Halestorm are at the very forefront of Rock. Massive worldwide acclaim, certified gold records, sold out and spectacular live performances all over the world, even a damn Grammy! The recent release Vicious hit the charts in July 2018, and peaked at No.1 on the US rock radio charts, they recently played in Australia to sold out audiences and are now coming back for the gargantuan Download festival…
Metal-Roos: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak to me! Man, I gotta ask, what’s it like to be in one of the biggest, baddest and best Rock bands in the world? What is a so called ‘normal day’ like for Joe Hottinger?
Joe: You know what, it feels exactly the same as when we were just in our parent’s basement. We’re literally the same kind of people doing what we like to do and all I want to do is play music. Things have changed around us but otherwise it’s just us doing our thing. I don’t know, I just think we’re really lucky that we get to do what we love.
M-R: So, you’re coming over for some exclusive performances at the Download festivals in Sydney and Melbourne, does playing a festival like Download have a different energy compared to your own headlining tours?
Joe: Oh yeah, no, festival shows are always…well they’ re different. I wouldn’t say their better or worse or anything like that. It’s kind of like, just four of us on stage, we throw at this energy, we do it we do, and you try and get it back. When you do it comes back like 40000-fold, you know, it’s awesome, it’s a trip man. Festivals are fun like, wham bam thankyou ma’am, show ‘em what you got and hopefully they like you…
M-R: I read that Australia is one of your favourite countries, thank you for that! Can I ask what makes it special to you?
Joe: I love Australia man. I don’t know, it’s a rock country, which is cool. It’s different from America, there’s more of a passion there, a little bit more European in its love of rock music. Also, people are just so damn nice down there, it’s a fun place to feel like a foreigner, which you can’t say about everywhere else.
M-R: Can you try and tell me what it was like headlining the second stage at Download UK? It must have been epic. (For some reason I thought that Download UK already happened…whoops).
Joe: Download UK hasn’t actually happened yet, so I don’t know…hahaha. But I’m really looking forward to it. That’s going to be at trip and a half. We played that stage before, years ago, when we were second on the bill or something. So, this is going to be a trip for us.
M-R: A Halestorm release is on a whole other level when compared to most bands, in any genre, can you describe how it feels when the machine is starting to crank up and the album is about to be released? Is it all excitement? Is there any fear or nerves? How does it usually start? Is there a process to follow for the band? If so, how has it evolved as the band gets bigger?
Joe: It’s all those things man. With this recent release we were excited but kind of freaked out because I feel like we went out on a little bit of a limb here. I know we did with our team and just how we chose to handle sharing our new music before the release. All the things that went into making this record we did a little bit different, so we knew it was a little bit of a risk for us. I think our team thought it was a little bit of a risk and our label, all those kinds of folks. I was glad when it came out too good reviews and everyone seemed happy. We were excited because we knew the music was good. It was the best thing we could do at the time, which is all you hope for record.
We learnt a few things, you know, we make sure that we did a few days of press in New York City and Lzzy and I went to Europe for a week, hitting a new city every day doing press all day. It helps when we went on tour around Europe. It made Lzzy scheduled a little lighter so she’s not talking all day, then having to sing every night. We’re slowly learning how to do this rock and roll thing right. It felt like the release was a little more coordinated throughout the world and we have a killer team, a killer label and management and everybody. We all kind of fight for the same thing, just to make this rock and roll thing happen.
M-R: I read that Halestorm felt a bit lost when approaching the writing and recording of Vicious, and that producer Nick Raskulinecz was a massive help, how different was his approach the writing of Halestorm material compared to your ‘usual’ way?
Joe: He’s the man! We were a little bit lost, we didn’t know whether we could do it anymore, we were doubting ourselves, it was a trip. We’d written these songs, but we really wanted to take a step forward as a band. How do you take a step forward in a rock band these days? We didn’t know. We have these songs that were more of a side step instead of a forward step. We showed them to Nick and he’s like, ‘this isn’t the record that I want to make with you guys’ and we’re like ‘’totally, we agree’. So, we just trashed everything. He was awesome. He put us in a little room when we first started and the four of us facing each other in a circle and he just kind of came in and out. He’d be like ‘Who’s got a riff, play something’ so, we’d start playing and one of the first thing we did was Uncomfortable. We were like ‘This feels right, that’s what we’re talking about, maybe we still do got it!’ We just kept writing that way, and it gave us confidence and we got our mojo back thanks to Nick who just coached us through that process of doubt and then kind of celebration.
As far as his approach goes it was totally different. We feel like we have run the gamut of how to make a record now. I’m sure there’s more ways. With the first three records, the first two it was the same producer, the 3rd we went totally kind of left field with Jay Joyce who was awesome. We had a blast with him, but it was a different way of doing it, he does a lot of country stuff over here and some alternative stuff so it’s just a different approach. That was fun too but, we really kind of found our vibe with Nick, at least for where we are right now is a band. It was really just ‘if it gets you excited it’ll get the fans excited’ so write music that excites you, it really was that simple. Not that we had written things that didn’t excite us, it’s kind of like ‘no duhs’ right in front of your face, and you just need to hear it sometimes. If you feel like you’re on the right path, just stop worrying about it and go forward with it and that’s what we did.
M-R: You have also said that you had the gift of time when recording the latest album, how much of a difference does this make to the studio environment?
Joe: I think it was pretty huge, because we got to sit there and write something and work something out. We’d do a tour in the middle of recording which, I don’t know whether I’m going to do that again, it was a kind of a pain in the ass. You get all set up in the studio catch a vibe and then we have to rehearse and leave in a week, we’ve got to go and see you in a month or two. But the good thing was that it made you kind of forget about what you did. Then you come back, hear it all over again and you can see what is or isn’t working from a different prospective. So, the songs that we took all that time on you can really hear, they go deep, and I think it sounds great.
M-R: Usually, Rock and Metal is all but ignored by the Grammys, mostly untelevised awards. Hell, they played Metallica when Megadeth won for gods’ sake, but, Halestorm managed the impossible in gaining recognition and winning one in 2013, what was that experience like? What is your opinion on the Grammy’s and their attitude toward Rock and Metal?
Joe: I do and, it was a trip you know we didn’t even know that we were on any sort of radar for the Grammys and when that first nomination came and we’re like ‘whaaaaat? We’re probably going to lose’ just like this time. We knew Chris (Cornell) was going to win, we wanted Chris to win. What a way to celebrate and send off one of the great Legends of Rock and Roll to get a Grammy for his performances. Regardless, we’re going for the party and to have fun and meet people and be weird then it turns out we won one, just like whoa…
As far as them and how they approach Rock and Metal, to me it’s fairly obvious, as a rock musician, it needs some work whatever’s going on there they don’t quite understand the genre anymore. Lzzy has become a representative of the genre to the academy and I think that’s it’s awesome because she is rock and roll. She lives and breathes it.
I don’t know how it all works but the people out there are confused about something. I see some guys at protests saying, ‘screw the academy’ blah blah. To me you must take action, and that’s what Lzzy is doing. You have to get involved and hopefully they listen to her and they take it seriously. Like ‘hey listen, rock ‘n’ roll is cool, and these are all the reasons why’ I think she’s a great person to do that. I like her attitude towards the whole thing, because I agree with it.
I love the idea of the Grammys, it’s a celebration of music and that’s really cool. It’d be a whole lot cooler if it was Rock and Metal got a little bit more respect, but we all know that and think that. I’m not giving up on them. I think it’s cool for her to fight for it and I joined her when I can and if I can.
M-R: It seems with Halestorm that you aim at triggers or buttons to push to get specific reactions from fans and media. I also read that you expect certain questions from the media about aspects of the release is this close to the truth? Was there a specific reaction you wanted from Vicious? Apart from people loving it, of course.
Joe: Obviously, there are a few moments in there that are going to make people uncomfortable, I mean, literally, that’s what that song is about, Uncomfortable. It makes sense that you start with Uncomfortable and then you drop into Do Not Disturb, it triggers trolls in the best way possible. You’re just giving them a bone to be like ‘here, go ahead, have some fun with it’, it just cracks me up. The people that want to do that, talk-shit, we make it easy on them because it makes them uncomfortable and we like to do that. Obviously, they’re very uncomfortable with some aspects of their life for them to have to talk shit like that so, and to me that is a great thing.
I don’t think you’re doing a great job or a good thing as a band until you get people hating on you, that’s part of the thing. When we started as a band it was like, the first single came out and people were just kind of learning about who we were. Everything online was all very positive the people were rooting for us. But it seems like, when you get to a certain level, people just want to hate on you. I was like ‘Cool! That means we’re doing well’. Any band that’s ever done well has controversy, it’s part of the discussion, and that’s one of the great things about music.
M-R: Halestorm are breaching the mainstream, so it seems 20 years of hard work is paying off. The problem is rock fans are notorious for turning on artists when they get ‘Too Big’. Why do you think that happens and do you think Halestorm can break that tradition using their honesty in the music?
Joe: I don’t know how or why that all goes down, talked about that before. I’m talking bands like Nickelback and Foo Fighters, both huge bands and both have totally different fans. People used to love and hate on Nickelback, but I think they’re finally turning that around. But that never happened to Foo Fighters and I don’t know why. We always love rock and roll that has a smile and rock and roll is rock and roll, it’s not so serious. When you have a band like the Foo Fighters that take a jab at themselves and have a laugh, I think that it’s just endearing to the fans. I don’t know why people turn on them, maybe it’s just, you know, you have to not take it so seriously. I’m not saying Nickelback did, some of their Twitter responses to trolls were hilarious. They’re so funny and they’re good dudes, it’s not like they’re bad dudes. I don’t know what it is, I mean, you hope it doesn’t happen to you, but whatever. We just do what we do and that’s all we can do, just try to make the best music we can, and then move on.
M-R: You have achieved so much in Halestorm and with Vicious it seems you are targeting arena sized stages with arena sized songs. Are there any personal goals in music that you still want to achieve, or is the plan to just keep building the Halestorm legend?
Joe: I don’t know if there’s any specific things. What I mean is, one of the biggest goals we have, I don’t know whether it’s specific, but it’s just to keep going. Just keep on going. We’re like the little band that could. We started with just the four of us doing the best we could and one of our mottos was just to get better always, and we really try to. We work hard at trying to become better musicians while we’re on the road, in the studio, wherever.
It’s kind of the dream for me, my ultimate happiness is to just keep doing this. Getting on stage every night and playing rock and roll for rock fans. That’s my happy spot, that’s our happy spot, that’s what we love to do. As long as we can keep doing that, we’re going to be good, as far as I’m concerned. That’s the dream, that’s the goal, keep moving forward and get better always.
Interview Date: 2019-02-26
Interviewer: Jonathan Hurley
