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Bringing The Thunder With JOE HOTTINGER From HALESTORM · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hey everybody, this is Joe from the band Hailstorm. We are coming down
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  to Australia play some not fest and we cannot wait to get there. What's
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  up? Chris? Hey, Jelia, I'm sayings brother, thanks for joining
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  us today. You kidding? Thanks for having me? No? Why is
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  it all size you? Simon House Still Return to Australia, Justice, Future
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  and Waits Night is part of net Fast, which shows starting in Melbourne on
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  Macha twenty first, hitting Sydney on the twenty third. I'm Brisbane on the
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  twenty four So are you packed it ready to go by to eat? I
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  saw the person? Or are you going to leave it till the last minute?
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  I'm usually a last minute guy, but I have gotten like ninety percent
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  of my pack together. I'm you know, yeah, I have some things
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  I'm struggling with. I got the clothes all together. It's I'm a photographer
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  too, so I'm like, what cameras? I don't want to bring an
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  extra suitcase. So I'm trying to shove in as much shit as i can
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  without overdoing it. And I'm struggling in that department right now. I don't
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  know what lenses to bring. I'm Struggling and not. This also features our
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  pantier a Lamb with God Disturbed, Skindred just the same with Femay. Who
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  have you played with most out of that lineup? Disturbed for sure. We
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  toured with them and when we toured with them in like twenty ten maybe,
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  and I think we toured with him again and then I can't even remember.
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  Maybe. I don't know. We've just known them forever. I feel like
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  they're you know, and every time we're in town they come through and play,
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  We'll hop back and say AHI to them and have a few beers.
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  So, yeah, it works. I'm excited to see him. I haven't
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  seen those boys in quite a few years. Yeah. Cool. And there's
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  also a few Austrian bands on the lineup, including King Parrot, Wouldn't make
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  It and die out his murder, I said, do you know much of
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  me at the Aussie bands? Not too much, honestly. I thy artist
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  murders plan. I just heard. I saw a headline today that their ex
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  singer now does real estate for him. I don't know that. I don't
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  know what that has to do with anything, but h I don't know why
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  it's the headline. Honestly, Wow. Cool, we might go into that.
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  I don't think there's a little bit more short than that, but that's
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  okayed the headline, thank you guys. So only out here last year?
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  I think, So what what's changed with house Storms is the last? Is
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  it? Man? I feel like we're and I'm not, you know,
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  I suppose you could say this anytime, but I feel like we're a new
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  band. After we did those shows last year, last January, and after
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  you know, we after that we went and did some like US military based
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  things and got home from that whole run of touring and kind of like had
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  a pow wow. We're like, all right, what are we doing?
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  You know, like kind of had to kind of rethought our whole purpose,
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  you know, and and honestly, like I made like a playlist of the
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  music we're listening to when when the four of us first started playing together back
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  in two thousand and three, two thousand and four, and we're listening to
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  that listen looking at old set lists from back twenty years ago, and like
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  why why did we do why? Why why was it that people started coming
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  out to our shows? Why did we get signed? What was the you
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  know, like trying to get back into this kind of headspace and uh and
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  I think we did. And we spent like two or three months before the
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  June European Festival run that was like kind of our next real tour. We
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  were working on new music, but we were also we spent the majority of
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  the time just restructuring our live set and our and our goals. You know,
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  like and I say this word way too much, but it really came
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  down. It comes down to moments. And that's why we love what we
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  do. That's why we love music. Is when you sit there and you
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  create these moments together that makes the crowd go whoah, you know, like
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  that's that's the currency, is the woo. And we just kind of rewrote
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  how we looked at some songs, kind of wove some together and try and
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  try you know, we're trying to be more dynamic, and we don't use
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  computers or click tracks or anything. So it's just the four of us making
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  noise up there. And what you hear is what you get, you know,
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  mistakes and all. And and I we try to do a lot of
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  a lot of imp like not like jam band improv, but just improv like
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  where we know, all right, this section I don't know where it's going
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  to go, and I don't know where it's gonna land, but uh,
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  let's just figure it out together. And and to me, that's that's my
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  favorite part of music. Is it's jumping off a cliff. It's living right
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  here and in the present, you know, and in front of a few
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  thousand people, and you're doing it together. Like it's different every night because
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  the energy from the crowd is different, the energy of the four of us
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  on stage are different, and we're listening to each other and and trying to
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  make this moment happen, you know, And we kind of like went back
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  to basics and what we loved about it all, and rewrote our set and
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  we're coming So we're coming down there with like a whole new set and a
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  whole new kind of mindset and attitude, and and it's exciting because it kind
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  of pumps some fresh blood into us and like, oh yeah, that's why
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  we love doing this. Almost forgot there for a second, Almost forgot almos
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  lies a lot of shows over you. Is is there anything I guess from
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  a crowd perspective that they can do to make your show a little nity and
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  to make you come off and go, fuck, that was something special.
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  You know. It's about I think, uh, just like us, I
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  think. I mean, I've had my best times in the crowd watching my
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  favorite bands when I completely lose my mind, which is exactly how I feel
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  when you know you're doing a solo or in that present performing and like being
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  totally present, you know, And I try to do that when I see
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  bands. I might take a picture at the beginning of the show or something
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  so I remember it and it's in my folder. But after that, it's
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  just like, you know, cover me with your sound. You know,
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  let's let's groove here, you know, yeah, yeah, you let the
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  vibrations flow through you, and you get you get present. And when when
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  a crowd is like that, when the crowd is there and the majority of
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  them are there there, you know you can we can feel that we know
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  exactly what they're going through because we're going through the same thing, and you
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  kind of connect wavelengths, and that's when the real magic happens at a live
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  show. You know, that's cool? Is that your show? When you're
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  out of you last year, there's one particular moment in my life. You
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  guys all fucked off on lift stage and Lizzie was out there by hisself with
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  the piano and singing and even talking about it now, man like I get
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  goosebumps, So that it was that was something beautiful? Man like that?
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  Now do you always feel backside just checking that out? Oh you mean during
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  the Miller Light halftime show? Yeah, uh no, I don't. Like
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  Usually I grab a beer and run over by Josh Narja and they have a
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  beer or whatever they're having that night, and we're like, oh my god,
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  can you believe with that? Did you see that person? And we've
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  heard her sing a million times, so we don't necessarily tune in, you
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  know, cause we're next to her most times. I love watching her sing.
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  I've been in the crowd when she's sang with other bands or done a
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  solo thing, and it like, like you said, I've gotten chills.
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  I've watched she sang that the Country Music Awards like ten years ago maybe now
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  with Eric Church. He asked her to come up and she was like,
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  yeah, I'll go up. And I was out in the crowd watching that,
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  and we're a Bridgestone Arena here in Nashville, and she got into like
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  the bridge section or whatever, and he just kind of went off and did
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  the thing that she does. Apparently she does that all the time next to
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  me. I don't know, I'm just trying to talk, but I like,
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  I got like I had like chills went through me. And I looked
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  at the crowd all the way all the way up to the top row in
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  the balcony, and you saw. I saw the wave of chills at everybody,
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  and it like melted my brain. I was like, holy shit,
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  she just did that sick. Yeah, I love that ship. So I
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  know what you're talking about because I've experienced that from her before. But yeah,
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  when when we're in the middle of a show, I'll watch some you
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  know, but I'm usually running back and talking with the boys or having a
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  beer, talking to my guitar at tech and getting ready for the next song.
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  Now, you guys, he got a couple of years. I'm SIDESHOWO
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  was hindered and RENI and MATCHA twentieth and Brisbane Match twenty six. How different
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  those show is going to be to the FIST shows. Well, we got
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  like at least thirty minutes more time, So, uh, we're gonna we
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  have a few anchors in our set. We call them, you know,
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  just things that songs that we've worked together and things that that we'll do that
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  might be a little similar, but after that, you know, it's we
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  will switch it up. Every every show is going to have a few different
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  songs. And yeah we did. We always do that. We always changed
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  that list and we have to otherwise we get bored. Like we can't once
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  we start getting bored, like it's like, all right, look out,
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  everybody, like some fun fun. Yeah, we're there to have fun,
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  not not be bored on stage. So from a past perspective, by what
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  would you rather Probably the festival shows, all the headline shows. Oh,
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  I think you can't appreciate one without the other, you know, Like I
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  think the festivals are amazing, but it's always kind of a rush, and
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  sometimes the crowd, like we we were in front of a Metallica download in
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  the UK last year. Awesome, ninety one hundred thousand people in front of
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  you, but like they have their snake pit and there's like I can barely
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  see the front row, you know, other than the one hundred people in
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  the snake pit. Yeah, cool, but like the front row that goes
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  around the stage. I was like where I can't even you can't even like
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  make a connection. But there's also like one hundred thousand people behind them,
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  and that's kind of mind melting. And then to go from there to like,
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  you know, a theater club or a small arena show or something that
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  people are a headline show and they're there for you. That's that is also
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  the best feeling, but in a totally different way because because there you're connecting
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  with you're not like selling yourself. You are always, but like you're not
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  like, hey, check me out, You're like, let's get together.
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  Let's like I was talking earlier, let's connect wavelengths. Let's make some moments
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  happen to get you know, because it takes the crowd to really pull it
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  out of you, you know, so I can't. You know, I
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  think they're equal and opposite and you need both to really appreciate them. Diplomatic
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  Cancer Pickle. Your most recent album was Back from the Dead, which came
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  out of the middle of last year. So had that guy ended my luck?
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  Personally? I think it was one of the albums of the year.
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  But how was the fan reception? Oh, you're sweet. I think it
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  went well. People seem to like it. I don't know. We you
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  know, we did it. We put it out and then we toured on
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  it, which is what we do when we make a record, and no,
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  I think it went great. The record was it was kind of an
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  experiment for us, you know, like coming out of that pandemic, and
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  we basically wrote two or three albums worth of material and that was the one
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  that came out. So it's great. I love it all. I'm just
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  happy to be here, you know, I get the fleet music. Are
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  you kidding close? When you toured on that album, you had to play
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  a fair bit of it in the live set. But now the dust has
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  settled on it and you're out on another tour. How much of that album's
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  stayed in the set. There's a few songs, but yeah, we uh,
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  you know, we definitely like like we're pull We're gonna pull back from
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  like two thousand and five from when we first got together, and we're gonna
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  pull from the first you know, all the records now. So it's uh,
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  yeah, I'm I'm always glad once we get you know, once we
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  like tour on a record for like a year or so, and then to
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  me then it's like all right, time to like, we really got to
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  switch it up. We don't have to play so many new songs. Let's
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  get back to some of the old ones and relook at some old ones and
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  see if we can do them in a different way, you know, some
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  fresh perspective or something. You know, it's not long after that album coming
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  up, but you brought it up yourself before. Sorry, I mean to
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  ask you, so you've started writing some new music already. Oh yeah,
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  we got to. We've been in the studio. We were in the studio
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  last fall for three weeks just writing and recording. We'd write, wake up,
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  have some breakfast start writing, and then once we kind of captured at
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  least the essence of the song and some sort of a rain, we'd start
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  recording it. And so we got a bunch of new songs. Really,
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  you know, they're not done yet, but you're not like polished up,
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  but the basics are there, and you know, that's exciting. I don't
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  know if it's going to be the record. I don't know if any of
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  them are going to be out the next n It was kind of it was
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  it was a bit of an experiment, but uh, we're going to get
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  back at it soon. And do kind of the same thing. But this
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  time we got a bunch of songs written, so we're gonna get in there
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  and start taking from demo to recording. Instead of just writing and recording,
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  this time, we're gonna take finish songs and really finish them, you know,
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  so we'll see. It'd be awesome. Man. I would be so
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  pumped if we could not knock out a record in April. April and May
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  will be back in the studio. But we'll see. We're not, you
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  know, we're not in too much of a rush. We got this this
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  tour and then a summer tour and a bunch of fall shows and stuff.
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  But after that we'll be If we don't finish it, we'll have time,
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  all right, Joe, Well, thanks very much for your time. Brown,
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  It's been an absolutely pleasure to talk with. You made the house storm
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  a here for Not fest over March twenty one, twenty three, and twenty
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  four with their own side shows, so we'll catch you on the flip side.
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  Hell yeah, thanks, Chris, appreciate you man always. Brother.
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  Have a good day, yeah, you too. Get some rest,