Ax Ellis and his Hatchetmen talk about ‘Constant Change,’ their new EP

Chicago-hailing indie sensations Ax and The Hatchetmen have just released a brand-new EP entitled Constant Change. We here at Melodic were able to exchange some emails with lead singer Axel Ellis, along with his Hatchetmen — Salvatore Defilippis on guitar, Hunter Olshefke on bass, Nick Deputy on drums, Phil Pistone on trumpet, and Quinn Dolan on saxophone.

We discuss the new project, and the constant change that they’ve experienced both as a band, and now as individuals in their 20s, that inspired this EP. From the singles to the songwriting and even the artistic choices, it’s abundantly clear that a lot of thought, heart, and love went into creating this EP.

This is your first official EP release since Bear on the Roof in 2020. How do you feel?
It feels great to get another collection of songs out there. I’m really just always happy to put new stuff out, whether it’s a single or a body of work. Really stoked for what’s next up, there’s a whole lot more on the way.

What was the inspiration behind the name Constant Change? Were there any other scrapped titles?
We were throwing around Growing Pains for a while but ended up running with the current EP title, just felt right. “Constant change” is a lyric we pulled from an unreleased song called “Model Citizen”: “the only constant is a change.” It feels like there’s more change than ever in your early twenties, also felt like the array of themes in the tracklist reflect that sentiment too.

Constant Change shows signs of growth, but still retains that signature high- energy charm that you’re known for. What do you think has changed the most about you all as a band since Bear on the Roof? If you could give your past selves writing that EP one piece of advice, what would it be? 
I guess I would tell my past self to keep it simple and fun, I tend to overthink sometimes which makes writing more difficult than it often needs to be. We’ve been messing around with different ways of writing which has been really enjoyable. In terms of trying to write songs that we resonate with and enjoy playing, I don’t think anything has changed there.

Throughout your existence as a band, is there a reason why you usually opt for releasing lots of singles rather than trying to make songs that all fit on one cohesive project?
Not much of a reason, rather we just didn’t feel we had an album of songs that worked well together. We were kind of always just trying stuff out and seeing what felt right, which usually felt best as singles. I still feel like we’re finding our sound, except now we have some things we think could work as a full project.

We know you all came from different childhood backgrounds and met fairly young. How did you all meet? What made you want to become the Ax and The Hatchetmen we now all know and love?
I saw a video of Sal playing acoustic guitar on social media one night early on in high school. After reaching out we started getting together and learning covers together, the goal always being to start a band. Sal was in his school jazz band with Hunter (bass), Nick (drums), and Quinn (sax), I met our trumpet player Phil at a jazz conservatory we both studied at. It took a couple years, but we were lucky to find one another.

How did you all approach finding a place and establishing yourselves as a band within the dynamic and ever-changing Chicago music scene?
There wasn’t much of an approach, we mostly just played wherever we could. For years we mostly played in the north suburbs of Chicago at bars and pubs and any events that hired us. We figured by going to college in the city, we’d hopefully be able to find some connections and dip our feet in the music scene. Our first venue show in the city was at Schubas opening for a band called Mild Orange thanks to Hip Hop/Funk artist Ric Wilson’s recommendation, who we hadn’t met until the night of the show.

Fans, reviewers, and just about everyone lately have fallen in love with your vivacious sound, energetic production, and unique instrumentals on all of your projects. What elements of your music or production do you think set you apart from the rest? What are the ingredients to Ax and the Hatchetmen’s special musical sauce, so to speak?
Not sure if there’s a special sauce, we really just try to enjoy what we’re making and keep the records sounding/feeling live. In terms of production, we’ve been working with our friend Jake Sinclair who has helped us curate a sound using tape machines and live multi-track recordings in the studio. We’re always just going off what feels right to us, if we like it hopefully you might too.

It’s been said that you take a lot of musical inspiration from legendary bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Are there any modern musical artists or bands that inspire you with their music?
Hippo Campus and The Strokes have definitely been inspirational to us since high school. The lyrics, melodies and guitar parts in both bands give off feelings that resonated with us from early on. Can’t go without mentioning Cage the Elephant, as they’ve always been a huge inspiration as well. We all also really loved Australian indie band Sticky Fingers in high school.

Many people love the delightful hand-drawn and hand-painted album artwork from your previous projects. What inspired that to become your visual identity? What was the decision to shift to the more photo/collage-based album artwork after the “Stay//Honestly” single release? Who did all the drawings?
We just enjoyed the hand-drawn look for cover art, and it was often our friends we would work with to make them. They felt youthful and fun, which we thought worked with the songs accompanying. Our friend Aykeem Spivey from high school did the EP cover, Chicago artist Una Delic did the watercolor for “Utah.” Lately we just figured it was time to switch things up with some songs that felt new, our friend Marni sent us a photo collage cover that seemed like the right direction to head in.

You gained a lot of popularity from your live album from Audiotree Recording Studios in Chicago. How did it feel going into that session? Was the experience better, worse, or the same as you expected?
We had a great time at our Audiotree session, we were all stoked they wanted to have us in. I’m not sure we knew what to expect as we hadn’t had much experience doing a filmed live session like that, but the Audiotree folks were super kind and helpful which made for a lovely afternoon. It was also right down the block from where most of us lived, which was nice.

You are about to embark on a North American tour supporting Fitz and The Tantrums. What are you all most looking forward to in regards to being on the road? What cities are you most looking forward to visiting?
We’re unsurprisingly quite stoked for Chicago at The Vic, love a hometown show. There’s also a few cities we’ve never been to before, it’s always exciting to play somewhere new to us. So thankful for Fitz having us out with them. Can’t wait for the Denver botanical gardens venue, it looks gorgeous. In terms of being on the road, just stoked to spend time traveling with the guys, we always have a great time together on the road.

Rapid-fire questions, let’s go! What 4 things can you not go on tour without?
Toothbrush, French press, kombucha, camping hammock.

Who are the first and last to wake up on tour?
Hunter first, Phil last.

What is the Ax and The Hatchetmen group chat named?
The goop and the gops.

What are your dream venues to play? In the US or otherwise?
We’d all love to play at Red Rocks; total dream spot. Heard the Newport Folk Festival has fresh oysters in the green room, so that’d be great too, gotta write some folk songs first.

Is there a dream artist you’d want to collaborate with?
Honestly Albert Hammond Jr of The Strokes was a dream artist to collaborate with, still can’t believe that worked out. Bakar, Dominic Fike, Adrianne Lenker, could go on for days.

If you all could write a song for any movie, TV show, or video game, which would it be?
Would have to pick something Fast Times at Ridgemont High adjacent, Stranger Things would be fun.

What song could you think you’d nail a cover of?
We’ve been wanting to do a guitar version of “Dancing in the Moonlight” for a while, not sure if we can nail it but we’ll try.