HELLYEAH – “Comfort Kills Creativity” By Aaron Small
“Can you imagine losing 18 years of your fucking life for something
you didn’t do? It’s insanity that the system can do that to you,” spits
HELLYEAH and former MUDVAYNE vocalist Chad Gray when asked about the
song ‘WM Free’ on the new Hellyeah album, Band Of Brothers. ‘WM Free’ is
about the West Memphis Three – Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley Jr, and
Jason Baldwin – three teenagers wrongly convicted of murdering three
boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1994. They spent 18 years in jail for
crimes they didn’t commit, only to be released in August 2011 as a
result of new DNA evidence.
“I’ve been following that for a long time,” continues Chad. I could
not fucking believe they actually finally got out. Since day one they’ve
been saying, ‘It’s not us; we didn’t do it.’ I wrote that song first
person. I wrote that song because I could have been any one of those
kids. I lived in a fucking small town for a few years, like 500 people. I
was into metal, had long hair, and wore black. I was interested in
things that were dark, I loved music; we were loud, we drank. We were
very much frowned upon man! This is a fucking farm town in the middle of
Illinois. If something like that would have happened in that town, you
can bet your fucking ass I would have been to prison. I wrote this song
because I can relate, I think, to where they were. Part of it is a
tribute to them for being released, and then part of the song still
involves them and their story, but it involves me too. I wrote it from
my own point of view because I followed that for quite a few years and
was always blown away by it. It was almost fucking obvious, seeing the
documentaries and stuff; this guy is fucking crazy as the day is long.
Why have you not roped this guy in? Why are you not doing more? The
police department was so fucking corrupt; a little town trying to do big
town police work and these kids lost a lot of their life over it. Thank
God somebody was compelled by their story and stepped in to bring us
all up to speed on it, got people to get behind them and help them, and
here we are.”
Hellyeah and former
PANTERA / DAMAGEPLAN drummer Vinnie Paul joins
the interview in progress and is quick to admit, “Without a doubt,” that
Band Of Brothers is the heaviest Hellyeah album to date. On the first
two albums (2007’s self-titled debut and 2010’s Stampede), it seemed as
though the band (rounded out by guitarists Greg Tribbett and Tom
Maxwell, and bassist Bob Zilla) were somewhat afraid of sounding like
Mudvayne and/or Pantera. “We weren’t afraid,” clarifies Vinnie,” but it
was a conscious effort for all of us to step away from those bands and
really do something different with the music and touch on southern rock,
blues, almost country with the song ‘Alcohaulin’ Ass’. It was important
for us to do that. We got that out of our system, and when we got
together to make this record we said, why don’t we do what we do best?
See what happens if we take all the best elements of what I did in
Pantera, the same thing they did in Mudvayne, mix it with Damageplan and
put it all into Hellyeah. I think we made the record people probably
expected from us from the very start.”
Guitarist Tom Maxwell has been quoted as saying the first two albums
resulted in Hellyeah being pigeon-holed as “twangy red-neck rock.” Is
Band Of Brothers an attempt at escaping that label? “I guarantee you
that’s not what fueled us to do it. I don’t give a shit,” quips Chad.
Vinnie elaborates upon this misnomer by saying, “Some people have some
misconceptions about us. We did a European press tour and they think we
wake up with a bottle of fucking vodka in our hand and are drunk 24/7;
that’s the perception they get. Some people who don’t know a lot about
Hellyeah might have seen the ‘Hell Of A Time’ video and think it’s just
good ole boy hillbilly music; but it’s fucking heavy metal. I mean,
that’s a side of us, but being focused on this record, getting back to
what we do best is going to give people a better idea of what we’re
about.”
Chad reveals the significance behind the title track
‘Band Of
Brothers’, “There was something about that whole fucking underdog, metal
community kind of vibe; the five of us. I’m sure there’s people out
there that were into Pantera or into Mudvayne that would never follow us
over to Hellyeah – but that doesn’t matter! Music is an expression of
yourself and an extension of yourself. We wanted to get away from what
we had done, so we wrote these songs. We weren’t trying to pull Pantera
fans or Mudvayne fans to us; we wanted to do what we wanted to do on the
first and second record – and there’s nothing wrong with that. You can
please some people some of the time, but you can’t please everybody all
of the time. But if you really want to please yourself, then paint with
your own brush and do things your own way.”
The Japanese version of Band Of Brothers features an exclusive bonus
track, a cover of DEF LEPPARD’s ‘High ‘N’ Dry. “It’s kind of like the
Hellyeah thing; it’s a party tune and we heavied the shit out of it,”
confirms Vinnie. “I was a big Def Leppard fan, but the idea actually
came from Tom. It’ll be a B-side, I don’t know if we’ll ever play it
live or if it’ll ever see the light of day in North America, but it was a
fun track to do. We did that QUEEN song ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, we called
it “Stone Cold Wasted’ on our first two tours. We just threw our own
shebang to it, kinda like this Def Leppard thing.”
‘Why Does It Always’ starts out as a great fuck song, a rough and
tumble sex song; however Chad then sings, “I love the thought of two
people forever, but it don’t make sense.” The vocalist is unflinchingly
honest in his opinion of marriage, “I think people get so wound up. The
whole premise of the song is hanging onto the honeymoon. When people
first get together, they’re fucking five times a day and it’s amazing! I
don’t understand what happens? You start pulling away from each other,
or the chic starts pulling you to be like her… it just doesn’t make
sense. In life in general, I think there should be a fucking timer on
every relationship. Alright, if you’re really into him sexually, six
months – just hit the timer and it starts counting down. Then you wake
up one morning and just say, ‘take it easy,’ and you just fucking leave.
If it’s a more dynamic, spiritual kind of relationship, put two years
on it or whatever. But it’s all the emotions and the bullshit people get
so wrapped up in – I don’t believe in two people being together for the
rest of their lives, because I don’t think two people can be fucking
happy for the rest of their fucking life; not in today’s world. When I
look back at my grandparents, they were together for fucking 57 years –
miserable! My grandpa was in the basement watching TV, my grandma
watched TV upstairs. They had two beds for as long as I can fucking
remember, and by the time I was old enough to have it in my head – why
do they have two beds? Then they had two bedrooms! This fucking thing
(Chad points to his crotch); every other commercial’s a dick pill.
Obviously it’s going to quit working some day; but I’m going to get as
many fucking clicks on it as I can!”
Former Mudvayne producer
Jeremy Parker (SLIPKNOT, EVANESCENCE) was
at the helm for Band Of Brothers. “We had Sterling (Winfield) for the
first two records,” recalls Chad. “But he had committed to something in
New Zealand; he’s getting a lot more work now, so we brought it up to
Jeremy.” Vinnie doesn’t deny he “was a little skeptical. Sterling’s been
my right-hand man on everything since Far Beyond Driven; whether it be
REBEL MEETS REBEL, Damageplan, whatever, first two Hellyeah records. He
just knows how we operate – totally different than most bands. We write
and record at the same time, there is no demoing. We capture the moment
from start to finish. So it was a new thing for Jeremy too, but when he
came down, we all hit it off. Obviously they knew him, and I loved the
guy from the minute he went upstairs. I just watched him start
re-patching stuff. Then once we started working, I knew this guy had it
down. I’d never seen an engineer this fast in my life; it’s insane. He
really let us paint the picture we wanted to; he just helped us get the
right colours in the right places, and that’s what a really good
producer should do. He’s not one of those guys who tries to write
choruses or re-arrange songs.”
Band Of Brothers took eight months to complete, which is twice as
long as Stampede took. Chad pinpoints a major reason behind the extra
time required, “They started working without me because I had to have
vocal surgery; I couldn’t even sing for two months. I started working at
my house in Phoenix; Greg (Tribbett, guitarist) was there… it was slow.
It wasn’t the same vibe as being around each other on the previous
records. That old saying, ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.’ It was a new
way. It was a way for me to sleep in my fucking bed every night, versus
a little small fucking cot. It was going to be more comfortable for me,
but ultimately it sucks! Comfort kills creativity. Comfort isn’t very
motivating. You’ve got to be smart enough to realize once you’re in the
comfort zone and make a fucking change. So me and Greg were talking, and
we needed to go back to Dallas; just all be together.” Vinnie applauds
the decision not to rush through the Band Of Brothers sessions, “I think
taking a little more time definitely helped us get a better record for
sure.”
Hellyeah shot a video for
‘Band Of Brothers’, which exploded on
YouTube with over 370,000 views to date. Simplistic in style, the clip
features the band performing in a warehouse with flames burning around
them. Chad explains the methodology, “We really didn’t feel like it
needed anything else. Everything is so fucking low-budg now; it’s
different than the old days. I think we spent like $90,000 on fucking
dick on a two-day shoot. There were videos back in the day that were
$300,000. Nowadays, everything’s much more stripped down; less is more
and we try to get as much out of a video as we can for less money.”
Vinnie concurs, “And they’re not going to play it on MTV anyways. It’s
mainly for people who want to get online and check your scene out.”
Lun 11 Juin - 15:55
