Crave Magazine » Content » Featured Artist - 2008 » An Interview with American Music Icon Jamey Jasta

Are You Ready to Rock?
An Interview with American Music Icon Jamey Jasta
By Kelly Kingsbury

“It’s about music…and it makes you feel alive!”

Jamey Jasta is one of the biggest names in the music business today; he is the former host of MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball, frontman for Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow and the lesser known gem of Icepick. Hatebreed’s music might fall into the metal/hardcore category, but the band has an uncanny ability to attract fans that span across the genres that are brought together by Jasta’s strong and consistent message. His newest project, Kingdom of Sorrow, has just announced fall tour dates, he has a new solo project and Icepick is slated to release a second album soon. Always the businessman, Jamey has his own Hatewear clothing line, he’s launched the rapidly growing independent Stillborn label, and received the coveted Golden God award from Metal Hammer last year. In the middle of all this chaos, he has still found time to make guest appearances for Agnostic Front, Biohazard, Napalm Death, and rap underground artist Necro, to name a few. Trying to get an interview with one of music’s busiest musicians wasn’t easy and required much last minute postponement to meet Jamey’s hectic schedule. But that’s everyday life for Jamey Jasta, and he takes it all in stride.

JJ: Hi Kelly, are you ready to rock?

Crave: Yeah, and thanks for giving me some of your non-existent time!

JJ: No problem, we’re actually just pulling up to the House of Blues so I have a few extra minutes. Thanks for doing the interview on the fly like this, ‘cause I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it yesterday.

Crave: No problem. You’re on tour with Kingdom of Sorrow right now. How’s that going?
JJ: It’s been an adventure to say the least. We ran into a bunch of little bumps in the road. Just stuff like bus problems, windshield problems, air conditioner problems, but it’s all good. We’re back on the road, and we’re running a little late to the show, but we’re here, and we’re not missing any shows. That’s the good thing.

Crave: Fall tour dates for KOS were just announced, and you’re touring with GWAR and Toxic Holocaust, which should be amazing. Have you ever played with GWAR before?
JJ: It will be fun! I’ve never played with GWAR, other than one show at Ozzfest, but it’s going to be fun because we’re not headlining. It’s tough when you’re doing a side project in a newer type of band to go out and headline. It’s like you’re really just preaching to the few who are already converted, you know? So with the GWAR tour, it’s going to be nice to be a support band, and go on early and pay our dues a little bit more.

Crave: During the Jägermeister tour this summer, you played the shows with staples in your legs. That’s impressive considering some bands would have cancelled a show for a hangnail. What happened?
JJ: Well you know back in March I did a solo showcase, and I was hanging out and noticed on my leg there was this discolored piece of skin. I actually called Steve Gibbs, the guitarist for KOS, and he was like, “Dude, you need to get that checked out, come down here.“ And I went to a really good doctor there who was like, “Yep, that’s gotta come off right now.” So they cut into my leg and did a bunch of tests on it. Then they cut into it a little bit more, just to be safe, ‘cause it could’ve turned out to be skin cancer or something. Instead of taking time off the tour, I just got staples, sutures, and lots of other different things in it to keep it together so it wouldn’t come undone.

Crave: Everything’s ok now?
JJ: Yeah well, when I was traveling and didn’t have the same doctor to look at it, everybody was like, “Jesus how many sutures do you have in there?” I thought I got all of them out, but every now and again another will pop through. Like the other day, a piece of nylon just shot out of my leg. I will have to go in and have another little surgery, but I’m not worried about it.

Crave: I actually met you on that tour in Portland. I told you in the green room that your lyrics changed my life. Do you hear that a lot?
JJ: Well thanks, for one. And I never get tired of hearing positive stuff. Any time someone is affected positively by it, it makes me feel like I’m doing just a little bit more than being an entertainer. You always want to have an effect on people in a good way. But if it can be more than entertainment, it makes it a little more worth it. Like at least all the hard work and the stuff that you go through behind the scenes is more worth it.

Crave: Hatebreed’s DVD Live Dominance is coming out Sept. 2nd. Did I read right that you guys are going to autograph every DVD sold on that tour?
JJ: Yes we are. It’s going to be crazy. We’re going to be up ‘til the wee hours of the night. We are looking forward to this tour, and actually it’s fun to go back to some of these small clubs that we haven’t been to in a while. It’s going to be an intimate show. We’re doing a lot of stuff off our first album that we haven’t done on the last two tours. It should be good. We’re psyched about the DVD, it came out great. A lot of the journalists that got pre-screeners contacted me personally to say that they loved the DVD, and it looks great in high def. So, I’m psyched. I’m really proud of it. I’ve worked non-stop, 24 hours a day for five days in the editing suite. My eyes are fried. It’s a lot of work.

Crave: At the recent Seattle show, you played the entire Satisfaction is the Death of Desire album, and during one of the songs there were 75 stage dives. Is that a record?
JJ: Yeah, that is. We broke the record. I think the record was 58 during that song. So, 75, yeah, I think I counted right. I was trying to count, but once I got to 60 I was like, all right, we broke the record. We’ll see what happens on our next tour. I think that there are no barricades on some of the shows, so we might have to put some of these cities to the test.

Crave: The opening band that night, The Athiarchists, are going to have a feature article in this issue. They are Hatebreed diehards. Did you know the drummer, Dano Lemm, has all of Hatebreed’s signatures tattooed on his arms?
JJ: Yes, they rule, and that just shows the true dedication of how diehard our fans are. It’s great when we can inspire someone to start a band and they do it on their own. We always help them out when we can.

Crave: They actually followed the Jägermeister tour around for a while and did sets in the parking lots after some of the shows. Did you guys hear about that?
JJ: Yeah it’s great. We were watching their DVD on the bus every day. They are great dudes. They’ll be in the front row the whole set, singing every word, and then go out in the parking lot after the show and play for people. It’s killer.

Crave: After being in the hardcore scene for 20 years, how have you seen it change?
JJ: Wow, that sounds so dated. We’ll say that I’ve been in it for about 17 years. I’m not that old. Say 16, that sounds better. I’ve seen so much. People are getting more easy-going now. Everybody’s not as angry and as frustrated. It seems like people are more accepting of different lifestyles and different politics and different styles of music. People’s minds are more open, and I think that’s a good thing.

Crave: So, there seems to be a new generation of hardcore/straight edge fans that I’ve seen at Hatebreed shows. How do you think that came to be considering Hatebreed’s not a straight edge band?
JJ: Well I just think we have a message that’s about empowering ourselves, you can interpret it however you want, and a lot of straight edge kids interpret it that way. And I don’t do drugs or drink, but I don’t claim straight edge. I just think that our message is a universal message that everybody can relate to. And because we started out playing with bands like Earth Crisis, there weren’t a lot of shows that we could play, and we were playing a lot of straight edge shows.

Crave: So after 16 years, three major record labels and one independent label, how much has your overall outlook on the music industry changed?
JJ: Well I’m always an optimist; I would just say that now, obviously, it’s harder to sell records. But I think the bands are going to get through it, they are going to prevail, they’re going to find new ways. We just hope for the best. I think when they (fans) can afford it, and they see fit to buy an album, they do actually go and get it. We just came out with this KOS album and we’ve already sold 30,000 records. That was amazing. That’s just a big accomplishment, especially at this time in the industry. So we’re just happy our fans see us as worth it to spend their hard-earned money, especially when you have a gallon and a half of gas being the same price as a CD at Best Buy. It’s like, what are you going to get? You’re going to get the gas so you can go to work.

Crave: What motivated you to start Stillborn records?
JJ: Just ‘cause I wanted to have a label’s name on the demo so that it looks legit. One that makes it look like you’re signed. Then a lot of other bands use it so I needed to call it something. So I was like, “Ok, I’ll start a label.” But then as it grew, it became more serious.

Crave: How’s one of your latest signings Better Left Unsaid doing as newbie’s on the label?
JJ: They are doing good. They are actually one of my new A&R guys, Mark Veer’s, signings. I’ve been around the band for a while, and I was pumped that we were getting more west coast bands, and they were one of them that we were really interested in. I’m looking forward to doing more stuff with them.

Crave: You’re doing a tour with your solo project starting August 19th and playing with Agnostic Front. You also produced an album for them and executive produced the movie New York Blood with them. What got all that started?
JJ: They actually played at my 16th birthday party. I was into them when I was in middle school. I also thought that they were this untouchable, huge band because I always thought the same thing; if you had a CD in the store you were like Guns N’ Roses or something. But going to the shows early on, and seeing how approachable they were, and seeing how cool they were to their fans, it made me feel like I was more involved in the hardcore community. This was back in the day in ‘91 and ‘92 before they took a hiatus ‘til ‘96. And when they came back they put Hatebreed on a bunch of shows, which was awesome. I had been friends with them for a while; they are just great people. They are definitely one of my favorite bands that I’ve stayed friends with throughout the years.

Crave: Agnostic Front being a hardcore and a punk/Oi! band really mixes up the crowd. Have you seen a crossover of punks and skins coming to Hatebreed and KOS shows?
JJ: They go to Hatebreed shows; there are always punks and skins there. It’s great to look out and see people with Casualties, Exploited, and GBH shirts. We’ve taken Oi! bands out with us before, we’ve taken Agnostic Front like ten times on tour. There’s always a crossover. But Hatebreed’s a unique band where you get death metal people out, hardcore people out, grind core, punk rock and Oi!, and even emo people . There was a girl at, I think the show where you were at, who was wearing a Newfound Glory shirt. So you get all different walks of life.

Crave: Are you writing any new material with Icepick?
JJ: Yeah, I have a lot of songs that are actually ready, but we’re not a touring band. It’s a studio project, but that’s set to come out next year.

Crave: Out of your entire career, what accomplishment are you most proud of?
JJ: Definitely Ozzfest when we were showing people that the heavier stuff could go over well there. We were kind of one of the bands that represented the changing of the guard on the second stage, as far as more extreme underground bands being able to do the festival. And then doing the main stage Ozzfest was a huge accomplishment for us. To graduate to that, with bands like Ozzy, Metallica and other huge bands that we never thought we’d be able to step foot on the same stage with, on the same day, it’s a trip every time. It’s crazy. I think when you’re a true fan, and when you’ve stayed on people’s floors, and in the van, and really toughed it out, it really hits you harder what you’ve done ‘cause it’s such a contrast.

Crave: What’s happening in your near future?
JJ: I have a little summer tour coming up on the 19th after I finish the KOS run on the 17th. I have one night to get home before starting that. And that’s just a short little tour to test out my material for my album, which probably won’t come out ‘til next February. Then when I’m done with that, I go back into the studio to finish and mix it, and then we do the Hatebreed tour. Then KOS opens for GWAR ‘til around Christmas. Then we do our annual Hatebreed Stillborn fest, which should be great this year. We’re doing five huge shows. Then after that, we’re doing the new Hatebreed album.

Crave: Ok- you win the award for the busiest musician.
JJ: Yeah, it’s crazy right now.