Hitter is here to save good old fashioned rock and roll! Well, if you grew up in the 80s like us, this is the rock you were brought up on. Shades of KISS, Mötley Crüe, Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister, and so on, meet with a modern hard cord edge to form the perfect balance of nostalgia and fist pumping rage. Formed from long standing scene veterans Hanna “Hazard” Johnson (vocals), Adam “Lucky” Luksetich (guitar), Patrick “Rüsty" Woodall (bass), and Ryan “Wizkid” Wizniak (drums) their debut full length Hard Enough popped on the airwaves last Friday, capturing their raw live sound in an explosive sonic demolition. Available on Bandcamp, Hard Enough is worth every penny of the $7 asking price. We caught up with guitarist Luksetich to answer a few questions about how Hitter evolved, what prompted them to drop their debut in the middle of these crazy times, and how they found they formed that killer sound. 

Buy Hard Enough on Bandcamp today!

AL: Adam "Lucky" Luksetich

Your new record Hard Enough is being put out digitally in the midst of this crazy time. What prompted your decision to release it in this way?

AL: We'd been working on this sucker for almost 2 years from the beginning of the writing process, through rehearsing/playing the songs live, until recording them in a studio. So, in mid-March, when we had a finished mastering our record, we couldn't wait to get it out to people and find someone to press it up; but most people we talked to weren't in a position to put it out as COVID was in full swing. Since it doesn't seem like this lockdown was going to let up anytime soon, we just said: Fuck it! Let's just put it out now. We were tired of waiting and it could eventually come out someday in a physical format, but right now just digital.

How long had you been working on the record, where was it recorded and who produced?

AL: We started writing the songs back in June of 2018 that ended up on this record. So that's almost 2 years. Crazy. It was recorded at Electrical Audio here in Chicago, IL with our buddy Taylor Hales. He's the best.

Modern heavy metal is populated by so many sub-genre's it's dizzying, but Hitter hearkens back to the heyday of the music. Was it a conscious decision to embrace the sound of 80s metal or did it just happen this way when you all started writing together?

AL: Speaking personally, yes. I had been wanting to start a band that had a more metal sound for a while and remember asking friends and people I'd meet, "Hey, wanna start a band that sounds like 80's glam metal?" And they'd usually just laugh. I had always wanted to make music with Ryan and he was into the idea of doing something heavy, but also wanted to play in a band with our friends Hanna and Madalyn. So it was just sort of a no brainer to all try and play music together. Madalyn is no longer in the band, but the great thing about playing music with those three at the start (that still continues with Hanna and Ryan today) is that I could bring in a handful of riffs that have that 80's hard rock and metal sound, but it goes through their filters and their own unique styles come out and make it Hitter. Like, I could probably bring in the exact riffs from Motorhead's "Chase Is Better Than The Catch" but after they've had their way with it, Hanna's put her incredible snarl over it and Ryans bashed this shit out of the drums over the riff, it comes out as Hitter.

Correct us if we're wrong, but when you all came together all of you were part of other projects, what drew you together to form Hitter?

AL: Yes, and some are still in those bands. Ryan is still in Meat Wave. We had all been friends for a while and fans of each other's bands. And actually Hanna and I used to play in a band called Lifestyles. We were certainly friends before forming the band.

Each of you have a nickname in the band. How did this concept start and what is new bass player Rüsty's nickname? Or is that his? 

AL: I honestly don't remember how this started. But Rüsty is his nickname. Patrick "Rüsty" Woodall is his full name.

With all our fates up in the air as far as the summer goes, if there was one gig you could play this summer where and when would you want to rock?

AL: If they decided to move the Mötley Crüe, Poison, Def Leppard, Joan Jett show from Wrigley Field down to Guaranteed Rate Field on the South Side, home of the White Sox, and we get to open the show. We play for 30 mins, blow all those old geezers off the stage and then Mötley Crüe asks us to join the tour. Seems reasonable right?