interview with Hellbat
What´s the name of your band?
Ken: Hellbat! or hellBat!
Vince: hellBat! or HellBat!
How was the band formed?
ST: Vince asked me to sit in on a few songs with a trio named GHIDORAH he was working with. I felt a chemistry with Vince and shortly thereafter he asked if I would be interested in joining the band hellBat! I said hell yeah!
Ken: You know, the normal way. Fire of Hades, demonic possession stuff and all that.
Vince: Ken, Mike and I were working in a wedding band in Saugus, and after the fourth request for “Working for the Weekend”, Steven, who had been working for the caterer preparing canapés in the kitchen burst through the swinging doors with a pastry bag in his hand, grabbed the mic and began singing “Chemical Warfare” by the Dead Kennedy’s. I got on the phone with my agent and booked the first gig.
Can you tell about your band?
Michael: Nein, zat ees top secret, ja.
Ken: As you read down this list you’ll get it.
Vince: We’ve got jazz guys, anarchist hardcore punkers and prog heads - and they’re sometimes the same person. We talk about making guava jam at rehearsal.
St: Our name is like a trick question
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?
Michael: Weimar, jaaaa.
Ken: We’re all from here (Los Angeles). I play guitar.
Vince: Los Angeles. Michael Alvidrez plays bass, Steven Kopp sings, Kenny plays guitar and I play drums. Mike and I do some backup vocals, too, and Steven plays some acoustic guitar on his tune “Hellhound”.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started?
Ken: Just to write and play together. We all know each other from other projects.
Vince: I wanted to bring some elements of the punk-jazz band Bazooka (SST Records) that I was into a guitar oriented hard rock context, bring in elements of the punk bands I’d played in and dug with some of the improvisational aspects of (live) Cream and free jazz and some of the prog I loved growing up with and still love.
St: Write original music, press vinyl, ignore the herd.
Michael: To cultivate a male audience.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you?
Ken: Mahvishnu, Mountain and the Adolescents.
Vince: Yeah, what Ken said. And King Crimson, The Minutemen, and The Dead Kennedy’s.
St: Bluesrockpunkjazzfunkprog for children.
Where was your first gig?
Ken and Vince: Taix (321 Lounge).
St: Some party in Lincoln Heights?
Where was the latest gig?
Ken: NELA.
Vince: Cafe NELA
St: Cafe NELA
Michael: 1906 Cypress Avenue, Cypress Park, Los Angeles 90065
Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Ken: SK writes the lyrics but we all write the music
Who has the best since of humor in the band?
Ken: Vince – hands down!
Vince: Horace, our mascot.
St: Vince, but Michael can be funny as shit too.
Michael: Vee take zees project very seriously. But vee also enjoy a güt chortle, ja.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are?
Ken: All good, no bad. I call it modern hard rock.
Vince: All good, no bad. Calculus Southern Fried Boogie Prog Emo with a three on it.
St: What is good is that we all vote in elections. What is bad is that we all vote in elections. Our genre is easy-listening for children.
Michael: Zergüt.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about?
Ken: What ever you want them to be about – seriously.
Vince: Cabbages, knickers - it’s not got a beak.
St: Because children deserve good music. The songs are about love, war, alcohol, technology, cancer, devine guano, capitalism, wilderness, near death experinces, punishment, misanthropy, hypocrisy, consumerism, prayer, "truth", hope, ducks, childhood, reason, strength, courage, free will, compassion, urban life, Inverted totalitarianism, "the overman", death and dying, herd mentality, isolation, and elevation. Oh and Blinking.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers?
Ken: It’s all us baby.
Vince: All our stuff, but we’ll throw in a cover or two eventually if we’d ever slow down writing so much.
St: It's like stealing 8 bikes taking them all apart, picking the best parts from the pile, and building our own bike which we ride proudly.
Michael: Das ees klassified.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? Vince: Yes. “Yay Freedom!” on Exotic Chemical Records. Dan Ranalli recorded it. It we are working out distribution with Cobraside Records.
Do you have any clips on YouTube? Vince: Yes, but to find them, you have to put in the name of the band, and one of our names.
How old are you?/What got you started in music?
Ken: 52. It’s in the family.
Vince: I am comprised of components that date from the big bang. In tenth grade I heard my friends band rehearsing “To Cry You a Song” in a living room and knew that’s what I wanted to do. With other songs, too. And other rooms. One of those friends had already given me a harmonica, and I’d started figuring out tunes on that, but the living room experience cinched it.
St: 45. I believe if one has ears to hear sounds you start at birth.
Michael: 27. My parents wanted me to live a meager and humiliating existence.
At what age did you start playing?
Ken: 8 years old but nothing serious until I 13 and I noticed that girls liked guys that played guitar.
Vince: 14 years old.
St: I started "playing music" of the rock and roll sort at age 14.
Michael: 14. Years before puberty, ja.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage?
Ken: 13 but I was probably sitting actually. School concert.
Vince: 14. I’d gotten in my friends band and we played at a Junior High School dance. I flubbed a break in “You Don’t Love Me” done in the style on the Super Sessions record, and it was recorded on cassette and played back and memorized by my bandmates. I learned to deal with humiliation right off the bat.
St: If a concrete slab in a backyard does not qualifiy as a stage then I would say 20.
Best/worst gig you've played?
Vince: Best gig was probably a month ago at Cafe NELA. Our worst gig was one of our best - it was at the Carter Ranch Music Festival and the rain had shorted out the P.A., so Steven had nothing to amplify his voice. But he just shouted to the audience and we rocked on as they danced in the rain.
St: The "best" gig is when we do poorly, realize it, and work on making it better. Our "worst" gig is when we do really well, feel high and mighty, and decide we don't need to work so hard.
What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? Vince: The Redondo Beach VFW Hall. A pilgrammage to hardcore mecca.
Where have you played from then till now? Vince: Cafe NELA, Carter Ranch Music Festival, Harold’s Place in San Pedro, Taix 321 Lounge, Liquid Lounge, Stardust Lounge - it was our lounge tour, obviously.
Witch band is the best you´ve seen?
Vince: I’ve seen the L.A. Phil doing Stravinsky and Ligeti, seen Sonic Youth, The Minutemen, Elvin Jones, Johnny Griffin, Harold Land, Bobbie Bradford, David Bowie touring Aladdin Sane, Deep Purple, West, Bruce & Lang, Sort Of Quartet, Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Richard Grossman, The Mentones, The Hags, Universal Congress Of, Saccharine Trust, Jethro Tull touring Passion Play, Firehose, The Mecolodiacs, Carnage Asada, various Mike Watt bands, Max Roach, Sam Rivers, The Dead Kennedy’s, Black Flag, King Crimson and probably two dozen other mind blowing bands and couldn't pick any one of those experiences over the other.
St: Some young inner city kids playing plastic buckets in the streets of Chicago to a group of capitalist pigs in expensive suits.
Is it always the same songs live? Vince: No, we have so many songs that we can vary the sets greatly every show.
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? Vince: Cafe NELA shows keep getting better. It’s THE place to play in L.A. - and maybe anywhere.
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? Vince: Not yet.
How big crowds do you usually play for? Vince: From 20 to 300.
What are the plans for the rest of the year?
Vince: Write tunes, play shows.
St: Write more lyrics, play shows, whiten my teeth.
Michael: Make schnitzel.
Where do you usually play? Vince: Cafe NELA.
How do you get psyched up for a gig?
Vince: Act out passages from Martin Amis’ “Money”. Whistle arias from Wozzek.
St: I imagine I am being judged by a mass court for a capital offense and am given one opportunity to state my case.
What are your goals with your music?
Ken: To continue to make it.
Vince: Keep doing it, keep growing.
St: To keep creating and sharing it.
When did you decide to go all in for the music?
Ken: When I was in high school.
Vince: Same as Ken.
St: There is no purity. That question is a bit too "romantic" for me. But then again, maybe I should start sleeping with an instrument and sell all my worldly possessions.
Michael: When I realized happiness wasn't for me.
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern?
Ken: I’m inspired by both.
Vince: Both. Placement on the timeline is irrelevant as regards inspiration.
St: Both, however I believe there is more bad music today than there has ever been in the history of humankind. Which can also be inspirational in the negative sense.
What are your sources of inspiration?
Books, art, events in life, the gestalt of cheeseburgers, music, porcupine sketches by federal prison inmates.
St: Anger, resentment, wilderness, poetry, love, hope, Vince, Ken, and Michael.
Michael: Der Ring, the Elbe, strudels.
What's the first step when making a new song?
Ken: Start jamming on riff that catches the whole bands attention.
Vince: Yeah. Thrivin’ on a riff.
St: Listening to the sounds of others
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums?
Ken: As long as they pay for it I don’t care how they get it or listen to it.
Vince: Too bad people miss out on the experience of buying a record and immersing themselves in it, but at least they’re listening to music.
St: It leaves me feeling nostalgic. As unpopular as it is to say I think computers are stupid. Even as I write on this stupid computer. The implications make me stupid. How does one download again? Oh...... I NEED to upgrade my outdated computer program first?
Michael: Our digital albums are encrypted vith a software vee developed called Siegfried 1.0. Vee strongly encourage the downloading of our musik, ja.
What would be your dreams for the band?
Ken: Bigger gigs, comfortable touring and making more records.
St: Riding in on unicorns to an outdoor festival of leprechauns who would pay us in gold coins.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to?
Ken: So much different stuff. A lot of jazz, soul music … way too many bands and artists to name. An older cousin of mine said that if you can pick a favorite band, musician, song or even style … you’re not listening to enough music.
Vince: Classical, jazz, funk, blues, country.
St: Experimental, Classical (esp. avant garde), jazz (esp. avant garde), blues, Bluegrass, folk, Indian classical music, Drone doom, anarcho punk, and too many others to name individually. It would be easier to say that I don't like mainstream corporate film "TV" radio buy our worthless products music.
Michael: Beethoven, Wagner, Bruckner.
What do you hold most dear?
Ken: My 5 year old son.
Vince: Gumbo with a bite.
St: Impermanence.
Michael: A perfumed kercheif from mein colleague Franz
What would be your greatest fears for the future?
Ken: Ebola. Did you see me on Oct. 31st?
Vince: That people don’t wake the hell up.
St: That humankind would find a way to download consciousness into machines BEFORE destroying itself and all sentient life on earth.
Michael: Impurity.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then?
Ken: See above question.
Vince: A sudden and widespread occurrence of aesthetic cognizance among observers.
Steven: Missing or not quite hitting notes.
What songs and what years were they released?
Michael: Unt empty stein.
Vince: All those on our “Yay Freedom!” record. Release… last year?
St: I am not sure I would have to check with the SIGAD US-984XN analysts at the N.S.A.
Have you been part of any other projects?
Ken: Too many to mention.
Vince: Tons.
St: Yes
Have you been in any other bands?
Vince: Lots. I was in El Grupo Sexo, toured with Mike Watt and played on his first solo record, played with Bill Barrett in Brother Weasel, am in Fatso Jetson, toured with The BellRays, am in The Atomic Sherpas. I toured with Christopher Owens and played on his first solo record. And… lots more.
St: Antitrust/ Sedition, Stiff Medulla, Cain, Skywreck.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music?
Ken: Other music.
Vince: I wash windows. And other music.
St: Art, "odd jobs".
What would you do if there was no music?
Ken: Well, I wouldn’t know any better would I so I have no idea.
Vince: Pay my bills.
St: Well that would mean I would not be able to hear, but if I were born that way I don't think it would matter much. Then again you can feel music too which would mean I would not only be deaf but I would not have any bodily sensation either. But if I was born that way it probably would not matter.
Michael: Strike!
How important are your fans?
Ken: They come to the shows and buy the records.
Vince: Very. The collective experience is crucial. They do their part, we do ours. But only we have to tune up. And buy gear.
St: Without their judgement I would have no sentence or pardon. I wouldnt know where I was standing. It would make things very boring and pointless without them. Fans are essential.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you?
Vince: Mistook me for Jan Michael Vincent.
St: I think it is funny when they act uninterested while watching our entire show.
How often do you rehearse? Ken: Usually once a week.
Where do you rehearse?
Ken: At Vince’s house.
Michael: In ze bunker.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment?
Vince: KL’s Lowrider - the name of that one will probably change when the lyrics finalize. Ain’t It Right.
St: KL's "Lowrider" and "Free ride"
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen?
Ken: King Crimson in about 1984 or so.
Vince: I saw KC a couple times back then, too, it was ridiculous. But like I said above, I’ve seen too many killing bands to choose one.
St: Tibetan monks "performing" at the Dip-Tse-Chok-Ling monastery in 1996.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing?
Ken: The desire and conditions for the possibility to become renowned and famous.
Vince: The music drives me - I don’t know what drives other bands. Every time we start writing a tune in rehearsal it’s the same original excitement all over again. And you live for when it’s clicking on any tune. I can only get that experience one way and it brings my back again and again. The whole trip is to keep that going.
St: I don't know, this question is weird. Famous? You mean like Anton Webern or One Direction? If I were trying to "make a living" I would write background music for corporate marketing campaigns. The question seems to be about "drive" but assumes things about means and ends. My end is to produce challenging authentic and techically proficient "rock" music. My means is to continue trusting and taking pleasure in the creative process. Its been working and thats enough to drive me forward. I will let the "american dream" of musical fame and riches be the phantasy of others.
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there?
Ken: If you ask 100 different bands or musicians for advice on ‘what they should do’ you’ll get 100 different answers.
Vince: Address the sound person by name after you’ve learned it right away. Bartender too.
St: Create your own significance.
Michael: Dispose of insubordinate officers.
Describe your show, visually and musically.
Vince: A wonderland of bubbling delight for the ears and eyes.
St: Authentic, intense, and from the heart.
How do you view the music industry of today?
Ken: Is there still a music industry?
Vince: With a telescope.
St: Like I do most industry. With disdain and suspicion
What advice would you like to give other bands?
Ken: Nothing. See three questions above.
Vince: Use your band fund for a pizza once in awhile.
St: Create your own significance.
Michael: Retreat now!
What are the biggest obstacles for a band?
Vince: Finance, lousy sound systems in venues.
St: Pipe dreams, entitlement issues, pretentiousness.
Michael: Harsh winters, interrupted supply chains, recalcitrant locals.
What is best/worst with playing the clubs?
Vince: The best thing is that’s where the people are. The worst thing is the business part and sub-standard stages/sound systems. Replace a mic stand before the threads are totally stripped and you have to use duct tape to keep the boom stand on fer chrissakes.
St: The best is a big crowd of music fans. The worst is bad parking and load in options
Tell us about up coming gigs and why we should be at them?
Ken: We kick ass pretty good!
Vince: We got one in south bay soon. You’ll walk out of our shows with a renewed appreciation for the magic life has to offer.
St: Our music is authentic, intense, and from the heart.
Michael: You have no ozzuh choice!
How would you describe your sound in one sentence.
Ken: Aggressive but not evil.
Vince: Full bore kicks rock.
St: An unexpected mix from a screaming blender with a smooth after taste.
What is your favorite crappy instrument?
Ken: A 1964 Tiesco Del Rey ‘ZenOn’ guitar
Vince: Hub cap played with a mallet.
St: The butthole
What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? Vince: When our astrologer took acid without telling us before our monthly meeting.
What’s your Pre-show ritual?
Ken: No ritual.
Vince: Dining in 5 start Michelin rated restaurants.
St: Drink lots of water and try to ignore people.
Michael: Investigate exits other than the front door.
Do you have anything to add?Vince: Fourteen and seventy-three.