American rock group Hoobastank was founded in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California, by guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, lead vocalist Doug Robb, and original bassist Markku Lappalainen. Between 2001 and 2012, they had a record deal with Island Records, and they have since put out six albums and one extended play.
Push Pull, their most recent album, was made available in May 2018. They have sold ten million albums globally. The band’s hit song “The Reason” is what made them most famous. The group’s song “Right Before Your Eyes” was included on Daredevil: The Album at the beginning of 2003.
Howard Benson, the band’s producer, then let them into the studio. Dan Estrin suffered severe injuries in a minibike accident in August, which caused a one-month interruption in recording. By October, Estrin was fully recovered, and in November, the band embarked on a Nokia Unwired Tour alongside Ozomatli and The All-American Rejects.
Hoobastank Opinion On ‘The Reason’
The band’s members, Doug Robb and Dan Estrin spoke to Us about the first track of the band’s 2003 album, The Reason (the special 20th Anniversary Edition of The Reason debuts on DSPs Friday, January 12). In January 2004, “The Reason,” which was first made available as the second single from the album, became a radio and commercial hit.
It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and achieved four platinum certifications in the US. The 49-year-old singer Robb and the 47-year-old guitarist Estrin told Us, “We’re guilty of trying to deconstruct that song.” Robb believes the song’s success stems from its non-formal writing, despite the duo’s admission that they “wish we knew exactly what it was.”
It was not a case of asking, “What does the viewer want? What is the ideal pace? Which major and minor chords complement each other? That is how people write music,” he claims. “What’s trending right now? Everything is good, and there are terms you can use! They reduce it to a scientific process.
They eliminate all traces of “romance” from it. According to Robb, both the writing and the message were pure. From start to finish, I believe it was one of the fastest songs we have ever created. There wasn’t much backtracking or “you should try this chord, try this word” kind of thinking.
Robb speculates that the song’s popularity is purely a result of its authenticity. Although I didn’t mean for it to apply to everyone, I found the message to be accurate. It wasn’t as though I had to compose a piece that many people could identify with. That was not how it was meant to be.
Estrin recalls how the guitar sections came to be. He claims to Us that he was “constantly just working on music” while he was still residing at his mother’s home. He was fiddling around in the guest room when he fell on something that caught his ear.
He claims that it was either relatively different or original from what he had been coming up with, or perhaps it was an extension of what he had been doing already because the riff is similar to one from the first record, “Crawling in the Dark.”
According to Estrin, what he had produced was “quite interesting.” And I said, “Okay, all right.” How do I proceed from there? I simply began switching between these things that spoke to me after discovering these other chords. As a result, Robb received a chord progression that Estrin recorded. The performer assembled some of his poetry, phrases, and lyrics by going through them.
Additionally, Robb revealed the subject matter and identity of “The Reason.” After a zillion inquiries such as “Hey, who is the song about?” Who’s the girl? I didn’t truly understand the song was about me until after all the probing.
The song is about my struggles with making mistakes and needing to modify my actions to make things work. “The Reason” has struck a chord with viewers ever since it was released; most recently, it became viral on TikTok. Hoobastank commemorated the 20th anniversary of The Reason in December with a tangible LP release to honor the heritage.
The limited edition record included previously unseen Polaroids from renowned rock photographer Kevin Estrada, along with new artwork. Hoobastank’s cover of Rod Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy” was a bonus track on the album.
Robb and Estrin also talk about how “The Reason” has become a TikTok sensation, some of the strangest locations they have heard the song in their more than 20-year career, and how it has become the soundtrack to their listeners’ lives in this edition of “Anatomy of a Song.”
