The ancient Hawaiians have a tradition called Hoʻoponopono, which corrects, restores, and maintains good relationships among family members and with their gods or God by getting to the causes and sources of trouble. Music is one such restorative catalyst to get right with your deity, and No Second Thought burns up the spectrum with full-throttled energy and hard driving rhythms to help get you there.

And, while they were getting themselves there, they jumped to the mainland, ingratiated themselves into the fabric of down and dirty L.A., and proceeded to turn ratchet up the hard rock indie circuit.

Comprised of Chris Albers, vocals/guitars, Jason Paulsen, bass, and Jason Austan, No Second Thought was formed in 2007 after Albers and Paulsen garnered decent success with their old band, Living in Question.

No Second Thought's debut album, Monsters, is available via iTunes, We caught up with Chris Albers for a chat about what makes his band work. Chris is a laid back, down to earth interview with honest musings of the world and his place in it. And his place, to our great benefit, is creating music.

antiMusic: Where did the name of your band come from? How did you guys meet?

Chris Albers: Jason Paulsen and I have known each other since we were in our early teens growing up in Hawaii...the music scene on the Big Island is so small that any musician there would inevitably meet the others. But Jason and I became friends because of our love for the same kind of music, which was NOT Hawaiian music. We moved to LA with our previous band, Living In Question, toured the country 3 times, released 2 records and a live album and then that band dissolved. Two of the members moved back to Hawaii, Jason and I stayed in LA. We met our original drummer, Mario Lackner in LA. He is from Vienna, Austria. We wrote and recorded Monster together, played the release show and then Mario had to head back to Europe because of his Visa situation. He left a very tough job to fill, and after months of auditions, we finally "clicked" with Jason Austan, who plays with us now. He brought exactly what we were looking for, the ability to stay true to the songs that were already written, the personality to put his own take on them, and the drive to write new songs with us.

The name "No Second Thought" is a play on the phrase "On second thought" and means exactly the opposite. It's about going with your gut, your intuition, that feeling that your body knows, but your mind questions.

antiMusic: At what point did you say, "We can do this for a living?"

Chris Albers: When Paulsen and I got a fat paycheck from licensing a Living In Question song to a Nissan commercial. It was a nice feeling to get paid for a lot of previous hard work.

antiMusic: Talk about your debut album. Monster. What is your defining track?

Chris Albers: Not surprisingly, Monster. It's defining in that it has the heaviness, the melody and the off-kilter rhythms that we are known for. We strive for the balance between something that is musically interesting, and something that grabs an average listener's ear.

antiMusic: If you had to pick a single what would it be and why?

Chris Albers: Enough. It's the most accessible I think, and the most vibe-y. I've heard good things about it from others.

antiMusic: What is your favorite track and why?

Chris Albers: Confidence. It's very personal and its just such a release, especially live. It's about having too much on your plate and thinking you can do everything. Thinking your Superman. I'm not. No one is.

antiMusic: Talk about your penchant for dark brooding melodies.

Chris Albers: We live in a dark, brooding town. You may not think of LA as that, but it is a very dark place. There's a lot of disappointed, desperate people here, and the vibe just gets heavy sometimes. I think that darker aspect of music and melodies carries a deeper sense of what a lot of people are feeling. Music that is over-the-top happy doesn't ring so true to me. People that are over-the-top happy scare me. Lay off the pills.

antiMusic: Talk about the recording process? What was the most difficult part of laying down the tracks?

Chris Albers: Vocals. Paulsen and Lackner laid their parts down in 2 days. My vocals took something like 2 months. We went for a very live feeling for the record, which means we all played together and ended up keeping the drum and bass performance as a package. I'm prone to layering guitars and vocals so we overdubbed those parts in the following months and took time to do production, the bells and whistles and whatnot.

antiMusic: Do you prize melody, lyricism, arrangements, or vibe more?

Chris Albers: Tough call. The only one I'd say that is not necessarily a factor for a great song, in my book anyway, is lyricism. And I may be completely alone on this one, but there have been instances where I was actually disappointed when I learned what the lyrics were to a song I loved. I was cooler to have an impression but not the whole story. I guess that's why I tend to sing stuff that sounds right in context, rather than being lyrically correct. If I were to read it as poetry you'd kick me off the stage and think I was drunk.

antiMusic: What were some of the creative challenges you had to overcome as a band?

Chris Albers: Most of the challenges have been non-creative. I mean, writing any song brings some sort of creative challenge, but that's a given. The biggest challenges are when you're getting your music out there and you have to be more business minded. I could be happy writing and recording music all year but if nobody gets to hear it, it seems a bit selfish... I find the biggest challenges are getting out and pushing for your music to be heard and being creative in that way. Every time I get on the internet and start researching bands, zines, venues, promoters, etc., I get overwhelmed. I have to say that mantra: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" EVERY time I open Safari! It's mind-blowing.

antiMusic: Talk a little bit more about the creative process? What inspires you to write? Do you have an ex-girlfriend, lover, or past experiences that serve as your muse? Can you tell us a personal story behind one of the tracks?

Chris Albers: Life in general inspires all of us to write and play. I get really antsy and fed up when I haven't played in a while. But I shy away from writing about direct experiences that I've been through; be it love, jealousy, whatever. I don't find myself that interesting of a subject. Everyone's been through some sort of love and heartbreak and there's a plethora of great songs out there already on the subject. I'm more interested in the big picture of who we are as humans and how we behave as a whole. The song "Killing What You Live For" is about that little piece in everyone that has a tendency to sabotage itself. That self-destruct program that fuels all sorts of things like addiction, fear, self-esteem, etc., I know, really uplifting stuff.

Our creative process usually starts as a jam. We turn on our amps, pick up the drumsticks and start playing. Our newest song broke that formula; our new drummer, Jason Austan, came in with some guitar riffs that he had worked on, and by the next practice we had twisted his idea into a whole different animal. But it was really cool to take a raw idea and put it through our own filters. I think we'll be doing a lot of that in the future.

antiMusic: Does this album spin a story from first track to last? Can the tracks be listened to independently?

Chris Albers: It's not a concept album, and the songs can be independent for sure. I love well-done concept albums, but they require quite an attention span. Some of my desert island discs are concept albums, but that's just me.

antiMusic: What have your successes been to date?

Chris Albers: We've all dated a few girls, with varying degrees of success. Har har.

Recently we had a great show at the Viper Room in Hollywood, just one of those gigs that stands out. And we've added a visual aspect to our live show that is in sync with the music. It really enhances the experience. Unfortunately the venues on Sunset Strip charge a ton of money to use video cameras in their venues, so we haven't yet seen it from the audiences' perspective...

antiMusic: Where do you see yourselves headed in the next six months? How are you promoting your album?

Chris Albers: We see ourselves in our van, heading slightly east but mostly north and south. I'm a fan of the old-school method of band promotion, playing live in as many places as possible. And LA is a bubble in that sense, Jason and I have toured the country several times and LA is one of the most difficult audiences to appease, if not the most. It's refreshing to play in front of people who don't have the luxury of going to see great bands night after night.

antiMusic: Who would you like to record with and why?

Chris Albers: That list could be long, I'm a fan of so many producers and engineers, it could get really geeky. My top five of people who get both the technical/sonic and creative/songwriting equally: Ken Andrews, Steven Wilson, Mike Patton, Beck, Trent Reznor. Maybe they're more on the creative side. I can push the buttons!

antiMusic: What current musician do you respect? Why?

Chris Albers: Deftones. They have transcended the scene they came up in and are one of the most unique heavy bands alive. Every time they release an album it doesn't leave my player for a long time. And they haven't had to break up and reunite, like most of the bands from that era.

antiMusic: What was the music scene like growing up?

Chris Albers: Lame.

antiMusic: Who were your influences?

Chris Albers: Nirvana, Tool, Deftones, Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More, Alice In Chains, Chili Peppers, and then stuff like Massive Attack, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, and Cher.

antiMusic: What bands did you hate growing up? Why?

Chris Albers: For me, Emo bands. I just didn't believe what they were doing/saying was true. They all fit neatly into a niche and there were a ton of them at once. That seems more like a fad. And supposedly Sunny Day Real Estate was one of the founding fathers of emo, and that band was amazing. They sound nothing like what emo is today.

Where do you see yourselves fitting in the music scene today?
Some grey area between indie and mainstream. INDIESTREAM!!!!!!!

antiMusic: What is your take on the iTunes generation? Are you a proponent of musical snacking, a la, single track releases?

Chris Albers: I'm not a fan of it myself, but I don't look down on it at all. I can obsess over a song just like anyone, but I feel obligated to get the whole album. I think it's kinda cool that someone could start a career off of ONE song. That's a new concept, releasing that one song and not a whole album of filler.

antiMusic: What has been your motivation to do this every day?

Chris Albers: The fact that nothing else is as satisfying.

antiMusic: Anything I missed?