On this hot Sunday evening I took a ride a Deathride with a Hillbilly today and I was awesome!!
How did Hillbilly Deathride become what it is today?
Justin: “Same old story really. A bunch of young guys in different bands broke up and formed a new band – this one worked. For a local band, we played a lot of shows – we’d play 2 or 3 nights a week, sometimes 2 shows a day – played anywhere we could. We made a lot of mistakes, but had a lot of fun before we started to get serious at all.”
Has it been hard being a band for about 10years now?
Justin: “If I said ‘no’, I’d be lying. After this long, difficulties accumulate naturally, especially when personal lives clash with being part of a group. With the different members of the band we’ve been through drug addiction, recovery, babies, marriage, divorce, you name it. I think any project that doesn’t see a lot of ‘mainstream’ success within a couple of years is pressured to give it up. We just happen to not give a shit about that kind of thing and try to do it for the fun of it.”
Was it hard making the jump back from 07′?
Justin: “Not really. The hardest thing was letting go of Scott Farley (guitar) and Chad Casto (bass) to move on with the project. Once we settled into a new lineup, the transition back to the live scene was kind of seamless. I think we all wanted to get Hillbilly Deathride back out there so bad, we didn’t even consider any of the hard parts.”
Tell me a little about your album Cremation of Care?
Justin: “We recorded ‘Cremation of Care’ before we took a break in 2007. I feel like the recording was a good representation of what Hillbilly Deathride was at the height of things back then. It was our first time putting down something legit for people to listen to, but we sort of missed the mark on the release. At the time, it wasn’t as easy to distribute music online and we never had a solid plan. We ended up releasing the album last year (a full six years later, not sure anyone has done that before) on the 4th of July as a free download. We are finally in what I guess you would call the ‘pre-production’ phase of our new album which we hope will be out this year.”
If you could fight one public figure who would it be?
Justin: “Awesome question. I think everyone wants to bitch-smack Nancy Grace, but that’s too easy – so we’ll just give her honorable mention. I’m going to go with someone more obscure and say, William Lane Craig. I’d like to have a debate with him followed by a no-holds-barred cage match at a place of his choosing.”
What do you guys have coming up?
Justin: “At the moment we’re focusing on getting this record finished before summer is over. We’re open for bookings – contact us at hillbillydeathride@gmail.com or on Facebook.”
Tell me about sharing the stage with some pretty big bands?
Justin: “Hillbilly Deathride has had the opportunity to open for a few signed/touring bands and just sharing the stage with people who have gained some kind of following like that is humbling on it’s own. But opening for Trivium a few years ago was cool – especially because all the guys were easy to get along with and that sort of thing. A while after that gig, a few of us went to an Ozzfest show and ran into them at their ‘meet & greet’ booth. They recognized us and we talked for a bit (Matt still had our ‘Deathride’ trucker hat) – so they’re one of the most memorable, I think.”
What would you like to tell your fans?
Justin: “Go to HillbillyDeathride.com right now and sign up for the mailing list. New music is coming soon and maybe even a few sneak peeks before the official release – do it, now! Oh, and thanks for sticking with us. We could do it without you, but it wouldn’t be as much fun.”
These guys are awesome so everybody i highly suggest these guys to be check out you better do it.
here are there links:
HillbillyDeathride.com
hillbillydeathride@gmail.com
West Virginia Music and Beyond 