D-Day's Revenge...
Speak Your Mind!
D-Day and Rev. Scott speak with Hurtlocker!
Yep, I am teaming up with Reverend Scott for this interview with the great band Hurtlocker!
Scott brought them up as I was enjoying his great show on Wicked Spins Radio and I quickly became a big fan! I'm sure many of you will become a fan as well!
D-Day: How is the metal scene in Chicago?
Hurtlocker: The metal scene here is still fairly strong considering the few places available for metal bands to play. It seems the clubs are becoming more willing to open their doors to metal bands and the scene is growing. I have notice a bunch of new bands that have caught my ear as well as the return of a few bands that were the forefathers of the Chicago metal scene.
D-Day: I love the music I have heard so far. Are you currently working on a new album? Tell us about that.
Hurtlocker: We are currently writing new music but it is not on any deadline so we are taking our time and having some fun, we have about 6 or 7 tunes that are done and a few others that are in the works. I would say over all this will be the most diverse album we’ve done as far as song writing goes, the first 2 albums were basically about establishing ourselves as a force to be reckoned with and now we are working on our songwriting. That’s not to say that this album won’t be as heavy or brutal but it will be different.
Rev.S.: So you guys had Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek from Vader as your Tour Manager for one of your European tours, right? How awesome was that? And what countries have you played in?
Hurtlocker: Yes that’s correct Peter was the tour manager of the domination tour in Europe in 2006, it was a great time and experience for us. Someone like that who had been to these countries multiple times came in really handy when we had questions. Plus he’s a cool guy and in one of the best death metal bands around so it was amazing. As far as countries on that tour alone we hit like 12, it was a 35 day tour with no off days. The tour kicked off in Poland, then on to Germany, Holland, France, UK, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Czech republic, and Switzerland
Rev.S.: Speaking of Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek from Vader, I love your track "Antichrist Conceived" featuring his guest vocals. How did that come about?
Hurtlocker: Well obviously we had keep in touch with him over the years after the tour so when Grant suggested he wanted to ask him if he would be interested in doing something I was all about it. We emailed him and it just so happened he was getting ready to enter the studio to record Necropolis (the newest Vader album which is bad ass). Grant sent him the tracks and lyrics and he recorded his vocals and mailed them back to us. We also got Leif Jensen from Dew Scented (another band from the domination tour) to contribute some guest vocals.
D-Day: Do you have some summer shows or touring lined up at this time?
Hurtlocker: No not really, the touring thing is on hold for now it would have to be a special tour for us to consider it we all have full time jobs and bills so jumping in a van and touring around isn’t very practical at this point. As far as locals shows we are looking into maybe shooting a DVD this summer maybe in August or September but I haven’t booked anything yet. I know the venue we want to do it at and I have talked to them about it but we haven’t decided on a date yet.
D-Day: Who are some of your musical influences?
Hurtlocker: I think this could be answered differently by everyone in the band so I will speak for myself. I grew up on Slayer and a heavy dose of the bay area thrash bands. I was also heavily influenced by the early Florida death metal scene. I guess if you threw in a few New York bands like Suffocation and Demolition hammer you get a good idea of my influences. You can even trace it back further I would imagine to Kiss, Sabbath and Maiden that’s probably were it all got started for me.
D-Day: Along those lines... if you had the power to join a tour with any three current bands, who would they be and why?
Hurtlocker: Again this would probably be answered differently by everyone of us but my 3 would be Metallica just for the number of people they would draw anyone who plays in metal knows the feeling of playing empty rooms, I would have to make a stipulation that they have to play tunes from their first 3 albums only , next on the bill would have to be Slayer just because how can you play metal and not want to jam with Slayer, the third band on the gig is almost the hardest to pick so many bands and only one spot left but I would pick Malevolent Creation. I have always been a fan of this band and would love to share the stage with them.
R.S.: You were signed to the European label Napalm for a while; how was that whole experience?
Hurtlocker: Yes they signed us and released Fear in a handful of dust as well as Embrace the Fall, it was a learning experience that’s for sure
D-Day: Almost every band has had some of those crazy experiences or Spinal Tap moments during their run. What crazy type story can you share with us that sticks out in your mind the most. Such as wardrobe or equipment malfunctions, promoter issues, zany fans, drunken moments, someone shit their pants onstage etc. You get the point.
Hurtlocker: We had our tour bus in Europe catch on fire in Milan Italy, we had just finished playing and a couple of us went back to the bus to have a few beers and relax after the show and we noticed some people walking down the street just staring at the bus. I even mentioned to one of the guys in the band that these people were starring at the bus like it was on fire or something, Well I poked my head out the door of the bus and sure enough the back of the bus had flames coming out of it, it was crazy we had to get the Italian fire department out there, luckily nobody was hurt
D-Day: Let's try a multiple choice question:
Which of the following would be the most disturbing thing for Hurtlocker to witness while on tour?
a) Looking out at the crowd and seeing everyone doing the “wave” rather than headbanging.
b) Noticing the promoter sneaking out the back just as you start your encore song.
c) Finding Rosie O’Donnell in your dressing room eating your food after the show.
d) All of the above
e) other
Hurtlocker: Well lets see if they were doing the wave I guess they are still doing something so that wouldn’t be too bad, we have been screwed by so many promoters as I’m sure most bands have that one more sneaking out on us isn’t going to kill us, but finding Rosie in our dressing room would be the last straw. Anybody who has been around Hurtlocker at a show when its feeding time will tell you it’s a feeding frenzy and you better get what you want early so there would be hell to pay if she was eating our stuff
R.S.: In the music world it seems like we deal with substance abuse quite often; I remember you lost a friend and drummer to drug complications a few years ago and I wanted to give you this opportunity to talk about that and maybe give a message to the readers.
Hurtlocker: Dan was a good kid, he really was but he was caught up in a bad habit. That kid would frustrate me to no end more so because his drug use would interfere with his ability to play the drums. I’m not going to sit here and tell people not to do drugs, part of growing up is experimenting and trying things just be careful
D-Day: What are your thoughts on music downloading/sharing? If you were to wake up and see that 2,000 copies of your albums were downloaded for free, would you see that as promotion or stealing? I've received many thoughts on this in previous interviews and would love to get your take on it.
Hurtlocker: My take is simple on this, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. First off we have never seen a dime from album sales so it’s not as if its hurting us. Second 2000 more people listen to Hurtlocker is a great thing, we have always gained fans by word of mouth so download away.
D-Day: What are your goals for the band within the next 5 years?
Hurtlocker: Hell the next 5 years is way too long of a time frame to even think about, I will say over the next 6 months or so we are going to record a new album, and we are going to play some shows around the Chicago area, we have even kicked around the idea of shooting a live DVD but that’s about all I can think of on the horizon
D-Day: Thank you so much for speaking with us. Any final words for the metalheads out there?
Hurtlocker: Thanks for listening, stay metal
Hear some Hurtlocker music and keep up with the band here!:
7/19/10
