Mind Noise Network
Interview with Joe and Simon from Hang The Bastard
Hang The Bastard have changed a fair bit since they started out in 2007. But, with a new album out and some high profile tours they seem to be on the up. Daniel King was at their O2 Academy show in Birmingham to have a chat with Joe Nally and Simon Grubb before their set.
For people who still don’t know who you are after 7 years, what do you do?
Joe: Well, I’m the bassist, we have Simon on drums, Tom on vocals and Sam on guitar. Hang The Bastard really just play heavy riffs.
Yeah I’ve seen you guys and riffs in the same sentence a lot.
Joe: That’s it yeah, in literally every review.
Well that's a pretty good thing to have in every review. So, 2014, how’s it been so far? You haven’t been out on the road.
Joe: No, well we’ve done a few shows and a few festivals. The main goal has been to be writing and finishing our second full length album. It took six or seven months to write that and then we had to record it which took time too. We made sure we chucked a few festivals in there though, Sonisphere, British Summer Time with Sabbath and Faith No More and then just the odd one off shows and some videos around that. So this is our first actual tour this year which is mad. We’ve got another one in November with Entombed A.D which is gonna be amazing. We’re really excited about that one, but it’s mad to think that this is our first tour this year.
Simon: We recorded the album in November so since then it’s been 10 months of waiting for the release date to come round. It was a bit frustrating because we wanted to get out and play those new songs, but we didn’t want to play them too much before it got released. I think it’s been worth the wait to see the reaction though. We’ve slowly built up the hype over time and it’s really paid off we think.
Yeah it seems to have. So, you’ve played Download in 2013 and then as you said Sonisphere and British Summer Time in 2014. What else is there on the Hang The Bastard bucket list?
Simon: Hopefully next year we’ll be headlining Wembley stadium.
Joe: Yeah pretty sure that’s being sorted out right now. Haha. No, but for me I’d love to do Bloodstock. Myself and Simon have been a number of times and it’s one that I’d love to play. When you go there it’s real metal, it’s what everyone is there to do, just to have a good time.
Simon: And because it’s smaller as well it’s easier to get around.
Joe: Me and Simon have grown up listening to metal all our lives and it’s nice to go somewhere where the people seem to really care. I mean the signing tents are amazing. Seeing how excited people are to actually meet some of their heroes. But their heroes aren’t Metallica, they aren’t these huge bands. But then all the headliners do signings and everyone’s so close. Even things like the markets there. I’ll go in and I’ll spend so much money every year. But yeah, it’s just such a fun, relaxed festival and it’s one that I’m desperate to do.
You said about the new album, Sex In The Seventh Circle coming out, seems like it’s had good feedback so far.
Simon: Yeah it’s been pretty positive so far. It only came out Monday but it’s sold out on Amazon and in our online store.
Joe: Yeah preorders were strong. All the reviews have been good to amazing, it’s been in that bracket. There was a big risk in this album, Hang The Bastard lost some hardcore members and now just all metal guys. We’ve taken that leap and it’s worked.
Simon: We’re a bit surprised about the reaction with all the positive reviews. Not surprised that they’re positive because we set out to write a good solid record. But with the changes it makes it surprising because you’re getting new fans in. There’s gonna be some people that like the old stuff that don’t like this, but that’s fair enough really.
Joe: It seems like more people like this stuff though. No one’s even mentioned anything about bringing the old guys back. I’d like to think that the songs are so strong and so easy to get into that we’ve left people no choice but to like it. It’s good to see when people are watching us live they’re giving us the seal of approval with their heads.
I saw that, like a lot of bands, you brought the album out on vinyl as well. Is that something you wanted to do or is was it customer demand?
Simon: We’ve always done it. In fact we put it in specifically as a request to the label.
Joe: Yeah it was actually one of the main things we asked for. I think that with the artwork too it’s a good package.
I was going to talk about that, Daniel P Carter doing the artwork must have felt pretty good.
Joe: Yeah, Dan’s done a great job with it. What he’s done for us is different from the rest of his stuff and really it’s quite different from what Hang The Bastard is. The front cover is quite bright and striking. The one before is a guy shooting himself in the head.
Simon: Why not?
Well yeah, I mean that's the natural progression surely…
Joe: Haha. Yeah, definitely. When you see the artwork inside of this one, it’s not pages upon pages of stuff. There’s four or five pages of good quality stuff. It works really well with the album too.
Simon: As a band we’re all vinyl collectors and we wanted to give something like that back. So often you get a vinyl and there’s so much more in there.
Joe: We haven’t even put that much writing in there. It’s mostly art. We haven’t even put the lyrics. We just wanted people to listen, not read. Just listen and visualise it all. People seem to loving the whole package.
Well as you say, it took months to write and record the album, you don’t want to ruin all that with a shoddy booklet.
Joe: Yes, exactly.
So, you guys are on Spotify, but are services like that making it harder for you to make a living?
Simon: We’ve never made a living.
Joe: It’s true, we’ve never had it so we don’t miss it. But really, we’d prefer people to be subscribing to things like Spotify than just going, downloading and basically stealing it. The upshot is though, if people are hearing our music that’s a good thing and at the moment we need to get as many people as we can hearing it so that some of them become fans and then come out to see us and buy t-shirts and stuff.
You’re also on Facebook, Twitter etc. Has that helped?
Simon: I think it’s essential nowadays for a band to be on social media. Everyone uses it so we have to too.
Joe: We’re very active with it too. If we see someone has said something positive about us we love to say thanks and favourite it. We love posting pictures on Instagram and stuff. We like to just keep people in the loop. We’re all nice easy going guys, but what are we gonna do all day? Just sit on the bus watching Predator playing UFC? We just like to post mucking around, that’s just who we are.
Simon: Plus, we like to see it from the bands that we like too. We all like seeing pictures of Metallica on their jets and Slayer drinking beer.
That's very true. How far do you think Hang The Bastard has come along and developed? I mean there was the tour with The Acacia Strain in 2010 that you guys might not fit onto as well nowadays.
Simon: No probably not.
Joe: But then we’re doing a King 810 tour and they’re pretty different. Download wanted us to do this Download Freezes Over tour and they’ve been really good to us. They gave us a big, big slot in 2013. A really big opportunity where two or three months earlier we might not have been around anymore. We were probably higher than we deserved to be.
Simon: We were on just before The Sword which is one of the bands that we look up to in terms of style.
If I remember correctly, just after Patent Pending who are probably about as different a band to you guys as possible.
Joe: Yeah but they were really nice guys and really grateful to be there. Actually, on all of the Download Freezes Over tours all of the bands are really different. But for them to ask us to do this tour is brilliant.
Yeah, touring with King 810 who are probably the most controversial band out there at the moment. Do they live up to their music?
Joe: They’ve been great every night, but they are actually really nice guys.
They probably won’t thank you for saying that.
Simon: No, actually they’ve been beating us up every night.
Joe: Yeah they’ve chinned him a few times. Nah, honestly, there’s all this stuff about them, but they’re from where they’re from and they write about where they’re from and what they know. They can’t believe all of this though, they’re so humble. Like, David, his grandparents are from Scotland and we played Scotland yesterday. He was so excited about it. Mainly the opportunity to get out from where they’re from, which is a really bad place, to come over here. He had his Scotland rugby shirt on and it was just wicked with all the fans. People are going to write about them, but they are who they are. At the end of the day they’ve been amazing and so have Astroid Boys.
Finally, after having the album come out this year, a few UK festivals and sub headline tours, what’s in the pipeline for 2015?
Simon: The only thing confirmed is Hammerfest which we’re excited about. Playing with Candlemass will be cool.
Joe: Yeah, Simon’s sporting his Candlemass shirt. I think there might be a few headline shows and there will be a few European festivals that we can’t say too much about. If the right things come up then we’ll do it. But the festival season is so important these days. I mean, we can get in front of more many fans in Germany at a festival than on a headline run. I don’t think there’ll be a headline tour as such because we still need to get people used to what we’re about now.
Great, well I’m looking forward to your set later this evening and hopefully seeing you back on the road in the UK next year.
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