Hatebreed will perform a Soundwave sideshow at Newcastle Panthers on February 28, supported by Cro-Mags, Biohazard and Raised Fist. Tickets $38.50 plus booking fee at moshtix.com.au. This is an all-ages gig.HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta creates music that unleashes and soothes the savage beast within. Some people get it, some don’t.
Not everyone relates to the band’s aggressive, in-your-face stance, and Jasta has been criticised for being negative and antisocial. But for fans of the US hardcore band, Jasta’s lyrics speak to them – and the message is overwhelmingly positive.
When asked if Hatebreed was misunderstood, Jasta replied, ‘‘definitely’’.
‘‘You would think that with the internet age people would be more knowledgeable, but I actually think it’s created more of a vacuum of idiocy,’’ he said.
‘‘People go on YouTube and they can say, ‘I don’t get this, what is this? These guys are crazy, these guys are racist, these guys are sexist’. I read all this stuff and I think, ‘if you just went to our website or read all our lyrics you wouldn’t think all this stupid stuff’.
‘‘But people are that dumb. They go to one website and take it as gospel and don’t explore further. The whole point of the internet is to spread the information further, not cloud it.’’
Critics aside, Jasta said looking down at the seething mass of humanity in the mosh pit and seeing the crowd sing along to his lyrics was the ‘‘best feeling ever’’.
‘‘I’m happy we’re doing what we set out to do. We always wanted people to go crazy at our gigs,’’ he said.
‘‘The whole premise behind Hatebreed was, ‘look, we’re these angry kids and there’s millions and millions of angry kids out there in the world’.
‘‘The negativity and the anger is not aimless. We use the music and live shows as a way of releasing the anger in a positive way. The outcome is that people feel empowered, which is positive.’’
Watching Jasta in action on stage, one could be forgiven for thinking he was an angry man. But the truth is, his music calms him down and gives him perspective. It’s cathartic.
‘‘You’ve got to have balance in your life. In my life, that balance is represented in the music,’’ he said.
‘‘Sure, there are some very angry songs like A Call For Blood and Doomsayer, but there’s some uplifting, positive songs as well, like Look At This and I Will Be Heard.
‘‘But, overall, the message is positive. When I was a kid we had a choice – hanging out with certain people and doing certain things on the streets at night, or there was going to a gig and paying your five bucks, or trying to sneak in, so for that couple of hours you weren’t doing something that was against the law or whatever.’’
There’s worse things to be doing than thrashing around in a moshpit?
‘‘Yeah, I hear that all the time,’’ Jasta said.
‘‘I talk to grown men who say, ‘if I didn’t have your shows to go to when I was a kid, I would have gotten myself into a lot of trouble’, or ‘if I didn’t have your music in times of darkness, I don’t know what I would have done’. That’s a massive compliment.’’
Many of Jasta’s lyrics on Hatebreed’s third album, Supremacy, were penned when he was, in his words, feeling ‘‘down and out’’.
‘‘I figured I would write about it [depression]. I had never been thrust into the spotlight like that and I realised ‘wow, people are actually listening’.
‘‘I felt like I was a positive, uplifting guy but a lot of the time I felt down and out. I wanted to talk about that in the record as a way of telling people life’s not always going to be great, and there is a balance to everything.
‘‘A lot of people connected to that. I still hear from people who tell me it was nice that I opened up to my fans like that, but I don’t know if I would do it again, because we live in a world where if we show any sort of weakness, people want to exploit it. When I sing I’m yelling at me.’’
Jasta was 17 and living in Connecticut when the band formed. He’s now 34.
‘‘We became successful because we weren’t confined to one scene. We cross over from hardcore into metal, and the last album had more of a thrash influence,’’ he said.
‘‘Even if you go back to the first album, we were blending New York hardcore with East Coast hardcore and some death metal-style riffs.
‘‘The main inspiration for the next Hatebreed album, guitar-wise anyway, is a lot of ’90s death metal and hardcore.’’
Jasta said the band loved touring Australia.
‘‘You guys don’t know how good you’ve got it. We’ve always had a rapport with the metal and hardcore guys in Australia so it’s cool to do the Soundwave tour again,’’ he said.
Screaming at the top of his lungs night after night can’t be good for the vocal cords, but Jasta’s remedy is simple: lots of water and sleep. ‘‘The last tour we did in America was in big stadiums and arenas with Five Finger Death Punch. They have clean vocals and can’t perform every day, so we would have days off and I was like ‘wow, maybe we should take a day off every now and then, too’,’’ he said.
Jasta may have been angry back in the day, but he is a polite, articulate and pleasant person to interview.
He tells LIVE about his daughter, who is soon to celebrate her 13th birthday, and in the process reveals his softer side.
‘‘I’ve changed. I want to be a good example, and provide things for her that I didn’t have growing up. I’ve been able to do that for her by being in the band, so that’s been great.
‘‘Thanks for talking to me. You take care now, Lisa.’’
So much for being antisocial.
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