Corey: You think so?

Yeah, I do. Well, it all depends on how you look at it …

Corey: … I don’t look at it the way you do. I actually disagree; I think the first album was a lot heavier than this one. I mean, this is heavy in more of a hard rock feel. I think, this whole album has more of a hard rock feel to it, whereas the first album was a lot heavier because we were still trying to figure out what we wanted to do?

So, what is it that you want to do then?

Corey: More of this album, actually.

So, like a little more hard rock then? Like the set you played at Rock im Park? Straight and forward pushing?

Corey: What we wanted to do is make the biggest impact with the least amount of time. Because we only had a 40 minute set. So, what we wanted to do is pick the tunes from the old album that would make the people get up *snaps his fingers* but at the same time we wanted to play the more rocking songs from this album. It was kind of a balancing act to try and find which ones to do. Basically deciding not to play "Bother” was like a big factor, you know. It is more like a club kind of piece not a festival song. It is more intimate.

You mean live? Because I would have said it is a radio piece actually.

Corey: No, no. What I am saying is, that moment in the club. It is like you are right there with the kids. Everything is kind of resounding off the walls and stuff. But with Rock Im Park, we wanted to get out, fucking make an impact and remind people why they liked this and get out with the least amount of time that we have.

Yeah, I understand. "Bother” is actually perfect encore, right? Which you did not have here at the festival …

Corey: … yeah, totally.

You have stated on your homepage that the last two years were musically defined by Slipknot; the next two years are in full support of Stone Sour. Why do you need two bands? Are you not fully challenged by one?

Corey: No, it’s not actually because Slipknot is such a different piece. I mean, you have heard the new Stone Sour album, right? We can’t do a song like "Sillyworld” with Slipknot, we couldn’t do a song like "Through Glass”, and we couldn’t do a song like "Zzyx”. Those are the kind of songs that we also write, you know. In a lot of ways, Slipknot limits itself by being so specific. We, on the other hand, have a completely different approach to music. When we write something and we dig it, fucking A, let’s record it, no matter what it is. We include "Socio” in the same work as "Hell & Consequences”. Because it is what we like, it is what we dig. If we did not dig it, we would not write it. Dig it? *checks out with Shawn, blinks his eye*

Shawn, what did you do in the last two years then? If Corey and James had Slipknot, what did you, Josh and Roy do? Other projects?

Shawn: Yeah, I was stage manager for Slipknot the past two years. *Corey laughs* There you have it.

So, you kind of hang around anyway?

Shawn: Yep, I’m there. Even if I am not playing, I’m there.

Corey: We haven’t left each others sight in about seven years.

Shawn: I’ve been with Slipknot since the beginning and I’ve done this since the beginning too.

And the other two?

Shawn: Josh has family at home; that works out perfectly. He has got children and he is able to take time with his kids. And Roy just got in the band.

Corey: Yeah, this is like the first permanent gig he has really had in a long time, since Soulfly. He has been jamming with different bands, people that he likes. Like on the last Sepultura tour.

Where do you feel more at home then?

Corey: With Stone Sour. Absolutely. Slipknot is really good for me getting out a specific side of me. With this band, I can kind of let loose anything I want. It has always been that way since the first time, we all jammed: "That’s really fucking cool, oh man THAT is fucking cool.” There’d be two completely different sounds. That is just the way it was. Coming back to this in 2002 was very important, because I did not realize how limiting Slipknot was. And granted, with "Vol. 3” we did break a lot of ground and try some different things but it was also still over the top and chaotic. You can only do that so much before you go: "Jesus Christ! Let me kind of back away from that.”

A less artificial feeling?

Corey: Not artificial but very one sided. Does that make sense? Because Slipknot is so over the top and so fucking chaotic…

…what I meant was that it is a creation, a stage thing…

Corey: Not really, I mean, the music almost created the stage presence. We write shit like that and we are not wearing any of that. And we are just as crazy without wearing it. It is a piece of the puzzle.

I just figured, you are not Corey on stage, but Number, what …?

Corey: Number 8. Too many numbers in this world, dude. *Shawn grins*

But it is a choice not to be Corey, right?

Corey: Yeah, well it is a side of me. It is not like I am playing a character, these are real issues that I dealt with growing up, fucking living life. This helps me, that side of me, the Slipknot side helps me deal with that. This helps me do everything else.

You stated on the homepage that these are the songs that you would actually sing at home, like when you are in the shower?

Corey: Exactly. Yeah totally, man. I mean, I walk around singing all day, just different shit. *Shawn grins from one ear to the other*

Shawn: I just picture you in the shower man *imitates Corey shouting some Slipknot lyrics* *everybody starts laughing*

Corey: I should do that next time. Like: "Honey, I’m gonna warm up” *starts growling real dark and loud* *more laughter* Start fucking belching it out, man.

So, do you have a softer side?

Corey: Yeah, I write a lot of stuff that doesn’t even see the light of day. I mean, I play it for these guys once in a while but it is like the songs that I contribute are more of the stuff that I think the band would contribute to really well. It is the same with Shawn or Jim. The songs that they bring are the ones that we listen to and go "Oh fuck” *Corey makes appreciative sounds while Shawn and Jim (at his computer next to me) start goofing off* Ok, it is not quite like that…

Shawn: Yeah, I was gonna say. It is a little different … not even close, but … *throws Corey an "I got you”-look*

Corey: *trying to get serious again*… it is the songs you hear, I mean. I write acoustic stuff all the time and there is some stuff that I write … *I start grinning this time, Corey notices* What the FUCK is funny about that?

Sorry, I just got a picture of you doing the Jack Johnson thing. It just doesn’t really work out.

Corey: *all irritated now* That is because you only know that side. If you were from the greatest city in the world, Des Moines Iowa, you’d know different. *Shawn laughs hard*

So, he is doing the Jack Johnson stuff then?

Shawn: Absolutely.

Corey: These guys come over all time. I am sitting in my underwear playing guitar. And they say …

Shawn: …put pants on!

Corey: That is true. Especially on fathers day. That is a no pants day in my house.

Shawn: I go over there on fathers day, sitting there in his boxers, he’s got potato chip crumbs all over his chest and says: "What? It’s fathers day.” *Everybody laughs*

Corey: All right. *laughs hard*

Shawn: It’s not like that is license to be a slob…

Corey: Fucking right, man!

Actually, I think it is a license …

Shawn: For the fathers all right…

No, usually it is the ones that are not fathers that are the biggest slobs.

Corey: Yeeeaaahh! I am the one exception.

Shawn: You are living your dream.

Do you consider doing a solo album? Even softer, more songwriter, kind of to express yourself?

Corey: I don’t know man, every body asks me that. I thought about it, definitely thought about that. But right now, that is not a priority. When I get to the point where I can’t bang my head anymore, when I can’t slam, can’t fucking run around like a mad pansy on stage, you know. Well, of course, then I’m go put something out. Man, I got like twenty years of that shit written. I probably got a hundred acoustic songs written that nobody has heard, not even these guys. Right now, my priority is writing music with these guys. There is nothing better. Like "Through Glass”, it is a perfect example. I demo-ed the song over at Shawn’s place, they heard it and what not. But when we went to track it, we purposely did not practice it. Because when we went to track it, we wanted it to be fresh.

Shawn: Real spontaneity.

So, you did a one-taker?

Shawn: No, it wasn’t in one take. We just did not work out anything.

Corey: We experimented. What these guys contributed made it so much more than the demo was. It gave me chills. I started tearing up. It was fucking awesome. It is the closest I have ever come to hearing a song in my head actually turn out like that in the studio. It made me so fucking happy.

That brings me to the next question. You stated, again on the homepage …

Corey: …you see, I don’t even write on the homepage. Where are all these quotes coming from? Did you tap my fucking phone? *looks around paranoid*

Actually, I didn’t … must be the government…

Corey: …Bush, hmm?

Hush, we will get to that later…

Shawn: We’ll be getting to that?

Corey: Good.

What I was going to say: the homepage mentioned that you got a discontent with mainstream. On the other hand you give them a single like "Through Glass” or "Bother”. How does that fit?

Corey: Yeah, well. In a lot of ways, if people actually knew what those songs were about they probably would not get paid. Seriously.

But shouldn’t they be able to listen to the lyrics?

Corey: They should, but I don’t write specifics, I write poetics. I always have. I don’t fucking go out of my way to paint a picture to people, so that everybody is going to see the same picture.

Shawn: Which we will also go into, in a second too, because that will also tie into Bush…

Corey: Exactly. *everybody laughs* Totally. But you know what I mean.
Shawn: Except for, he is like openly admitting.

Ok, in this case you are totally admitting it. As on stage. I actually had to rework my questions because I did not want to force the Bush thing onto you and then on stage you mentioned it.

Shawn: There it goes …

Corey: Yeah, there it is.

But coming back to that mainstream feeling. You don’t feel like "Through Glass” is a mainstream song?

Corey: If I write something, it is not … I don’t write it from the standpoint that it is going to sell. I write it because I like it, you know. What? Here is the thing though. You listen to a song like "Through Glass” or like "Socio” and then you put it up against anything that is on the radio, they don’t even sound the least bit like that.

I don’t know. A single like "Bother” actually is very close to stuff like Creed or …

Corey: Dude! I thought we were close. That is the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. Wow! Creed? Man?

Well, if you listen to mainstream rock radio, "Bother” does not stick out. It blends in with the rest. I mean, it is a great song, I love that song…

Corey: Thank you.

…and "Through Glass” is a perfect first single. Not for the summer, but rather for the winter…

Corey: Who are you? You are killing me.

I am not doing airplay, I am doing print, so I can say that without meaning anything. *Shawn giggles the whole time*

Corey: At least you are honest. I mean, most people just suck our dicks and get out. You know. *Shawn laughs heartily*

Actually … no, I’ll pass. But that song … you know what, screw that mainstream topic…

Corey: No, you know what it is. It is because it is melodic. Just because it has melody doesn’t mean it is mainstream. I mean, all you have to do is go back and listen to that stuff considered college radio in the 80s. Amazing melody. Did it get played all over the fucking top 40? No. Are they still fucking great songs? Yes. That is the mentality. I am lucky enough that the songs that we write deal with serious issues. Not fucking love and all that bullshit but they deal with social commentary and how bad the mainstream music scene really is. That is what that song is really about, it is a very scathing look at it. It is melodic enough and hooky enough that people really, really dig it.

So, the problem is that the people don’t read the lyrics?

Corey: No, if they like it, they are going to want to read the lyrics. That is the way I am. Is that the way you are? Yeah, then shut up!

Shawn: See, I don’t read the lyrics. I could not tell you half of his lyrics. *points at Corey* I’ve known him for fifteen years, seventeen years.

You don’t know the lyrics to the Stone Sour songs?

Shawn: No, not all of them.

Corey: See, he is the musical side though. He listens to the music.

Yeah, but you are still on stage promoting whatever ideas he is singing. So shouldn’t you be aware of what that message is?

Shawn: As long as it sounds good.

That is the aesthetical part, but what about content?

Shawn: That is my point of view. Not his.

But whatever Corey is singing gets attached to you as well.

Shawn: No, not really.

Corey: He’s got his own mind.

Shawn: We are all individuals. That is one of the other reasons that he can sing whatever he wants. It is not like I don’t like what he sings …

… so he could sing about "Bassplayers suck”

Shawn: Seriously, yes.

Corey: We did not release that one…
Shawn: …not because I disapproved of it, but because the label did not want it.

Corey: Exactly. *starts laughing*

Shawn: *very dryly* It wasn’t mainstream enough. *whole room breaks into laughter*

Corey: That was awesome!

So, if you disagree with mainstream and do not like singing about love or big boobs …

Corey: Actually, I love singing about big boobs …

Shawn: I wished he would sing more about it …

Corey: No, really. Here is the thing. My biggest problem with the mainstream is how easy it is for people to fucking break through with no talent. That is my main problem.

That is my next question actually. What do you think of "American Idols”? You must hate that shit.

Corey: Let’s put it this way. I watch one episode "American Idol” every season. And it is always the first episode with all the fucking shitty people. Other than that I could not tell you one fucking winner besides Kelly Clarkson. That is the truth. She won the first year and she is the worst of the worst.

I have been asking this question many bands by now, and one time I got "It is the McDonalds of music”…

Corey: That is not even that, because I eat at McDonalds. *Shawn laughs* Seriously.

Shawn: That is saying too much, man!

Corey: It is production line bullshit. It is not even fucking music.

Shawn: It is making Simon Cowell rich.

Corey: It is making the industry rich, not making the artists rich.

Yeah, but the artists don’t want to be rich, they want to be famous.

Corey: That is pathetic. But you are right. At least the people on "American Idol” they can actually sing. You gotta give em that. You can take … and that is the biggest problem, it comes back to what I was talking about. You can take any fucking yahoo into a studio, have him talk into a mike, auto-tune it, put them out onto the fucking road, have them sing the tape and nobody will even know the difference. That is how easy it is to be fucking mainstream. And that is pathetic.

Shawn: I like it when we fuck up.

Corey: Exactly, that is the human factor, that you can’t fucking break.

Shawn: No, really. I don’t like it when we fuck up. But shit mistakes happen, it is part of life.

Corey: If you don’t make mistakes, people don’t realize that you are actually playing. You know? People have been bullshitted into thinking that artists can go out there and sound just like the album and still do these crazy dance moves. If I did that, I would be so out of breath I couldn’t fucking sing anything. Like Brittney Spears. But she even admitted it: "I don’t fucking sing on stage, are you nuts?”

Shawn: "There is no way I could”

Corey: Then don’t do all the fucking dance moves, you ass!

Actually, I’d rather see her dance, then hear her sing …

Corey: I don’t want to see her dance, she was wiggling like some kind of bowl of pudding. That was nasty.

Let’s get back to real music then: "Come What(ever) May”, "Hell & Consequences” and "Sillyworld” all have the ring of criticism to it and on stage you said it is about Bush …

Corey: Yeah, that is probably the only time I go out of my way to go: "This song is about this …”

Aren’t people gonna get it anyway?

Corey: I don’t know. People in America are stupid man. It is the age old story. Some fucking dip shit is in office and he’s got all these fucking slack job mouth breathers backing him up and there is nobody standing up for intelligence and nobody standing up for science and the environment and human rights and doing what is right. Instead we got this fucking sawed off red-neck leading our country in a fucking serious situation. That we are already in. I have a hard time walking around anywhere not only here, but in South America, even Canada, without being fucked with. And that is pathetic. I don’t fucking back his politics, I don’t fucking like him as a person, let alone as a leader. I got tired of nobody saying it, I got tired of nobody calling "Bullshit”. Going out of their way to say "This guy is a fucking …” What are we doing? What are you all doing?

Do you really have the feeling, nobody is saying it?

Corey: I know, now they are. They are all screaming now.

Ministry, Pearl Jam, NoFX, they are all doing it, right?

Corey: Yeah, but see. NoFX though, as popular as they are, they are still very underground. I mean, people took one look at what happened to the Dixie Chicks and fucking ran like crazy. There was no way people were going to fucking do it. They were waiting for somebody to step up and fucking say something.

The best thing I have heard so far was from Henry Rollins who said in his spoken-words program: "The first thing I say, when I get somewhere is, I’m sorry, I am American”.

Corey: I am not sorry.

Shawn: I get it.

Not sorry for being American, but sorry for being represented so poorly.

Corey: I am not sorry, I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed that he is the leader of our country. I love my country, very much so.

Well, then explain to me how this good happen a second time over. The first time you did not know better, but the second …

Corey: Dude, I don’t know.

Shawn: Scare tactics. The war on terror.

Corey: Yeah, notice how every time his ratings went down, there was a terror alert. Notice all of a sudden, there is something really bad going on in Iraque. New fucking video from dip shit Bin Laden.

So, we are talking about media manipulation then?

Corey: Of course, and Fox news is the worst.

Shawn: Misinformation. Misdirection. Propaganda.

Okay. Well, I have to ask. I do not know. What is the 30/30-150?

Corey: Can’t tell you.

Shawn: But he can tell you what it is not.

Corey: It is not a fucking shot gun shell which is what fucking Roadrunner put on their goddamn website. Not Roadrunner Germany, but Roadrunner Dumbmerica.

It sounds like a military unit.

Corey: Cool, but it is not. I can tell you what the song is about, I can’t tell you what the title means. Because I swoar a blood oath, under secrecy of the full moon. I will be killed by the Rand clan, doing … *Shawn grins and nodds* The song is basically about the moment I knew that I wanted to do this and knowing why I wanted to do this till this very moment, sitting in this chair and answering your questions and not ever changing why I wanted to do this, why I love this.

So, I guess I’ll just have to google some more …

Corey: Yeah, because the internet is great place for facts. *everyone laughs*

Actually, it is kind of my first starting point for research …

Shawn: Yeah, I do that too. I just think it is great.

Corey: Ok, I can get you any information you want, no matter what.

What? Like "Eskimo having sex in heat wave”?

Corey: I can get you a great picture of Harriet Tubbman’s pussy. That is what the internet is to me … if you know where to look. But you don’t go to Wikipedia and expect to find the truth. Because people can just fucking write whatever they want there. They had on there that my middle name was Joshua.

Shawn: It is not.

Corey: Well, it is fine now, because my wife got on there and changed it all. This is pathetic though. You don’t need a password there, you just go change it and press submit. There is a lot of places which you can’t trust.

It is the same thing with any media, for example television news. That is not facts either, not necessarily…

Corey: But there was a time when you could do that. 40 years ago.

When the Civil Rights movement was on?

Corey: What I am saying is, that back then there wasn’t CNN, there were three fucking channels and they did everything they could because at the time their only adversary was print, newspapers that was it.

What about the government though?

Corey: Not even that though. If they had been trying to hide the truth, they would not have shown executions in Vietnam on TV, let’s put it this way. Now, I definitely agree, they use subterfuge and fucking smoke and mirrors to get your attention away from what is really going on. But back then, that was it, people had to trust it.

Agreed, the information would have been the truth, except that it might have been only parts of the information. Selective.

Corey: But everybody is going to censor things. I mean there are going to be parts of this interview that you are not going to put in.

For magazin articles that would be right, but I will try to keep it as untouched as possible. So that if someone likes to read it, is interested in the real thing, they can read it.

Corey: That is cool, I’ll read it.

Das Interview wurde geführt von Lars Schmeink (Wortraub) und erscheint exklusiv bei METAL-INSIDE.de. Weitere Infos unter www.wortraub.com oder über die Redaktion.

Are we? I mean, all we do really, is emulating the bands that we looked up to over the years, adding our little take on it. We always liked Sepultura, Slayer, Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front, so when we write we just want it to be adrenalin fuelled, charged music. As heavy as we can go. I’m pleased with the end results. All three records, I went back to and listened to while we were doing the record. I listen to a lot of other bands but I still think we are on top of our game. I really feel, on this last record as well, I think we have proved ourself.

I just got a chance to listen to the album. It sounds even hard and less compromising than the last one. Will there even be a single?

Not really. The video is probably going to be "Defeatist”, which is like straight out of hell, fast and brutal.

The only possibly less hard song I could figure was "Destroy Everything” ...

Right, that is more Sepultura-style, a little more of a groove.

Why do you keep to your hardcore musically and do not experiment?

We start off fast. To experiment would be shooting ourselves in the foot. I think, our fans have come to love a certain aspect of the music, a lot of it is the break-downs, the fast parts, the tempo changes, the adrenalin of it all. With this record we really try to tap into that where I could I picture going berserk at the shows. It is more of a record where I thought about the live response more than anything.

You were going for a very direct sound, like the live shows?

Yeah, just cause I want everybody to get the feeling out of it that I get performing it. I try to come up with chants, big singalongs and choruses, that people can relate to.

But the singalongs would actually imply more melody, a hook?

You are over-thinking it. It is really primal. Words can’t really describe what the outcome of it is. You go to a show, you go crazy, you loose your mind and you are singing it and wether you it’s entertainment or wether you really believe in the words and you feel it, it’s an individual experience for each one. It’s got to be primal, it’s got to be bludgeoning, it’s got to hit you over the head. If it doesn’t, than it is not Hatebreed.

The new album is called "Supremacy”, which is even one step further than "The Rise Of Brutality”. "Supremacy” in the sense of staying your course...

... it is also about supremacy over the demons, the darkness, depression. It is the supremacy of self, personal power, power over one’s self, whatever it is that holds you back. So it is a multifaceted, very loaded word, that would really grab people’s attention, be like: "What’s this going to be about?”. That is why the booklet is going to be like twenty pages of just documenting two years of my life, where I lost family members. I’ve had serious deterioration in relationships with people I thought I could trust. I lost our manager to a brain tumor. It just made me rethink everything, like my mortality, my vision, my goals. Everything. Having that doubt, at 28, I felt like I wanted to make a record where I felt like it would be really personally charged. Where people could say: "I can relate to this. I can overcome what I am facing.”

What about the proposition of brutality? Could your music be read to promote violence in a way?

No, because I feel like if you really read the booklet that comes with it, you are going to be able to grasp the entirety of the album. At the end of the day, sure some shows might be violent, with the pits and everything, but everybody leaves with a smile on their face. It is a cleansing. It is like a football game, like controlled hooliganism.

Your lyrics are informed by hardships, being down and out, fighting injustice ... which has been part of your life, right?

Yeah, different adversities throughout the last two years, is what gets addressed on this record. I felt like I had lost my way of communicating how I felt. I had to reconnect with why I started expressing my words over songs. If you think about, it is why we are a band. A lot of bands just sing about nothing, or fantasy, or dragons, or stuff they might see. But for me, I wanted this to be even more personal. I opened myself up, that is what the liner notes deal with.

But your life has changed, you are a famous musician, an TV show host ...?

All that gets addressed in the liner notes. It is actually something that I bring up, because I felt strongly about it. The notes deal especially with when "The Rise Of Brutality” came out and we were selling-out the tours. The press was our best ever. It was out best received record in Europe and Japan and South America. It was the best press we ever had. Very high highs and very low lows. To not even get on stage some nights, not even wanting to write another record. That is what I am trying to purvey through this record. I really thought at some points: "I am never getting on another stage, ever again.” That was to me a very defeating feeling. I felt like I had completely lost my mind. So, in order to purvey that through an album, which can be very limiting to say through a song exactly how you feel, because a song is constructed in way that everybody agrees upon, so that is why it is addressed in the liner notes.

Do you feel like you lost some of the authenticity?

No, because at the end of the day we are all human and we are all on the same journey. I needed to purvey that with this record. Everybody’s journey may be in different paths, but it is essentially the same thing.

Do you then still have the feeling you have to struggle in this life?

Oh, without a doubt. I feel like just having mistrusted so many people close to me and having lost so many close friends, not knowing how to deal with it. That in itself was a very hard thing to accept. A lot of this record is about acceptance as well. Because a lot of people stew over things a lot, and that was probably what my main problem was. I watched my father bury his brother, I lost three friends to drug addiction, who completely ruined their lives and other peoples lives in the process. I thought, why am I so powerless in this situation, why couldn’t I help these people. Things like that a very complex and deep questions that can really eat your life up, if you don’t address them. That is what the record is about. There is other songs as well. It is not focussed on overcoming depression, anxiety or feelings that you get from the downs of life but it is the main basis of it.

Are you a brooding person? Thinking until you come up with a solution?

I think, I am an optimist. But yeah, I like to have a solution, obviously, if I could. I would free every sick kid from the hospital bed, bring every person home from the war, if I could. Because I feel like everybody deserves their best out of the their time on the planet. You have to start with yourself, always. There is a lot of that which gets addressed on the record. If you listen to the older records: "Perseverance” was like a rebirth for the band, which I think this is too, but that was a lot different. There was four years that went into that album. There was a bad struggle with our label, there was members leaving, members coming back. There was all sorts of problems surrounding that record. So when it exploded around the world and we started becoming these different types of people we were like: "Ok, we got to follow up right away with ‘Rise Of Brutality’ and shows these people what exactly we are doing this for and we did. And when we silenced the critics yet again and all the nay-sayers, that is when personal stuff started falling apart. I let the band and my other project spread so thin, that is what has gotten us to this point.

If you could change one thing in this world - what would it be?

You know, I have been asked that before in interviews and I have thought about that and there are so many good causes out there and there are so many problems that my personal causes change every day. If I was to say that right now: a cure for cancer would be amazing, world peace would be amazing. It is hard to say, there are so many.

You stated that on your records you try to balance the negative with the positive. Do you feel the same about life? Is there a good for every bad?

Yeah! Some of the topics on this record are seeing the good through the bad. Because sometimes it is really hard to see the good with all the shit going on. There is a silver lining in most scenarios. If I affect someone positively, I feel like, at least I am not sucking the life out of them. Sure there is people out there that don’t see the silver lining but maybe I can change that.

So, do you want to give a guideline with your lyrics?

No, not a guideline. If someone just wants to bang their steering wheel on their way to work: great. But if they really want to look deep into it, say I want to listen to this, while I am at the gym, listen to this before I go and face my day, or they want to go to the show and break up the monotony of the week, go crazy at the show and get a cleansing of all this negative energy, then even greater. I hear it every day of my life. Every time a play a show, every time I walk out and talk to fans. They tell me of this positive thing, so it’s got to be working.

What has been the most touching experience you had from fans?

The most recently was: I got a letter from a kid who suffers from multiple-sclerosis and he has somehow overcome the disease entirely. I was amazed. He has Hatebreed tattooed on his back. He wrote me the nicest, longest letter. I don’t know anything about his illness, if it comes back, or how it goes. But he says that Hatebreed is part of his daily life. That he uses to overcome his limitations that the disease has brought him.

Aren’t you afraid of that kind of power?

I don’t know. I have never thought of it like that. Originally when I started to communicate my feelings in songs I would think about what other people would think. And I would say: "Oh, I don’t want to say that in a song”, then part of me, getting the cleansing, getting the cathartic feeling from the music, is saying whatever I want to say, not worrying about it. That is a totally liberating thing. That is really all I try to do, say what I want to say. If I have to change it to fit over the part or change it so it doesn’t sound like one of our other songs then I do it. But I don’t think about how it is going to be interpreted.

On the new record you got a song called "Immortal Enemies”. You have the feeling life is a perpetual struggle? Is there a solution to it?

Yeah, well. All I am doing is asking the question. It says "Enemies are never gonna die, where does the solution lie?”. That is something that you ask yourself, and I ask myself often. Not enemies as in a physical enemy, or mortal enemies, but as in eternal ... whatever. It is a song symbolical of how sometimes enemies change. For today, say, you can look at the paper or the tv and you can say there is this war happening, there is this conflict, but tomorrow it is going to be something new. For me, I just try to live my life to the fullest every day and my own solutions lie within myself. When I get up, am I gonna call someone I care about? Am I gonna exercise? Am I gonna try to learn something new? Am I gonna read a book? That can be the solution sometimes. That is the question I am posing. It is a song about acceptance as well. Sometimes you just have to accept that there is always going to be conflicts.

Is there a chance for Utopia then?

That would be great. I have thought about that a lot. Something I have read about. I don’t know. I think now, as of recently, I am a very easy to please person. Get me a nice meal, let me have some alone time, let me read, see my family, my daughter, my dog, I am pretty much utopian just doing that.

Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? Still doing this?

I hope to be because I feel like we are finally getting to the point, after ten years, where we are getting it right. Right is the only word that can do what we are doing justice. Especially when I finished this record I went into the mastering, started writing the liner notes and the lyrics, it felt weird, because it felt ok. Normally, when I am finishing a record I feel wrong, because someone is quitting the band or something is happening, someone is dying or something really horrible happens. This time around I feel like there is light surrounding the whole thing. The playing, the sound, us producing it ourselves, which was not an idea a lot of people were into, the management and the label wanted a big producer, big names. We wanted to keep it more in the DIY, doing it in our little studio near our houses with a guy who hasn’t produced many big records but is our friend and knows our sound. I felt like we got the vocal tone right, the bass is enormous and finally cuts through, the guitar tone is insane and Matt’s drumming is completely amazing. I just felt great about it.

You just mentioned DIY, are there any other hardcore ethics you embrace? Like you drink water at the moment, right?

Right. I route the tours, we do the artwork ... it is still very hands-on, very DIY, I always joke, that everybody who works for us has the easiest job because we do all the work ourselves. Another thing about this record which I thought about was that on the last album Universal was really pushing for a single and they weren’t really into "Live For This” and "This Is Now”, which were going to be our videos, and I said: "Look, we have all creative control, that is how we signed our deal, we are a hardcore band, we want all the creative control. This is the music we made, we are not gonna tailor it to your needs.” And I think, they did not promote the record because of that. Where Roadrunner put it out, everywhere else it was a great success. In the US it was still a success, sold over 200.000 copies, all our shows were sold out and we were nominated for a Grammy, which is unheard of for a hardcore band, I felt like it was good that we stuck to our guns. On this album then, the label wants to go with the heaviest song that does not even remotely have commercial sound as the video and the single. It feels good to be on Roadrunner, to be authentic, it feels right.

But still, the ethics ... do you drink, smoke, party? Are you into straight edge?

Right now, yes probably. I would not consider myself straight edge but I think right now, I am trying to learn as much as I can. I have never had a childhood, I never went to school. I was living on my own when I was 13 years old. I am just now learning things that people normally learn when they are like 14 or 15 years old. Getting fucked up and partying would kind of get in the way of that. I did all that when I was 13, 14, 15, when we started touring. Now I try to keep it cool. Right now, there is no time to be that way. Plus, I employ so many people: I have a record label, my clothing line, the tv show, a management company, where I manage other bands. There is no real time to party anymore. I let these guys party, they go crazy. I just watch and then go to bed. They stay up all night singing, sleep all day, while I do the work.

Your records tend to be short and precise. Do you hate excess?

It is not hated. I just don’t think I could get everybody else to agree to let it go on the record. I would probably go for some longer stuff, but I think the fans don’t really want it either. Especially our generation, our fans that we have build over the last decade, they like it short and sweet. That is a lot of the feedback I got from "The Rise Of Brutality”. People were like: "Man, it’s fast and brutal.”

So, you don’t really want to change anything about it then?

This is the thing: when you build a house, you can’t go and change the foundation without having to tear the entire house down. Other bands might do that. Unfortunately, in our genre it has never worked, not once. No proven band has been able to do it. Every band that has done it, has tried and man, have they failed miserably, in hopes for commercial success. We do it like Motorhead does it, and Slayer. Those bands have kept it the same.

Thanks for the interview.

Das Interview wurde geführt von Lars Schmeink (Wortraub) und erscheint exklusiv bei METAL-INSIDE.de. Weitere Infos unter www.wortraub.com oder über die Redaktion.