New York, there’s more of a distance so it’s not necessary to be polite all the time. So I find myself nodding and saying hello to people and just getting strange looks.

LVHRD: Speaking of the Big Easy, how’s the content for the LVHRD MGZN coming?

Rob Hudak: The LVHRD MGZN piece is an audio “tour” of New Orleans. If you’ve seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the voice-over from that-that’s what I’m imagining. But don’t hold me to that!

LVHRD: What kind of music are you currently listening to right now?

Rob Hudak: Right now, I’m really into finding the absolute core of American music.

LVHRD: Current day or yesterday?

Rob Hudak: Yesterday. I’ve found it in the 1920’s and then discovered a guy from the 1800s. Then there’s Jelly Roll Morton and Lonnie Johnson, of course.

LVHRD: Good. So here are some quick questions. What do you fear most?

Rob Hudak: Right now, I fear a few things. Some real, some imagined. I fear that someone is going to knock on my door with a gun. So I fear some kind of ability to protect my family. I also have a fear of being a dad with stage fright.

LVHRD: Why do you fear the whole gun thing?

Rob Hudak: Yea-there are some desperate people here [in New Orleans] right now, and some crazy things have been happening. So some instinct has kicked in and I sleep with one eye open. A young documentary film-maker was actually killed. There was a march to protest the murders in New Orleans…Anyway, you talk about fear, and I’d say owning a house and having a baby on the way is putting a fear in me that I’m trying to put in good use…So I’m using it to work on myself-so it’s just learning to be less selfish. I guess then my fear is selfishness. Selfishness and desperate people with guns.

LVHRD: Interesting. So what do you desire most?

Rob Hudak: Beauty and mashed potatoes.

LVHRD: What excites you?

Rob Hudak: Rhythm and garter belts (Can I say that? SHOULD I say that?)

LVHRD: Yes, you should! Your greatest success?

Rob Hudak: My thought is that it’s yet to come. I’ve made a great time out of an accumulation of failures. But I did make this great pool shot in Mexico one time on a bet.

LVHRD: Your biggest failure?

Rob Hudak: That’s a tough one-which one is the biggest? I don’t know. I guess it was the girl I had a painful crush on when I was 12-I gave her a costume jewelry ring that my grandmother got out a Chesterfield Kings catalogue and she gave it back with a message .

LVHRD: What makes you happiest?

Rob Hudak: Feeling a connection with people.

LVHRD: What disgusts you?

Rob Hudak: Stubborn ignorance.

LVHRD: Your most valuable sense?

Rob Hudak: If I had to place a value on them, I would say that my hearing would sell for a lot more than the others, though my wife might tell you different.

LVHRD: WNK WNK, NDG NDG. Okay, last question. What’s the process to your work?

Rob Hudak: If there’s a pattern to it-cause there are times when there is a problem to solve and other times when it’s something out of thin air-but in either case, I see two patterns. One is that I visualize it completely in my mind. This is what I call the Greased Lighting theory. It’s the moment of inspiration. Here is this song and this car, and it’s all red with flames and it looks fantastic.

LVHRD: Right.

Rob Hudak: Then the actual Greased Lighting is built and you see it on screen for the first time and it’s this white car with silver flames… So it’s something that KINDA gets lost in the creation of it…which is kind of a failure, in a way…ANYWAYS…the other way happens more in songwriting and I think illustration, too, where you are a conduit for the idea, so it’s flowing through you and you’re trying to capture it in the moment.

LVHRD: Like a lightning rod.

Rob Hudak: Yes. And Tom Waits said a great thing about that. He said that it’s like in the cartoons when a person runs by and someone tries to grab them-but they are just left holding their underwear. So the songs are really just the underwear of the original inspiration. Those are amazing moments when they happen…But I still stand by the Greased Lightning Theory.

LVHRD: Bulls-eye!