HELLFIRE SOCIETY featured on ORKUS MAGAZINE
"They think only because you're a nice person you'll be unable, or unwilling, to get your revenge"
A furious album, providing music for fighting - as the frontman and singer David describes his project Hellfire Society - now the first album The Angry Army is in stores. We have an extended interview with David about the release, and he gave us a large view on this "soundtrack for life"Hello guys,
first of all: thanks a lot for taking the time to answer our questions.
Let's start right away –
Orkus: You have finally made it, and "The Angry Army" has entered our record stores as well. How do you feel at this particular moment?
HS: It has been a long hard work and when you put so much effort in something it's always good to see your work published. We too are happy, but the most important thing for us is our soldiers to be happy about the album.
O: Besides Industrial/Hardcore, you refer to your style as "Fight Rock". What exactly is that supposed to signify?
HS: We provide music for fighting. This is what it means. What you see is what you get with HFS, there are no "rockstar poses" if you are listening to the album you get the feeling that we are an "angry band" it's because we are genuinely angry.
What we tried to do with this album wasn't only to provide good music, we wanted this music to give people the strength to stand up and start to fight for what they belived in, no matter what that is.
There are an impressive amount of things that are going down the hill in our world but very few people are prone to fight to change this, and when people don't react is when overwhelming governments and institutions take over taking advantage of the situation.
And this also applies to all the little fights we face everyday, for example in order to have our rights respected. People, masses, if coordinated have the power to change things. Sure it's only music, but other artists before us used art to help change things and make this planet less of a mess.
We all have our battles to fight, no matter if they are big or small, we provide the right soundtrack for them.
O: And what music/bands is/are your influence, or even inspiration?
HS: We all have very different influences, Trauma comes from the old-school punk, then he got into rock and blues until we met and we contaminated each other.
I have very different influences, they go from Tito and Tarantula to Pink Floyd, from Coal Chamber to Portishead, Depeche Mode and Rammstein.
Funny thing is we often get compared to bands that we never even heard of, and we laugh about it because we immediately know if people know what they are talking about or not.
A big part of my personal inspiration comes from movies, music is the way I react to the world, I see things, and I turn the feelings into music.
Lately the quality of the new music productions, in any genre, has been really, really poor, very few solid ideas and lots of sounds put together, we don't like that, we don't work that way.
O: The lyrics presented on "The Angry Army" seem to be an outcry, a protest against many of today's societal restraints. Am I interpreting right? Or what is it you want to express on this album?
HS: The Angry Army is pretty much exactly that. But mostly it wants to show people some of the things they should pay more attention to and point out how fucked up they are.
They way in which we do that, hopefully, will make people react and actually *do* something instead of sitting on the couch scrolling through tv channels or thinking about what would be the best outfit for Friday night's club.
This is our "war" this is what we'd like for this album to be able to do.
Nobody has any control of what politicians do even tho' they are suppose to work for us, they decide what we can do, what we can say, they use fear to control masses. The Church does the same, they have been doing it for centuries,
and all this is only possible when the people don't react, and take everything the media feeds them as "the truth".
Plus our society is absolutely non-meritocratic, is not the best who is gonna win, not the more intelligent who is gonna decide, not the one who work harder who is gonna get paid more, absolutely not, and this is one of the main reason because everything is falling apart.
It has to stop.
O: Speaking of which: How did the song "Just A Rockstar" actually develop?
HS: I'm glad you ask me about this one so I have the chance to explaine what I realized is not so obvious about this song.
J.A.R is one of the older songs, it's one of the few ones in the album that somehow "winks" at the mainstream rock.
Technically it's a very simple song, even tho' it has all the elements that distinguish HFS, jungle loops are the background for a simple and solid main riff, where guitars in the verses are used more like a synth, cut and pasted voluntarily to sound as samples, and yet they have been played;
a lot of vocal performances layered but still glued together. The song started just with the guitar riff, as most of the songs, it was simple and direct, and the time to put lyrics on it came I was in the mood to make fun of the "Rockstar stereotype",
the cliche' everybody has in mind when they think about rock bands. So here's the chance to say it out loud: it's not a song that people should take seriously, not the lyrics at least! We are making fun of the cliche', the "goth" imaginary, what people think but also what some rock bands try to be.
As I said before, HFS has no pose, we really are how we look and how we sound, if you dislike our music probably you'll dislike us as people as well, if you like it we could probably hang out together and get along pretty well!
O: Musically, the individual tracks vary very much. "Run Rabbit Run" stands out in particular. What is this song about? Who is the rabbit?
HS: Run Rabbit Run is the newest song T and myself wrote, so the fact that the song got such success makes us hope well for the future!
The song is about something I'm very serious about: revenge.
I am a very vindictive person, and I think there are rules one must follow in order to get revenge, like if your revenge ends up damaging you, that's wrong.
The song talks about something we all faced, I'm sure, at some point in life: people messing with you and then run or hide behind something, thinking only because you're a nice person you'll be unable, or unwilling to get your revenge. Wrong again.
Somehow it's about people who mistake kindness for weakness. Big mistake.
O: What is your favourite track on the album, personally, and why?
HS: Hard to say, but if I have to pick one I'd say Rise!. Rise is where there album changes, it's the song that more than any other turns our "war idea" into sounds, it's a march, solid, powerful and simple but at the same time with a lot of attention to the arrangements.
It's also where HFS makes it clear that this is not a political band, not a pro-war band, we can wear tactical gear on stage and we can be totally politically incorrect but in the end we "just" make music.
O: We're running short of time... Yet, another question: Can we hope to see you live in Germany this or the next year?
HS: We are working with Red Rock Mgmt in Hannover which will handle the tour, so I'd say absolutely yes, we will definitely bring HFS to Germany, the band is eager to hit the road.
David
Thanks a lot for your time and effort!
Wishing y'all continued success,
Bettina