Editor’s note: The Welcome to Rockville music fest returns to Daytona Beach May 15-18. News-Journal reporter Jim Abbott chatted with several of the acts scheduled to play.
Expect Halestorm to preview material from its upcoming sixth studio album, “Everest,” when the sibling-powered band takes the stage at Welcome to Rockville.
“We’ve been a band with the same four members for the last 22 years, and, somehow, it (‘Everest’) is the only production that actually really captured the essence of what we are,” said lead singer and guitarist Lzzy Hale by phone from her home in Nashville, Tennessee.
Hale started the band with her older brother, drummer Arejay Hale, when they were just kids in York, Pennsylvania, in 1997. About six years later, the band enlisted the rest of its current lineup, lead guitarist Joe Hottinger and bassist Josh Smith.
At Welcome to Rockville, Halestorm’s opening-day set on Thursday, May 15, will be part of a lineup of more than 150 bands on five stages over four days at Daytona International Speedway, a lineup that includes headliners Shinedown, Green Day, Linkin Park and Korn.
For Halestorm, being on stage is the best part of the job.
“We’ve always primarily been a live band,” Hale said. “That’s the foundation of our castle. We’ve played Rockville many times and it’s really one of my favorite festivals. It’s like summer camp, kind of a common ground. No matter what, I see all my road friends. I’m going to be on Cloud 9.”
Halestorm took new approach to create ‘Everest’ album
Hale also is elated about the music on “Everest,” due for release on Aug. 8.
It was created by the band at a studio in Savannah, Georgia, in a totally new way, thanks to the input of A-list producer Dave Cobb, whose credits include work with Lady Gaga, Greta Van Fleet and others.
“We came in the way we usually do, with riffs for days, a bunch of lyrics and half-written songs,” Hale said. “Dave said, ‘Put all that away. We’re going to live in the moment every single day.’ That was kind of terrifying. We never did an album that way.”
The first song to emerge was the album’s first single, “Darkness Always Wins,” which builds from its eerie piano-tinged introduction into soaring choruses powered by heavy overdriven guitars and drums.
“As we were writing, we were putting everything to tape,” Hale said. “What you hear is us discovering the path of the song, discovering the newness of it. Dave would not let us overthink it. We’d come up with a song, finish it, and the next day start on another.
“This album is our truth.”
Halestorm’s ‘Darkness Always Wins’ more about resilience than defeat
Despite its less than optimistic title, “Darkness Always Wins,” is lyrically more about resilience than defeat, Hale said, pointing to a chorus that opens with the line “We’re all fighters/ Holding up our lighters/ Chasing off the monsters/ Drowning in our sins.”
“It’s not a song of hope, but it’s not a song of despair,” she said. “It’s a song of persistence. This war may not be won in our lifetime, but our responsibility is to keep trying because we do not fail as long as we keep fighting and trying.”
Halestorm’s new music follows in the footsteps of a catalog that has yielded seven chart-topping rock radio hits, amassing more than 1 billion streams across platforms worldwide.
In addition, the band has garnered two Grammy nominations, winning in 2012 for best hard rock/metal performance for “Love Bites (So Do I).”
For Halestorm, Welcome to Rockville part of busy touring schedule
On the road, Halestorm has been on the bill with iconic acts that include Ronnie James Dio’s Black Sabbath spinoff Heaven & Hell, Alice Cooper, and Joan Jett.
In May, Halestorm with start a tour with Iron Maiden and in July will be among the acts performing at Black Sabbath’s final show in Birmingham, England.
“It all seems like an unfathomable dream that was tucked somewhere in my mind when I was 13 and we started the band,” Hale said. “I never thought we’d get signed, never thought we would win a Grammy. It’s just something I wanted to do with my little brother.
“It’s blowing my mind. Is this a dream?”