By Kate Drexel;
Media Credit: Chief Music Management
Arts & Entertainment Editor,
December 4 marked the day that American band Hinder released their highly anticipated album, Welcome to the Freakshow. While the album received mixed reviews from critics, it still managed to stir intrigue amongst audiences, and succeeded in showing a darker side to the band’s music that the world had not yet seen before.
The band formed in 2001, starting with their lead singer, Austin Winkler, originally fronting a cover band in Oklahoma City until late July. He then eventually met Joe “Blower” Garvey (lead guitar) and Cody Hanson (drums) at a college party. The trio created Hinder and performed at a local club, building a fan base there. They soon released their first EP (extended play), Far From Close, in 2003, selling approximately 5,000 copies.
Two years later, Mark King (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Mike Rodden (bass, backing vocals) joined the band.
The band released their debut album, Extreme Behavior, on September 27, 2005, featuring the single that would become one of the band’s most notable works; “Lips of an Angel”. Other singles include “Get Stoned” and “Better Than Me”.
On November 4, 2008, they released their sophomore album, Take It to the Limit, with lead singles “Use Me” and “Without You”. This album marked a change in the band’s music style, moving them in a slightly more glam-metal influenced direction.
While on tour for Take It to the Limit, Winkler said to have written approximately 70 plus songs, recorded about 50 of them and the band chose 12 of those tracks to go on their third record, All American Nightmare, which was released on December 7, 2010, the lead single being the title track.
Hinder announced on Twitter and Facebook the title of their new record, Welcome to the Freakshow, on August 9, 2012. Their lead single, “Save Me”, was released for digital download on August 30. The band wrote around 30 songs before choosing the 11 that were to go onto the record. The 11 tracks all have a hint of country, metal, soft rock and pop.
On December 5, Arts and Entertainment editor Kate Drexel had the exciting opportunity to interview Hinder’s front man, Austin Winkler.
Q: How long did it take you to make the album?
I’d say at least about a year to make it with writing it and recording it, and getting it all done. Probably about a year, something like that.
Q: Why the title “Welcome to the Freakshow”?
It’s a lyric in the song [“Freakshow”] it kind of seems fitting. On the record its been different and very diverse…it’s kind of like our take on it, what we thought the record was, which was kind of all over the place.
Q: Did you use any particular inspirations for this album? If so, what were they?
Everything we write about is personal experience, and that’s how we connect so well with our fans, because everything we write about what happened to us, or where we are at with our lives
Q: What is the story behind “Save Me”?
It’s our first single, and while we were writing it, I was in somewhat of a dark drug binge, and I had the mentality and attitude, you know, like “I don’t need anybody to save me, I’m fine, leave me alone.” Then I went to rehab and saw the other side of it, and then I went back in to write a different song and now it means something different to me.
Q: What is your favorite venue to perform in?
We like to play in small clubs too, you know, kind of intimate and stuff like that, but there is one particular place in Flint, Michigan called The Machine Shop that we love to play.
Q: Which track is your favorite from the new album?
It constantly changes, but right now, it’s “Get Me Away From You”. That’s my favorite.
Q: How did you come up with your band name?
Actually, when we first started, we had 20 or 30 songs that we started for each gig and we didn’t have a name, so we were getting really frustrated, so we looked up “frustrated” and we found “hinder.”
Welcome to the Freakshow is available for purchase at your local music store and digital download.
5/5
No tracks to skip
