Gig Reviews
Cult Leader
Stengade, Copenhagen, DEN - 15/4
Album Reviews
Hatebreed
Previous Nextauthor PP date 21/09/11
The latest instalment in our series of interviews with seminal hardcore bands is with Hatebreed. They're obviously newer and fresher than Madball or Agnostic Front, but their influence and dominance of the scene is far-reaching to say the least. We had the chance to sit down with Frank Novinec, the guitarist of the band since 2005 and a long-time friend of singer Jamey Jasta, to talk about some of the controversies that have surrounded Hatebreed in the past, about their position as one of the leaders in the hardcore scene, about their covers album, and much more in a lengthy and in-depth interview. Check it out below:
RF.net: What's going on in Hatebreed at the moment, and how's the tour going?
Frank: Good. We were just here about a month ago, but now we're back doing a couple of festivals and some shows in between. It's good to be back here in Denmark, I think the last time we were through here was supporting Machine Head. We go back to the States and tour pretty much for the rest of the year, and we're looking to get into the studio at the beginning of next year, and hope to have a new record out by summertime 2012. That's the plan, but it's always changing.
But we keep it fresh, we play a different setlist every single night. There is no setlist, Jamie just yells out a song, and we have a second to think about it and play it. We're gonna do two weeks long over here, and we're gonna have a different set every single night. So that's really special for the fans, but it also keeps it fresh for us.
RF.net: There are very few bands who do that. Isn't it difficult to remember all the songs and how to play them?
Frank: No, because when we come over here and we have to play 75 minutes long, that is a lot of songs. So if we didn't play them one night, we're gonna play them the second or the third night. So you're pretty much covering them all. I'd say there's between 55 and 60 songs, and any one of those he'll yell out. And if we're playing 75 minutes, you're getting at least 25 of those in one night. Obviously we play the songs that everybody wants to hear, "Live For This", "I Will Be Heard", "Destroy Everything", but as far as the other songs, it could be anything. We always try to keep them all in rotation, though, so we can still keep them tight.
RF.net: So then you'd definitely say that Hatebreed does not encourage pit violence specifically?
Frank: Well, we do, but we don't encourage fighting.
RF.net: What's your thought on the whole hardcore dancing, or some people call it karate moshing, phenomenon, as opposed to regular moshing?
Frank: Umm, well whatever people wanna do out there. I was surprised that the karate thing has lasted so long...but I don't know. I just look out there and I see people doing karate moves and they're not even hitting each other, so it doesn't even make sense to me. Like I said before, we just want everybody to have a good time. I wanna see metal people out there, I wanna see punk rockers out there, and I wanna see hardcore kids out there, all together getting along, like when we were younger going to shows. I've been going to see The Exploited and Biohazard together when I was a kid, or like Venom and Metallica played together when I was a kid. Things like that, Motörhead and Slayer played together a lot...we just try to keep that spirit alive of unity amongst the scenes, whether that exists anymore or not, I think we're one of the few bands that universally crosses over to the metal, hardcore, and punk scenes, especially over here in Europe. We just want to try to keep that tradition alive.
Maybe some of the people from the hardcore scene have written us off for whatever reasons. "Oh they went from a small label to major label". "Oh they went and toured with Disturbed". Maybe that's not hardcore to some people, I don't know. We haven't changed as people, we still listen to the same music, we still try to be the same band that we were from day one, and we're just doing it at a bigger level now.
RF.net: What would be your advice if there was a young hardcore band who wanted to replicate the success of the Hatebreed career?
Frank: Well, it's a lot harder for bands now. I see a lot of young bands struggling really hard. There's only so much they can do, because the way that things have gone with downloading and the music industry, and the fact that there are so many bands out there now doing it, it's really tough. But the best thing you can do is to tour non-stop, and be out there. Any chance you can, try to get on a tour, or do an interview like I'm doing, or you know, make an album. Make a name for yourself, and get out there and do it. Try not to have an attitude about it, and suck it up when the things suck. You're gonna have to sleep on floors, maybe forever, who knows? Look at The Ramones, they toured in a van their entire career! That's basically it. You have to work your ass off for anything to happen. Especially nowadays. I mean, you can't have a job. You gotta be on the road as long as you possibly can.
RF.net: But it was mostly old school stuff. So does that mean that Hatebreed today does not listen to anything else than the old school songs? Have you given up on the modern scene? Are bands like, say, BrokenCyde too much, have you given up hope?
Frank: No, I mean....Jamie and Wayne definitely listen to a lot of newer bands that are out. But to us it would be kind of weird to cover...we already covered some bands that are still together on there, you know what I mean? But when you do a covers album, when you're doing classic bands and stuff like that, usually the bands have broken up or they don't exist anymore. I just think it would be weird to cover a band that was like...[pauses] I mean we could have done anything. We're talking about doing a second now too, within the next five years maybe. There are so many bands that we didn't get to do on the first one that we wanted to, Motörhead, of course, Venom...but that's all the music that we grew up listening to. We wanted to pay respect to those bands, and hopefully do their songs justice. I know that Kerry King heard the Slayer one and he loved it, he thought it was great, so that was cool.
But you know, Jamie and Wayne especially, they keep their ear to the street and listen to new stuff. Obviously Jamie has a label, and constantly listens to newer bands. And we're also on tour with newer bands all the time. We just didn't really want to cover any new-new bands, we wanted to keep it at bands that have influenced us.
But yeah, he's constantly busy, he's on the computer all day, talking and dealing with all kinds of business stuff. But obviously we make it work, though.
RF.net: Is there ever any kind of concern in the rest of the band about Jamie being too busy with other things than Hatebreed?
Frank: No, I mean we tour so much. Kingdom of Sorrow, Jasta, and Icepick, with all due respect, they don't tour a whole lot. Kingdom of Sorrow just toured this whole summer, but that's the most he's toured in forever. So even though he does those bands, they're not full-time bands like Hatebreed is a full-time band. He'll do a couple of tours here and there, and he hasn't done anything with Icepick in a long time. I know he hasn't really done any shows with the solo band or anything like that. So Hatebreed is the main thing, and it obviously keeps us the most busy. So it doesn't give any problems. If anything, it's more time off at home [laughs] all right, you know? I don't mind. I like to go home and do nothing. He doesn't.
RF.net: Did you guys ever used to watch Headbanger's Ball on MTV when he used to be the show host? What do you think of it back then versus what you think of it today, when he's not really involved in the project anymore?
Frank: Yeah, even I did! But it was cool because he had a little bit of a say of getting all of our friends' bands played on there. Bands that we toured with, bands that we're friends with, wow look, he got their video played. And he tried to get a classic video played. We grew up watching Headbanger's Ball when it first started in the 80s. It was cool to see it, I thought he did a really good job, and he has a great personality for that. I think that it was really awesome, but for whatever reasons, they don't have him do that anymore. I don't think they even have a host, right?
But no, it was cool. It was a great opportunity to have one of our own up in that part of the music business. A face from the hardcore scene hosting Headbanger's Ball, that's crazy. And getting to interview all the bands and stuff, it was really cool, and fun to watch. As someone who has been one of my best friends for 15 years at least, it was cool to watch.
RF.net: The next one is: do you hate breeding?
Frank: [laughs] I mean that's a silly question. No, if there wasn't breeding, I wouldn't be here, so. There'd be no Hatebreed without breeding, right? [laughs]
RF.net: Finally, what are your views upon riverdance?
Frank: I'm not too familiar with what that is. I've heard about it. I think maybe I was asked to go do it by my ex. I don't know. That's a really random question, that's cool though. Maybe somebody else in the band could give a better answer. I'm sorry on that one!
RF.net: Thanks for the interview. Do you have anything else to add?
Frank: We appreciate the support. It's always great to come back here. Sit tight, we will have a new record out for you, I know it's been a while, but we won't disappoint, and you know we'll always be back, so thanks for the interview, and I wanna say hello to all the fans out there.