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The Birch Hill, Old Bridge, NJ 01.16.02 Nu-metal, urban metal, rap-metal fusion... Rap-rock, rage-rap, g-punk... Who cares. The bottom line is (hed)pe succeeds where most other bands don’t; at the cross-pollination of two distinct genres that, on paper, couldn’t be more different. Where most bands of this ilk tend to force the issue, (hed) seems as comfortable with the hip-hop elements of its sound as with the crunching guitars. Cut from the same California scene as more successful acts Korn, SOAD and Incubus, (hed) has built its reputation and fan base at an admittedly slower but constant keel. With their third major release "Blackout" (due out March 18th on Jive Records), (hed) may finally garner the attention they deserve. We sat and talked to guitarist Wes about the new album, the inherent coolness that comes with having your songs on a video game soundtrack and the Los Angeles Lakers. Show & Tell: So, how’s it going? Wes: Good, man. S&T: Where’s everybody else? Wes: A couple of guys are at the hotel bathing… S&T: That’s always good. Wes: Yeah. Uh huh. I don’t know, a couple of guys are in the back lounge watching Crank Yankers, I think. And I was getting ready to play my Lakers here [a video game stood paused on the screen behind us]. S&T: Oh, you’re not a Lakers fan, are you? Wes: Hell yeah, I’m from Cali! Oh, and wait, wait, [leaning into the tape recorder] we spanked the Nets, destroyed the fucking Nets. The problem is, there’s nobody good in the east – all the good teams are in the west. Really. S&T: I’ll tell you what – right now, the east is like 24 and 12 against the west. The west is one guy. If you put Shaquille O’Neal in the east, everybody would be going, "Oh, the east…." Wes: OK. Let me change that. Last year, playoff picture, the teams that were there – the Trailblazers, San Antonio – if you put those guys over in the east, one of them probably would’ve made it to the big game. Maybe, I don’t know. But I was sad for Jersey that they didn’t even put up a game. They just absolutely sucked and I felt bad for them. S&T: It was their first time and they were probably just excited to be there, you know? Wes: And everybody just choked. And the Lakers just barely made it [to the finals the last two years]. S&T: OK, subject change. The new album comes out in March? Is that set in stone? Wes: March 4, and it’s not fucking moving. We moved it for reasons that were good reasons and right reasons, but it’s March 4 for sure [at press time the release date had been changed to March 18th]. S&T: How much of the new stuff are you guys playing on these dates? Wes: We play three songs. We’d like to play more, you know, but when people don’t know the music, they… well, they want to hear stuff they know. We could easily play like six or eight of the new songs, we like ‘em so much, we’re so stoked on ‘em. But when people are new to music, they just sit there and watch and listen, but we want them to go, "Oh, I know that song" and bop around. Did I say "bop?" Can we edit that out? S&T: [laughs] How’s the response been to the new stuff? Wes: This is my theory: when people first see a band, ‘cause we go through this all the time, they’ll just sit there and stare. And we know it wasn’t ‘cause they didn’t like us. And we’ll think about it, "Why did they do that?" But wait, if you saw a really killer band on tour, you’re not gonna jump around if you’ve never seen them before – you’re gonna sit there and watch. And that’s what they’re doing with the new stuff. They’re sitting there bobbing their heads and taking it in, going, "Oh, listen to that new (hed) shit." And I know when they get the CD, they’re gonna fucking love it, ‘cause the songs we’re playing are really good. S&T: What can we expect musically from the new stuff as compared to the old stuff? Wes: A lot more song, a lot less hip-hop. You know what I mean? We wanted to make a hip-hop statement with our last record, like "We are so hip-hop," but on this one Jahred is singing a lot, and we looked at the new record in hindsight and in a couple of spots went, "Whoa, he’s flowing," you know, rapping on this shit. So that’s the big difference, the obvious one. It’s just not as brash and crazy. S&T: Was that a conscious decision? Did you go in saying, "We’re going to do a lot less hip-hop?" Wes: Yes and no. We thought about it, for sure. I think you’re lying if you say you didn’t. But, I don’t know, I think we can make a greater statement that way and there’s always gonna be a hip-hop influence to the band no matter what, ‘cause that’s the kind of band we are. But now it’s just more, like, Zeppelin-y hip-hop, I guess. [laughs] I don’t know, it’s just a trip. S&T: Somebody wanted to know whether you guys really do change what the "P.E." stands for with every album? Wes: That’s a rumor that, I think we said it once, but it’s weird. Because nobody knows anything about (hed)pe or anything, but everybody knows that, and that’s false! S&T: So we’ll clarify that – that is false. Do you still have the hope that one day it’ll just be (hed)? Wes: I certainly do. I don’t know about the other guys. I think everybody would be stoked, actually. But I don’t think they have their hopes up, because Jive’s a bunch of pussies. You know, I constantly come up with arguments like, "You know, there’s Dove soap and Dove chocolate bars." They can do it. S&T: Valid point. Wes: Well, there was another band called "Head," but we didn’t go down that road. It was more a power amp company, or something like that. But fucking Jive are pussies. They are pussies. S&T: Well, for copyright and trademark and stuff, you do it for genres. Like, if you’re talking about Head tennis rackets or something… Wes: Yeah, it’s tennis rackets, but I don’t know, the legal people at Jive said, "Nah, it’s not gonna fly." They’re just always gonna err on the side of safety, which has fucking annoyed me a few times. They’re a fucking hip-hop label! Hip-hop’s all about legally ripping everybody off anyhow! S&T: [laughing] By definition! Wes: Well fuck, you know how many times the same beats get recycled? It’s not even funny. Britney Spears’ new song has the same drum tones as Busta Rhymes did four years ago. So whatever. S&T: You guys have songs on two new video games? Tell me about that. Wes: Yeah. Madden 2003, "Suck it Up" is on there, which will be a new rock track on our album. And if anybody wants to play the song – ‘cause there are seven songs on there by different artists and if anybody’s sick of the Bon Jovi song and wants to put up (hed) – you hold down the square button and toggle the "L" one or the "R" one and you can toggle through the songs. Then cue up the (hed)pe. S&T: Nice. Wes: It’s also on the NASCAR game. S&T: Same song? Wes: No, another one called "Getaway." S&T: Also off the album? Wes: No, I think it’s a random thing, I’m not sure if it’s on there. And if you put in extra drivers on the NASCAR game, there’s a (hed)pe. car that is driven by our drummer, B.C.! S&T: [laughing] That’s very cool. Wes: Yeah, 190 and it has a (hed) logo on it. It looks good when you smash it, the hood, ‘cause then you can see the logo better. S&T: Are you all video game fanatics? Wes: Nah. Just me and B.C. That’s it. S&T: How did you land those games? Did they come to you guys? Wes: I’m not sure, honestly. S&T: ‘Cause that’s pretty cool. Wes: It’s really fucking cool. It’s really fucking cool. And I love Madden Football, it’s my favorite game of all time and that was the first one we got. So to have it on there…. And we play other bands on tour, we play with, like, the guitarist of so-and-so other band, and you beat their ass and you cue up your song while you’re doing it!! [much laughter] It’s just like sports, there’s shit-talking, but it’s all in fun. S&T: Madden Football, I remember back in college… Wes: Yeah, see, I’ve been playing it for years too. Back in college [my girlfriend] was all pissed, like, "Honey, come on!" S&T: Yeah, we’d go back to my friend’s house and I’d [say to my wife], "We’re just going to go back and relax." That would be at 11 o’clock at night and we wouldn’t make it back to school until 7 o’clock the next morning, all ragged. Everyone’s like, "You been drinking?" and I’m like, "No, man, Madden Football!" Wes: Madden Football, dude. My old girlfriend got pissed. She’d be cool with one game, but after that she’d be all pissy. What are you going to do? S&T: She could go do something else. Wes: That’s what I tried to tell her! Go shopping, do something! Beat it! S&T: That didn’t work? Wes: No. S&T: Yeh, didn’t work for me either... You will see few bands live appear as comfortable in their own skins on stage as (hed) does. You will see even fewer singers exude the kind of raw, unbridled charisma as front man Jahred. Make sure to catch them live as they co-headline this year’s Jagermeister Music Tour with Saliva. And for those of you who can’t wait for March 18th? Preview tracks [and a video clip] from "Blackout" at http://www.hyfntrak.com/hedPE/. interview by scott sisti |
