INTERVIEW: HINDER – Cody Hanson

From the fellas who made infidelity catchy with “Lips of an Angel”, encouraged us to make love instead of misery in “Get Stoned”, reminded us why good girls go for the “All American Nightmare”, and made it okay to be “Without You” and to “Use Me”, comes their fourth effort exposing all it means to be a freak in a freakshow concealed as reality. The new songs on their latest album Welcome To The Freakshow offer relationship advice like “Talk to Me” and “Shoulda Known Better” and others are sure to be a catalyst for the disenchanted with a familiar Hinder hard rock theme and a certain ‘rock-n-roll-badass-middle-finger-in-the-air’ attitude and swagger like “Save Me” and “Is It Just Me.”

Hinder, known for their wild rock and roll antics and “living the dream” Up All Night rock star mentality are out touring hot and heavy, wreaking their special brand of havoc across the country all the way into the end of October.  Just to avoid confusion here’s a warning, folks:  No, you’re not at a Saving Abel concert! Jared Weeks from Saving Abel will front Hinder while original singer Austin Winkler cleans himself up off stage.

RockRevolt®Magazine talked with Cody Hanson right before heading out on the road about the summer last minute line-up changes and all things awesome about being the drummer for Hinder. He couldn’t tell me his favorite drummer joke but he could tell me his favorite pick up line. Off the record. Typical drummer…    

STINA MARIE (RR): Hey, Cody! How are you doing? 

CODY:  I’m doing great. How are you? 

Doing real good, Cody. Thanks! I’m calling you to talk about the the album and of course the tour you’re getting ready to embark on.  You’ll be sharing a stage with Candlebox and I’m wondering if you listened to them in the 90s. They are that super typical story of grunge that goes like: Band. 90’s. Seattle. Was this type of music something that inspired or influenced the creation of Hinder? What other bands did you listen to? 

Yea, we listened to them.  (I’m going to walk up to the front of my house, and now everyone that knows I live here will honk! Sorry.) We’re all kind of spread out as far as musical influences goes. We listen to everything. We’re pretty big like 80s hair metal fans, though. 

Too cool!  Then, performing with Motley Crue must have been pretty epic for you boys. 

Yea we did a lot of shows with Motley and we’ve become friends with those guys over the years. Obviously, they were a huge influence so to be able to play shows with them is pretty surreal. We’re getting ready to do a show with them in our hometown which is pretty cool. 

Welcome to the Freakshow is in regular rotation in my car and it’s still doing really well on the charts.  You co-produced that album with your production company Back-Lounge Productions. I’m hoping you can tell me a little bit about Back-Lounge Productions and what it’s like to wear the producer hat for your own band. 

Marshal Dutton and I started working together and actually I used to manage his old band, Faktion, and they were signed to Roadrunner back in the day and that’s kind of how we started. We were writing for All American Nightmare and I decided to hire Marshal to come in and help me out with demos and stuff while we were on the road and we just worked really well together. It was really easy and seemed really natural. So, that’s kind of how we started working together. We started Back-Lounge Productions and started producing other bands and writing for other bands. Just kinda doin’ the thing. Doing the album was a very cool experience. It was very different than the other ones we’ve done in the past. On this one, we really got a chance to experiment and try different techniques and sounds. We knew we didn’t want to do the same old typical rock record. We knew we wanted every song to be unique. We didn’t want a theme from front to back. We wanted each track to be completely different so it could stand on its own. So, we got a chance to do it and I’m really proud of it. I think it’s one of our strongest records. 

Drummers sometimes get a “dopey wrap” but they’re usually pretty brilliant! You’re an incredible writer and conceptually seem to be able to move songs along and envision their path. Welcome to the Freakshow has a good amount of co-writers. Do you like to take advantage of a fresh perspective and surround yourself with creative people you may strike some sort of chemistry with? What’s with all the co-writers, man? 

I think it’s important just because every writer brings something different to the table. Every writer has their own style and you never know when their style is going to compliment your style or vice versa. I think it makes for a more interesting song and a more interesting finished product at the end of the day. And sometimes it’s just fun to mix things up a little bit. 

Can you talk a little bit about what the summers been like? Singer, Austin Winkler, has been off taking care of himself and getting healthy again and you guys have had sort of a ‘stunt’ frontman take over. How’s that been? Did you get much practice time in with Marshal or Jared before you guys hit the road? 

No, not really. He kind of dropped the bomb on us last minute. We actually had to cancel a show and go back home and find someone to come and help out. And luckily, for the first couple of shows Marshal Dutton (co-producer of Back-Lounge Productions) was familiar enough with the material to come in and save us a little bit. Then we called up Jared Weeks from Saving Abel and he was able to meet us out on the road. We ended up arranging rehearsal space and we had like just under three days, like two and a half days, to go through all the material. We said we were going to learn a couple Saving Abel songs just to make it fun and mix it up a little bit. We decided to learn a cover song, one we’ve never done before. So we learned a cover song. I mean we put in a couple really long days for those three days but it was totally worth it. We’ve been having a blast! It kind of took us out of our comfort zone and forced us to create a better show, I think. So it’s something completely different and a lot of fun. We’re having a blast! We’re pretty thankful for Jared and the Saving Abel guys for allowing him to come out with us. 

How’s Austin doing, Cody? 

I couldn’t tell you because I haven’t talked to him since, to be honest with you. 

Fans sometimes fall so in love with a song and lose sight of the band to the point that the band’s name becomes almost interchangeable with the song title. You know where I’m going with this. Hinder came so close to that problem with “Lips of An Angel” and its almost cult following. Is a massively successful single sometimes the kiss of death to a band and how did Hinder avoid becoming that one giant hit wonder? 

I don’t know if we’ve been able to get out of that! The cool thing about us is that we’ve had quite a few big singles; whether people have realized we have or not. And almost every song on this run is a hit single with the exception of two or three that have been radio singles. So, we have that going for us. If we’re known for “Lips of An Angel” forever that’s okay with me because at least we’re known for something. Most guys don’t even get there, so we’re good with whatever. We’ve got a great and loyal fanbase, too. 

Speaking of singles, you’ve described Welcome to the Freakshow as 11 singles. Is that because the whole world now has music ADD and heavy concept-themed albums tend to fall on deaf ears nowadays? Were you conscious of making it single oriented? 

Yea, absolutely; the goal was to have something for everyone. We even considered, and we may do it at some point, but we considered not doing albums at all. Since everyone’s attention span is so short they want one song every two months. So, that’s something we may lean towards in the future. Instead of doing entire albums we may do a song here and in another month release another song, and just play around with that model. But, that (a single oriented album) was definitely intentional on Welcome to the Freakshow. 

You worked with James Michael of Sixx AM on this as well.  What role did he play in the production process? Also, with your co-producing the album in addition to being a member of Hinder, did you personally have to take a break from Welcome to the Freakshow after it was completed for a bit and go back to it to truly appreciate your work? 

I didn’t take any time away from it. I’m pretty in love with all the songs and have been since the time they were written. So I didn’t really get burnt out on it, but I know what you’re saying.  James mixed the record, so his part was at the very, very end and we were heavily involved in that with notes and changes. So we were listening to the music all day/every day for several months. But I still didn’t really get tired of it.  I can still put that album on and listen to it from start to finish and enjoy it. 

What’s next for Hinder? 

(laughs) That’s a really great question! With all the stuff going on I think we’re going to have to take a little bit of time and have an adjustment period for us to get some things back on track. We need to figure out what our next move is going to be. So, I really don’t know. I know that we will probably take some time off through November and December. Although I always say that and it never happens! Hopefully we’ll come back strong next year. 

Sounds like you can keep busy with Back-Lounge Productions and other projects. Back-Lounge clients currently include Seasons After, 9 Left Dead, Siva Addiction, Adley Stump, Violence to Vegas, Right on Red, Faktion, and Seabass N tha Fellas. 

Oh yeah…we’ve got a lot of stuff going on with Back-Lounge but you’ll definitely still hear stuff from me. It’ll probably be something country. 

What’s your favorite drummer joke? 

Man, I can’t think of one. Drummer jokes are pretty interchangeable with bass player jokes. Um, I don’t really know any off the top of my head! I never really found them all that funny. 

Well, that’s the right answer because a drummer should never really tell a drummer joke. So, you passed! 

One last question for you:  I’m not going to ask you any absurd questions like the meaning of life but I am going to ask you the worst pick-up line you’ll admit to using on a chick. And, “I’m in the band” doesn’t count! 

(laughs) Well, I can tell you my favorite line. Yea, this is my favorite one but you totally can’t print this! You walk up to someone and… 

EDITORS NOTE: No fair! Start a “Cody, Tell Us The Pick-Up Line, dammit!” Petition Hinder fans!  We want to know! 

(laughs) Terribly awesome! Thanks so much for taking some time to talk with me on behalf of RockRevolt Magazine. Good luck with everything you’ve personally got going on and good luck to Hinder in the midst of all the changes and uncertainties. I can’t wait to see you on the east coast with Candlebox, Devour the Day, and Open Air Stereo and I can’t wait to see what’s next for the Hinder fellas. It was great getting to talk to you again! 

          Awesome! Thanks so much. Come stop back and have some beers. 

By:  Stina Marie Harris, Senior Journalist 

Be sure to check out Hinder on tour!  CLICK HERE FOR TOUR DATES! 

Hinder is:  Cody Hanson (Drums), Mike Rodden (Bass), Mark King (Guitar), Austin Winkler (Vocals) / Jared Weeks (Interim Vocals)

Hinder’s album Welcome To The Freakshow is available now! Get it here: http://smarturl.it/hinderitunesstore

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~ All photos provided by Hinder PR or from Hinder Official Facebook.  Photo credit was given when provided.  Please let us know if we missed anyone, because there are some great pics here.  Thanks!