We caught up with James and Justin from HELL IS FOR HEROES before they smashed it on the Zippo stage at DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL....
We caught up with James and Justin from London based 5 piece HELL IS FOR HEROES, read on to see what we chatted about....
This is your first Download experience, how are you feeling?
James - We played Ozzfest but we weren't this high up the bill. We were due to play the first Download festival but our flight from Spain got cancelled so we couldn't play. Apparently Metallica replaced us (laughs)
That's a great story! Is this the biggest festival you ever done?
It could be, depending on how many turn up! We're naturally pessimistic so will be just glad if anyone's there.
you've headlined a tour where you were promoting your album 'The Neon Handshake' which was first released 15 years ago, what a great story, please tell me about it....
We've all stayed in contact, the band never broke up due to hard feelings or anything. The band Hundred Reasons had an anniversary and they said we should do something similar to celebrate ours. We spoke with our publicist who said there was demand (he has been known to 'over egg it') but we all fancied it. Playing together was easy and the songs felt as relevant today as they were back in the day.
During your hiatus what did you do?
James - I'm involved in band management now so organising the tour was pretty straightforward. Yeah it's all been pretty cool.
Justin - I went back to school and studied. The main topic of interest is how institutions manipulate the media to further their agenda. This is something that seems very much to the forefront in today's world.
Who are you looking forward to watching at Download 18?
James - Bad Religion, I've always been a fan.
Justin - Tesseract.
Away from music what do you guys enjoy doing?
Justin - I'm a parent to a 2 and 4 yr old, (enuff said)
James - Arranging comedy as well as bands but not brave enough to go on stage and do it.
We went to watch them perform.... Justin's energy got the crowd going as the band did their thing. Justin enjoyed it so much that he spent some time in with the crowd at the end. He also brought his elder son on stage for a taster of the rock n roll lifestyle!
Interview by Gary Williams