HATEBREED's JAMEY JASTA Talks Band's Longevity, Record-Company Situation (Video)

Kaaos TV conducted an interview with vocalist Jamey Jasta of Connecticut hardcore/metal masters HATEBREED before the band's April 17 concert at Nosturi in Helsinki, Finland. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the secret to HATEBREED's longevity:

Jamey: "Well, it'll be 20 years [since our formation] coming up in November. I guess the secret is just writing songs you wanna play live — getting that charge every night live. Luckily for us, the crowd is always very involved… If you're a real HATEBREED fan, you like every record, and most people say they like every song, which is a very cool thing to hear. And I'm the same way: there are no songs that I'm, like, 'Ah, I don't wanna play that.' I'm always psyched for every one. That's the secret — just having songs that we're proud of. There's no era of HATEBREED that we're embarrassed of. We're very lucky to be one of those bands that we never had a record that really tanked or changed the style or the sound; it's all pretty consistent."

On whether HATEBREED is happy with the job their record labels (Nuclear Blast in Europe and Razor & Tie in the U.S.) did with their latest album, "The Divinity Of Purpose":

Jamey: "When the checks clear, I'm happy, because we get the budget, and the budget calls for a bad-ass record, and we've gotta do our job. And we do our job every time; we deliver. With Nuclear Blast in Europe, we charted in a lot of places that we didn't chart before, and the press was great; they did a great job with the press. And they worked the record; they're still working the record. We even talked abut recently doing another video. So, yeah, I would say we're pretty happy. And then in the States, Razor & Tie was OK. I don't really have anything bad to say about them because they're just like any other record label — they're a business, and they've gotta make money selling records. I think we'll figure out what we'll do in America for the next record. I would do another record with them, but if we're not contractually obligated to do it, let's see who is going to get in the mix and who wants to do it. I know there's always a record label interested in putting out HATEBREED, 'cause we've been consistent. We're not one of those bands that relies on the label. We're gonna sell records anywhere we go, and our fans are diehard; they're gonna support us."

"The Divinity Of Purpose" sold 17,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 20 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was co-produced by HATEBREED, Chris "Zeuss" Harris (SUICIDE SILENCE, ALL THAT REMAINS, SHADOWS FALL) and Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD),with Wilbur also handling mixing duties. The cover artwork was created and illustrated by Eliran Kantor (TESTAMENT, ATHEIST, SIGH, ANACRUSIS, GWAR).