"A big thank you to all the fans in Bulgaria"

They are ultra strong and powerful. Their new album ‘For the Lions’ is full of covers - a kind of a tribute to the roots - Misfits, Metallica, Judge, Cro-Mags, D.R.I., Negative Approach, Agnostic Front, Madball, Sheer Terror, Slayer, Sucidal Tendencies, Obituary etc. A good reason to call HATEBREED vocalist Jamie Jasta on the phone.

an interview conducted by ALexander Boyadjiev

ЗДРАСТИ, ДЖЕЙМИ. КАК СИ И КЪДЕ СИ СЕГА?

HI, JAMEY. WHERE ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW?
I’m in the studio and I’m doing pre-production for the next Hatebreed studio album.

THERE IS A LOT GOING ON AROUND HATEBREED LATELY – YOUR DVD BEING RELEASED IN EUROPE, THE NEW ALBUM – BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST, YOUR LONGTIME GUITARIST SEAN MARTIN DECIDED TO LEAVE THE BAND WHICH WAS A SHOCK TO ALL THE FANS. COULD YOU PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL US MORE ABOUT HIS DEPARTURE?
Well, from our end we kind of saw it coming to the extent we knew he wanted to do other things and we knew we had a really busy schedule coming up. But for all the reasons behind it you’d really have to talk to him about because it is unfair to truly say why we think he left. But we were cool with it. We don’t want to force someone do something he doesn’t want to do anymore and we also have a very busy schedule this year and next year – we’re very excited about the next album. We were able to get Wayne, our original guitar player, back in the band and it is a very seamless transition. We’re actually cool with Sean. We hung out a few days ago. He was with us for ten years, put out three albums with us and we are grateful for his work and the commitment he put in the band. We’re moving on.

A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE CURIOUS ABOUT WAYNE’S DECISION TO LEAVE HATEBREED 10 YEARS AGO AND HOW DID YOU COME TO THE IDEA TO GET HIM BACK NOW?
Like everyone – life changes and your priorities change. Back in the day he didn’t have the ability to do all the touring with us. We were touring like crazy but we didn’t make any money so it was hard for anyone to be in the band because it was like no money, no glory, nowhere to sleep, no food. So it was very hard. And when he left in order to get a regular job we were supportive and we said – ‘Look, this isn’t a lifestyle that is for everybody’. We later gave him a behind the scenes job in the band, so he’s been with us for a while. It was logical for him to step up once Sean left. He is basically a part of the behind the scene crew anyway…

SO, YOU HAVE A NEW CD COMING OUT MAY 15TH. IT IS A SELECTION OF COVER SONGS. CAN YOU TELL US A FEW WORDS ABOUT THIS RELEASE?
We wanted to have it out last October but with all the touring and casuals it was very hard to finish the record back then. But when we came back and everybody sat in the room together after 4 months of rest, Sean had left and we got Wayne to finish the songs like Suicidal Tendencies and Slayer, Bad Brains, Black Flag… And now we’re able to get it out in May which is cool because we are doing this tour all over the world – South America, Europe, all these places and we wanted to tour on something new. And we want to bring some of these cover songs into our live set. And by the end of the summer we will have a brand new studio album. It is cool to release two CDs this year.

COULD YOU PLEASE MAKE A SHORT COMMENT ON EACH SONG?
No problem. We actually had a hard time agreeing what songs are we going to do and we may have to release another similar album next year ha-ha! On this one we have a lot of hardcore songs that are our influences like Judge and Merauder, Sick of it All, Agnostic Front, Madball. Obviously it is very New York Hardcore influenced for us being from Connecticut some 60-70 miles North of New York. We did ‘Set it off’ by Madball which is a classic song, ‘Your Mistake’ by Agnostic Front, one of my favorite songs by them. We did ‘Hear Me’ by Judge, and they are a much underrated band in my opinion. Also ‘Life is Pain’ by Merauder which is one of my favorites and probably my favorite demo ever. We also did some metal songs – Slayer’s ‘Ghost of War’ which is a classic, Obituary’s ‘I’m in Pain’ and Metallica with ‘Escape’ where I tried to sing as best as I could.

Some of these songs were really fun to do like Suicidal Tendencies’ ‘Suicidal Maniac’. We have a short clip of that on YouTube. People are freaking out because I’m doing a different vocal style which was very fun for me to do. I also had a lot of fun singing Bad Brains, Black Flag and Negative Approach – the more punk oriented hardcore. We tuned them down and we made them sound like Hatebreed, but tried not to ruing them – they are classic songs. We wanted to keep them true to their speed and their aggression. It was all about fun and paying respect.

YOU RELEASED YOUR FIRST LIVE DVD, COMING OUT IN EUROPE OFFICIALLY PRETTY SOON. TELL US ABOUT IT – HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THE LOCATION FOR THE FILMING? GIVE US SOME BACKSTAGE INFO…
Well, we actually chose Detroit because of the deep rooted history of love for hardcore and metal, just because of the crowd. There’s different towns and different stages. There are cities where people kind of come and go and the hardcore and metal scenes are very big, but years later they might be small. In Detroit it has always been big. It is a city where you can get 3,000 maniacs in one room.

BESIDES DETROIT, WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO PLAY?
Obviously we liked Sofia, which was a great show! But we enjoy playing everywhere. We were just in Mexico City. It was a smaller crowd – maybe 500 or 600 people – but there was a great energy and vibe. And before that we played a very small show for like 200 people in a bar, kind of a secret type of show, and that was great too. I’m happy if there are ten people. I am happy everywhere I go. We have been doing it for 13 years now and people are still enthusiastic about the band. It is amazing.

TELL US A FEW WORDS ABOUT KINGDOM OF SORROW. HOW DID YOU END UP WITH KIRK FROM CROWBAR AND WAS THIS A ONE OF TYPE OF A RECORD, A SIDE PROJECT OR DO YOU HAVE BIGGER PLANS FOR IT?
It was definitely a side project, but I’d like to see another record. I spoke with Kirk earlier today and I’m helping him with the new Crowbar record. When we got together it was in the March of ’05 when we agreed to do a project together it took so long to actually get it out in stores. So actually that record is very old for me because I recorded it such a long time ago and it came out in 2008. If we do something new it is not going to be before, like, late next year…

WHAT THE ICEPICK? THE FIRST RECORD WAS AWESOME AND THEN THERE WERE TALKS ABOUT A SECOND ALBUM…
It is not really a band that can tour because everyone lives far away from each other. But it was a fun studio project and we did a couple of shows. In the underground the album did very well. I put it on my label and it sold like 25,000 copies. It is just word of mouth and internet – no video, no tour, no radio, no real promotion. So I was happy with the way everything turned out. And I like the record. For the new one I have a lot of the music done, but it has so many guest appearances that I need to get and put them on each song correctly. On the last record it was mainly in one song. Now it is going to be on every song.

WHAT ABOUT JASTA? WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?
I was supposed to finish this record by the end of this year. It is actually pretty much done. I think it is cool. I have a lot of ideas, a lot of songs… But I think I’ll have to wait for the Hatebreed record to come out first, because it is ridiculous. The solo album is a compilation of these sort of beneficial shows I do with my band. If someone told me to go and play in their basement I would do it.

HOW DO YOU FIND THE TIME TO DO ALL THESE THINGS? YOU HAVE HATEBREED AND THEN KINGDOM OF SORROW, ICEPICK, JASTA, STILLBORN RECORDS; YOU ALSO HOSTED HEADBANGER’S BALL…
Yeah, it is crazy. Sometimes I’m totally burned out and I’m not feeling it. Lately it has been very positive and I have been waiting for time to create something. When I’m inspired I just go with it. This is how it is supposed to be, I guess…

YOU USED TO HOST HEADBANGER’S BALL BUT YOU DON’T ANYMORE. COULD YOU PLEASE SHARE SOME INTERESTING MOMENTS WITH US FROM THAT TIME?
I actually wrote a book about it and it is going to come out next year. It is all journals and diaries about getting to interview Iron Maiden and Metallica, Slash, you know Tony Iommi, and Lemmy, and Dio. It was a crazy ride - flying all over the world, doing shows, interviewing a band in the morning, then flying and having to perform on stage with my band in the evening. The book chronicles everything about this and I believe it would be a very interesting read for metal fans and hardcore fans out there.

WHEN SOMEONE HEARS ABOUT YOUR DAILY ROUTINE THEY’D THINK THAT YOU DEFINITELY TAKE DRUGS.
Ha-ha! I have been clean and sober for over 3 years and I’m proud to say that my life is back under control.

OVER THE YEARS, DID YOU IMAGINE YOU’D GO SO FAR WITH HATEBREED? WHEN YOU STARTED THE BAND, WHAT DID YOU IMAGINE THE BAND’S FUTURE WILL BE BACK THEN? AND WHERE DO YOU SEE HATEBREED IN THE FUTURE NOW?
People ask me if I’m going to be like Lemmy and still do it when I’m 60. I am 30 and I wouldn’t mind. I enjoy it and when I started the band I just wanted to play shows and meet people and travel and we’re still doing it with the same intentions. And the real beauty of the whole thing is that we really made our own terms and we made our own way and we have been able to keep our sound and out message that people love so much and they respect us even more because we never attempted to change our message in order to become bigger a band.

We got bigger and bigger by doing what we love and what was meaningful to us. And that goes a long way for people. It is like an institution now and we want it to keep on going despite the lineup changes and label changes. We’re the one band that people can know what they get when they buy the record.

YOU MENTIONED YOU HAD FOUR MONTHS OFF BEFORE YOU DID THE LAST SONGS FOR THE COVERS COMPILATION. WHAT DID YOU DO BACK THEN? WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR FREE TIME IF YOU HAVE ANY?
I didn’t have 4 months off like the other guys did. I was on tour with Kingdom of Sorrow. And everyone goes like ‘you’re crazy’, but I had a really good time – we opened for Gwar, we got a thousand kids every night and it was a really good time for us. It was a very good vibe. You know. We have been headlining for so long it was nice to just be the opening band and be able to chill out and not have to play an hour and a half set. IT was cool to just play for brand new people. Some of them didn’t know I was in Hatebreed it was crazy! Gwar bring such a weird crowd, it was a lot of fun. Every night was just a big party. I got to go to places I have never been and go to clubs I’ve never played before.

ANY LAST WORDS?
Well, just a big thank you to all the fans in Bulgaria. It is really cool that you support us and we are looking forward to playing another show!

rights Tangra Mega Rock