Interview with Paris Bosserman & Kevin Thrasher of LOVEHATEHERO
A couple on months ago WHITE LIES, LOVEHATEHERO’s sophomore album falls into my lap and I’m instantly taken away by the band’s sense of pop enthusiasm mixed with metal-laced riffs, riveting song lyrics and catchy melody driven ambition that continues on from song to song.
I finally got to see the guys in a live setting and they take everything you learn from their CD and turn up the heat to a 110 degrees. The solos are in your face and powerful. The energy is a constant blast from start to finish and the music is danceable, moshable and singable.
After their sweaty set upstairs at the Palladium in Worcester, Ma. I took Paris-bassist and Kevin-guitarist outside to cool off and talk about the new record, the past and the up coming events happening in this new band’s ever climbing career.
WHATS UP GUYS ..SO WHO IS IT I’M SPEAKING WITH TODAY?
PARIS: My name is Paris Bosserman and I play bass and back up vocals for LOVEHATEHERO
KEVIN: Kevin Thrasher I play lead guitar and shred and then kids’ brains explode
DID YOU HAVE ANY EXPLOSIONS TONIGHT?
KEVIN:Yeah, we did, yeah
PARIS: Unfortunately, when he did the solo behind his head
PEOPLE WERE FREAKING!
PARIS: I saw like three heads like exploding
KEVIN: IÂ can’t see it though ever.
PARIS: He never can never see them but we always do and we tell him about it and it’s amazing.
KEVIN: On with the interview
OK. YOUR LAST ALBUM, IF YOU COULD SUM IT UP IN THREE WORDS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
PARIS: Smart, witty and fun and sexy
NO, THAT’S FOUR! YOU HAVE TO TAKE ONE OUT!
PARIS: OK, three words minus Kevin Thrasher, Myke Russell and Scot Gee, the last album was without them. It was me and Pierrick, did you know that?
YES, I DID KNOW THAT BUT THAT’S NOT THREE WORDS!
PARIS: A great experience.
OK. WHAT DID YOU WALK AWAY WITH FROM THAT ALBUM THAT YOU BROUGHT INTO THIS ALBUM, ANYTHING?
PARIS: An amazing fan base, like loyal fans and awesome people. We didn’t really make a lot of money on it but we just learned so much and when these guys came in we all just meshed so well and it made the new album better.
SO KEVIN, WHEN DID YOU COME IN, WAS IT RIGHT WHEN THEY STARTED TO WORK ON THE ALBUM?
KEVIN: Right when we started working up a record, we all wrote it together.
NOW ARE YOU THE PRODIGY?
KEVIN: Yeah
SHOULD I BOW TO YOU?
KEVIN:Yes, you don’t have to right now though
PARIS:You can bow to both of us later (laughing)
HEY NOW….(laughing)
PARIS: I’m just saying I’m like the amazing prodigy bass player.
SO ARE YOU SAYING WHEN YOU CAME INTO THE BAND, YOU THINK YOU BROUGHT IN THE METAL FEEL OF LOVEHATEHERO?
KEVIN: Definitely brought like a new dynamic
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE AS A GUITAR PLAYER?
KEVIN: Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Von
THE OLDIES BUT GOODIES!
KEVIN: Yeah
PARIS: See that’s so funny that you say that because I learned from some of these metal guys like the shredding leads, like we knew we wanted that in our new album and when he came along, it was just perfect, like all those leads pretty much first try.
REALLY!
PARIS: Pretty much, yeah
KEVIN: Yeah behind my head in the studio (hahaha)
BLINDFOLDED? TIED IN A CHAIR?
KEVIN: Yeah, both my arms were loose cause I had to hold my guitar. Without my vision, I have more senses to like really create the sounds
OK.
PARIS:Are these ridiculous answers to these questions?
NO, IT’S VERY HUMOROUS!
PARIS:All right, good
KEVIN: OK, they are very relative
ALL RIGHT (laughing) WHAT DO YOU THINK KEVIN BROUGHT IN AS AN ASSET TO LOVEHATEHERO, IS THERE ANYTHING
PARIS:Honestly, just personality.
WHY DO YOU HAVE NO PERSONALITY?
PARIS:Well, all the members were new but he brought, when he came in, it kind of like solidified us as more of a band. Before, we were like different members, bickering and stuff like that, not too much but obviously, they left. So, when he came in we were more tighter as a group and he knew theories better than all of us.
KEVIN:Â and mixing it in with technical wizardry, with flamboyant stage presence makes a big difference because I didn’t want to sacrifice any musical integrity by giving a great flamboyant stage show.
THE LAST ALBUM, WHERE DID YOU GUYS WRITE THAT? DID YOU WRITE IT AT HOME OR DID YOU GO SOMEWHERE TO WRITE IT?
PARIS: The last album, we basically had a lock out and we all paid like one hundred and fifty dollars each, like eight hundred a month and he wrote it in probably like eight months and changed a lot of the songs, we were like producing it ourselves, changing, making it better and then he went in with this guy Ryan Baker to do a demo. We did the demo, we did three songs of them and then we sent in three of them to Ferret and other labels and we got like five or six offers and Ferret was the best, so
SO THE NEW MATERIAL YOU GUYS WROTE WAS THAT A FASTER PROCESS?
KEVIN: The new record was all written in one month, 100% full record. We demo ed it out ourselves, we’re in the studio for a month.
THE NEW ALBUM IS BASED ON ROAD EXPERIENCE
PARIS: Well, we learned a lot after our first album and we wanted to write the second album to be more like a live album, something that kids could come to shows and like really get into, jump around, really feel it, ya know what I mean. So, that’s why it’s a lot of groovy breakdowns
Â
BOOTY SHAKIN
Yes there’s booty shakin. There’s songs about the fans, songs about members we lost, songs about brothers who were doing drugs, songs about homewreckers,
ONE THING I WANTED TO ASK YOU WAS IN YOUR BIO IT SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT SNAP JUDGEMENT, HAS YOUR BAND HAD JUDGEMENTS PUT ON YOU BY PRESS OR PEOPLE?
PARIS:It’s weird, most of our reviews have been amazing
KEVIN: It’s kind of like, your average metal head guitar player guy would be like LOVEHATEHERO, that’s not metal sounding
PARIS: I think it comes from, we toured a lot with like really hardcore bands, so we didn’t really fit in, so we did get a lot of bad feedback from those, but recently it’s been like just amazing tours and awesome people
DID YOU GUYS CHANGE BOOKING AGENTS?
Paris:We got a booking agent and an awesome manager, Joey from One Moment. He signed us up like a few months after our record came out. He is also Escape To Fate’s manager
THE THREE SONGS I WANTED TO TALK ABOUT, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, HEAVY SONG!
KEVIN:Heavy
WHAT IS THIS SONG ABOUT?
PARIS: Let’s go back to the first record, on that record we had a song about Pierrick’s sister who was on drugs and he wrote about that, that was SECOND CHANCE and then the new record, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, his brother was, Sticking needles in your arms, that’s part of the lyrics, stuff like that, it’s about what he wanted to do when he found that out, he wrote it in like five minutes right when he got the call. His brother went to rehab and he wrote that song.
HE’S THE MAIN LYRICIST, WOULD YOU SAY?
PARIS:Yeah
SO IF YOU GUYS EVER HAVE A SITUATION YOU WANTED TO TALK ABOUT ?
PARIS: Well, me and he wrote a few songs together like HOLLYWOODEMIA we wrote together and lyrics
ALL RIGHT, THAT’S ANOTHER FAVORITE!
PARIS: It’s about girls who aren’t shitty and stupid and are bulimic
DID YOU SEE IT FIRST HAND SINCE YOU ALL LIVE INÂ CALI AND TOUR THE WORLD?
PARIS:Yeah, we live in LA, so we see it every day.
SO, IT WAS A SONG THAT NEEDED TO COME OUT!
PARIS:We all felt it needed to be talked about. That’s what music is all about. Communicating a message that means something to you.
OK, THE SONG, I’LL MAKE IT TO BRIGADES, IS THAT ABOUT SOMEONE NOT WANTING TO BE IN A BAND ANYMORE, DO YOU GUYS EVER HAVE THAT FEELING LIKE WHAT AM I DOING, MAYBE I SHOULD STOP THIS AND DO SOMETHING ELSE OR IS THIS YOUR LIFE?
KEVIN:Some times it comes around because we’re not making like a whole lot of money
PARIS: Five dollars a day
KEVIN: Can be discouraging at times but then we look up and see what a awesome time we are having.
PARIS: It was more like a metaphor….it’s more about if my voice should fall away ever and if we couldn’t play…..it was more like, we love playing and we were kind of like yeah, if anything ever happened, ya know, what’s up so that’s what I’LL MAKE IT TO BRIGADES is, you’ve got to keep going
UNTIL YOU CAN’T GO ANYMORE!
PARIS: Yeah
DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE GETTING ON BETTER TOURS AS THIS ALBUM GETS MORE OUT THERE?
PARIS: Yeah, we’re selling a lot more records, we’re in Hot Topics everywhere
KEVIN: Yeah, we got shirts in there, we’ve got awesome touring, awesome people. We’re doing a headline tour in a month.
NERVOUS?
PARIS: No
KEVIN:We’re excited
PARIS:And we want to kids to come out
DO YOU KNOW WHO YOUR BRINGING OUT?
KEVIN:National Product
OHHHHHHHHHHHH, I LOVE THEM!
PARIS: Actually our first video, that was shot at National Product house, we were there.
THEIR SINGER DANNY IS THE NICEST BOY, I LOVE THEM
PARIS: His favorite song is SECOND CHANCE
LET’S TALK ABOUT HOMEWRECKER, THIS IS A FACTUAL SONG?
PARIS: Yes, it’s a factual song.
IS IT ABOUT ONE PERSON OR IS AMY JUST SOMEONE YOU MET ON THE ROAD?
PARIS: Amy, as a name, sounded good (laughing)
I WAS GOING TO SAY WOW THIS POOR GIRL (laughing)
PARIS: (laughing) We’re talking about real girls right there. Real girls who try to hook up with you and ruin lives, we all have girlfriendsWell, he’s single, Kevin Gruft’s single
HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN THINKING ABOUT OR HAVE ANY IDEAS FOR A NEW RECORD OR ARE YOU PRETTY MUCH JUST WORKING ON THIS?
KEVIN: We’re always writing new music
IS IT HARD TO DO IT ON THE ROAD?
KEVIN: It is hard
Yeah. We have little licks, he’s been writing a lot of licks, we have ideas
IS THAT HOW IT MAINLY STARTS FROM THE GUITAR FIRST?
PARIS: Usually we do music first and lyrics after, but like RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, that was weird because he wrote the lyrics and then wrote the music and then he put the lyrics to the music.
KEVIN: That was meant to be
DO YOU HAVE EXTRA SONGS THAT DIDN’T MAKE THE RECORD?
PARIS: Not really, we had maybe one, we had a couple little ideas here and there, we had a month to write this record, we wrote everyday and
KEVIN: we put our hearts into every song, so, every one is awesome
WAS THIS A GOAL FOR YOU TO DO IT IN JUST A MONTH OR WAS THERE PRESSURE THAT YOU HAD TO GET IT DONE?
PARIS: We was a little pressure. There was a lot of pressure
KEVIN: But at the same time, I think a month is really good because it doesn’t give you time to second guess yourselves and then you turn into Axil Rose and write a record for ten years, twenty years or whatever that was
PARIS: (laughing) and spend ten million dollars doing it (laughing)
OK. IS THIS TOUR LEADING RIGHT INTO YOUR TOUR IN THREE WEEKS OR ARE YOU DOING SOMETHING INBETWEEN THE TWO TOURS?
PARIS: In three weeks we start our headlining tour and that goes on for like a month, a month and a halfish, we have zero days off, the next day we start that tour. It’s awesome because there is no home like the road.
DON’T YOU MISS HOME THOUGH?
PARIS: I do but I love the road and I love the kids and all that.
IS THERE ANY DOWNSIDE BEING ON THE ROAD?
KEVIN:: It’s hard to work our relationships
THAT’S RIGHT, BE A MUSICIAN, YOUR SINGLE FOREVER!
PARIS: (laughing) I like having a relationship too because you have that person at home, it kind of keeps you in check, ya know what I mean
TRUE! I GOT IT, ALL RIGHT.ARE YOU DOING A VIDEO?
KEVIN:ESP guitars
PARIS: and we just did a live video with Hurley. A bad ass one
OK ANY LAST COMMENTS, ANY FAMOUS LAST WORDS, ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO TELL YOUR FANS?
PARIS: We love you, come out to shows, you can only get so much from a CD and we love our fans and we actually hang out with all of you guys.
KEVIN:It’s a party when you come to LOVEHATEHERO shows
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