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Musician Interview with Brett Hestla of Dark New Day
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FLES: Could you please give our readers unfamiliar with Dark New Day the band 411? Brett: We are a band [composed] of Clint Lowery, the guitar player formerly of Sevendust, Troy McLawhorn, the former guitar player of Doubledrive, Will Hunt, the former drummer for Skrape and Tommy Lee, Corey Lowery, the former Bass player for Stuck Mojo and Stereomud and me, I'm Brett Hestla, I use to sing for Virgos Merlot and I was the touring Bassist for Creed. FLES: "Twelve Year Silence" is scheduled for release on June 14, 2005, (on Warner Brothers Records) what are you thoughts on this album? Brett: I'm excited about it. It's a record we've been planning on recording in one form or fashion for about 12 years. We've known each other for quite a long time and we've been talking about doing this, getting together and writing songs the opportunity finally reared itself and we're excited about the results of what happened. We recorded the record ourselves, we paid for it ourselves. The record label bought it as is. Pretty big feat for a group of musicians to be able to pull that off. FLES: When the band went into the studio how many songs were ready to record and how did the band decide which songs made it onto the album? Brett: Actually, we wrote and recorded the songs in the studio and recorded them as we wrote. We ended up with 18 songs and narrowed it down to 11, by proxy of management vote and our vote. FLES: Which songs will be released as singles? Brett: Our first single is called "Brother," and it's already out on the active rock charts. FLES: How does the band decide this process? Brett: It's more about what the label and the management choose we're okay with any of the songs we recorded being singles. We're fine with whatever they pick. It's a matter of what songs they can put a marketing strategy behind and make work. Our fans have a strong say in what songs are the most popular as well. FLES: Where does the band draw inspiration for their songs? Brett: This record was kind of a collaboration of five different people's songs they had stored away. We brought them to the table and let everyone add on their input and their own flavors. The inspiration would come from five different people's fabric of their lives. FLES: We heard when Creed broke up you decided to get into producing. When did you decide I still want to be in a band? Brett: I had resigned myself to producing because it was something I enjoyed and I could stay at home. I have a child and it was allowing me some sort of normalcy being at home. My wife one day in the car asked me, "Are you ever going to play, sing, write songs or perform anymore?" I told her, "it would take pretty specific group of guys for me to want to do that." It just so happens I named off everybody that's in my band now. Two weeks later, [drummer] Will Hunt called me and said, "Hey, guess who I am playing with?" They had already had this thing brewing. They didn't know if I was interested as far as singing again because they had heard I was producing. So he called me just to see how I felt about it. When he told me who was involved that was the deciding factor, the members of the band made it worth it. FLES: What are your favorite tracks off the record? Brett: That's really hard to say, I have eleven favorite tracks off the record. I guess, I have to say, the first song we worked on together as a group is a song called "Bare Bones," there's some sort of magic in that track that you can't really deny, because it was the first one FLES: How did you feel when you found out "Taking Me Alive" was going to be featured in the "House of Wax" soundtrack? Brett: It's always an honor for a film to pick your music as the score for a movie or in the soundtrack. We're all very excited to have that happen. FLES: Where can fans go to sample tracks then purchase the album? Brett: There are a few songs for sale on iTunes right now. They can sample songs off of our website DarkNewDay.com. We also have a myspace site at myspace.com/darknewday.
FLES: With more and more music being available for purchase at online sites like iTunes do you think this is the beginning of the end for the CD? Brett: I think people are going to download music and I think there's still large part of society that wants the art work and wants to see what the band looks like and they want to read the lyrics off the inside and who they thank. There's still a lot of people who want to buy vinyl. I don't think it will ever be gone. The CD is certainly a good sounding representation that's long lasting. It kind of mirrors the vinyl record where it has the art work on the actual disc whereas the cassette is a piece of plastic with writing on it. It wasn't very nostalgic. You didn't recognize the cassette just by looking across the floorboard of your car the CD you go that's the whatever disc. FLES: Striving from well-established bands, what obstacles has Dark New Day been able to avoid that newer bands may have trouble dealing with? Brett: I think we all know what to expect out of the music business in general. We understand it truly is about numbers to a record company. It's about does this make sense? You can't go to a bank and get loan to make a houses out of popsicle sticks. They're not going to give you a loan for that. If you have something that is a viable product and can really effect society and be something that a lot of people could embrace, latch onto and follow then, I think the risk is not so great. The main thing we learned being in our other bands is not to waste the business side of the music business' time. You learn how to make a record and making a record that is good for the fans, good for the band musically, but also makes sense as far as something you can market. FLES: How helpful do you think online publications such as Florida Entertainment Scene are in helping to promote bands like Dark New Day? Brett: The more press and more publications there is online or in print the better. You can't discount any form of advertisement or publication at all its very valuable to a band like us. The online thing is spreading so fast and becoming such a staple in the music business. You really have to give a little extra attention to the online publications and a little extra credit. You can have a magazine for a month you throw it away and it's gone. You can still go find archived articles forever it seems like online. I still see articles that I did in 1997 for Virgos Merlot online in archival pages. FLES: What was your first show as a member of Dark New Day like? Brett: (Laughs). Our first show was following a horrific day of travel. Started with our guitar players video camera {he had} to film our live shows then upload to FLES: What are your thoughts on playing in this year's (Real Rock 101 one) Earth Day Birth Day? Brett: This will be my third Earth Day Birth Day. Two with Virgos Merlot and it will be the first with this band. It's always an incredible amount of fun and there's always so many great bands and always a mass of people who are just hungry to hear any kind of music whatsoever. It's one of my favorite shows of the year to play. To be asked this year to do it so early in our career was really an honor for us. 101.1 has always taken really good care of us. FLES: What do you have to say to your fans who read this Interview? Brett: Thanks for hanging in there, sorry it took me so long to get back out, I guess that's what I would say to my fans. For the fans of this new band hang on we're gearing up to give you guys a hell of a ride. |
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