Following the breakup of an 11-year streak with SoCal metalcore outfit Eighteen Visions, singer James Hart pursued his next project, a rock n’ roll band by the name of Burn Halo. The current line-up consists of James Hart on vocals, Joey Roxx on lead guitar, Brandon Lynn on rhythm guitar, Aaron Baylor on bass, and drummer Timmy Russel. March 10th, 2009, marked the release of Burn Halo’s self-titled debut album, featuring hit single “Dirty Little Girl” which is beginning its way up the rock charts. As they tour with Pennsylvania rockers Halestorm and begin to prepare for their first headlining tour, James Hart took time out of his busy schedule at The Crocodile Rock Café in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to discuss the band, the album, touring, and his personal life.
Aaron Baylor
JM: So basically, how did you envision the future of your career after Eighteen Visions broke up in 2007?
JH: It was kinda hazy at first, definitely. Right when Eighteen Visions was winding down and the end seemed inevitable, my manager had, you know, tried to keep the ball rolling for me. He had suggested that I get together with like, a guitar player, start a band, start demoing some songs, you know, keep moving forward with music...
JM: Oh, so it was your manager's suggestion to keep going?
JH: Yeah, I mean I knew I kinda wanted to, but he was really, like, he didn't give it any time to sleep, which was cool. And he got me quickly a deal with Island to write some songs. I went out to Oklahoma about a week or two after Eighteen Visions' last show. Wrote a couple songs, sent them in to Island, got a record deal, and you know from there, really made the record. So the immediate, like, I guess, outlook on it was after things were kinda up in the air with Eighteen Visions, it was like, wow, this happened really quickly. It was almost like it was too good to be true and of course, it was. You know my A&R guy was let go from the company in December right when we went in to mix. They let me finish making the record, but then I was subsequently dropped from the label. They just didn't want to move forward with me, or nobody over there wanted to, like, pick up the record to, you know, someone else already kinda started working over there. So I was let go and from there it was just, like, an everyday battle of what to do and what not to do and finally I just kinda came to terms with, hey, maybe it's not gonna happen, and if it doesn't, I'm okay with that. And the opportunity presented itself to my manager to put out the record and he did that. And here we are today a few months later with an album release and a song that's on the charts at rock radio, which is great.
JM: Yeah, congratulations on that, by the way. So, following the breakup you had a Myspace up for a solo career. So in the beginning was it your original intention to release an album as a solo artist?
Hart: Yeah because, I didn't initially want to do the whole band thing again. I didn't want to, like, have guys coming in saying “I want to do this, and I want to do that” or “I don't want to do this tour, and I think that's a bad decision.” And, you know, I've been through that through giving up an equal share of decision making with an entire band. It can really kill a band if everybody's not on the same page, so I was just like, you know, I want to do this thing on my own, and put some guys together, put a band together, and we'll just do it that way. But the deeper and deeper I got into it, the less and less sense it made to kind of like, do the solo thing. I just realized like, I'm no Chris Cornell, like I don't have that type of background where I can just release solo albums. And if you take a Chris Cornell record and put it next to a Soundgarden record or an Audioslave record or a Temple [of the Dog] record, it's totally different like his solo albums are much more like singer/songwriter type stuff, but obviously with a rock element to it. Now these songs didn't, to me, feel like they had that vibe to me. It felt like it was written by a band, you know, there was guitar leads, cool drum fills, stuff like that, and it just didn't feel like it was a solo artist type of thing. So I just felt like, and everybody involved, felt like it was the best decision to give it a band name, put together a band, feature the band members and not just put myself in the forefront. I think it's definitely worked out better that way.
JM: When you were working on the debut album, like how the recording process started out, were the songs finished and prepared when you walked into the studio?
JH: Pretty much, yeah. I mean, all but maybe some of the guitar leads and the drums. We pretty much did everything on a drum machine in the writing process and then we had Daniel [Adair] from Nickelback come in and he sat with the songs for a couple weeks and came to the studio and knocked it all out, you know, so I mean we were pretty much prepared. It wasn't like in the past with an Eighteen Visions record, where we have what we felt were finished songs and then a producer come in and say, “No, no, no, no, we need to strip these songs down. There's too much going on here and not enough going on here, the songs are too long, the song doesn't flow well.” See, we had all that, like the songs flowed well, they weren't too long, they weren't too short, they're very, very direct. Very, you know, very digestible for what this is. So it was clear, it was clear-cut and simple and easy, and the songs were pretty much written to go straight in and record.
James Hart
JM: You're primarily credited as a singer and lyricist. Did you have any musical contributions?
JH: Oh absolutely! Yeah. You know, for the most part, barring a music bet that was given to me by Synyster Gates [Avenged Sevenfold], the way we approached the songs was me and Zac [Maloy], the guy that I wrote the record with and who produced it, we sat down on two acoustic guitars. Neither one of us are, well, I mean he's a much better guitar player than I am, but neither one of us are great in a sense where we can write like great riffs. Basically what we would do is, we'd sit down and put some chords together, the changes and all of that stuff. And then we would write the next part, and then the next part. And it was just kinda like this back and forth thing where he'd write a guitar riff and I’d be like, “Cool, man, that's great, let's take it. Let's move it here, let's have the changes go here or there.” So you know it was a very, very back and forth thing and we even did that with lyrics and vocal melodies. I'd come up with a few vocal melodies and then he would finish it off and vice-versa. Or lyrics, he would come up with a cool line and I would come up with the next three. He'd come up with the next two and I would come up with the next five. So it was a very back and forth, even flow type of like, collaboration. It was great and to me it was like a breath of fresh air, I've never written songs like that before. It was very pure and organic, so it's awesome.
JM: Well with that being said, you had well known musicians in the studio such as Synyster Gates and Daniel [Adair], amongst others [Neil Tiemann, Chris Chaney]. So how did you go about choosing them to work with you?
JH: Well Daniel was at the top of a very short list of drummers that I knew I wanted to have play on the record. He was, you know, I'm a big Nickelback fan, I'm not afraid to say that. Big fan of his drumming, I think he's great. And I just wanted big, like, rock drums, and I felt like he'd be the perfect guy. Zac knew somebody up in that Nickelback camp that can make the phone call, got him the record. He liked it, they were not doing anything, so he took his down time to play on my record which is great, he's an awesome guy. And then, you know, Syn I've known for years back from my Eighteen Visions days and those guys [Avenged Sevenfold] have been a big help to me in whatever I've done in my career. Whether it was Eighteen Visions or now this, they've always been really, really supportive. So to get him in the studio and in on a couple songs was really simple, he was all about it.
JM: You took a completely new turn with the album with writing a lot of sentimental, soft songs more so than rock songs, so why don't you tell me about that.
JH: Yeah, you know... I mean, I guess the sentimental crap, a lot of people call it, I just wanted to touch on real life issues whether they were something I was going through in my life at some point a few years back, or it was something that somebody I knew was going through. I just felt that songs with “Here With Me”, “Too Late To Tell You Now”, “Saloon Song”, “Fallin’ Faster”, those songs just meant for great subject matter. They're good stories to tell, very, very relatable. Anybody in life, whether you're a metal fan or a hip-hop fan or a rock or country fan, can listen to some of those songs and relate to them, and I think that that's the most important thing is how universal the lyrics are. Now, I'll take a song like “Saloon Song”, you know, that song is about sitting down with the person that you've been dating for a long time, or you're married to, or you've been married to for years, and kinda looking back and reminiscing on that first time you met and what it was like and what the feeling was like. And I think songs like that paint a great picture and people can really relate to those songs.
JM: So basically how other people are feeling out in the world, was what you based the songs around.
JH: Yeah, basically whatever I was going through at some point in my life, or what a friend of mine was going through, I've written some songs about some very close people to me, that I felt like I haven't quite been there, but I want to put myself in this person's shoes and write about it because it's intriguing to me. But in doing those things, writing songs like that, I'm writing songs that everybody in the world can relate to and I think that's super, super important.
JM: You went from solo studio work to release as Burn Halo. How did the official line-up come together?
JH: Well, actually I had, I guess we call it “Burn Halo 1.0,” is what we call it. For which comprised of myself, Neil Tiemann, who is now playing guitar for David Cook, the American Idol winner of last year, a friend of mine Reese Vanderslice, and Joe Letz who plays drums for Combichrist. Now that whole group basically, when everything kinda fell apart with Island and everything, took so long to really get going. Those guys had opportunities present themselves to them, so they took them and they had to go with them. The one guy I was able to keep was Aaron [Baylor], my bass player, and I met him in Oklahoma when I was doing the record. And Joey [Roxx], my lead guitar player, I met him through Jacoby [Shaddix] from Papa Roach, Joey's best friend is Jacoby's younger brother. Jacoby knew I needed a guy, referred him, came down, watched him play the hell out of his guitar, was blown away, and here he is with me. Timmy [Russel], our drummer, comes referred from Joe [Letz], who I had originally had playing. You know they done some touring back in the day together, and Joe was just like, “Hey dude, I know this guy that would be great for you. Great image, great style of drumming for what you want to do. I think he'd be perfect.” And then recently, we just added a guy by the name of Brandon Lynn out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on rhythm guitar. Our other guy that we had, Allen [Wheeler], is having a second child any minute now, so it was important for him to be home and be there and do that, and have family take a priority right now.
JM: How's your writing going while you're on tour?
JH: It's pretty much nonexistent right now [laughs], for myself at least. I see the other guys jamming all the time, on acoustics and stuff like that, and they come up with some great stuff, so when the time comes, I'll look forward to it. And I'll walk by and hear them play something and be like, “That's really cool,” but I don't really feed the fire, I don't try and sit in and arrange a song and write vocals to it. I feel like we got a much more important task at hand right now, and that's getting these songs across on a live format and, you know, really being able to get these songs across and play and tour and there'll be a time to write music again but the time right now is to promote these songs.
JM: So you don't think you'll be in the studio anytime soon, then?
JH: No, not unless it's like, a day off and we want to do maybe a cover or an acoustic version of a song, something like that. But no, like, proper new material.
JM: Well when it eventually comes to that, how do you see a future album developing when you're recording with a full band for the first time since Eighteen Visions?
JH: I think it'll be cool. I still think that because of my experience and because I've got the musical direction on lock down, I still think I'm gonna kinda be the quarterback of the whole thing. Obviously they're gonna bring their ideas to the table and I feel like it's gonna be my part to – my place to – really make it all come together. I think we're gonna have a really, really easy time writing music together. I think that it’s gonna be a much different approach than that of Eighteen Visions, and a much similar approach that I took with writing these songs with Zac, but just with a band.
Joey Roxx
JM: I actually read on your Myspace today that you're gonna be starting your first headlining tour really soon. When does that actually start?
JH: It starts, I think, July 21st in Tennessee, and we're gonna be out on the road until probably late August doing that, maybe even early September. I think it's gonna be good for us to get out on the road and partner up with these radio stations that have been big supporters of us, and get our song out there and get people into the shows, and really showcase what the band is all about in a 60-minute set rather than have to bang it out in a 30-minute set, not be able to spend as much time interacting with the crowd in between songs and talking to them and telling stories about the songs and stuff like that. So we'll really, really be able to take our time and do our thing which is great.
JM: Who're you gonna be touring with?
JH: Uh, I'm not sure yet! I don't know if we have, like, specific bands quite locked down yet. I know we wanted to do it with Since October, but they had another opportunity come up that was gonna be better suited for what they're doing. Yeah, we'll figure it out, but the main thing is just getting out on the road and staying on the road and staying busy and playing the right cities.
JM: While Burn Halo takes the rock n' roll direction, do you see yourself continuing tours with metal bands?
JH: You know, it really depends. If you throw, like, Avenged Sevenfold into the traditional metal category, then absolutely. I think that's a band we go along great with. They definitely have a metal vibe to them, obviously, but the vocals are rock vocals, still a lot of guitar work is – the meat of it – it’s rock. I think that because of our show and because of the guitar work on our songs, we go along great with a band like that. Um, if you're talking about some screamy metal band type stuff, then absolutely not, I just don't think that it would be the right thing for this band.
JM: Well why I ask because, I mean last time you were in Allentown, you were with Static-X...
JH: Static-X...
JM: ... and I was at that show, and that was really surprising to me.
JH: Yeah, the reason we were on that whole tour was, uh, Saliva was a big selling point for us to be on that tour. They're obviously, like, much more of a rock band and I felt like we'd be able to go over well with their fan base, not to say that we didn't with Static-X's, we did pretty well. It's just not the target market for us. When Saliva dropped off the tour we were pretty bummed about it, but we still moved on and did our thing and we made it as successful as we possibly could.
JM: I've read that you're straight edge, so tell me about that. When did it start?
JH: Well I was like, I was, I guess, 14 when I first started calling myself straight edge. I've always kind of, I've always upheld that lifestyle. Now in today, so to speak, do I feel like I'm a straight edge kid? Like when I was 14, or 18, or even 22 or 25 – no, I don't. I feel like I'm disconnected from that whole scene completely. So I don't feel like your typical straight edge kid. Now I don't smoke, I don't drink, I never have, I never will. But I really just don't feel like I fit in with that whole scene and what they're doing, I just don't feel like I'm a part of it anymore. I just feel like I'm at a different point in my life to where actually calling myself straight edge isn't as important to me as not drinking, and not smoking, not doing drugs for myself.
JM: In the song “So Addicted”, the lyrics deal with drug addictions. So, what inspired you to write that?
JH: You know, friends that I've had that kind of fallen off the deep end, that are one day completely straight and sober, and the next day trying to find that quick fix to make them feel better. And I've had friends, even family members that have battled with addiction at some level. There's always that, you know, some of them overcome it and then 6 to 8 months later, there's, you know, relapse and all of that other good stuff that comes along with it, you know? And I mean, it's a battle, but again it's like a real life subject that I wanted to touch on.
JM: You tour with a lot of people who haven't made the same life decisions at that, do you find it hard to deal with?
JH: No, not at all. I mean, I don't have any drug addicts or anything in my band, nor would I ever. My band likes to drink and party and have a good time and I feel like, 'cause you know I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't do this and that and I'm in a rock band, I'm the odd one out. I feel like I'm the one that's different so I have to adapt. I shouldn't have to have people adapt to me. Yeah there needs to be, like, a happy medium, you know? But I don't feel like, I'm gonna point the finger and say, “Hey, you can't do this, or this, or this.” I don't want to feel like I have to babysit and tell people what they can and can't do, you know, I want everybody to have a good time within reason and as long as nobody is getting hurt or nobody's making any terrible decisions, it's all fun and games.
JM: You've had your wife touring with you. Does it make life easier when you're on the road?
JH: Absolutely. I've been away from her for like, the last month and a half, but 100%, yeah, it makes life a lot easier. You know, you have your companion with you 24/7 and that's kinda the way I think life should be. For my business it's a lot tougher, it's harder to bring that person out on the road, or a girlfriend out on the road, and be with her 24/7 which is not completely realistic, but you do whatever you can to make things work.
JM: Did she know what she was getting into when you guys got married?
JH: Absolutely. She's great, she's been super supportive of me and she continues to support me, she knows this - I love doing this and she knows that it's a good opportunity for us and the growth of a family, even though there's a lot of sacrifices that have to be made. You know for right now, it's worth it.
JM: Okay, well, we're basically done! But before we close, I just wanted to ask 'cause you're gonna be on stage in a couple hours, what're you opening with?
JH: It will be, uh, what will it be? It'll be the track “Anejo” that I wrote with Synyster.
When Burn Halo took the stage at the “Croc Rock” in Allentown, PA, the crowd was instantly pumped as they opened with “Anejo” as promised. Guys were throwing the horns in the air while the girls screamed suggestive comments at the band. There was never a dull moment with the band, no one stood in the same place for too long, and in turn the crowd reflected the band's energy and they began feeding off of each other that way. The band members made as much interaction with the audience as possible with reaching out for the fans and talking to everyone, all within what seemed to be a short set. Burn Halo are great live performers and are definitely prepared for their upcoming headlining tour; they are a band to keep track of as they continue down the road and James Hart continues his dreams. Stayed tuned on their Myspace page for updates.
Comments
hmm... you ask him what inspired him to write the song "So Addicted" and he gives a pretty obvious answer (I mean, a song called "So Addicted" is about addiction.. big surprise).
the problem i have with that answer is that I'm 99% sure he didn't write that song. "So Addicted" is a song from a band called Leisure. you can find a version in myspace if you search so addicted by leisure under song.
Now you can say that the Leisure version is just a cover, but it's not. I have that song on a compilation CD from Dreamworks. I don't remember the exact year it came out, but I know I had it in high school (so at the very least it came out 3 years ago). Burn Halo came out with their album this year, '09.
The only thing he wrote was the verse, which he changed. And in my opinion, the original song (and its original singer) is way better than this dude and his version. I hate it when people lie about this stuff. If he bought the copyright, fine. Just don't say you wrote it when you didn'
and if he didn't buy the copyright, i seriously hope he gets sued by Leisure. just because he's a fraud (for taking the credit for a song he didn't really write) and because his version sucks compared to the original.
Acute Listener --
Very interesting comment. Of course it isn't a matter of whether James Hart's "version" (in the meantime, until I know that "So Addicted" by Burn Halo is not an original, I'll reference the term "version" in quotations) sucks or not, but it's a very important issue if the song may be stolen from someone else.
With a little research, I was able to find a youtube video of Leisure playing this song live. They seem to be hard to find on the internet. The sound is a little fuzzy but I can make out obvious similarities. The intro and chorus, yes. Verse? Not sure, it was difficult to break down. I'd be very interested to hear the Dreamworks Comp. and get a better feel for it. I'm going to look into it for my own curiosity.
Thanks for the input
- J. Middleton
J. Middleton --
Of course when I said Hart's version sucks it was personal opinion. Everybody has their own taste. I personally prefer Leisure's vocals over Burn Halo's, but again, that's personal opinion.
Since this drove my curiosity as well, I decided to ask them "directly" through their MySpace account (I put directly in quotes because you never know who you're going to reach in these social networking sites). Here's the answer I received:
"we had the same management [as Leisure]. Their song was never released and the writers wanted to see the track on an album. We re-wrote the verses entirely and half of the chorus from the original. Thought it was a great song with lots of potential."
So yes, they changed the verses completely (vox wise) and "half" of the chorus (if you actually listen to it, they just pretty much changed a few nouns...). So they didn't technically steal it, if the management followed the right procedures.
The Leisure version, according to Burn Halo, was not released (which we can assume they meant released as a single or in an album, as I have it on a compilation CD). So while it wasn't technically stolen, I still sort of feel it was (if the case is that they didn't ask permission from Leisure). A lot of times if a band signs a contract, the management or company basically own all the songs written, so it may not be Burn Halo's fault, just an unscrupulous management company,
Still, I feel he should have mentioned in the interview that the song wasn't a complete original but a reworking of an already existing song instead of talking about it as if he or the band wrote the original song by themselves.
I really liked the interview because I'd rather want to hear what someone in the band has to say instead of someone random. Also I have always been a fan of James Hart.
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