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Interviews : “Well the theme is the last piece of the trilogy…” An Interview with Andrew Hudson (Harlott)

By on April 25, 2017

 Harlott – Andrew Hudson

Very few bands are signed to Metal Blade records, the esteemed label headed by the enigmatic Brian Slagel. It was Slagel who gave Metallica their first real opportunity by selecting the band to appear on Metal Massacre (vol. 1) in ’82, a compilation that featured future arena fillers, Ratt. Metal Blade also just happen to be the home of Melbourne’s thrash superstars in waiting, Harlott.

Eagle eyed readers of this website and other publications featuring my contributions may be inclined to think that I get a little misty eyed when it comes to Australian bands. As a lifelong fan of the genre and brazen Oz-metal aficionado, I believe 2017 represents something of a renaissance in Australian metal. Having discussed the very topic with Riley Strong from Desecrator, Mark Poida from Aversions Crown and now Andrew Hudson from Harlott, each possessed typical Australian modesty in spades.

Let’s start with this quote to underline Hudson’s modesty then: “I drove a 1994 Mitsubishi Magna for about seven or eight years because it was cheap to maintain. It was a wagon so I could fit all the shit in the back. It was on the back of a truck the other day because it got sent to the wreckers. I got a hundred dollars’ cash for it and I hope it’s resting well because it served its purpose and I’ve replaced it with a 2007 Mitsubishi 380, because a car is an absolute necessity for me.”

So the bloke crafting the biggest riffs this side of Kreator’s Coma of Souls (’90) or Annihilator’s Alice in Hell (’89) could well be driving a Mitsubishi 380 in a lane near you.

Like so many domestic artists that I have interviewed, the members of Harlott hold day jobs. No real surprise there, however it was profound context that Hudson offered that was the real eye opener. I’ve got a few more miles under the bonnet than Hudson so it was unanticipated that a comment he made stayed with me well after our interview concluded. This is his response to my question regarding his biggest challenge as an artist. “Just finding the energy to give a fuck. I work my full-time job so that I can afford to do this thing that I allegedly love. But you hit a point where you are so tired, it’s been 10 years now and it is still just costing me money hand over fist. You are tired and you go ‘I’m never going to make it’. You are never going to hit a point in this day and age… if everything went incredibly for the next five years I might get the band to a point where it doesn’t cost us a fortune to run. It is really hard to just continue that slog. Because it really can take its toll on your mental ability to deal with (financial) loss constantly. You have a couple of bad weeks and then you will pick up a guitar one day and you will write a riff and you go, ’I’m fucking back in’. I cannot wait to get back in the studio and write a song around this 30 seconds that I have just created.”

Eddie Hermida, the lead singer from Suicide Silence famously threw serious shade at one of Australia’s more prominent bands on the international stage, Thy Art Is Murder. Vocalist C.J. McMahon in particular found himself in Hermida’s crosshair with Hermida aping McMahon with tongue planted firmly in cheek: “You, know, nothing else is selling, so I quit the band to begin with. There’s no money in it, so let me write this long-ass fuckin’ expose about how band members don’t make any money, then later come right back and basically say I’m not a sell-out.’

Hermida’s quote references McMahon’s decision to quit, then re-join Thy Art Is Murder. McMahon has offered a worthy explanation dedicated to his reasoning for quitting and re-joining the band so I will leave it out of this article as McMahon’s thoughts on the matter are easily available via a quick search on the ‘net. The point I’ll make is this: Would Hermida feel the same way if he was not in a band that had easy reach to the economic bonanza that is continental USA?

I don’t know McMahon and I barely know Hudson. But I did witness McMahon and Thy Art Is Murder’s sterling performance supporting Meshuggah in Brisbane (the review is available on this website). McMahon, and on the evidence presented during my chat to Hudson, are both born communicator’s. I have no doubt that they would still be attracting thousands of fans as a touring act to Australia if they were both from the USA. Not to mention the fact that neither would need to put in hours of work in an otherwise potentially mundane day-job to support their passion, talent and God-given gift.

‘Extinction’ out now via Metal Blade Records.

Let’s put the spot light back on Harlott and the neck snapping new album, Extinction. I ask Hudson if there is a common thread running through all Harlott albums that can now be found on Extinction? “Well the theme is the last piece of the trilogy. When you are a teenager you have these life goals and one of them was always to do at least three albums and when I was thinking about that I thought, ‘alright I may as well make them with a theme’. So we did Origin back in ‘13. In ‘15, we released Proliferation. Now we have released Extinction which would be the third part of the trilogy of any life system. This is something I picked up in my biology degree, which I am making great use of by the way. All three albums have been about the end of mankind, which is not something that I am terribly excited about or looking forward to but I really hope it happens in my lifetime… so I can just watch it.”

Sounds like as good a time as any to ask Hudson his view on the current state of global politics then…“I think ever since the Vietnam war, the illusion of what actually happens in the world has been thoroughly crushed and we do have media outlets to try and keep these systems honest so that the people can be informed about what is happening, but it’s not hard to buy people. You can’t really trust the media anyway because you have got a liberal media, a right-wing media, a left wing media’s etc. I think the people that are in power don’t seem to give a shit about fixing things because there is too much profit to be made by doing the wrong thing. It not a great system but it’s the one we’ve got so we may as well kick up a fuss. My British heritage just makes me complain about everything (Laughs)”

It has been acknowledged by pundits such as Jamey Jasta on his excellent Podcast that during times of political uncertainty (by western standards) and crisis, the metal genre surges. Think heavy metal’s expansion during the cold war and under Reagan’s America, particularly during Tipper Gore’s demented PMRC tirades during the ‘80s. Hark back to 9/11, the 2nd Iraq war and the George W. Bush administration which coincided with the MySpace and internet generation leading to an explosion of bands ploughing various ‘core prefixed genres and a proliferation of so-called ‘verb the noun’ bands.

So why is the scene in Australia so healthy at present? I ask Hudson for his perspective on the domestic scene. In answering the question, Hudson may even raise a point that supports my earlier comments regarding Hermida. “I get asked this every single interview from people all across the globe. They always talk about the Melbourne scene or they always talk about the Australian scene. I tell them it’s as good as you could ever expect it to be considering the population we have and the size of this fucking country. I am in a show tonight, it is going to be packed out but that is at a 250-capacity venue. That is the best you can hope for with a local band unless you have got the marketing behind you, or you have latched on to something particularly unique. It’s a small scene. It’s dedicated and passionate but it’s small.”

Underlining the health of the genre in Australia, Hudson offers worthy praise to a pair of trailblazers from his home state. “We can probably blame Ne Obliviscaris for it but maybe also King Parrot as well. Industry types do turn their eyes down under now when they look for new bands. In the last couple of years, we have had just a huge surge in Aussie bands doing overseas tours and getting picked up on label deals. The scene is huge now compared to what it was when we started doing this.”

There has never been a better time to support Australian metal!

Extinction is out now via Metal Blade / Nerve Gas.

Catch Harlott supporting their brand new album at their album launch with local metallers Desecrator, Hidden Intent and Black Helm. Click here to attend the official Facebook event page.

About

Andrew is a musician who has spent many years performing on the stages of the pubs and clubs of Queensland. A devotee of the broad church that is rock, punk, funk, jazz and of course all genres of metal... he now shares his enthusiasm via a burgeoning pursuit of music journalism. Follow him on twitter @andymckaysmith