Hailing from Virginia, hERETICS iN tHE lAB are well on their way to becoming the mainstay for the underground goth/industrial scene. That being said, they are also slowly but surely developing an ever growing stream of heavy metal and rock fans. Their press release describes them the best:
“hERETICS iN tHE lAB take elements of industrial music, fine art, post-apocalyptic rock and roll, and avant-garde sound-scapes to form an incredibly intense hard-line industrial music experience drenched in ego and libido.”
EXPERIENCE DRENCHED IN EGO AND LIBIDO! You can’t get better than that! Read on as we sat down with h3 and picked his brain about all things HERETICS!
When approaching the creation of your music, do you find yourself pulling from familiar sources, or do you challenge yourself to reach beyond a certain level of comfort?
hERETICS iN tHE lAB is first and foremost based in sincerity, so when I write music, the only thing I’m considering is how I feel and what I’m thinking at that particular moment. I think by the nature of who I am, I’m always pushing myself forward and trying to become a better artist and trying to violently evolve my music sonically and conceptually.
Where do you think these songs fall in the timeline of your musical evolution? Do you ever compare them to works from the past, or do you feel that they stand as their own force to be reckoned with?
The last full h1TL album (Terrible Things) was, in a lot of ways, more of a pop album to me; lots of big hooks and choruses. There are a lot of concepts on that album that are extremely ugly that I “tricked” people into singing a long with. I love all those songs and they’re really fun to perform but I feel with the new album (Suture) it’s a real return to my industrial roots. It’s a mean collection of very pointed songs that fit together in a tight package with no “fat.” I think sonically and production-wise, this is the album I’ve wanted to release for a long time.
Watch the video for their first single ‘Skin’
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Anytime someone creates new music, it does potentially challenge old and new listeners alike. You hinted that this album might present a challenge for some – can you elaborate on potential reasons why?
I always want to challenge people to be more and to evolve. We live in a world where most people don’t want to think and don’t want to feel until they’re instructed to. People don’t want to take care of themselves; they’re looking for a religion, a government, or some super hero to save them from their own inadequacies and they believe they’re entitled to this salvation. People don’t want to feel. They don’t want to think. They’d rather water themselves down with drugs, alcohol, and whatever over-the-counter bullshit a psychiatrist tells them to take. People become uncomfortable when I point out they have no self-definition, no idea of who they are, and that they only are what they’ve been told to be. I tell people they are alone, I tell them they’re not part of some community; I tell them how beautiful that is. I challenge people to be selfish, I challenge people to be self centered, I challenge people simply say “I” and know what that really means.
Songs can often represent themselves as the extension of the self, and can manifest in either positive or negative ways. Where do your songs fall? Are they like birthing evil little children sent out into the world to do your bidding, or are they more of an exorcising of cancerous tumors?
I write a lot of songs about negative experiences and turn them into positive things that help to empower and arm smart and selfish people. Performing with h1TL and making art in general is not only my means of release but also my means of communicating and ultimately a means to my end. It’s my way of changing the things I hate and reinforcing the things and the people I love. I would never call something I’m so proud of a tumor but sometimes it does feel like I’m arming the world’s biggest bomb.
How does being compared to other very prominent bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and Marilyn Manson personally impact you?
Those are all bands that influenced me that I think are pretty great; so being kept in that company isn’t really a bad thing to me, but it doesn’t personally affect me. I never consider anything other than myself.
You have stated that you are a very “black and white” individual when it comes to knowing who you are. Were they ever any moments of grey?
No. I’ve always had an incredible sense of self-definition, I’ve always known who I was and where I was going. There’s never been any doubt or any grey. Things change, I roll with the punches. I get smarter, I get stronger, and I get meaner, but I have always been concrete and always will be.
There are undertones of horror and the macabre throughout your music and lyrics. Have any elements from those genres impacted your perception of the world and/or how you approach song writing?
I never consciously add elements of “horror.” I just think certain things about me scare some people and those things come through in my art.
Watch the lyric video for “Some People”
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The name of your band is a very powerful statement in and of itself. With its origins in mind, where do you stand on the cloning issue?
I love smart people and the music I write is for them. The name of the band isn’t really about cloning, but people’s reaction to it based on their preconceived unchallenged notions that they had been programmed with through things like fear and religion. The name was really in homage to people that forge forward and embrace logic, reason, and art when everyone else is peddling fear and ignorance as facts. As far as cloning is concerned, I put my faith in smart men.
A difference can exist between religion and spirituality. Do either of these components add fuel to your musical fire, or do they instead put out the flames?
The greatest force in my life is myself and that’s all I’m interested in. I have no room or need for something like god, religion, or spirituality. Those concepts simply have nothing to offer me.
I consciously understand that people have preconceived notions about me and certain aspects of my personal life involving my relationships with other people. “Vampire” is a reaction to that concept. It’s about the juxtaposition of certain people’s idea that I emotionally tear people apart and that I fuck a lot of people versus the reality of me just being a guy who generally feels pretty alienated and isolated most of the time.
What impressions do you want your music to leave on the Underground scene and beyond?
I’m not really concerned with any scene or community. I do hERETICS iN tHE lAB because it’s what I want to do. It’s a means to my end and in a lot of ways it’s who I am. What I’m interested in in the long term is continuing to challenge my self, continuing to make art that I’m proud of, and above all my own selfish happiness.
