my take on a hardcore zine
Ask me anything
Ask me anything
A couple of questions with The Hollow vocalist, Jesse Haddow How did you get into hardcore? It was a pretty gradual process for me, from about 10 years old I was listening to Metallica and Faith No More and by the time I hit high school i pretty much immersed myself in any form of heavy music I could access. Sepultura and Dead Kennedys were my favourite bands, and I guess they really got the ball rolling for me in terms of opening up to hardcore. When I was 16 a friend told me to listen to AFI and that’s what got me here today haha.
How did The Hollow start? Myself and our original guitarist, Aaron, had been playing in other bands for a while but we were both keen on starting something really heavy and angry together. Nothing spectacular, just me needing to vent my anger in a more constructive way than what I was used to at the time.
With your new album ‘I, destoyer’, your sound has progressed quite a lot since your demo and EP, it seems to be quite influenced by 90’s post rock and post hardcore. Was this a very conscience decision and how do you feel its been? Well our songwriting definitely changed and progressed when Shaun started contributing to the writing, simply from his influences. But we had sat down and made a conscious effort to change things up a little, because we’re all bored with typical paint it by numbers hardcore nowadays, and we wanted to break away from the stigma of being an Integrity/Rise and Fall worship band.
What do you guys have planned for the rest of the year? Looking for a new label to work with, releasing a 7”, possibly a split and hopefully another full length if time and money permits. And if people care enough haha.
What’s your view on the Newcastle scene at the moment? I’m probably not one to ask, I’m so out of the loop nowadays. I’m not trying to sound like some jaded ” too cool for music” guy, because I’m not at all, but I just listen to and go watch the bands I like, see my friends that I don’t often get to catch up with and let others worry about whatever it is they worry about.
It seems to me that all the Newcastle bands are quite influenced by the Cleveland scene, do you think this is accurate, and why do you think this is? Well FMD and Arms Reach back in the day were always quite influenced by the Clevo scene (Arms Reach even covered OLC at one point, then released an album called “Death to Shallow Hardcore” lulz) I don’t know what the connection is, perhaps it has to do with both towns being very industrial, working class places, maybe it’s just ingrained into the people. Or maybe it’s just a bunch of dudes 15 years ago rated OLC and Confront, started bands that sounded the same and it just stuck as a signature regional sound? Haha.
What’s your favorite Type O Negative song and album? Oh man, hard question. What does one go with? Each album has it’s own unique aspect and I absolutely love every last one of them. Same with songs. Ok fav song: Wolf Moon, Creepy Green light and Gravitational Constant. I know, not one song, too bad haha. As for albums, probably World Coming Down. Almost every night I go to sleep listening to that album.
What’s your favorite death metal band and why? I would’ve once said Nile, but I’d have to go with Suffocation. I blast Effigy of the Forgotten and Pierced from Within so often. The band did so much for death metal, bringing it to a new level of brutality while still remaining catchy, and some of the heaviest breakdowns ever.
Should M2K be the Newcastle motto? Hahaha a few years back it was. Now all the guys that were a part of that have either moved away, “grown up”, or are just too lazy like me haha. Maybe when Xibalba tour that might change haha.
