Review Fix chats with The Hellfreaks’ Shakey Sue, who discusses the band’s origins, goals and aspirations for the rest of 2019 and beyond.
Review Fix: How did the project start?
Shakey Sue: We’re not newcomers so we have a pretty long story, with many ups and a few downs. We didn’t start this band together, we’re more like puzzle pieces that found each other later on. The band is over 10 years old, so it’s taken a long time to get to where we are today.
I got into music literally by accident. I was a professional gymnast, sport was pretty much my everything – but unfortunately I once landed wrong on my feet, which resulted in a spine operation when I was 14 years old. I had to recalculate my life and fill the gap that my sports career had left behind. It was a difficult reality to accept at the time. The physical pain was nothing compared to the hole in my soul that I tried to fill. That’s how I found music and a couple of years later, ended up forming The Hellfreaks in 2009.
Today, 10 years on from our very first concert, we’re one of the most prominent internationally touring bands in Hungary having played over 200 gigs over the country border. We have toured all over Europe and made it over the big pond to the USA. We’ve recorded 4 albums, all released through German labels, have over 6 million views on our youtube videos, sold over 5000 physical records and are super happy to have a worldwide fan base that we can call our own.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Shakey Sue: All of our albums had a totally different writing process.
For the past two years, we’ve worked on our upcoming album ‘God On The Run’, which is going to be released in January 2020.
This record literally started with building: I’m living in a real old flat which had a larder (a super tiny room) that we soundproofed so that we record vocals in it. But first things first – this record was not written in the rehearsal room. Most of the musical part was written by our bass player Gabi. After he finished the first version, the creative process for the vocals started: first the melody, then the lyrics. Then we added some changes to the musical part, finalized the guitar solos etc. Beside the drums (which were recorded in hungarian Trash Hill studios) everything was recorded between our own 4 walls … we’ve recorded a crazy amount of demos. We’ve rewritten songs a million times and have been through laughing to tears to punching the wall in fits of rage. But at the end of the day, at least we’re sure that we really gave it our best.
We managed to fulfill a little dream with this record, cause we were able to involve foreign producers for this material. For pre-production work Paul Miner (New Glory, Atreyu, Death By Stereo), for production/mixing Evan Rodaniche (Escape The Fate, Powerman 5000, Lacey Sturm), and for the mastering Tom Waltz joined us to provide the perfect final form for the band’s songs and ideas.
Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?
Shakey Sue: As I mentioned, we have a long story behind us.
This band started in a very different genre and that ended with splitting up in 2014. The song which has the most views on YouTube is from that time. I don’t like to identify the band with that song and I also don’t like to look back.
Personally, I believe that the most outstanding song on this record is Men In Grey, a single we released at the end of August. This song is the first single from our new, upcoming album ‘God On The Run’. Luckily it’s not only me who thinks that this is a very special song, Spotify proves that, as we have never had a song with so many listeners in the first month of release!
The song was written in the process described above but recording wise, the special spice might be the vocals: many demo versions of the recordings have been used for the final track, which is pretty unusual. I was extremely tired when we recorded the demos and somehow, exactly that feeling spiced it up in a way that we liked.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2019?
Shakey Sue: There are a lot of things happening in the Hellfreaks house! We’re preparing the release of our new album in January. We’re going to release 2 more singles with music videos at the end of this year. Also the presale for our long awaited album will start in October on our homepage, so there are many reasons to keep an eye on our social media platforms as it’s certainly not getting boring at the moment!
Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?
Shakey Sue: In a way, I would like to be able to strengthen people with my music. I want them to understand that it’s okay to not be okay, because it isn’t equal to being lost. “Being special†doesn’t mean that you need to be especially good at something. You don’t need a talent to be special, it means you’re not like the rest. And if you realize that you’re not like the rest and how good that is, you are already a champion in my eyes in this world because from that point on, no one can turn you into a blind sheep that follows the masses. I share my personal experience, the personal lessons that I’ve learned and the mistakes I’ve made. If anyone can learn from my stories, that’s the best thing that could happen.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Shakey Sue: It’s time to show the world what we’ve spent the last 2 years working on! After the coming single releases this year, it’s time to raise the curtain on our new full length: it’s called ‘God On The Run’ and will be released with 10 Tracks on CD and very extravagant Vinyl in January 2020. The presale is just around the corner, it starts at the beginning of October so you should keep an eye on our social media pages!
Website: www.thehellfreaks.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheHellfreaks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehellfreaks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehellfreaks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehellfreaks/
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