American Head Charge Interview
12/14/01
We had a chance to sit down with bassist Chad Hanks before their headlining show at the Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood, CA. We chatted about their very beginnings, recording the album, Ozzfest, and of course.. the pig heads, burning flags, and firing shotguns! Later that night, I got to witness one of the most intense shows around as American Head Charge got to play their full set. They played the crowd favorites such as "Seamless," "Never Get Caught," "All Wrapped Up," and "A Violent Reaction." They also played their slower, darker and more melodic songs such as my favorite "Song For The Suspect," & "Just So You Know." In the end, the mosh pits had their hands-full as they became full fledged members of the Deth Squad and joined the Alliance.
Noize Pollution: Let's go all the way back and start from the beginning.
Martin and you met each other in a rehab facility. Can you tell us how you guys bonded and
started to write music?
Chad Hanks: Yeah, well first you're in a place where you have concentrated time and
you are with somebody 24 hours a day. You know, you share a room with them, you are
eating with them and you're in therapy sessions and paired up in groups. If you want
to, you can get to know someone very close and you get to know a lot of shit that
would usually take like 3 or 4 years in a friendship. So we had a really good
basis of friendship right off the bat which is really cool. I had to write a
song to graduate this treatment program and so I wrote some lyrics and I had
a song and I asked Cameron (Martin Cock) if he could sing and he said he'd
give it a shot. So he played a little acoustic and he'd never really been
in a band before, but we played it and it was probably really bad, but
fuck it you know. It was like six or nine months before we got out of
there and we hooked back up and started the band up and started to buy
some gear and looking for a place to practice.
NP: How old were you at the time?
CH: '96. I was 25 at the time.
NP: What were some of your jobs at that time? How did you get by?
CH: Cameron (Martin) worked at Pizza Hut for a long time. I had a nice long period
where I didn't work at all. I was living at the studio that we had and it was like
me and Martin and we were looking for other band members. We were at this space
across from a grocery store in a shitty part of the neighborhood and since I
didn't have a job, I'd take this huge backpack with me and go to Rainbow Foods
and go shopping and head to the health food section, since no one ever went
shopping there. Dump it all into my bag, padlock it and walk out. So I got
along pretty well there for awhile but I realized I better get my shit
together. So then I worked at a conveinance store and did a host at a
pizza place, you know the random shitty jobs.
NP: Can you tell us what the scene was like in Minneapolis and how you started
to branch out and play shows in Iowa and other cities?
CH: When we started in Minnesota there was nothing. There was like metal
bands that didn't realize they weren't in 1983 anymore and they were still
sucking on their replacement's dicks you know. It was no relevant heavy
music scene at all and so we just kind of made our group and kept on
playing and playing. See the thing is, if 15,000 people would go see
fucking Korn you know, a block away at First Ave. The kids will come
if you find them. We'd play 3 or 4 clubs and once we started packing
them, we moved to First Ave. and I went over there and started begging,
please give us a show. And I finally they let us and I remember that
day because they didn't bring enough people into work that day so
they were understaffed and twice as many people showed up then they
thought which was about 700 people and I was like, see I told you!
Then we just started growing and swapped shows with cool bands in Iowa.
NP: Now that you guys have been signed along with the likes of Slipknot
and Mudvayne, do you think there is an untapped resource of rock/metal
bands from the Midwest?
CH: I don't know, any thing could happen. They could mine sweep the area and go
that route or nobody could get signed from the Midwest in the next 10 years.
I don't know.
NP: Do you think they get looked over quite often?
CH: Yeah, but to tell you the truth it's just like anywhere else. There's not
a lot of good bands. I mean, I'm picky and I don't like anything, but I mean,
the really good bands come around every once in awhile and you're like
'holy shit!' If you're good, you'll get your chance.
NP: What was the last band you saw that totally blew you away.
CH: The last band that's not signed would be�..huh�oh there's this band
called Meatjack that I fucking love out of Baltimore and they are so cool.
They are a three-piece and it sounds like 18 guys are playing, really cool.
There's also a band called Taint that I really like.
NP: When you were making your record, you stayed at Rick Rubin's mansion.
Can you tell me what it was like recording with him?
CH: He's fucking awesome man!
NP: Did he give you a lot of freedom or did he butt in and say this has
got to go or try this?
CH: Well, you know he did his thing, which worked for us. The main thing
he did was arrangement. He'd come in on certain song and say 'here ya go.'
He'd be like take this and throw this out and double the verse and we were
like, 'wow, I didn't think of that, thanks Rick, okay next song.' So after
that, we were totally on the same page that was a little weird at first
cause a lot of the records he has done have a stripped down sound to
them and he had never worked with Pro Tool before. So I was wondering
how he was going to fuck with it and it came out so fucking close to
what the band had in mind which was pretty amazing.
NP: There were rumors that his mansion was haunted, was there anything that
happened when you guys were there?
CH: Yeah, everyone had their own little experiences. I didn't have many, I stayed
in the house and was the last one in there which was about 8 months. The one thing
I remember happening was I was like sitting in the house with nobody there. And
I was in the Dining room and like these weird knocking started going through the
house. Like going through the Ballroom and going up and down the stairs and
it was the same sound and I was like 'I get it.' But other people saw figures
walking through rooms, figures standing in the rooms and we also saw
reflections in car windows with people running up behind them and they'd
turn around and nobody was there. The whole house's power going out for
like 60 seconds and coming back on. The entire house had this energy man.
NP: How did you come up with the title of the record "The War of Art?"
NP: "The War of Art" has 16 songs on it, and 6 of those came off your LP "Trepanation."
Reach and Touch, Seamless, We Believe, Never Get Caught, Fall, & Pushing the Envelope.
The only major difference that I noticed to those songs was that on "Trepanation" a
lot of the original samples are really strong and clear and on the new record they
are gone or distorted. Was that a copyright issue?
NP: Ok, let's move onto your first single and video "All Wrapped Up" How did
you get Michael Rooker to appear in your video and what's your take on MTV
banning it?
NP: What's your take on MTV banning it?
NP: What time did you guys usually go on the second stage at Ozzfest?
NP: I have to ask this but what was the motivation to fire blanks out of
shotgun, burn flags, have pig heads on stakes, play nude, etc�
NP: What's coming up next? After your headlining tour are you going
to Europe with Slipknot?
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