175: Tony Hajjar (At The Drive-In, Sparta, Gone is Gone)

The Trap Set with Joe Wong

Joe Wong

Joewong, Drums, Comedy, Performing Arts, Arts, Drummers

4.8 • 709 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2018

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tony Hajjar's explosive, emotionally-raw style propelled At The Drive-In to mainstream success. He tells Joe about emigrating to the US from Lebanon, losing both of his parents at an early age, his tight relationship with his brother, the band dynamic of ATDI, breaking up just after breaking into the mainstream, Sparta, staying in a psychological "survival mode", creating the stability he's always craved, and creating a thriving business with his wife.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And so my mom passed, I literally stopped playing drums as a punishment almost to myself.
0:18.8	This is Joe Wong. Welcome to the Trap Set, where each week we explore the lives of drummers.
0:25.6	I want to play something for you.
0:27.6	I want to play something for you. You're hearing despondent at high noon by by At the Drive-In featuring my guest Tony
0:57.4	Hajar on drums. Tony emigrated to the US at a young age and began playing drums
1:03.5	after his brother and legal guardian okayed it with everyone else in the family's
1:07.7	apartment complex. Tony is at the drive-in's fourth drummer, but his intense, emotionally raw style anchored what
1:15.6	is now known as the classic lineup of the band.
1:19.0	At the Drive and achieved mainstream success with its 2000 album Relationship of Command, and
1:24.3	the band broke up soon after its release aside from his work without the
1:28.5	drive-in Tony's drumming can be heard with bands such as Sparta and Gone is Gone
1:32.3	is Gone at the Drive and reformed in 2012 and is currently on tour I spoke to Tony in downtown
1:39.4	Los Angeles And now my conversation with Tony Hajar.
1:50.0	And now my conversation with Tony Hajar.
1:52.0	I was born in Beirut, Lebanon.
2:04.9	Yeah.
2:05.4	And we were refugees during the war in the 70s.
2:08.7	And we had a lot of family in El Paso.
2:11.6	And so we moved to El Paso because my uncle was there
2:14.5	and he helped us get all our paperwork and our green cards and stuff.
2:18.1	And so we just, that's, you know, of all the places we're like El Paso it is because we had family.
2:24.5	And then how's it?
	...

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