TOM MAXWELL Wanted To Break HELLYEAH's 'Party-Rock Band' Stereotype

February 10, 2015

Actor Vinnie Langdon of the "Vinnie Langdon Show" recently conducted an interview with HELLYEAH guitarist Tom Maxwell. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked about HELLYEAH's decision to work with Las Vegas-based producer Kevin Churko (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, IN THIS MOMENT, PAPA ROACH) on the band's new album, "Blood For Blood", Tom said: "I think we really needed to go outside the box. We were a self-produced band, and, granted, I think we did a pretty fine job at doing it. But it's hard to be a little analytical of your own stuff. You know what I mean?! You're too close to it. So when the opportunity came for us to work with Kevin, none of us had ever met him, or anything, but we knew what his body of work was. And it was that extra ingredient that we really needed to fine-tune the band and harness the things that we weren't harnessing. And he did a fantastic job. In fact, I really don't wanna work with any other guy, down the road or when it comes down to doing music and recording; that's the guy I wanna go with."

Maxwell also spoke about the change in the songwriting process for "Blood For Blood" compared to that on HELLYEAH's earlier efforts. He said: "The record came out exactly the way I envisioned. It was a process to make this record — we parted ways with a couple of dudes; Greg [Tribbett, guitar] and Bob] ['Zilla' Kahaha, bass] — so it was primarily left just to myself and Chad [Gray, vocals] and Vinnie [Paul Abbott, drums] just to write it and do the whole record. And it came out fantastic. We're really happy. Front to back, every song, there's not one song that's 'fast forward to the next one.' You know what I mean?!"

He continued: "I think we really needed to dig deep on this one. I really wanted to break that stereotype people had us in of this 'party-rock' band, which kind of put us in a corner — songs like 'Alcohaulin' Ass', 'Drink Drank Drunk' and 'Hell Of A Time'. I mean, they're cool tunes, but, personally, I don't have really any history with that kind of music. I'm a hardcore kid from Baltimore and I wanna play real moody, emotional, heavy stuff and more relaxed, pulled-back stuff, but retaining integrity and honesty, and I just didn't think that that was the way that we should be going. So I looked at it as a blessing. We were, like, 'All right, dude, you're gonna write all this music. It's gonna fall in your lap.' And I'm, like, 'All right. Well, this is where we're going.' 'Blood For Blood' came out great. 'Moth' is burning it up out there and people are digging it. So it's good stuff."

"Blood For Blood" was HELLYEAH's first album since parting ways with Tribbett and Kahaha in February 2014.

The new members of HELLYEAH are bassist Kyle Sanders and touring guitarist Christian Brady.

"Blood For Blood" sold around 17,000 copies in its first week of release to land at No. 18 on the Billboard chart.

Find more on Hellyeah
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).