Note: this interview was conducted on behalf of the now defunct MusicOhio.com. It took place over the phone before Ozzfest. Which Ozzfest is a fuzzy memory. Somewhere in the 2003-2007 range.<\/p>\n
So, how has Ozzfest been? Did you feel any disconnect with the audience going from playing smaller venues to amphitheaters? Who was your favorite band on the tour? Or ever? You mentioned the \u201cscene.\u201d What do you think of some of the people in the scene that say Hatebreed sold out because of your success? So why the switch to Roadrunner? And you guys tour incessantly\u2026 Do you remember your first show you played with Hatebreed? What was it like? Where was it? Who is your biggest musical influence? You already said Slayer is your favorite band. What are your expectations for the Monsters of Mayhem Tour? August 29th is when Supremacy comes out. What can your fans expect from that? Will it be more brutal and hardcore than your previous albums? Note: this interview was conducted on behalf of the now defunct MusicOhio.com. It took place over the phone before Ozzfest. Which Ozzfest is a fuzzy memory. Somewhere in the 2003-2007 range. So, how has Ozzfest been? Ozzfest was great, it\u2019s our 4th time doing it; first time on main stage. So we\u2019ve stepped up our … Continue reading “Interview: Matt Byrne of Hatebreed”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[284,286],"tags":[289],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-music-interviews","tag-hatebreed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpgpunk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b><\/span>Ozzfest was great, it\u2019s our 4th time doing it; first time on main stage. So we\u2019ve stepped up our stage show a little bit. We\u2019re playing to the seats and everything but everyone\u2019s really receptive to our music. It wasn\u2019t really an obstacle for us; it was a really good time.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>No, not really. I mean, like I said it\u2019s our 4th time doing it so we\u2019re kinda used to it. We\u2019ve played the second stage, which is obviously smaller, but you\u2019re still playing to a huge crowd and there is barricades and things like that so it isn\u2019t anything really new to us. It\u2019s more just jumping from a smaller stage to a larger stage, which allows us to step up our production. You know we had some risers on the stage, a bigger backdrop, um a bigger back line all together; we just increased our stage show all around.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>My favorite band ever is Slayer. Definitely. We\u2019ve toured with them a bunch so that was a treat for me you know getting to see Lombardo every night just hearing those songs. On this tour I mean there was a lot of them. A lot of the second stage bands are bands we\u2019ve played with in the past or are friends with that we\u2019ve come up in the scene with so you know we\u2019re no strangers to them. Then you got guys like Disturbed and System of a Down who are huge bands but are actually really, really cool down to earth guys and it\u2019s fun hanging with them and fun watching them jam every night. Both bands put on a hell of a show.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>Yeah well, people\u2026 we\u2019ve catched a little bit of flak since 2002 when we did our first album for Universal Records everyone thought \u201coh ok, they\u2019ve gone to a major label. They\u2019re going to change their music and try to sell a million records and change their image and everything. Obviously that didn\u2019t happen you know. From a business standpoint we\u2019re out there doing the same things we do all the frikkin time we\u2019ve been doing for 11 years you know. We play all the same clubs we did back in the day just being on a major label is opportunity. You have a bigger budget behind you and it allows you to get your music out to more people because they have that mass production where you ah, you record an album and it is in every store in every city. Whereas in a lot of indie labels don\u2019t have a budget like that for distribution and a lot of people who are starving for your music can\u2019t get it cause the label can\u2019t get it to them. So you know being on the label at Universal I think was a big push for us. It let us take our music and our message and our formula that has always been Hatebreed and through a bigger medium we were exposed to more people.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>Well we did two albums for Universal and right after we recorded the second album our team, our staff at Universal that was handling us at the label, well you know Universal cleaned house and everyone got fired. So we kinda got lost in the shuffle you know and anything we got on the album we got on our own, we got off of touring and any buzz we generated on that album we got on our own.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>Oh yeah, yeah we do. Its not uncommon for us to do 300 shows in a year, you know we hit the road and we go. So Universal, we just kind of got lost in the shuffle. Roadrunner expressed some interest. And obviously we\u2019re a metal band and them being a metal label so they understand us a little more and can handle us a little better. Whereas Universal is such a huge label not really a metal oriented, you know they got Nelly and Elton john and things like that, I mean Hatebreed doesn\u2019t really take priority to a label like Universal. Whereas Roadrunner, look at the stuff they put out, they\u2019re like the metal church as it goes. So yeah, it just made sense. They expressed some interest and we were definitely interested in going over to them and after the all the red tape well here we are.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>Yeah
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>It was at Toad\u2019s Place in Newhaven back in \u201998, yeah \u201998 I think. We were opening up for Gwar and the Misfits. I practiced with the band, actually I just tried out, played a couple songs and that was it, they were like \u201cyeah you\u2019re in the band we got a show next weekend.\u201d Bam. Never practiced in between. Kinda got up there, no set list or anything, Jamey just yelled out the songs and we played them, did a half hour set. Got off the stage and it felt like we\u2019d been a band forever you know? It was pretty wild.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>Oh yeah, they\u2019re definitely a big influence, you know playing the drums, Dave Lombardo\u2019s my favorite drummer. I think I\u2019m most influenced by metal. I was exposed to metal first, you know, before hardcore. Hardcore came later for me. So metal bands; Slayer, Exodus, Megadeth. Anything that came out of the Bay Area scene in the early \u201880\u2019s, mid-80\u2019s. That stuff is the biggest influence. Testament, Sepultura. Well, they\u2019re from Brazil but they\u2019re from the same era.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>I think it\u2019s going to be great man. Like I said I\u2019m a big Exodus fan, so to be able to tour with them is just like a fans dream come true, you know. And then Napalm Death, we\u2019ve done some stuff with them overseas but never in the States so to get to tour with those guys again you know in our homeland I guess. I love watching them every night man, they just rip it up. And then the other bands, we\u2019ve done some stuff with them here and there, so we\u2019ve crossed paths, so I\u2019m looking forward to getting on a full-scale tour with them.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span>I think Supremacy encompasses what we did both on Perseverance and Rise of Brutality. It has elements from both albums. It\u2019s a faster album; we\u2019ve stepped up our playing a little bit. I don\u2019t want to say we\u2019ve matured, cause I hate that word. But we\u2019ve progressed as musicians and tried a couple things that we hadn\u2019t tried musically on our past records. Production wise I\u2019d say the production value is that of Rise of Brutality with, everything is up front and in your face. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"