Interview - Hinder

Early February 2007. A PR company calls me up and says 'We invited you to the Hinder album launch party. But would you like to interview them a few days beforehand?' My first face2face and it's with five American rockers, covered in tattoos and dressed in black. I remember being a very interesting shade of white/green and overdosing on tea in the office before the trip up to London.
This was the first time using random coloured question cards, partly so I didn't hide behind a sheet of questions, and partly because I read about someone who did an interview using tarot card-type things which the White Stripes absolutely loved. However mine was the unprofessional version, using jagged bits of file dividers drawn on with marker.

Note: sadly this comes in at about 15,000 pages because I did it before I worked out editing means you don't actually have to include EVERYTHING which happens in a 20 minute period.

Words - Suzy Sims
First published on Native.tv in January 2007 http://www.native.tv/
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

HINDER

You probably won’t have heard much of this band before. Despite their success across the Pond, Hinder are still relatively unknown on our fair shores. They’re grungy US rockers – think Nickelback being hit about the head by Axl Rose – who are out to enjoy this crazy ride. Their album is double platinum in the States and they have a number one single under their studded belts. They’ve supported Aerosmith on a number of shows, and they like rum and girls very much. Native caught up with the lads shortly after they arrived in the UK for a chat.

I was a little nervous about my first major interview for Native. Some nice pleasant indie boys would have put my mind at rest, but instead I’m faced with five loud and jetlagged Americans with various facial piercings, black gloves and fantastic hair. They all look cheerful and relaxed, leaning back in their chairs and seeming completely at ease with the unfamiliar surroundings. I’m between fresh-faced Joe ‘Blower’ Garvey and confident bassist Mike Rodden, sat at a round wooden table. I've only just arrived in the interview room, and I think the Hinder guys are on a mission. That probably isn't tea in their cups, let's put it that way."How old do you have to be to drink here?" they ask. "God bless..." says Mike with relief when I tell him it’s 18. They're all aged 24-26, but the legal limit is 21 where they're from.

Flame-haired drummer Cody Hanson is picking up question cards, sneaking a look at the topic and putting them back in the pile. "Ahhh! Cheater!" shout the band. "What are you doing?!"

First of all, introductions.

"What's up, I'm Blower, I play guitar."
"Cody, I play drums."
"Mark, I'm the other guitarist.
"Austin, I sing."
"Mike, I play the bass. And we are Hinder. Ohhh!"

LYRICS

"Uh oh..." Who writes your lyrics? "Well for 'Extreme Behavior', myself and Austin wrote the core of the lyrics," explains Cody from underneath his hair. "Then afterwards we take it to everybody, if they have suggestions and things to change then we do that. As far as lyrics for us, we like to keep it simple and write what we know about.... er..." Drinking, and that sort of thing? "That and relationships."

"Drinking's a big part," says Blower. I make a comment about what’s in their polystyrene tumblers.

"That helps us write," says Austin Winkler, the charismatic singer. "It's not coffee!"

"...relationships, having fun, lots of different things, it's always what people can relate to," finishes Cody.

Do you have any favourite lyrics? "I like 'Can hardly see what's in front of me 'cos the vodka's running on empty'," says Austin thoughtfully. "That's one of my favourites." Hinder nod in agreement. There's some fussiness over what question card to choose next.

"Just pick one..."
"Hey, what's with all this cheating shit? Don't - don't change!"

TATTOOS

The lads are covered up at the moment, but I’ve seen some pretty cool pictures of their body art. Austin has some vines winding delicately up his arm, and Mike has intricate colours around his left sleeve. I can’t tell if it’s a dragon or an abstract something, but it’s impressive.

"Mike's got an awesome one on his back," says Blower. Mike is looking very pleased with himself. "Yeeeah! It's fucking great!"

"Mike's got the coolest one on his arm and everyone always talks about the shitty one," complains Austin. They say they’ve spent "many hours and many thousands of dollars on tattoos... Pain. Lots of pain…"

"Two of the guys in the band, Austin and Mike, have my favourite tattoos that I've ever seen," says Blower.

"We did it!" says Austin with glee, punching his fist. "Yes!" Now you've made it. "Fine dude. Now I'm retiring!"

**Fast forward a couple of days, and it’s the album launch party. ‘Extreme Behaviour’ is being given a push for a proper UK release so Hinder are playing a small club in London to celebrate and whip up some interest. Come 7pm and opening time, there’s a fairly large queue skulking outside in the rain. The good news is, this album will be launched with the aid of a free bar. The bad news is, I’m driving so can’t get totally mullered.**

OKLAHOMA

"Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping..." booms Mike, throwing his arms aloft. "Ahem... sorry."

"That's where we're from... every one of us."

A quick bit of research tells me Oklahoma is well-known for its recent past as a pioneer state, one of the last vestiges of the Wild West. There’s a large native American populace and the people are renowned for being friendly. You can visit the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum, perhaps spend a few pennies in one of the many casinos. But watch out for the occasional tornado. I ask Hinder what's it like there.

"It's pretty good, depending on what you like. It's laid back. It's cool, kinda cool. Hot chicks."

"If you like nothing and relaxing..." Austin begins."We're in the South, and the South kind of has the hottest chicks in America," says Mike. "They kind of bleed in from Texas and Oklahoma. And it's nice."

"There's nothing to do but drink and fuck, so if you like that, then Oklahoma's the place to be. The music scene's kind of struggling, but we made it out."

You had to escape? "Yeah, true," Mike confesses. "If you like a slow pace, Oklahoma's the spot to be. You don't hear people saying 'Oh I'm going to go to Oklahoma for my vacation'."

"Nice and chilled. Not really a tourist state," says guitarist Mark King, who is today keeping warm in a beanie. In fact they’re all wearing their jackets; must be cold. Mark’s not the loudest of the group, but there’s a cheerful friendliness in the way he speaks.

BEST GIG

"This is a no-brainer," says Austin. "I'd say opening up for Aerosmith by far. We opened up for them three times in December. One of our favourite bands of all time. It was like 'Free Aerosmith show! Aaargh!" he says, waving his hands in the air. They describe Aerosmith as one of their biggest influences and it was "definitely amazing just to watch your idols play after you and share the same stage with them, for sure." And the crowd? Insane.

HOW ROCK AND ROLL ARE YOU?

"How rock and roll are you!?" the band laugh. I point out that everyone was telling me before I came in here how nice they all were, but their website's a bit tough and 'ROCK AND ROLL!' and the two images didn’t seem to match.

"You can be rock and roll and nice," says Blower with a smile.

"We're nice rock and rollers," Austin agrees. I tell them I thought they'd be spitting and kicking each other. "We're just nice because we're from Oklahoma!"

"I think that's what's unique about us. Yeah we do have fun and we do go full-throttle but we're actually nice people," says Austin. "Just 'cause we get drunk all the time doesn't mean we can't be nice people."

"We're happy drunks," says Mike with a big grin. Best sort of drunk to be, I tell them.

"Rock and roll is just supposed to be a party," says Cody, "and who wants to party with a bunch of fucking dickheads."

"Yeah, why would you want to hang with a band if they're all a bunch of pricks?" asks Blower. "We're nice guys, we like partying with all the people who like our music."

"A lot of people say that," says Austin, "they're like 'you guys are way nicer than we thought you would be', probably because in the past rock and roll dudes have been dickheads but we like to have fun, and we like to be nice at the same time."

**The London club is packed out. You can tell many of the people in here tonight are press. Who comes to a rock gig in a suit? I ask you. But a lot of people are fans, you can tell by the way they dress and hover hopefully near the stage. A few attractive bargirls come around with a tray of shots. My gig buddy Ches and I take one, discover they’re aniseed flavour, and nearly choke up on our TopShop shoes. More people are moving towards the stage and a photographer is getting set up, so we leave the free drinks for a while and nip a bit closer.**

WHAT'S YOUR POISON?

I had a lot of rum and coke at the weekend -"That's what we're drinking," interrupts Austin. "You want one?" Er, yeah, if you've got any spare. "Why didn't you say so!" they yell and put in a loud drink order "for the lovely lady." "Make it nice - but not too strong, you don't want to fall out of here."

"Rum is our poison," Mike starts listing them. Jagermeister, rum, vodka, tequila -"

"And girls," adds Austin in an embarrassed voice.

"Weed is also a poison. If you consider that a poison. I don't think it kills you."

"Mushrooms."

The drug sort or the vegetable sort? "I do enjoy the occasional vegetable," says Austin, almost seriously. Mike starts laughing his head off.

LONDON

Have you been here before? "This is actually our first time for everyone being across seas anywhere," says Austin.

"We've been here less than 24 hours so far," Mark chimes in.

"And we haven't even killed you yet, Blow-ee Brown," says Austin, leaning over and tapping the table.

"You are going to die in London, Blowee," Mark finishes in a serious voice.

"Yes, that's the plan."

Oh, bad luck. "Nice meeting you," says Blower with a big grin on his face. He looks the youngest, and I get the impression the big boys like to tease him. Anyway, back to what’s important in London:

"We have seen a lot of hot, hot, beautiful women with great accents. We want to know where they go to drink," says Austin. I'm not from round here, I don't know where they go. Sorry! "The accents for us are the biggest turn-on," says Mike. "It's not an accent for you 'cause that's how everyone talks over here. We probably have accents to you all, but I'm telling you, the London accent..."

You do have accents. Weird. "Is it weird?" No, it's all right. I understand what you're saying. "That's good."

"I like London though, it's cool."

HINDER ARMY

"It started out as just a bunch of people who were really big fans of ours...they were a big part of us getting the following that we have in America; they'd go out and poster and flyer and stuff. Now it's more of a fan club. We send them shirts and VIP access to shows. It's like our appreciation to fans because they made us, they got us to where we are."

Any real hardcore crazy fans? "There's a few who get our symbol tattooed onto them," says Mike, stretching out again. "There's a chicken -"

"Chicken?" the others interrupt and laugh their heads off.

"There's this chicken that sings our songs - crazy!" Austin says. I think he's lying. Back to the chick - "she's got our symbol tattooed across her back - like that big. It's insane." Are you not going to get her name tattooed across your back? "Probably not."

"We signed this guy's arm," Austin remembers. "He was like 'Yeah, I'm going to get it tattooed' and Mike thought he was full of shit so he took his elbow" - mimics scrawling along an arm - "soon enough, two days later he's got it tattooed on."

**The band walk on stage one at a time and exchange grins with people in the front row. Austin takes the mic. His tattoos are uncovered; he’s ready for action. “This is the largest venue we’ve played,” he says, and everyone laughs. This club can’t have a capacity over 150. In front of us stand two Amazonian girls, super-tall with long, idyllic blonde hair and tightly cropped black tops. They dance by wiggling their hips, tossing their hair back and hugging. It’s not subtle. But it probably works.**

LIPS OF AN ANGEL

This single reached number one in the United States. It’s a soft rock piece about a man whose ex-girlfriend calls up late at night to say she still has feelings for him. He feels the same – but his new girlfriend’s in the next room, so he’s pretty torn.

"'Lips Of An Angel' is our second single in the US that did really, really well for us and actually happened to me; it's a real experience while we were doing pre-production for the album, and I told Cody about it and he had this riff and I was just joking around like 'Honey, why are you calling me so late?' and the song pretty much wrote itself and it turns out a lot of people can relate to it, at least in the US," says Austin.

"I'm sure people everywhere can relate to it," says Cody. "It's like a common experience."

"And it's number one in a lot of countries at the moment," adds Blower, "so there's a lot of cheating going on in the world."

"Or a lot of people thinking about it," they laugh.

BRITISH MUSIC

Hinder don't know a lot of British music as the States tends to be quite isolated from what's big here. They do have one favourite at the moment - "Mika. We got the album over there," Mark reaches into a bag behind him and waves a CD at me. They all murmur approval. No way, I say, with a bit too much surprise in my voice.

"Is he already out here?" asks Austin. Yes, number one.

"That fucking song is unbelievable," says Cody.
"Really cool."
"Wicked." I pause again, in case by 'unbelievable' they mean 'shite'. Nope.

"Give us some examples of stuff we might know," says Austin. Arctic Monkeys? "Don't like them," says Mike. Whaaat? "We're very ignorant of music outside the US, 'cause we just don't get it, right? So it's kind of tough."

"Especially with us touring all the time," says Cody, "we don't get a chance to check out what's new." They are excited about going to different places and hope to hear much more music.

VOICE RECORDER

I read this on your website. Apparently fans can phone up and leave you messages? "Yes they can. And non-fans!" What have you been getting?

"One of them's just funny. I guess you can go to one of those websites where you type in the words you want to say," says Blower. "Like 'fuck off Hinder, you suck' and all this stuff, it's funny. That's the one that sticks out in my mind! You get good ones and you get bad ones. The bad ones are the really entertaining ones." A few of them try out robotic insults and laugh.

Do you get all the fangirls calling you up? "A few, absolutely," says Cody. "But the most entertaining ones are the negative ones. 'Cause you know it's that fucking emo kid, he just fucking hates how much we're..."

"He's like in his basement," interrupts Austin, "and he's got all these cuts on his arm."

"He hates us, but he knows every lyric to every fucking song." Have you ever made any calls back to anyone? "Not on there, no."

"We go on every once in a while and leave a message," says Mark, "it's that thing where we call and leave a message saying what's going on."

"But as far as replying to the negative stuff," says Cody, "it's like why am I going to set my drink down and take a break from this blowjob to fucking go back to this ass pirate that fucking wants to say something bad about me. Who gives a fuck?"

I haven't heard 'ass pirate' before. I'm going to use that more often. "You should!"

**Hinder definitely look like they’re having fun. They're grinning most of the way through their set. “Who wants this guitar?” A guy in the front row clamours for it; lo and behold, he is given a Hinder guitar which he thrusts in the air triumphantly. He clutches it with joy and carries around all night.**

EXTREME BEHAVIOUR

This is their album. Originally panned by critics on its Stateside release in 2005, by autumn 2006 it had gone double platinum. So not all bad. "Basically the album's about us, every song on there is pretty much what we know about," says Mark. "It's a fun rock and roll album," says Cody, taking a break from swearing. "Every song sounds completely different, it's a very diverse album."

"That you need to buy, that you need to buy, that you need to buy," says Austin excitedly." Plug plug!"

My rum and coke arrives, with the biggest head I've ever seen on a soft(ish) drink. "It looks like a Guinness," notices Blower, as the band peer at it in wonder.

PLANS FOR THIS YEAR

"It's 2007, not this year," says Blower quietly, almost under his breath. Silence from the whole table. "It was a joke."

"There's the door!"

"No, I'm staying right here! This year, basically more touring to new places, like over here for the first time, and in Europe - this is our first time here so we're stoked about that. We'll do a little bit more in the States; we're booked through at least August but a few aren't confirmed right now so probably October or later."

"I'm pumped about Australia too," says Cody.

"Australia will be so much fun." "Insane," says Cody. I'd love to go to Australia. "Hitch a ride and let’s do it!" says Blower. "We'll pick you up on the way," shouts Austin. I have a fleeting image of them stood on my doorstep asking my mum if I can come out to play.

"We might be coming back here with Aerosmith too, maybe do some more dates. A few festival dates as well, possibly. So a lot of stuff going on. We're doing videos - in the United States we're on our fourth single so we're going to do a video for that, and... er... yeah," finishes Cody.

"It's going to be a busy year," says Austin, quite rightly.

**The band are heavier than we’d expected after listening to a few track clips on their MySpace. The crowd take a while to get into the music but everyone in the front is singing along to ‘Lips Of An Angel’ and ‘Get Stoned’. Playing such a small venue must be a major change for the guys and a treat for their fans.**

EUROPEAN TOUR

"We'll be back here late March, early April to do some dates over here and then like Cody said we've got some possible Aerosmith dates in June; think we're going to have a week or so in May and then there's a couple of weeks in the next fall... hopefully we're going to spend a lot of time over here this year."

Anywhere in particular you're looking forward to going? "Amsterdam," they say instantly. Now, why is that? "I don't know..."

"’Cause it's all the things we're denied in America," says Austin.

"I just like the way it rolls off the tongue," says Mike with a wide smile. "I don't know, I just wanna go there."

"I think we're all excited overall going everywhere ‘cause this is our first time going overseas anywhere, so it's going to be a good time."

INFLUENCES

"I think as a whole, pretty much a lot of the 80s rock bands Motley Crue, Guns 'N' Roses, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi..." "Whitesnake,” mutters Cody. “No, that one's rubbish."

"You know, all those bands who looked like they were having fun. In all the videos you see, you see them getting drunk, they got chicks hanging over them, you know; they're playing in arenas where you can't even see the end of them."

"You got shirts coming off, titties flopping out," says Mike, lowering the tone. "Hey!" shouts Austin in mock disgust. So not the music, just the girls? "It's a combination!"

"We've never said Steel Dragon before," muses Austin. "One of my biggest influences."

"Steel Dragon is good," says Mark. Steel Dragon is made up, as anyone who’s seen 2001 film ‘Rock Star’ can attest to. Real musicians, dubbed actors, dubious haircuts; mildly Spinal Tap-ish. Rock on!

FESTIVALS

"Festivals are awesome," says Blower. "You get to see all these bands that you want to see, and you get to watch from the side of the stage if you want, you get the best seat in the house every time, so we're very spoilt to get to play them. Bring them on, we want to do more.

"What ones have you played already? "Oh over in the States there have been a lot. The radio stations do them, like in Houston it's the Buzz Fest, in Dallas... Buzz Fest as well..." They debate this. "Edge Fest, Buzz Fest, all the same."

"Rock Fest was fucking awesome," says Cody. "Like 35,000 people." "Kansas City," the others remember. "Festivals over there are like eight to ten thousand. That Rock Fest was ridiculously big. But over here, festivals are like 40-50,000 people. That's sick!" says someone, I think it's Mike. I think Hinder would fit in all right at Download or maybe even Reading/Leeds, depending what other acts are booked.

GROUPIES

"Love them!" Do you get many of them? "A few... many women."

"I hate calling them groupies," says Austin. "Let's make it known that we hate the word groupie," says Cody. Oh, sorry. "Not your fault!"

"When you call a chick a groupie, it's like a bad term. We don't want anybody to feel bad about themselves. If they wanna get down, they wanna get down and so do we, so..."

"We're human beings, we're five guys that play rock and roll, so why is it if they want to get with us, then now all of a sudden they're a groupie, like if they got with some other guy in the bar, they're just, you know, they don't have a name," says Cody. I can think of a few words for girls who go round getting it on with guys they meet in bars, but I keep them to myself.

"...but cos they get with us, 'cos we're in a band, now they're a groupie."

"It's a bad term, it need to be get... gotten rid of. Gotten, right? Gotten rid of?" says Mike. Everyone looks at him. He grabs his cup. "Come here, Captain Morgan!"

And with that, it's time to leave Hinder to their drinks and their jet lag - but they'll be back in the UK soon.

http://hindermusic.com