* The Constellations, Timberhawk @ Vinyl Music Hall. + INTERVIEW W/ WES HOFFMAN. 02/24/2012

On a night that featured frontman, Elijah Jones sharing stories of his arrest in Philadelphia and the women who inspired his music, The Constellations paid another visit to Vinyl Music Hall and the city that has adopted the Atlanta group as family.

Local favorites, Timberhawk were finishing their set as I walked into Vinyl Music Hall. In short time, The Constellations took the stage. Having played DeLuna Fest and countless shows in Pensacola, Vinyl Music Hall has been the group’s most visited venue.

Just over a week before the concert, bassist Wes Hoffman shared a few minutes during a phone interview for an article in the Pensacola News Journal.

What resulted was a candid discussion on the Grammys, opening for Snoop Dogg and more.

*** Full Interview with Wes Hoffman of The Constellations ***

MS: Happy Valentines Day.

WH: Thanks. Great. National Condom Day.

MS: What’s the best Valentines Day you’ve ever had?

WH: We’re in Charleston, South Carolina today so that’s not too bad. Last year, we were in Greeneville, North Carolina. That kind of sucked. You know, I don’t really believe in celebrating Valentine’s Day, I think it’s kind of a bullsh*t holiday. Me and my girlfriend are like, “whatever”. People ask me, “Did you send her flowers?” and I’m like “F*ck no!” (laughs) She doesn’t need that. But to answer your question, “I don’t know.” But maybe last year, because it was my first year with my actual girlfriend that I’m still with.

MS: The last time I saw you was at Deluna Fest. A lot of things have happened since then. Warped Tour, you’re going to be on Warped Tour this year.

WH: We’re really excited about that. Yeah. Warped Tour is a much different market. A much different audience than what we’ve ever played in front of before. Obviously a huge market, you know they’re trying to rebrand it right now, which is how we kind of got our foot in the door. To where it’s not just strictly punk rock bands anymore like when it first started off. We’re stoked to be a part of that and help push the limits of the kind of music that they have for that festival.

MS: I went to the one in Atlanta last year and it was mostly metal and postcore.

WH: Yeah. I mean we’ll definitely stick out like a sore thumb. That’s for sure. (laughs)

MS: Speaking of crazy things. I saw your twitter page… “solo knife fights with Trevor.” “Girls making out in the green room.”

WH: All in a day’s work.

MS: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen or done at one of your concerts?

WH: There was one show that we played, we had the luxury and honor of opening up for Snoop Dogg one of our first tours back in 2010. And we played a show in Cleveland, Ohio and DJ Ice who is Bone Thugs N’ Harmony’s DJ. He owns a strip club up there and a bunch of girls got up on stage. That was kind of interesting. We played a lot of shows that year so I’m sure there’s other stuff if you dig a little bit deeper.

MS: What did you think about the Grammys?

WH: We had them on in the green room when we were in Jacksonville the other night. I think it’s cool that our bud Graham Marsh (producer and engineer) won a couple awards for his work with Cee-Lo. I don’t really understand the Grammys to be honest with you because on one hand, it’s just a popularity contest and then they try and like correct themselves by giving awards to keeping their indie cred by throwing an award…like last year it was Arcade Fire and this year it was Bon Iver. And I’m fans of both of those artists, but I don’t think the Grammys hold that much weight to be honest with you. My favorite part of it was Dave Grohl’s (Foo Fighter’s frontman) speech. His acceptance speech, I thought that was pretty spot on, what he said. I guess, pay attention to it and give it a little bit of credit, but I don’t think it really means that much to me or any of us.

MS: You’re playing Pensacola again, what can the diehard Constellations fans expect on this leg of the tour?

WH: New songs. We’ve got a bunch of new songs. We recorded a brand new full-length record, pretty much, we went in the studio right after DeLuna in mid October and spent a month recording and came out with 11 brand new tracks and we might end up doing one more but we’re not sure what’s up with that. Freshening up the set, so we’re excited to play and give our people down there some new material and songs.

MS: How soon will this album drop?

WH: It’s hard to say. We don’t have a date quite yet. We’re kind of going back and forth with a couple of labels. It’s really too soon to make any judgments on that. Hopefully, sooner than later. We’re shooting for the beginning of summer, before the Warped Tour so we can kind of have that under our belt before Warped.

MS: I asked you guys this last time at Deluna Fest and I want to ask you again. Is there any chance of a tour or collaboration with Andrew W.K?

WH: (laughs) That would be Jamie’s wet dream. I think it would be cool. He’s touring on his 10th anniversary of “I Get Wet” right now. Which is pretty awesome. We actually share the same management so anything is possible. I actually think it would be a lot of fun. His show is super high energy and super positive vibe.