West of Hell interview

Published: Absolute Underground Issue #47 August/September 2012

My Interview with west of hell's Andrew Hulme

AU: In all your years in New Zealand did you try out lots of vocalists? or were you just happy being instrumental at the time

AH: The search was extensive ,including postering, putting up a billboard atthe freeway onramp, and alot of word of mouth and leg work, the band never intended to be an instrumental act. Finding the right vocalist in New Zealand ,someonethat fit the band,proved to be a hefty challenge .Many tryed out, but failed .



AU: Of all the places in the world to move to, what made you choose Vancouver?

AH:Realizing that reaching bigger markets was not gong to happen in New
Zealand ,The band needed to move to north America .Canada being part of the commonwealth was a natural choice and Jordon Kemp had ties in Vancouver .



AU: Did it take a lot of work to get Chris Valagao to join the band or was it obvious to everyone that you guys fit great together?

AH:Val's vocals are a seamless fit with the music and a couple jams and a few
boxes of beer sealed the deal .


AU: Then you got an award-winning producer and made a great album, have you been getting a good response so far?

AH:The buzz the band is generating is growing at an exponential rate and is charting well globally .Rob Shallcross is pain in the ass ,but ultimately got great performances out of all of us .



AU: You're at the end of a recent tour. Did this tour go better than your last bunch of shows?

AH: This canadian tour has been a great success ,with the album being released
during the beginning of the tour momentum seems to be gathering .


AU: Any fun/shitty stories from this last tour?


AH: We were in Montreal standing out side the Super Sex strip club. Val was
trying to find a sandwich or some item of food they only have in Montreal
(cant remember what?) So there was this good looking girl standing not to
far away. We bowled over to ask if she knew were to find these things,when
out of nowhere this guys starts getting all weird like"you want to rent
 her!?" "you want to fuck her!? and were like "arrrr no?! so dude keeps on
at us getting closer and more uptight , we keep telling him to get lost.
Then bam he sucker punches our sound man whos not paying any attention and
has no clue whats going on. The next thing Jordy starts following this guy
up the street and gets in his face about it and before you know it its a
big ball of arms and legs bouncing around off the pavement wich basically
was 4 members of WOH kicking the shit out of this guy up the street for
about half a block. The guy must have been high or something because he just
 keeps getting up looking for more. So jordy tells him one more time to fuck
off before casually giving him a heavy jab and lays the guy out in thegutter. Montreal......Good times.
 We ate chicken burgers that we fired up on the BBQ, in arandom park in Edmonton. Everything was going good till about 12.30 that night when things took a turn for the worst. within a couple hours three of us were racing eachother to the wash room , having turns spewing in the kitchen sink and all turn a deathly shade of pail green/off white. Food poisoning is a bitch! especially when it lasts for 12 hours and takesanother couple of days to completely go away. A couple of us were still throwing-up after we came of stage a day or two later!

AU: Well sounds like you guys had some good times, Hope it all keeps going good for you guys the new album rocks.

-Michael F. Carnage

http://www.facebook.com/WestofHell