HELMET Mainman Talks New Album, Covering THE BEATLES

Joe Bosso of MusicRadar.com recently conducted an interview with HELMET mainman Page Hamilton. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

MusicRadar.com: Chris Traynor played bass on the [new HELMET] record ["Seeing Eye Dog"], but he's not in the band.

Page: "Yeah, Chris joined us initially, but the lineup that he was involved with when I reformed the band fell apart. Chris and I are great friends, though, and he played great on the new album.

"It took me a while to find the right group of guys who are capable and willing to work their asses off. The kind of music HELMET makes takes total commitment. Chris has a family and is in a different place right now, so he wasn't able to be a part of the new lineup. I'm happy with the guys I have now. The band is killer."

MusicRadar.com: One thing that stands out on the new album is your use of distortion, which has long been a hallmark of your sound. What is your philosophy about distortion?

Page: "Distortion is a tonal color, for sure. I look back to my first distortion box, the MXR Plus — I didn't know anything about it, but I loved how cool and crunchy it made my sound. I learned a lot when I played in BAND OF SUSANS and I picked up a lot of tricks. You spend time manipulating sounds and eventually you can become a sonic sculptor.

"Take the piece from the new record called 'Morphing': I have nine guitars on there, doing different versions of feedback. It sounds beautiful. I always wanted to study orchestration, so I did — I studied at USC. Eventually, I got ideas of how to build and orchestrate distortion and feedback. If you keep an open mind about sound and don't try to limit yourself to the status quo, you can do anything."

MusicRadar.com: One more question about the new album: You do a fantastic cover of THE BEATLES' "And Your Bird Can Sing". Did you intentionally pick one of the harder guitar songs in THE BEATLES' catalogue?

Page: [laughs] "No, not at all. I just always loved that song and thought of doing it. It's such an odd track and I always felt like I could do something cool with it. The degree of guitar difficulty didn't come into my mind. I just love the song, the way it progresses.

"THE BEATLES were amazing. There's another song of their theirs, 'Dear Prudence'… Man, there's triads starting at the 15th fret, working through the inversions. Those guys knew their instruments. I don't know if they could sight-read, but they were phenomenal musicians. Anybody who questions the musicality of THE BEATLES, they're just not paying attention."

Read the entire interview from MusicRadar.com.