Interview with Josh Smith from Halestorm at Rock On The Range 2015

How has the response to Into the Wild Life been?

It’s been really amazing… I mean, the best response to an album yet. Even in terms of not only positive feedback, but just response in general. There’s negative feedback, but it’s fun to read all the comments and what people think, why they think it, and their interpretations of the music. It’s been really cool. I enjoy it and we’re having such a great time playing all the new stuff live and having more stuff to fit in the catalogue and mess with the setlist every night. It’s been a blast. And I’m not sick of the album yet, I’ve been listening to it!

I’m not either! [laughs]

I have to listen to it still just to fine tune and see what else I can make work live. In listening to it still, I enjoy it.

You talked about the setlist, what goes into y’all picking the songs that get played and don’t get played? I know festivals are a little different, but when I saw you in Birmingham a few weeks ago and I noticed that each set has the same songs, but in a different order.

It’s kind of just being aware on stage of how everything’s working, the flow of the set, and also paying attention to the crowd and seeing if they’re enjoying themselves or if there’s any dead air, “Oh, that was really awkward,” you know? And when you have an awkward moment on stage, it’s probably about five seconds but it feels like an eternity. So it’s just kinda keeping that in mind and constantly seeing how you can improve on song placement or what songs are played. We’re early on in this album cycle so we have to be careful with how much new stuff we play because you have to think that essentially not everyone has heard the album yet so you have to keep the old stuff active and alive. Sort of put a new song in, and then maybe an old song, then a new song, then two old songs, and just sprinkle it in accordingly. I think the coolest part is now that we have thirteen more songs to throw in, it gives us the flexibility to change it up every night and say “Let’s try this here” or “Let’s try this there”. That’s like the dream to write the setlist right before you go on stage and do it like Pearl Jam does.

That’s my band! That’s what I was thinking of, but I wasn’t gonna say anything. Besides Hanson, that is my other band! I have 13 favorite bands and y’all are in the top 13.

Oh my god, that’s awesome.

My mom and I follow Pearl Jam, so that’s our band.

So do we, they are a true rock band.

Have you seen Pearl Jam?

I, shoot me now, have not seen Pearl Jam live.

My mom has seen Pearl Jam almost 80 times. Not exaggerating. I’ve seen them nine times.

That’s so cool. I’ve gotten tickets for my brothers to see them.

Well that’s not fair!

It’s not!

Where did they see them?

They saw them in Philadelphia at the Made in America concert. My friends went to the last Spectrum concerts, which was cool, but I’m just waiting for the day I get to see them. It can’t come soon enough.

We make travel plans around Pearl Jam tours, like “Oh, we’re going on vacation but we’re seeing Pearl Jam while we’re there.” My first Pearl Jam show was in Hawaii in 2006. It was the first time I had flown anywhere, and I flew to Hawaii, not for vacation, but to see Pearl Jam and then we plan the vacation around seeing Pearl Jam.

Perfect. Sounds like a great trip.

I was in the sixth grade when that happened, oh my god I feel old now.

I doubt you’re older than me.

No, I’m not. I’m a baby. I’m probably the youngest one in this room.

You’re an old baby.

Yeah, looking around, I think I’m the youngest one here.

I’d say that’s accurate.

I mean I’m not even old enough to drink.

Wow! [laughs] you are young.

What do you think about the current state of music? It can be your type of music or music in general.

I think the current state of music is at an exciting time. For the last few years, it seems like rock music or just real music with people playing instruments sort of took a back seat to electronic, poppy sounding stuff which is fine, that’s just the evident flow, sort of the pendulum swing-

Pearl Jam reference!

Yeah!

I hope you caught that.

I just dropped a little easter egg there and she found it.

Did you do that on purpose?

Yes! [laughs] but I have a feeling that it’s swinging back in our direction though and you know, you’re seeing rock bands up on the charts again and you’re seeing some of the best turnouts at festivals that we’ve ever seen so this is amazing and it’s a good time to be a rock fan. I think it’s a damn good time in music and I think you’re gonna hear some stuff in the next few years that you’ll hear for the rest of your time.

Is there anything else you wanna add?

No, thanks for taking the time and hanging out and I can’t wait to get back down to Alabama soon.

Interview with Austin Carlile and Chester Bennington

I had the opportunity to be a part of a teleconference for The Hunting Party tour that is currently traveling around the world with Linkin Park, Rise Against and Of Mice & Men. During the call, I was able to ask a question to Austin Carlile from Of Mice & Men and Chester Bennington from Linkin Park chimed in as well. So, technically, I have semi-interviewed Chester Bennington. So here it is. Enjoy!

Operator: Our next question will come from Kinsey Haynes from WVUA-FM.

Kinsey Haynes:  My question is for Austin. I know someone touched on this earlier, but I want to know, what it's actually like touring with Linkin Park since they are one of your favorite bands.

Austin Carlile:  What is it like touring with Linkin Park? Wow! Super awesome. It's great.

Chester Bennington:  (overlapping) The most fun ever.

Austin Carlile:  Yeah. It's the most fun ever. We have a coffee meeting and there's a yoga room. No. It's great; it's cool to see it on both sides of it. It's cool to see it from a business aspect. Like Chester was talking about earlier and talking about, you know, bands taking control of their own bands and then, you know, people that work for them being employees for the bands, the management. And it's cool seeing the business side of it, just as well as the production side of it. And, you know, we get to the venues at, you know, 9:00AM, 10:00AM every  morning and we wake up, walk in, half dressed, half asleep, tired day at the studio, or at the venue, that Linkin Park comes in. You know, they're not there for sound check, a few hours before they play the show; they're rock stars. They come in and go, "Oh, we want to do that." We want to be able to come in and we want to get to a point where we can not have to set up the venue for literally 13 hours all day wondering what we're going to do, trying to figure out what to do in the middle of nowhere. And it inspires us, and it makes us want to work harder and it makes us want to work and create and become artists that can support themselves, like Linkin Park does. And, you know, we were going out and playing in Germany and even played 12 shows in Germany on our last tour and every night, just thousands of people singing and screaming, and it's unbelievable to me and it's something that we want to set our sights to to do as a band. And we see Linkin Park as a band like ourselves. And just like Chester was saying, with each of his albums, he feels like he's in a different band and feels like their songs change. That's what we do as  band and, you know, I think we're constantly evolving our sound and constantly evolving who we are as a band and who we want to be as a band, because at the end of the day, you know, I don't think with any kind of music you never really know, because it's always changing and you're always creating as a musician. And just the fact to be able to take notes and to be on tour with a bunch of really awesome guys; it's a blessing and it's a great experience. It's something I'll definitely never forget.

Chester Bennington: You know, it's interesting because in the same way, touring with Of Mice and Men, it's inspiring to me because here are these guys, like you said, they're at the venue 13 hours a day, you know? They're trying to figure out how to wash their clothes, to figure out what to do. They're around each other all the time. They also have lots of decisions to make. You know, these guys play something like fucking eight shows in a row, and I was like, "Dude, you're going to destroy yourselves. Please. Thank you." And, like, it's funny, because, like, a lot of bands would think their managers and a tour schedule and it says here eight shows in a row. You're like, "Okay. Let's hit the road." Like, it can kind of seem like you're working for somebody. It's important to know, like, you know, you don't have to do that. You can actually, like, put a limit on that stuff so that you don't have to wear yourself out. And you've got to think long term. And these are the things that, like, you know, I look and I go, "Wow! These guys actually are like really prepared to play eight shows in a row." Like, that is bad ass. I don't care who the fuck you are. That's insane, and especially the shows these guys do. It's not, like, you know, you're walking out, you know, whisper singing and folk songs for 30 minutes. It's, like, these guys are putting it out there. And so, it's inspiring. It's fun to be around a young band that loves playing music and will do anything, literally anything to do it and show up every day with a smile on their face and go out every night and crush it and come up and play songs with us when they should be, like, not playing music anymore; like, resting or whatever else they want to do. It's fun, you know? It's fun to be around guys that are so hungry, because it makes me want - I want our crowd to love these guys so that they go play arenas. I want these guys to go play arenas; I want them to play stadiums; I want them to have the same success that we have, because it's fun to watch them play. it's fun to see somebody want it so bad. And it's inspiring to me, you know? And it makes me go, "That's what I do this for." I love seeing bands that make me want to be in a band, you know? It's fun; it's fun to go out on the road with young people that when I watch them go, "John, I want to be in a band." And then I go, "Yes, I'm in one." And it's like "Woo hoo," you know? It gets me pumped up, you know? And that's what beautiful about music. It's, like, I love my life. Mike and I were laughing today, like, my girls were like running through the house just, like, literally screaming their brains out and I'm going, "Get it out. Get it out. Come on," you know? And everyone in the house, like, there were people who may not be used to seeing that, you know? It's just kind of funny, because this is the kind of, like, you know, living this lifestyle where you're around creative people and you're allowed to express yourself and it's fun to, you know, be creative and be different and it's a blessing. Like, every moment that we live is a blessing. It's fun to see that transcend into younger generations. It's fun to see my kids grow up in a home where they can, you know, express themselves and it's fun to be able to, you know, see all these things happening, not only from within our own band, but within, you know, other bands that we tour with and, you know, it truly is a blessed life that we live, you know, being musicians.