Could you introduce yourselves to the readers?
Pete - Hi I'm Pete Brown, I play guitar in Hath.
How did Hath come to be?
Pete - Hath started as kind of a side/passion project for Frank and AJ. Prior to Hath, Frank, AJ and I were in an instrumental tech-death band called Ophidius and Greg and AJ were playing together in their rock band, The American Standard. Frank had a handful of songs written that didn't fit Ophid's style and he wanted to play something more straight forward that also had vocals. They pulled in Greg and the three of them wrote the "Hive" EP. They put Hive online, it caught Willowtip Records' attention and they offered them a deal. After that they started writing the songs that would end up on our first LP, "Of Rot and Ruin" and decided to try and make Hath more than just a studio project. All that time I had been teasing them that if they were ever looking for a second guitarist to let me know. At that point Frank, AJ and I had been writing and playing together for about 5 years. They asked me to join and here we are!
I attended the 'Of Rot and Ruin' guitar play-through on your Twitch
channel, since the whole world is on lock-down do you feel the stream was the best alternative to interact with your fans since shows are not
happening right now?
Pete - Thanks for hanging out on that stream! Yea, I'd say live streaming has been the best thing for interacting with fans and artists for a while and we're playing catch up. It obviously can't replace a full live show experience but right now I can't think of a better way to perform and interact with a community during a lockdown. Following a band and being a fan has largely always been a one-way street. You see them at shows, you might talk to them briefly and you like what they post online but now it's a two-way conversation. When else have you had that kind of direct access to talk to your favorite bands or ask them questions, or have them ask you something? I'm seeing more faces from larger bands start to do it so I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes normal the longer this goes on. Also some bands are really killing it. Matt Heafy from Trivium is like the face of metal streaming, Dean Lamb from Archspire has built a solid following and Code Orange and Flogging Molly did full live shows in an empty theater.
October 2nd is the release of the 5 year anniversary reissue of "Hive"
via Willowtip Records in the Bandcamp description you guys made a
statement saying "Atropus represents the shift in our sound between the two releases." When going back to listen to the remaster in its entirety that is currently on your Bandcamp, I can hear the shift you guys are talking about, what led to adding the song into the remaster for the fans to hear it?
Pete - Hive was largely a passion project with very few expectations initially behind it. Frank, AJ and Greg wrote these songs, AJ recorded and mixed it and they just put it online to see what people thought. At the time AJ had been really into audio production for only a few years so he was limited to what he knew and what equipment he had available. Since then he's built out a really great studio and has produced a lot of really great sounding albums and I think over time there were some rough edges on Hive that started to show. Earlier this year when Willowtip offered to do a proper physical release for Hive we thought rather than just put out the same thing, why not revisit the mix and add a song. Atropus had been written as a potential song for Of Rot and Ruin but got cut because it sounded too much like Hive, so it seemed like a perfect fit to add it to the re-release. When we say 'Atropus represents a shift in our sound', we mean that it's like a bridge between how we were writing on Hive and how our writing style had progressed on Of Rot and Ruin.
The artwork for the remaster of 'Hive' more of an artist feel than the
original cover when it was released in 2015, I see bands reaching out to more artists to create beautiful pieces that fit perfectly well with the
music, who is the artist for the remake of the 'Hive' artwork and how
did you know they were the "one" to be commissioned for the EP artwork?
Pete - Yes absolutely! All of the album art was done by a great artist and friend, Kristin Holzer. The original Hive art was a free-license stock photo of a cockroach that we made black and white and slapped a logo on. There wasn't anything else to it, no booklet art, no vinyl designs etc... so it didn't make sense to try and design a full release around it. I've known and worked with Kristin on different band projects for over a decade and have always loved her style. I also know that she loves drawing and illustrating bugs so when we came up with the idea of cordyceps-infected insects it was a no brainier. We pitched her the idea and she absolutely killed it.
When the world is back to normal and everyone can go back to their
normal lives, what is the city you want to perform in that you know it will be an absolute crazy night?
Pete - Definitely Philly. We're based in NJ but consider Philly our "home" city and have always had a great time and great crowds when we play there.
With the resurgence of vinyl records in the past few years do you feel
they have become a staple in the metal community? Are any of you collectors yourselves?
Pete - Yea vinyl seems to have become a sign of a real music lover. Vinyl for current bands wasn't really a thing when I was growing up so I had a huge CD collection. I remember spending hours reading the liner notes, and following along with the lyrics and that's moved over to vinyl. I don't collect vinyl but AJ and Greg do and I totally get why you would. Having that much of a canvas between the cover, jacket and record makes owning an album much more of an art piece and an interactive experience than just streaming it. You definitely get more invested in the music.
Dream tour with Hath on the bill?
Pete - Hath, Slugdge, Black Crown Initiate, and Nevermore headlining. I listen to Slugdge and Black Crown Initiate constantly and Nevermore's hands down my favorite band so it would be a blast to watch all of them every night.
Anything else you would like to tell the readers before we go?
Pete - We're re-releasing "Hive" on CD/LP/Digital on 10/2/2020! The EP's been remastered and has a new song, "Atropus" that just dropped. Go check it out and pre order it on our Bandcamp or via Willowtip Records. We're pretty active on Twitch YouTube Facebook and Instagram doing live performances, mixing walkthroughs and gaming. So if you're into that, come say hi! Also stay safe and stay healthy!
Karnivool (EP) Persona Set Fire to the Hive Dinka Hive EP [UDR114-9] wiki/music Artist: Dinka Title: Hive EP Label: Unreleased Digital Cat#: UDR114-9 Date: Sep 2010 Source: Digital Release Quality: 320Kbps CBR. Amazon.com: Hive Mind EP [Explicit]: Black Party Politics: MP3. Halcyon Aeon. Set Fire to the Hive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Set Fire To The Hive" is the fourth single and music video by. Download. Set Fire To The Hive EP - :: JustPressPlay :: Review of Set Fire to the Hive EP by Karnivool. House Music 4 Life: Dinka - Hive EP Please support the artists and buy the tracks from Beatport or any other online music store. Preview and download songs from Tarred and Feathered - EP by The Hives on iTunes. Also features: Dillinja and T.C. Please join our Facebook Page below incase this blog ever gets taken down
