Monday 29 June 2015

HellHikers Q&A

Your name:
Rolf Royce.

Where are you from?
AaleSin City, a.k.a Aalesund, small city on the north-west coast of Norway.

Name of band: 
HellHikers.

Who else is in your band? 
Rex Erection - Drums of Destruction, Devilry & Disorder. 
Roy Redrum - SickString of Sloth, Sleaze & Sinphony
Per Perplex - Bass of Brute, Beer & Boozery. 
I'm doing the Vocals of Vomit, Vile & Vehemence.

How would you describe yourselves and your music?
Beerwolves Howlin' In Töxic Heat, White Trash Weekend Alcoholic Scum playing HöRRiFic HellPönkRöck. HellHikers Sounds like Burning Wheels, Smoking Guns, Hot Babes and Cheap Drinking in the Twilight Zone. HellHikers Sounds Like HellPönkRöck...And We're Not Afraid to Use Capitol Letters!

Who are your main influences musically?
We started out pretty much as a Misfits-worship band in 2003, with some influences from Ramones, Turboneger and Raga Rockers. Our fascination with old horror movies, cheesy sci-fi and sleazy sexploitation from the 60s and 70s are still there in the lyrics, but musically HellHikers has grown darker, heavier and more complex with the years. 
It's only a natural development, since there's been quite some line-up changes with new members bringing in new inspiration and old members going back their heavy metal/hard rock roots. You'll probably find just as much Sabbath, Stooges and Motorhead as Misfits in our sound today, and I think our next album "Death Rattle & Roll" goes to prove just that.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
None of us are 20 any more, so ambitions of becoming big rock stars are long gone, if we ever had any. All current members have been playing in several bands since their early teens, a lot of cover-bands as well, so I guess we're basically music fans playing for the fun, the beer and the love of music. We still like to develop into something we feel is HellHikers though, that is us, that sounds like us and looks like us, in our beer-soaked horror-universe, and all positive recognition and compliments for that is always nice. 
Playing some gigs outside Norway some day wouldn't hurt us either. We'll take whatever comes our way and do the best with it.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
I can't speak for the rest of the guys, but for me personally it must be supporting Thulsa Doom in 2005 in Sogndal, when they were touring Norway. Not to be confused with the American act, Thulsa Doom from Norway are my favorite Norwegian band next to Raga Rockers, and they're still playing live. That's why! Their third album, "..and then take you to a place were jars are kept" is a masterpiece, and I really hope they release another album soon!

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
Can't remember, must have made sure to get drunk enough to forget it. 

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
That's a hard one, but I'll pick "Murder & Mayhem" from "Ghoulham Tales"(2011). I think this track represents the old and new HellHikers best. Our first EP "CreEPers From The Rawk Lagoon" (2006) was, as mentioned, very Misfits-like; Short songs, simple chords with lots of hooks and melodies. By the time "Ghoulham Tales" was released, we wanted to put a lot more ROCK into the term "HellPunkRock", both in the riffs and sound, and so we did. I know for sure that some of the old fans were not too happy about this, but to keep ourselves interested and inspired to go on, HellHikers had to take a step further.

Where can we listen to it? 


Where can we find out more about your music? 

Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to about?
We hope to release "Death Rattle & Roll" later this year. We got nine tracks in the mixing process, and they already sound killer! HellHikers 2015 sounds really nasty, we hope you'll love it and like our Facebook page!

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