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Weaponising The Chaos With CHRIS ZUHLKE And CHRISTOPHER HESSE From HALF ME · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, we are Chris and Chris from Health Me.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: We're currently on US tour. Starting tomorrow in Grand Rapids,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: supporting Throne. After that, we're going to be in Australia,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: starting in Perth on, I don't know which date we're
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in Perth, 22nd.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: 22nd, 21st. Of October.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, 22nd of October. Yeah, we're very nice guys. So,
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: we've got three Chris's in the one room. Chris, Chris
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: and Chris.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, hell yeah.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us today.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having us, mate.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: My pleasure. So we'll start off with the album first, guys.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Like half me, release your new album, Dogma, on October
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: the 23rd. So how are you feeling about it? It's
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: not too far away.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Really good. We're excited, man.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: I bet.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: It's been a long time coming, so we're kind of
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: stoked on what everybody... everybody's thoughts are on this.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: I had a listen to it yesterday while I was
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: doing these questions up and you absolutely crushed the fuck
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: out of me, guys.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: It's a brutal album. Really, really fucking good. I enjoyed it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it, man. Thank you.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: No worries at all. So can we dive into it
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: a bit deeper from a musical point of view and
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: tell us what you were going for this time.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Around?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So you mean for Dogma? Yeah, for Dogma we thought
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: about writing an album to have like an album where
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: it has a beginning and an end to have an
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: album that is not just singles glued to each other
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: it has like a journey that the listener goes through
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and to have like a full album experience with it
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: not just like having yeah song after song after song
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: which was kind of a new experience for us a
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: good one where we I think really Paxson grown yeah
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: grown with um and yeah like to challenge us to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: try different things and to have like a more more
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: kind of a feeling that we want to convey except
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: just like breakdowns and be heavy and yeah like i
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: don't know and that's and that stuff yeah.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah cool uh the press release calls it your heaviest
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: darkest and most emotionally resonant material to date would would
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: you agree with that.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: For sure.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Why is that? I mean, I think Chris already kind
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: of like touched on it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: It's a pretty heavy record without having to like compete
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: for like the heaviest breakdown or like it kind of
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: draws the heaviness from, yeah, just what it's about and
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: like how it's written.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Like you said, like we've.
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: Had that clear intention that we wanted to write this
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: album with.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: A certain tonality to it.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: And I think it just draws all of that from
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: this instead of having a breakdown contest or whatever.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, nice. So conceptually, what's the core narrative or
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: the theme of Dogma? What sort of message are you
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: trying to get across with it?
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: I mean, the album title is pretty descriptive of it.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: So from my point of view, it's like more of.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: I mean, looking at things from this kind of like
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: who's controlling the narrative perspective, you know, I think that dogmas,
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: like dogmata, are pretty much.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Like, how do you say it?
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: Like, they're pretty much what are in charge without being
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: like actively in charge, but they are like Set onto
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: different things.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And you can. View. Certain things. Like definitely from this perspective.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: And see like that. There is just. A dogma. Surrounding. Different. Themes.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Or like topics. You know. And they. They basically control
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the narrative. So. If you're. Kind of like. Grown up
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: with a certain thing. Then you're. You're not really questioning it.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Because you're just so used to it. You know. And yeah.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: And that's. Kind of like, what's that about? It's like
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: a journey. It's like an awakening. It's kind of like that.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: It's like on different levels. It's not just like religious art.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: It's societal. It's like philosophical. Like everything that you live through,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you have a certain kind of dogma. There is a
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: certain kind of dogma which is like forced upon you.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: And we try to have the album or like the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: songs make you question it. And like... at the first step,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: see it and then feel it. And then maybe you
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: have like a bitter feeling about it, but at least
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you noticed it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: That's like the thing about it.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: And also it's funny because people have been, you know,
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: jumping on that whole thing that we are like a
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: Christian or not Christian band. And I think like the
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: thing that I always like resort back to is, I mean,
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: obviously we are from Western country, from Europe, from Germany
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: which is like primarily Christian and so that's like obviously
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: the kind of like dogma that we return to with
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: our visuals and stuff if we were born like somewhere
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: else on this planet it would probably be something else
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: you know.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: I just came back from Germany not long ago and
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: everywhere you turn there's something to do with religion and
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Christianity so it's bound to come through whatever you.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Do yeah exactly.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, nice.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Now, the album opens with what I can only describe
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: as the disturbing track, mate. It's this track called Acadia.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Run us through that and the thought process behind opening
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: the album with it. I was listening to it yesterday
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: and it's disturbing as fuck, but it's really fucking good.
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: Thank you, yeah.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we wanted to have an intro for the album, basically,
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: that kind of like I mean obviously gets you in
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: the mood for that album like kind of like prepares
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: you for what's coming like thematically and so I think
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: the first song really does a good job at that
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: and it's basically a bunch of different like audio like
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: different media like just snippets.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Put together in.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: In that way to kind of get you in that headspace,
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: you know. It's really meant to be this disturbing, as
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: you said. And we kind of like, when we set
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: out with this intention to write this album, we also
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: had the thought in our minds to have it like,
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: to like grab you emotionally without having to, you know,
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: go over the same like metalcore ish things that I
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: guess every metalcore record nowadays is going through and kind
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: of like tackle it from a different angle and I think.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: If that intro does the job then we're good.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: Mate, I can tell you a thousand percent it does
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: a job. That was the first record of yours I'd
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: listened to. And that first song had me, like when
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: you said before, it takes you on a journey. Like
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what that song does. Like it basically tells
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: you that you're not just getting another meat and potatoes
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: record here. Like you're getting something that's got a bit
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: of substance and a bit of thought.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: So we'll tick that off as a success, eh?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Sweet. From there it explodes straight into No Oasis.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Was it a tough choice deciding which track would follow
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Acadia or did No Oasis more or less pick itself?
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I can't remember actually. I think it was the first
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: song we wrote for that album and it felt like
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: a good opener. But the connection between it was not
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: as difficult, I would say. I think it was just
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like the, it felt like the right choice right from
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the beginning.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: Well, that's two for two, guys. You're doing really well.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: What better way to celebrate releasing an album than heading
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: to Australia to play it live, which is exactly what
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: half of me will be doing when you kick off
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: the Australian Crusade Tour in Perth on October 22nd. Then
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: you go to Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne, Canberra, Wollongong, Sydney, and
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Byron Bay before finishing in Brisbane on November the 1st.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: So it's actually a bit of an honour that you're
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: choosing to celebrate the album by coming over here, guys.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: So thank you.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Of course, man.
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: It's pretty cool that people of Perth are going to
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: be able to pick the album up a day early,
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: you know? Because it's releasing on the 23rd and I
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: think the show is on the 22nd.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is too, so they might be a bit
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: familiar with it.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's going to be fun. It should be, yeah.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: So touring a brand new album overseas is always a
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: massive milestone, but how are you formatting that list for Australia?
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: Are you going to heavily focus on the new record
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: or is it going to be a bit of a mixture?
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I think it's just like one or two songs that
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: we don't play from the new album. So it's like
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: almost a full album we play.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Very cool. Have you played any of it yet? Or
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: are we going to be getting to hear some of
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: them for the first time?
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: There are some that you will be getting first, but
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the singles we played until now, but there will be,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I think, three or four songs that we never played
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: before live.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, very good.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: When you write an album, you're obviously happy with the
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: songs in the studio, but were there any songs on
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: this one that you played live that you didn't think
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: could go down so well? or any that maybe didn't
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: go down as well as what you thought.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: They would like?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I think until now, the ones we played live were
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: exceptionally good, like, received.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, when we wrote them, we also intended...
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: We wrote them to be played live, and so... It
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: turned out really well. But yeah, for the other ones,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: we can just see when we play in Australia.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: That's it, guys.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Well, I shall be down in the Brisbane show to
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: see how it goes.
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: But in the meantime, thanks very much for joining us.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: It's been a pleasure. The album Dogma is out the
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: 23rd of October, and I reckon it's a fucking cracker, guys.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: So well done. And Chore kicks off on the 22nd
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: in Perth.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: So get yourself along and rock out.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Hell yes. Thank you so much for having us, man.