with any common sense) would have jumped ship
from long ago. We definitely love what we do and are
too stubborn to do anything else!
What do you think has been your secret
to longevity & success for all these years?
Yeah, my last answer pretty much
summed it up – we love what we do, nothing else will
suffice.
Tell us about the early years – how
much of a struggle was it back then – if I remember,
the early 90‘s was grunge rock‘s heyday, how was
the beginning for the band?
I think it's always been a struggle to
be in a metal band. No matter how many fans there
are of the genre it's not main stream. We have seen
metal climb and metal come and go along with so
many other styles of music. All the while we just kept
plugging along playing the music we enjoyed playing. We have just always pushed to be the best Hemlock we could be regardless of what's going on
around us and we have a very high energy, entertaining live show which I think has always set us apart
from a lot of other bands and other trends. You can't
argue that writing good music and having a good live
show should be the forte of any band. Unfortunately
that's not always the case.
Okay, I‘ve got to call you out on this…
on your website, in the bio, you state ?Hemlock has
been called ?The Kings of self-promotion‘ and have
been noted as the hardest working up and coming
metal band.? – really, ?up and coming? still after 20
years?! ROFL
Kind of chuckle worthy, but still very
true in fact. We have never had any great commercial
success, no hand outs and have gotten stepped over
by so many less worthy and (I feel) less talented
bands with less heart. We've seen many bands come
and go, and THAT shows you the integrity in their
hearts. The record industry is, and has been for many
years, a complete crock of shit. We stay hands on
with pretty much everything we do. So yes, we are
very involved in promoting ourselves. We still hang
posters and hand out fliers for our shows. It's very
disheartening to go to a show and not have any posters of yours hanging in the club. People have gotten
very lazy (bands, promoters etc.) and everyone thinks
a Facebook post is all you gotta do...well once again
very few bands can claim the longevity of 20 years.
What do you think was your biggest hurdle just starting out those many moons ago?
A lot of years and a lot of members – tell
Our biggest hurdle has always been us about the journey through the years, about the
having the money to invest in and push our crazy ideas. That and being naive and getting sucked into bad
management deals and being taken advantage of by
promoters in our early years. Our age didn't help back
then either. We had to sneak into several of our own
shows because we were too young to get in to our
own performance!
Tell us about the ?big break? that took
you guys to the next level.
“Big Break”?! What "Big Break?"
LoL! We have had to work hard for any success
we've ever gotten. We've had perhaps stepping stones
that have helped further our career but we have
fought a long hard battle that most bands (or anyone