INTERVIEW: HALESTORM’s Arejay Hale on ‘Back From The Dead’, ‘Hyde Manor’ & Dodging ‘The Tour Ender’

Best known for his work as part of the internationally acclaimed Halestorm, Arejay Hale recently sat down with Metal Wani’s Carl Rourke to discuss the band’s upcoming new album, ‘Back From The Dead’, their first studio release in four years, out May 6th.

Over the course of their time together, the pair discussed the leading single ‘The Steeple’, the Halestorm-inspired graphic novel, ‘Hyde Manor’, an event prior to their tour with Evanescence that was monikered as “tour killer’, as well as much more.

Speaking to ‘Back From The Dead’, Arejay shared his thoughts on the experience of writing the record.

“This is completely different from any other record we put out. I have to give a lot of credit to Nick Raskulinecz, our producer, who has worked with some of the greatest drummers of all time. He’s worked with Will Hunt, Neil Perth, and Taylor Hawkins, rest in peace. Oh, God, and Dave Grohl, and like, you know, that was sad news, right? God, that was such a shocker. Anyway, that’s a different conversation. But yes, for this record, I also have to give a lot of credit to Scott Stevens who I’ve developed such a great relationship over the past couple of years.” Arejay went on to say, “Working with these two powerhouse producers as a team, it was unbelievable seeing them work together.”

During the recent run of An Evening With Halestorm shows, Arejay boldly, and bravely facilitated a brief comedy set during the show. A segment the drummer had mixed feelings towards.

“[Laughs] That wasn’t my idea! I didn’t wanna do it, I’ll be honest with you. I was like, ‘are you kidding me?’, as a comedy at a rock n’ roll show? Nobody’s gonna get it! And our manager kept on hounding about like ‘you gotta do it, you gotta do it!’ Coz I did an open mic night in Nashville one time, just for fun. Everybody came out and everyone was like dying, ’cause that was the environment for it. Everyone was there ready to see jokes. Surprisingly though, Dublin [Ireland] was the first time I tried it, and it was great! Everybody got it. They were groaning and booing, which we encourage! Some of them are ones that I’ve written, and some of them are old classic dad jokes that I try to revamp and apply to our music world, our Halestorm, rock n’ roll world. [Laughs] And Dublin was great! But then I tried it the next couple of nights and I feel like a lot of the audience didn’t know what was going on. So we ended up kind of pulling the plug on the standup set.” Arejay concluded, “But for those of you who came to the Dublin show, you got the very rare experience of seeing a full comedy set in the middle of the show. And it was weird! [Laughs]”

A few days shy of their recent arena tour with Evanescence, Arejay fell victim to an event that guitarist Joe Hottinger thought might have been ‘The Tour Ender.’

“Oh my God! [Laughs] It wasn’t in the studio, it was the very beginning of our tour with Evanescence. My drum tech and I were fixing a few things on my drum kit. I had to make a few changes to my set, and we use racks. We don’t use tripods, because I’ve got way too much stuff. We can’t have all the tripods fighting each other, so they’re all on like these low racks on each side of my drumkit. We were using a plastic mallet to tap the clamp so they would slide down the rack, and somehow my finger, my left index finger got in the way and he got it with the hammer. And he was like ‘are you okay!?’ and I was like, ‘I’m fine’ because it just felt like my finger was pinched in a drawer. Then he looked down at my finger and looked up and he was like ‘you’re not okay!’ [Laughs] and somehow I caught something sharp and it just ripped open. I was like ‘I’m fine, I’m fine,’ and my guitar play Joe [Hottinger] was like ‘that’s a tour ender! The tour ender!’ He went from zero to sixty in three seconds. He was like ‘we’re all doomed!’ and I was like ‘dude, I’m fine. I’m not a guitar player. I don’t need my fingertips. Just duct tape the stick to my hand and we’ll be fine.’ The day was saved and the tour went ahead after Arejay, “wrapped it up with some guerilla tape and it was fine.”

‘Hyde Manor’, the upcoming graphic novel, depicts a tale of the celebrated group, Halestorm, as they seek refuge in a gothic estate filled with creaks, twists, and doom-filled revelations. Arejay discussed how embarking upon this new creative avenue came to light.

“This was the brilliant idea of our team to create a graphic novel, which is kind of like a comic book. I don’t know if there are any physical copies, I think it’s all digital. But, you know, we had a theme for ‘The Strange Case Of,’ back in 2012. And that album title came from when we wrote the song Mz. Hyde, which was the female version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So, obviously, the title was ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ so we were like, well let’s call the album ‘The Strange Case of Halestorm.’ And it shows that juxtaposition between us being generally positive and laid back people off stage, but then when we go on stage you just go for it. All of us really feel like we have this split personality between who we are off stage and who we are on stage because once the music takes over you become a different person. You just kind of become this animal. So that was the theme behind the album, and now here we are years later like, why don’t we see if we can actually turn this into a story?” Arejay shared his thoughts on the finished product and encouraged fans by saying, “It’s hilarious, I think. So definitely check that out.”

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