On March 7, 2026, at XL Live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I caught up with the members of Ballyhoo! before their show for a candid conversation about the band's evolution, their fiercely independent approach to music, and the loyal fan base that has followed them for nearly three decades. Known for blending punk energy, reggae grooves, rock momentum, and pop melodies into their own brand of what they often call "beach rock," Ballyhoo! has built a reputation as one of the hardest-working bands in the reggae-rock scene. In our conversation, the band reflected on staying true to their sound, navigating changes within the genre, the influence of a recent trip to Japan on their upcoming tenth album, and why authenticity - both musically and personally - has always been at the heart of Ballyhoo!.

Hunnypot: You've been blending reggae, punk, and pop for years - how has your sound evolved without losing the core Ballyhoo! identity you first started out with?

Howi: I think it's just... stay true to ourselves. And we were kind of told to lean more into reggae and that sound because it was really popular. It was in our scene or whatever. And be more, do some stuff like that. I never liked that. I never liked that attitude or that approach because you have to like the product that you're making at the end of the day. And I don't want to sell my soul, and it's definitely probably cost us in some ways - maybe we could be making more money - but I don't know, man. I just want to be happy with what I'm making. And I think to stand true, like I said, we've always been a rock band first with reggae fusion, and I love Green Day, Sublime, Goldfinger, you know, and it gives us a chance to rock out. It gives us a chance to kind of groove a bit with the reggae stuff. And that sound, I like that sound that we produce. And we'll throw in little things here and there, like little metal breakdowns. We're about to be finished making a new album, album number 10. There's a new metal breakdown in one of the songs. It's just really weird. But yeah, I think just staying true and consistent.

Hunnypot: As an independent band for much of your career, what have been the biggest lessons in building and sustaining your own movement and careers?

Howi: We always try to put on the best show possible, make sure people want to come back and make sure that we sound great - so we hire people that make us look and sound great for crew. And we try to always put our best foot forward when we record, when we release something. It's not just going to be crap just to fill up Spotify or fill up our catalog. It's always going to be something that we're proud of. And sometimes it takes a little longer than we'd like, but again, it's not going to be slop. And I think that's definitely part of it. Also, serving your community that you're building, making sure that you're over-delivering on the things that you promise, whether it's like a merch drop or your VIP - don't just be charging $100 for a photo kind of thing. Make sure you're engaging and you're giving them more than what they pay for, you know, in a sense. I think those things and just being cool and being kind and not being a d**k also goes all the way. Because people remember that s**t. And you never know where this guy is going to end up 10 years down the road. And they could be in a position to make or break you in whatever sense. Yeah. I don't know. Just again, consistency, just doing the thing.

Hunnypot: Your live shows are known for high energy, that connection with the crowd - how do you approach setlist building to balance nostalgia and new material?

Scott: Try to... hit it with high energy up. Definitely try to hit the ground running, you know, right up in your face with some high-energy punk rock right off the top. And then, you know, working some of the favorites and some of the slower stuff. Try to keep it on a roller coaster ride. But start high energy and finish high energy.

Hunnypot: I love it. And I can say, yes, I agree.

Howi: So, we can have the rock show but deliver all that. The fun stuff!

Hunnypot: Reggae-rock has shifted a lot since you first started. How do you see the genre today compared to when Ballyhoo! came up?

Scott: There's a lot more bands. A lot!

Howi: The sound has changed immensely as far as what the popular sound is within this genre. It started out with bands like us - more rock-oriented, kind of a Sublime vibe, mixing punk rock and reggae and all that. And then it sort of evolved into sometimes sleepy reggae or just more melodic reggae, with not a whole lot of rock elements. And then, of course, Stick Figure started building his thing. He really stuck to his guns. He found his formula and his brand is very ethereal and positive and uplifting and it touches people in a certain way. We sort of just kept our rock roots because it's what we were. We weren't going to change that because we don't want to. But it sort of moved us to the background a little bit. And nowadays there's a lot more production, a lot more synths and cool sounds and things. But I think that's just in music in general. So it is wild to see it. It is flourishing. And you see that with all the reggae festivals - Reggae Rise Up, Cali Roots, you know. So it's wild.

Hunnypot: And you see these festivals, it's not only reggae - you've got hip-hop bands now. You got rock, actually rock bands or whatever.

Howi: So there's a big umbrella and there's like different flavors. Every band's got a flavor.

Hunnypot: You've built a fiercely loyal fan base. Like you guys, your fans are crazy. What do you think makes your audience stick with you year after year after year?

Howi: We have awesome fans. And again, it goes back to us. You have to build trust with your fan base. You have to, again, make sure you're delivering on the things that you say you're going to do, over-deliver on these things. But yeah, it kind of goes back to what I said earlier - just being consistent, trying to put on the best show possible every time, putting out the best music you can put out. Remaining in contact, being accessible, available, which is how social media is these days. People kind of expect to be able to talk to you. And we try to do that. We try to be in the DMs and in the comments and, "yo, thanks so much." And just to let people know that we're grateful for them because we wouldn't be here without them. And it means a lot to us. So yeah, I think that's why people come back.

Hunnypot: So, a lot of your posts more recently are about, well, our f****** president. And believe me, I love your posts. I absolutely love your posts. So, is there that fear that you're going to lose fans?

Howi: Not at all. Nope.

Donald: They can kick rocks.

Howi: And if anything, we're going to get more fans. And that's not why I do it. But I do it because I'm f****** concerned and I want people to understand. Sometimes I feel like I need to establish - this is where I stand on this, by the way. You can do whatever you want, but then I get people in my DMs saying, "I don't like the politics, bro, but I'll see you next Saturday," or the complete opposite of that. I had a guy back in December that was like, f**k you, f****** d**k. F**k you, you're s***ty, you know, like, I'm just like, oh, because I care about what happens to people. Right. Like, oh, I'm sorry. Because I'm the bad guy.

Donald: Nick had "F**k Trump" on the back of the bass and he would pop it up every now and then. Some girl actually yelled at our merch guy - attacked him! Got in his face and screamed at him.

Howi: They call the left the bottom ones, right? It was like a month after he got in office and he was doing some crazy a** s**t. So we're p***ed off. I think - I don't know how you can be in a punk band or a reggae band. I don't understand how you can say you're a reggae fan and follow him.

Donald: Makes zero sense.

Nick: They're the farthest apart. The whole message of reggae is to fight against oppression and s**t. Yes, and punk too. Don't act surprised when the dude in the punk band doesn't appreciate that. And uses the platform to be able to get to so many people.

Howi: People are like, "Stick to music and delete that post." Like, f**k no, dude. Because I'm a taxpaying citizen. Music's about the message.

Donald: Yeah, so this guy right here, man (pointing at Howi), he's on the internet all the time. He's always putting something good up.

Hunnypot: Oh, I love your posts. I mean, I love it, and I share it with friends of mine that don't follow you guys that aren't like reggae fans.

Howi: I checked. I was curious. I looked at my followers from the last year, a couple months ago, and I lost 900 but I gained 2,200. We can prune out these f****** people. I don't want those types of people at my show. Look, I don't care if you're a MAGA guy and you come to a Ballyhoo! show and you have a good time. I don't care about that. You come to the show. Have a great time. Everybody's allowed to be there. But don't come with your b*******. We invite everybody to come. I don't care if you're gay or trans - whatever you're doing at the show - but don't f**k with my audience, don't f**k with our people. I like to let people know that I don't f**k with people like that. So if you're like that and you want to go, there's the f****** door.

Hunnypot: What role does vulnerability play in your songwriting, especially when you're balancing that feel-good vibe with more introspective themes?

Howi: So much, so much. My formula for songwriting has always been happy music with dark lyrics. There's something about it that makes people feel connected and makes them feel better about their own situation. Because everybody's going through the same s**t. It's all hard for all of us. None of us are unique in that way. And I feel like when I talk about my s**t, everybody can relate to it. And for me, most of the time, the best way to do that is to make it sound fun. Every now and then you get to sound like "Meaningful," which is like a big downer, you know? People ask me to play that at parties and I say, "You really want to play that right now?"

Nick: Yeah, why? Because it means something to them.

I get it. I understand, you know. But yeah, so vulnerability - I just like to show that, yeah, all of us are like that. And I hope this song helps you because I wrote it for me, you know, so I hope it helps you.

Hunnypot: Looking back at your early touring days, what was that moment that made you realize - like, we're bigger than this local band that's just starting out, like we're starting to hit it?

Howi: We were on the road probably three or four years. And when we started doing like 100, 150, 200 people, I was like, oh, this is cool. And then after - it was probably when the Cheers album dropped, third record, we started getting a lot of people buying the record. We were selling a lot of records on CD at the time. And then 2012 was a big year for us. Daydreams had just come out. We were on the Warp Tour that summer and we were getting played on the radio. I mean, that right there. It was like, we're more than a local band at this point. So maybe it was then, you know, national radio play. Literally, we were getting added. It wasn't just like a specialty thing. Like, summer nights at 11 o'clock, it was like... Foo Fighters, Ballyhoo!, Green Day, you know what I mean? Just like, went in the mix.

Hunnypot: Collaboration has been a big part of your journey. What do you look for when you're looking for an artist or a band that you want to collaborate with?

Nick: Someone that fits us. You want someone that fits the bill. I mean, we just did a record with this guy, John Feldman, from Goldfinger. And we were looking to do a more rock album. And instead of getting some reggae guy, we went to the rock guy. And it turns out, f****** awesome. Or just when it comes to a feature on a song, it's got to fit the vibe of the song. I'm not going to get the dude from the rock band on the reggae song and vice versa. And luckily, we have a lot of friends that play all types of music. So that works out really well for us.

Hunnypot: You went to Japan. And that kind of turned, from what I've seen, the maybe reggae-surf vibe to maybe a little more back to your roots. So, can you talk about that a little bit?

Howi: Yeah, we went to Japan and we got two shows in. And we were trying to play a good mix, I guess, but we were playing a lot of our bigger songs, which are mostly the reggae, kind of poppy stuff. And we were talking, and he's like, you know, we should be rocking out more. Alright, had a couple of requests with some of the more chill ones, so let's do those two. But then added in like "Gas Station Burrito" and something else?

Nick: The bands that we were playing with were playing rock. And if it's reggae, it's just reggae - basically Ska, reggae adjacent. Okay. And we're going up there playing "Social Drinker" and a couple of stuff like that. Obviously, we have to play "Mixtape." We have to play "Walk Away." But by the end of the run, I was screaming on every song except for "Walk Away." Even in the comments and stuff, people, for the new record, are saying there better be screams on most of the songs. My favorite song is "Riddled with Bullets." You guys should just play that song 10 times in a row. So like, we do have a fan base that's kind of divided. You have the casual listeners that are into "Walk Away." They discovered us through Pandora or whatever. Then you have the diehards, like you mentioned, that they just want to hear the rock stuff. You know? And us as players, I mean, I want to go up there and play the rock stuff all night. And going over there and being able to do that, it's f****** awesome. We definitely took a little bit of that back with us. A couple of the new tunes. There's the band that we opened up for - HEY-SMITH. And they had this one song where they dumped it out right at the end, but it was like, aggressive. And me and Howi looked at each other, like, man, that's so cool. And then he wrote a song and the bridge part, it's like derivative of that. I was like, dude, that's so sick.

Howi: Yeah, so the Japan trip - we came back thinking, all right, we need to rock out. Someone said, because we posted one of those videos from the Japan performance, and someone said, "God, you guys look like you're really stoked to be playing these songs." And I was like, you know what? We are, we were. And it's like, we need to maybe do more of that. And so I started writing intentionally more punk rock, more rock, just to get more of that in the catalog and then eventually into the setlist, because I love playing the big songs - "Social Drinker" and all the ones that people know, "Middle Finger," of course - but we also want to rip. I still to this day want to be Billie Joe Armstrong, you know? So we want to have a rock show - but it's all fun. That's the end.

Nick: We had to rebrand ourselves as "Beach Rock." Because we're getting lumped in with like Tribal Seeds and all these guys. And they're great and they're great at what they do. But it's not the same. That's not who we are. And even if we go up there and tailor the set, it's still not the same.

Howi: It's not reggae enough. We're just too heavy.

Nick: And then we're all metal dudes. I grew up playing hardcore, you know.

Hunnypot: What sparked that creative direction for the album that you're currently working on? Was there a specific moment or theme that set it in motion, or was it Japan?

Donald: I think it's just more fun to play rock songs for me as a drummer - playing reggae songs, just going on the same beat the entire time, is just boring for me. So playing the rock music is way more exciting in my opinion.

Nick: In combination with that, we all listen to different stuff, but I feel like recently we've been listening to a couple of the same bands. And we've kind of been locking on to some of that stuff. Like there's a couple of styles that are really popular in rock right now, and we're just like, man, we really love this and we should start doing stuff like this. And it's awesome when you really love the music that you're making, right? Instead of being like, oh, it'll get people in the door, sell t-shirts or whatever. It's like, no, I f****** love this. I would listen to this at the gym. I'd listen to this on a car ride.

Hunnypot: Nick, a quick question for you about bass - what I love about reggae is the bass. When I sit there and listen to that reggae bass, I feel like it's my heartbeat. So what's your relationship with bass? Do you like that reggae bass? Or what is it you like?

Nick: So, coming from a rock world, bass definitely takes a backseat to the guitars. That's the thing I love about reggae - bass is more leading. And the fact that we blend the genres, I get a little bit of both. And yeah, I f****** love it. I love it. I get to shine in certain songs, take a backseat in certain ones. It's great, man.

Hunnypot: How does the new project differ - which you guys already hit on a little bit earlier - but, you know, sonically and emotionally from the previous releases?

Howi: I think at the end of the day, as I said, I was intentionally writing rock - heavier stuff - but I knew that it was probably going to end up with a couple of reggae songs in there as well. Because I personally can't deny that sound, because I just love it. And we did write a few reggae songs while we were there. So it's just going to end up being a really cool Ballyhoo! record again, a la Detonate, Daydreams, Pineapple Grenade, stuff like that. And it just sonically is going to sound way better - way bigger, you know? Like, we went to the pros for this one and it really sounds like that.

Nick: That's polished.

Howi: Very polished. Very modern-sounding, which was another thing. The key word was modern - a little more modern sound, more production. I don't know. The songs - it's Ballyhoo!, but just more epic.

Nick: Epic, yeah. Bigger and better Ballyhoo!

Hunnypot: On the new album, is there a particular track that's really kind of the heartbeat of that album - that one that's going to pull everybody in?

Howi: I feel like "Bad Summer" is a new one. The song called "Bad Summer," which is very... it's a vibe. It's all I can explain. It kind of has a modern '80s glam rock sort of - like Ballyhoo! playing Def Leppard or something. You know what I mean? Def Leppard were probably the best players in that genre back in the '80s, them and Ratt. But like it's kind of like Def Leppard.

Howi: Yeah, Ratt and Poison was our first concert. '88. We saw Def Leppard.

Donald: Hair metal is why we are playing music now. I was four years old. Our daddy didn't wait long.

Howi: Yeah, so yeah, I really love "Bad Summer." "Thunderstorms" is another one from the new album. There's something called "The Alchemist," which is very Green Day. When you hear it, we were not afraid to show it.

Donald: That's the one with the burnout drumbeat.

Howi: Yeah, it kind of has a burnout feel. Literally sounds like burnout. But there are some bangers on there.

Hunnypot: Without giving too much away - which you've already been talking about anyway - what do you hope longtime fans and also new listeners feel when they hit play on this new record?

Howi: I just want them to be like, oh s**t, this is f****** fire.

Donald: Want's a car to blow up? Ha ha ha!

Nick: Immediately go to our website and buy all the merch! Ha! That's just too good. Like Howi said, I just hope that we over-deliver on this one and give fans more of what they want and then cast an even wider net. Yeah. There's some really good s**t on there. I think old fans and new fans will like it. And it's something that we're all really proud of.

Howi: This isn't an album where we've reinvented ourselves. It's not like that. We're not doing anything different. It's just bigger. And the songs are just super hooky. There are so many great melodies. And as I said, the production itself just sounds bigger sonically. Back in the day, you'd say major-label quality, radio-ready kind of thing. This is kind of what it is. It's no different than what we've done. It's just more focused and intentional, I think. There's bands that you love and then over the years they make a new record and it's like they just wanted to break it all down and start from scratch, and then it's like their worst album. And you're like, I don't like this. That's not what this is. We're not reinventing the wheel. We're not reinventing ourselves.

Nick: Focusing on more aspects of our style.

Howi: Yeah, there are a few newer elements we're adding in, but it doesn't change the vibe or ethos or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, it's just a bigger, more rocking value album, I think.

Hunnypot: When are you guys releasing it? Do you know?

Nick: Hopefully August.

Howi: Yeah, beginning of August. We'll have a release date officially. We have to get the mixes back first to make sure everything's good. The plan now is to start dropping singles in May and then every four weeks until the record drops.

Hunnypot: Last question, and I need each one of you to answer this. It's a question I end every one of my interviews with. If you could only listen to one album the rest of your life, what would it be?

Nick: If it was just one for the rest of my life, I guess it would be this album called The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by a band called Brand New.

Howi: It'd be Insomniac by Green Day.

Mike: This might be a little recency bias speaking, but I really like Zach Bryan's album American Heartbreak. It has almost 30 songs, so it's got plenty. And that'll always be one of my favorites.

Donald: Honestly, I'd probably say Nirvana Unplugged.

Scott: Beastie Boys, Ill Communication.

Howi: I was going to guess a Slayer record.

Scott: I bounced around a few times, but it's a great record. It's long. It's all over the place, too. It's a lot of different styles.

Hunnypot: I appreciate it, guys. Thank you very much. Is there anything else you guys just want to say to fans, to anybody, just add in?

Nick: Stick to music, bro. Ha! Be good to each other.

Howi: Yeah, be kind.

Nick: Yeah, be awesome to each other.

Howi: Don't be a d**k. F**k ICE, f**k Donald Trump!

Nick: Support art, come to a show - not even our show. If you love a band, go to a show, buy a shirt. Nowadays, that s**t's few and far between.

As the conversation wrapped up and showtime approached, one thing became clear: Ballyhoo! is still fueled by the same passion that started the band nearly three decades ago. Whether it's experimenting with heavier rock influences, connecting directly with fans, or speaking openly about the issues they care about, the band remains committed to doing things on their own terms. With their tenth album on the horizon and new music expected to start dropping in May ahead of a planned August release, Ballyhoo! shows no signs of slowing down. If the energy and excitement they expressed in this conversation is any indication, the next chapter of the band's journey may be one of their biggest yet - and fans old and new will be ready to ride along.

One Love - Todd M. Judd