Halestorm vann nyligen en Grammy hemma i USA och på Bandit Rock Awards fick de pris för "International breakthrough of the year".
Någon timme innan de äntrade scenen för att köra ett kortare akustiskt set, slog jag mig ner med Lizzy och Joe för att höra hur läget var. Det blev bl a snack om Grammyvinsten, Lizzys samarbete med David Draiman och besök i 5150-studion.
Well, I gotta ask you about the Grammy?
Lizzy: (laughs) The craziest thing ever to happen. (laughs)
When you were up there and then went backstage, did you go “Ah, I should´ve said that!”?
Lizzy: Oh, of course. We left out people. We didn´t think we were gonna win at all. We didn´t prepare anything because we just didn´t think we had a shot. Not because we´re not confident, it´s just… Look who we´re up against! Iron Maiden and freaking Lamb of God and Megadeth and Marilyn Manson and Anthrax. We were thinking “They´re either gonna give respect to the classic guys or they´re gonna give it to Lamb of God because A, they got a shitload of press this year and they´re freaking awesome! We were just like “We´re happy to be here!”. (laughs) When they called our name it was like “What?”.
Joe: It was complete chaos. It was great.
Lizzy: Yeah, it was chaos.
A thing like this, will it help you career wise in any way?
Lizzy: Definitely. It´s already opened a lot of doors. Us rock people are such hypocrites, like “We don´t even pay attention to the Grammys.” and we didn´t even pay attention so when we got nominated that was a complete surprise too, but then once you´re nominated it´s like “Wooohooo!”.
Joe: It´s a great press moment and we got tons of press and that´s always good and that alone is worth it. I don´t really know what happens in the long run because of it, but we´ll always get that attached to our name I guess, which is cool.
Lizzy: It´s an honor because we´ve been a band for 16 years now and it´s crazy to have all that hard work be recognized. I think a lot of people now know who we are because of it too.
Joe: For some people it makes us legitimate in their eyes, for whatever reason and for others it makes us chumps, whatever. (laughs)
Does it in any way put any pressure on you? I´m thinking about your bext album and so on.
Joe: No. We didn´t write this record aiming for that and I think as long as we follow what gets us excited musically, then whatever happens happen.
Lizzy: It´s almost like if we start thinking about that, then that´s gonna be the problem. Then we´re gonna be thinking way too much in the studio and that´s never good. You gotta take your brain out of it.
You said you were the “new kids on the block”. Is that the way you look at it, even though you´ve been doing it for 16 years?
Lizzy: Well, it´s like you´ve been doing it for so long…
Joe: NKOTB.
Great band! (laughs)
Lizzy: One of my influences. (laughs)
“The right stuff”.
Lizzy: (laughs) That´s awesome! You have to think of it like you went from graduating high school to being a freshman in college.
Joe: I think it´s more like graduating college at that point.
Lizzy: And now you´re in the new world? (laughs)
Joe: Well, there´s a light put on us and now we´re out there on our own. It feels like a new start and maybe a few more people are watching because of it.
What are your plans for the next six months or so?
Lizzy: Lots of touring.
Joe: We just finished a cover EP and we literally went to the Grammys in the middle of recording it. It´s just a bunch of cool cover songs. Then we come back here to Europe in March and then the States in April and May and I don´t know after that. We´ve got some festivals booked this summer.
Lizzy: As far as the eye can see… (laughs)
What songs are on the EP?
Joe: We haven´t really told anyone yet.
Ok. A lot of 80´s metal?
Joe: There is some of that, yeah.
Is it stuff you listened to growing up?
Lizzy: Yeah. I had a bit of a dated catalog in my player, thanks to my parents. That´s always fun for me and then there´s a few unexpected ones. A few things that I didn´t think we´d pull off, but I think we did. We´ll find out. It´s not mixed yet.
How many songs are there?
Lizzy: We recorded seven.
Joe: There will be at least six on there and one might be for another record.
When is it coming out?
Lizzy: The next couple of months. Probably summer.
Are you staying true to the originals or giving them the Halestorm vibe?
Lizzy: We´re definitely building each one in our own way. Sometimes that´s hard, but we learned a lot as musicians by doing that. You can take the “Oh, is this a good song?” thing out of it because it´s already a proven song, so you just have fun and experiment.
Joe: A lot of it we didn´t really rehearse or work out before we went into the studio, so we´re kinda just winging it in there and just with Lizzy singing it, it kinda gets the Halestorm vibe anyway. It´s been fun.
Lizzy: On top of that we didn´t change the lyrics and I´m singing about a girl. (laughs)
Any Van Halen songs?
Lizzy: We wanted to so bad, but we didn´t have enough time. Next one.
Joe: We could get Wolfie (Van Halen) in.
That would be awesome.
Lizzy: Yeah, that´s a good idea. Thank you for that idea! (laughs)
Yeah, because last time we talked you mentioned that you´d been to 5150 studios with Wolfgang. What was it like?
Lizzy: It was like a Van Halen museum.
Joe: We were in there for half an hour.
Lizzy: Yeah, because daddy (Eddie Van Halen) was away. I don´t think Wolfie was allowed to show us.
Joe: No, it was fine.
Lizzy: It kinda felt that way.
Is it a big place?
Lizzy: No, it´s very small.
Joe: It´s super tight. It´s more like a barn. Half of it is like a guitar work shop with tools and guitar parts everywhere. Then there´s a control room and a huge rehearsal room and then there´s like a sealed off area with all the tapes. Like “1984”.
Lizzy: Yeah, all the original tapes with like “Jump” and it´s written on there, like “1984”. It´s really cool. “Don´t touch anything!”. (laughs)
Cool. You recently worked with David Draiman. Was that just for one song?
Lizzy: Yeah, it was just for a song for his new Device record. We did “Close your eyes forever”, the Ozzy and Lita Ford cover. It was a duet and it´s very cool. Mr Draiman, he´s so nice and he´s the best dude ever. Very organized and very meticulous and he knows exactly what he wants. We had talked about it a year or two before that when we were on tour together. I thought he was just joking and then I got the call, “Yeah, it´s done. I know you´re on tour, but get your ass here! I´ve got the studio booked and I have all your parts ready.”. It was awesome.
Do you know there´s an old 80´s band called Device?
Lizzy: No, I did not know that.
Holly Knight was in it.
Lizzy: Oh my God! (laughs)
Joe: We just saw her the other day. She was one of the first people we ever co-wrote with, or she was the first person, right?
Lizzy: Yeah, she was the first one. We didn´t know what we were doing. We just kinda sat at the piano and hummed a bunch of weird stuff and it was like “Ok, what are we doing here?”.
Joe: She was a sweetheart.
Lizzy: Yeah, she was cool. We´d write better together now than back then. (laughs)
You should check it out. It´s on You Tube. Just look for Device and their hit “Hanging on a heart attack” from ´86! It´s a great album.
Lizzy: Definitely gonna check that out now.
Joe: I wonder if David worked something out with them or something?
Lizzy: Maybe he doesn´t know?
Joe: He´s gotta know. He´s so meticulous.
Lizzy: Yeah, he´s David Draiman. Of course he knows. (laughs)
Have you started thinking about your next album?
Lizzy: Yeah, we´ve begun writing. What for, who knows and when we´ll do it, I don´t know. We´re gonna squeeze the life out of this record. We´re on our third single and we´ve got a few more.
Joe: We´re like collecting right now. Collecting riffs and song titles. It´s hard to finish songs when you´re on the road. Some of it will work out on the next tour. I´ve ordered some gear to make a little portable writing station. Once the tour is over it´s just like “Bam!”, you start writing your ass off and that´s when you take everything you´ve collected over the last few months and finish it off. There´s no aim in the writing, like the third record is gonna be like “this”.
Ok. Thank you guys!
Lizzy: Anytime.
/Niclas
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