Lzzy and Josh from Halestorm
Live Interview with Lzzy and Josh from the band Halestorm conducted by Miranda Wilson (Aka Sidine). I would personally like to take this opportunity to thank the guys and gal of Halestorm for sitting down with me and taking the time to answer a few questions, it was truly a pleasure to speak with them.
Miranda: How did you guys come together as a band?
Josh: Well they Lzzy and her brother Arjay the drummer they’ve been doing this since they were 10 and 13, Lzzy being the older sister.
Lzzy: We got a little obsessed in ’98 was our first paying gig as Halestorm. We named the band Halestorm at 13 and 10 and just kept moving and kept going you know it’s. We played anywhere and everywhere you know we did a friends restaurant for free icecream once, we played a funeral, a wedding. Yeah I know that sounds like a joke but we did. We got paid 50 bucks a song at that funeral and would do it again.
Josh: I wanna play a funeral
Lzzy: and um coffee houses and church functions anywhere they would let us play, and just kinda putting one foot infront of the other. We never stopped, we started playing clubs around 15 and 16 years old when I was around that age and a couple club owners gave us a shot. We would get to play the lunch hour, and then we would move our way up to the evening hours and stuff. (looks at Josh) and you have your own story about how we stole you.
Josh: Yeah they abducted me. They worked with a producer in Philadelphia, whom I also worked with in a different band, and um and I guess that project started fizzling out, and I kept in contact with the producer and worked with him and they ended up needing a bass player and it worked out great. You ask any of them and the producer they all had a plan from the beginning. (smiles)
Lzzy: I think he even called your dad to make sure your dad was on our side before we even talked to you.
Josh: yeah they had all angles covered. Before they acquired me.
(Arjay interrupts the interview with the need to sign a cymbal, he just realizes there is a interview happening and apologizes)
Miranda: (laughs) it’s okay drummers are noisy we understand
Arjay: that is the second time I’ve done that.
Miranda: it’s okay I’m surprised he wasn’t beating on your mom’s pots and pans when he was growing up?
Lzzy: oh yes oh yes
Miranda: making as much noisy as he can.
Lzzy: we all grew up with amazingly supportive parents, they never said no. In fact, our practice room was my parents living room for a long long time. My mom didn’t have a living room for like 8 years.
Josh: and it still is. Like if we’re home, well the last time we were really home home before the holidays was like 2 1/2 years ago we were just doing our own demos and we had, we put Arjay’s drum kit up in the living room and mic’d it and made it a full on recording room. The whole house turned in to a recording room, there’s XLR snakes running all the way all the stairs into the bathroom.
Lzzy: (laughing) My parents didn’t even have a house, we took over.
Josh: (laughing) We have completely taken over the house.
Miranda: where do you want me to plug this in? Take it to the bathroom
Josh: MOM! Get out of the shower; we need to use the bathroom to record.
Lzzy: We did that (laughs) I was in the shower recording vocals.
Miranda: It gives you a different sound.
Lzzy: right a whole new take on singing in the shower.
Josh: As far as Joe he answered and ad in the paper
Lzzy: he answered an Ad in the paper, he was actually, and hour and a half late to the audition from when he said he was going to be there. Mainly because my dad gave him wrong directions, later my dad will joke that it was on purpose. He was one of the only people that we auditioned that didn’t lie about their age. You know at the time my brother was like 15 or 16, so we would get these people that would like send in these pictures and their biography that they made up, this is the bands I’ve been playing with and I would love to join your band. Then would have a picture of themselves of when they were like 20 or 19 and then they would show up and be like 45 and I’m like “No offense man but I got a like a 15 year old drummer the age gap I don’t know, were trying to find people we can relate to.” Not that we don’t relate to 45 year olds we all grew up with classic rock.
Josh: and your dad was the bass player for years.
Lzzy: year for about 2 years my dad retired from the stage when my brother and I first started out my dad is like a bass player and he was like “I’ll play with you.” For a good 2 ½ years he was playing in the band with us, and it was fun but then he was like “You know I feel like the old guy on stage I should retire and just carry your guitars.” We sometimes say the band is like the Partridge Family meets Spinal Tap, because it’s a rolling circus.
Miranda: I was talking to your mom and told her “There’s your Joan Jett of the 2000’s with a little but of Debbie Harry in there.
Lzzy: awe sweet thank you I think that is the first time I got the Debbie Harry.
Miranda: You have the hardness from the sound, When we seen you the first time I was like” There’s Joan Jett right there.”
Miranda: Me asking where the band got its name would be a little redundant.
Lzzy: it’s a play off of our last name. Which we joke about and my mother will deny it till she dies, but when we named the band we were on our way to our first performance ever we had entered ourselves into a talent show. We were in the Hale family van and we were going to the talent show and I turned Arjay and said “we need a band name fast.” We didn’t wanna go up on stage and say “Hi!, were Lzzy and Arjay Hale” we wanted to have a band name because it was cooler, and we had written a song together and it was a very juvilenile song “Love is Power”. Anyway we wanted to have a band name and my mom turns around and says “How about the Hale Family Band?” and where like “NOOO! Mom that’s dumb, we want a cool name” and I forget who actually came up with the name we both have different versions of how it happened. It was me obviously and we named the band Halestorm. I walked up on the stage in front of the judges and which weren’t a day under 80 some of them had blue hair and were wearing john deer caps and that kind of thing and said “Hey were Halestorm” and played our song. We won third place but lost to a tap dancing cowgirl, that’s a true story.
