Rockezine.com interview with Hatebreed on Oct 12, 2004

with Matt Byrne on Oct 12, 2004

Hatebreed did a couple of shows in our country. After releasing `Rise Of Brutality` last year, the star of Hatebreed is still rising. At this moment they are the biggest hardcore band in the world, and it won`t stop here, if we are to believe Matt..
		This is the last show on your tour? How did the tour go? It’s been great, it’s been awesome, yeah. We’ve only done three headlining shows this run, the rest was on the Unholy Alliance Tour, er, yeah, with Slipknot and Slayer. So, we’ve been playing places that, you know, the biggest places we’ve played so far being in Europe. You know, Arena’s, we did… The last two nights of the tour were at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, that was awesome, I mean, that place is legendary. So to say, you know, we played there, playing arena’s with like 5000, 6000 seats. So we have played places like that. I mean, we did the festivals in June. But other then that, those are the biggest of the tour.
		I just heard you’re going to the Dominican Republic... Yeah, yeah, we’re going there, October 29th I think. Never been there
		When you think of hardcore, you don’t associate it with such countries. Exactly, exactly. I didn’t know Puerto Rico had that big of a scene and definitely Trinidad, I would have never thought, you know. But I’ve heard Philippines wants us to come there, there’s a guy trying to bring us over to South Africa. You know, I wouldn’t ever have thought. It’s pretty cool.
		Do you have any time to discover the country and see some of the culture of the country? We try to yeah. Yesterday we were in Paris and we went to the Louvre. Yeah, you know, yeah it was great. I didn’t get much time there because we got there late, yes it’s too big, you need at least two days attached to see the, everything, but. My main thing was to see the Mona Lisa, to say I’ve seen it, you know. So er, me and my manager, Steve Ross, err, we got there late. By the time we got out, I think we got there at like 4 or 4.30. So we really had about an hour, hour and a half to really walk around. Saw some paintings, couple of sculptures and just kind of walked around the ground just to check it out, see what’s it all about. So that was enough for me, I got allot of good pictures and everything. I try to do that in every city though, the city has something historical to offer or, like, a nice landmark or sight, or something, I try to go check them out.
		Are there any plans for a new cd, because Rise of Brutality was released a year ago? Yeah, yeah, we’re hopefully going to start a new cd in, in, in the new year. There some riffs and some songs lying around from the last recording session, we have some new stuff. We haven’t really been started on working on anything yet, but, in the new year we will definitely start then. I think we’ll have an album out by the summer. Hopefully that’s the plan.
		Any changes or, in the music… or? No, no, not at all, there is no reason to change our formula or style or anything like that. The last three albums we’ve done been bad and that’s what we do. You know, there’s no reason to change, we’re doing what we do, so…
		There still some shittalking on the messageboards that Hatebreed is still too cliché and the lyrics are too cliché and the music is stacking breakdown on breakdown, what do you think about that? Whatever, I don’t care, whatever, I mean, it’s our tape, you don’t like, you don’t like it. If you like it, you like it. You don’t have to come and see us. It’s obviously a…. We have a loyal fanbase in a lot of places we go. And, and, they love it and we love them. That’s the reason why we play for them. No matter what you’re doing in life, there is always gonna be someone saying they don’t like it and that you suck or whatever. And that you shouldn’t be doing it. So whatever, you take it as it comes, there is always naysayers all over the place. You just keep doing what you are doing and don’t change any views, or, you know, just do what you wanna do, do what you gotta do. Just stick to your guns. People are always gonna talk shit about you.
		I think that is the price for popularity you have to pay… I think that too, we have been called sellouts and I know, how do we sell out? We haven’t changed a damn thing about ourselves or our band since we started, so they call us a sellout because we are on a major label now and more people are getting exposed to our music, which is a good thing, I mean, hey, you’re getting, now we have, we can go to an outlet where there shipping out more cd’s and more people are getting to hear or buy our CD’s and getting to hear our music and with that, we get to go and travel to these places and play for these same people, so, I mean, that’s not selling out, I think that’s just bettering yourself. ‘Cause we haven’t changed anything about ourselves, it’s not like someone came up and said ‘hey you should start wearing make-up` or `you should start wearing different clothes’ or anything, we haven’t changed the formula of our music, the style of our music or ourselves. So we stayed the same since day one. When someone says we`re sellouts, I don’t know what the fuck they are talking about.
		Er, how important are the lyrics for the band? Very important, they’re a big part of our message and, er, er, a part of the music obviously, they’re really motivating lyrics, uplifting. We’ve had a lot of people come up to us and say, yeah you know, I can really relate to A Call For Blood. because, my father, or I had an uncle who did something not right to me when I was younger, so, I, you know, the song is about rape or childabuse, so I really, er, you know, got a lot out of it or a song like Unloved from Perseverance were, you know, they might have just someone felt in a certain way and a certain point in their life and got a lot out of a song and it helped them get through it, you know. So, we, we get people to say that all the time basically. Your music helps me get through a lot everyday, so.
		So, do you know any soccerplayers in the Netherlands? No... I don’t know, i’m not really into soccer, I’m more of a baseball guy, yeah, I like the Yankees. I’m not really even into football that much, like American football.
		So how was touring with Slayer four times? six times already actually. Uhm, we’re friends, yeah, I mean, we toured with them enough and they like our music, I think, we like theirs definitely, who doesn’t like Slayer, you know? So uh, yeah, I think we, you know uh, it’s just a great vibe on tour. We all get along so well and when you respect each other like that, hey those are the types of bands you want to tour with, so hey let’s keep doing it, you know. And, and they helped us out a lot, putting us on the tour they did in 2002 and then we did the Jägertour with them, we’ve done the Ozzfest, with them, so, I mean, they really supported us with everything by putting us on those shows and exposing us to a bigger fanbase. Yeah, giving us a good push. So, yeah we respect them, absolutely.
		Cool. So is there any band you want to tour with? Yeah, well, Metallica, obviously, yeah, I’d like to tour with them. Uhm, who was it I just talked about I wanted to tour with someone, shut! I’ll, I’ll remember after this is over. Uhm, yeah, there’s a, there’s a lot of bands I would like touring with and aren’t around anymore obviously, I mean, I think my all-time favorite I would loved to have toured with is Led Zeppelin, even though it are two completely different worlds, they were fucking awesome. Love it. So, that would be cool, but yeah, Metallica, obviously, we’ve done some festivals with them over here in June, but uhm, never a full scale tour, probably will never happen. But you never know. You know never know, because I heard they are fan of our stuff, so yeah that’s probably the big one I’d like to tour with
		Not some jazzband or something? I like to tour with the Deftones, you know, that would be cool. Those guys are real cool.
		So uh, have you got favorite drummers? Dave Lombardo from Slayer, uhm, Jon Bonham from Zeppeling, Charlie Benante from Anthrax, Igor from Sepultura, Gar Samuelson from Megadeth, those were pretty much the guys I listened to when I was learning to play heavy metal, or whatever. My favorites when I was younger and still my favorites today.
		What was your inspiration to become a drummer? Well, my uncle played drums, he still does. Uhm, so I was watching him play all my life pretty much. I tried guitar first, didn’t get in to it, I just couldn’t pick it up, so, he had a drumset, he said, try the drums, gave it to me. An old ’68 Ludwig, red starting kit, pretty old. Pretty beat up, but it was cool, so he gave it to me, I started, I took some lessons and I just loved it, you know, I latched onto it, kept going, started jamming with people at school, you know, you get some bands or whatever and just, getting better and better from there.
		Do you know any hardcore bands from the Netherlands? Born From Pain, yeah. Maroon, ow, they’re from Germany right, yeah. sorry ‘bout that. No, no, just, they’re in my head because we’re playing with them today. So, they’re friends of ours too, so. Born From Pain is probably the one that’s memorable to me, I mean, we’ve done some tours with them, they’re great guys, I like their music.
		Thank you for your time Thank you too!
(Friso Veltkamp)