Halestorm 2014
During their headlining 演出, gig at Terminal 5 in New York City, Halestorm 鼓手 Arejay Hale and bassist Josh Smith sat down with Loudwire and expressed their enthusiasm about their plans for a new album in 2014. They also talked about being on the road and recording cover songs for their latest EP ‘Reanimate 2.0: The Covers EP.’ Check out our interview with Arejay Hale and Josh Smith of Halestorm below:
What is the experience like headlining tours compared to being a support act?
Arejay Hale: It’s way 更多 fun. We like to headline and put on our own show. It’s fun, you’re not trying cram everything into a 45 分钟 set. It’s cool because we get to take out new bands with us that we really like.
For both of you, what makes a great touring package?
AH : No egos. Everybody has to be super cool, no a—holes. If there’s one a—hole on the tour, it just ruins it for everybody. We got lucky, we’ve done a lot of tours and everybody’s been super cool. What else, nobody getting sick. [Laughs]
Josh Smith : That’s important and if we can get some good food, that’s a blessing right there. The biggest thing is that everyone gets along as opposed to dealing with turds on the tour. [Laughs]
AH: No turds on tour!
Is there a band out there 你 guys would 爱情 to tour with whom 你 haven’t toured with yet?
AH : Oh man, I would 爱情 to tour with the Foo Fighters. That would be a lot of fun, it’d be awesome.
JS : Agreed.
AH : 或者 Bruno Mars, even though that’s a totally different genre. I 爱情 Bruno Mars. I’d 爱情 to tour with Eminem, too. I 爱情 that new 埃米纳姆 record. So these are all different genres [laughs] but if we’re sticking to just rock though, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age that would be awesome. There’s a lot of new bands we’d 爱情 to tour with too. Who else? Metallica? Tool would be awesome. Oh! Muse, I would 爱情 to tour with Muse.
Switching gears a little, Lzzy Hale recently came out with a fashion line. As a couple of her stylish bandmates, did 你 happen to give her any 建议 或者 help her out with this venture?
JS : She’ll 显示 us stuff and we’ll “Yes” it 或者 “No” it.
AH : That’s what’s cool, this whole effort is a group thing but it all stemmed from Lzzy. She used to be the band’s designer and 设计 our clothes for us and be like, “Hey I just stitched this together in five minutes.”
JS : She even asked for tool sets for 圣诞节 to make her own jewelry. It’s going to be great and she’s so into that whole side of it.
AH : We’ll be the male models!
JS : We’ve all worn some of it onstage, it’s all unisex so it’s great.
Where did 你 find time to do another covers EP? Did 你 guys just sneak off somewhere and record the disc while on the road?
JS : Yeah, it was like a week of recording maybe.
AH : We did like a song a day. You’re not 写作 it but it’s also a challenge because you’re taking someone else’s song and turn it into a Halestorm song. It’s a great challenge but it’s a lot of fun. We did the covers EP when we were off for the Grammys and we just went into the studio and knocked it out. Then later our label’s like, “We want 你 to do ‘Get Lucky’ 由 Daft Punk” and we’re just like “Really? Sure why not?” We did a South American tour but we had two days off in Nashville before the States run and we just went in to Blackbird studios for two days and knocked it out. It’s just a fun thing for us; it’s a fun thing for the 粉丝 to keep them satisfied between albums.
To be honest, I can’t stand ‘Get Lucky’ 由 Daft Punk but I enjoy the hell out of Halestorm’s cover.
AH : Every time I hear the original I can’t help but think of Stephen Colbert on his 显示 when he’s dancing with Jeff Bridges. It goes on for like eight minutes, it’s so funny. Maybe 你 saw that and that’s why 你 can’t stand the original. I’m glad 你 like our version. A lot of 粉丝 are very warm to it which is great because it’s a pop song.
Are there any songs 你 wanted to cover that didn’t make the cut this time?
AH : We went in to record a cover of ‘Don’t 你 Worry Child’ 由 Swedish House Mafia. I think that we did a really great job on it, we made it 更多 acoustic sounding but it didn’t really fit with the rest of the songs so we scrapped that. That would’ve been a fun one.
JS : We start these cover album ideas months in advance. It’s basically just an 电子邮箱 thread between us and label people and our whole team, 老友记 and family and fans. Any potential song gets put on the list, then slowly we dwindle it down to ten and then choose the five 或者 six that we’re going to do.
AH : There’s always the 下一个 EP. Actually on the first EP we did a 粉丝 pick, we put a bunch of songs on our website and it came down to two. It was ‘Sad But True’ 由 金属乐队 and ‘Bad Romance’ 由 Lady Gaga and our 粉丝 picked ‘Bad Romance.’ [Laughs] And we’re like, “Really, 你 want us to do this song? Let’s do it.” They were curious and we strapped on our big boy boots and we went into the studio and made it work.
So what does 2014 hold in store for Halestorm?
JS : Oh we’re going to get crazy. We’re going to lock ourselves in a basement and write an album. Then come April we’ll emerge from hibernation and we have to go on tour for a 月 in Europe. Then we’ll come back and finish up the album, whether it’s recording 或者 what not and then go back out on tour. We’re excited, we’re going to strap down and make some new material and come out with a new album 下一个 year.
AH : It’s going to be fun. I feel like we write the best when all of us are together in one room and we crank out as many ideas as we can. Change is what gets us excited. I’m excited to add some new songs to the setlist because we’ve been playing the same songs for like three years.
Do 你 guys write on tour 或者 is the majority of creating done at home?
AH : On the road, it’s 更多 scattered because we’re 更多 focused on the performance. We just collect ideas here and there on our phones 或者 on our iPads because we can 冲床 out ideas really quick. I think it’s a lot easier for us to write when we’re really focused – away from the road, away from our families, away from everybody and it’s just the four of us locked in. We got a little basement studio in Nashville so we’re just going to lock ourselves in there.
