With Hevy Festival being their only festival of 2015, it’s been a fairly quiet summer for Protest The Hero. Rock Sins caught up with vocalist Rody Walker ahead of their main stage appearance to discuss the festival and plans for the bands future.
Rock Sins: So are you excited to play the main stage later?
Rody: Oh absolutely, I mean this is our first time at Hevy Festival so for them to have us on the main stage or even have us playing at all is really quite miraculous.
Rock Sins:: What is it that you think really appeals about festivals like Hevy?
Rody: I dunno really. I guess it appeals to me because we get to play a 30 minute set out in the sunshine and then get to drink as much as we want. It’s a good time all round, there’s very little obligation.
Rock Sins:: So how has the summer and the festival season been going for you?
Rody: This is the only festival we’ve played this summer. Yeah did a big festival season last year and got our fill of it. So this year we’re just doing one quick festival today and that’s it then.
Rock Sins:: So you’ve just been taking the summer off?
Rody: Yeah man
Rock Sins:: So how do you go about picking setlists for these kind of festivals, do you feel obliged to play certain songs or find it difficult to cut ones you like?
Rody: We kinda feel like that all the time. There’s certain songs we’d really rather not play but they’ve become more popular with our fans that we play anyway. So we definitely always cut songs that we’d rather play.
Rock Sins:: Do you find it harder to pick songs for a shorter set like today?
Rody: In that scenario (half hour set) we just pick whatever songs we wanna play.
Rock Sins:: So humour has always been a big part of what you’ve guys do. You’ve never been a “comedy” band but you still like to have a lot of fun. Was this something you always wanted?
Rody: I dunno, we grew up watching NOFX and all those kind of bands. Those Southern California pop-punk and skate punk bands and when you went to their shows everything was a fucking joke. All the banter between songs and stuff like that. So when we submerged ourselves in this heavy metal world, that element didn’t really change for us. It just seems to me that heavy metal is so fucking serious all the time and you know these people are deadly serious. So it’s important to represent the other side of that.
Rock Sins:: I guess because so much metal is so over the top sometimes it’s good to have a bit of fun with it.
Rody: Exactly, so much metal is fucking hilarious so why not poke a little fun at it.
Rock Sins:: Speaking of poking fun at metal, how did your Asking Alexandria audition turn out?
Rody: Turns out not very good. You know I really thought I was gonna make it and I dunno they never really gave me a shot. It’s fucking bullshit.
Rock Sins:: So it’s been nearly 2 years since your last album came out, how’s work on a follow up going?
Rody: It’s going pretty well, I mean we have some different ideas that we’re thinking about for how to release it. I don’t think we want to release a traditional album this time. But we’ll see, it might be a shitty couple of ideas that flop and we’ll end up putting out a record just to compensate but right now it seems like a good idea.
Rock Sins:: So have you done much work already or is it slowly taking shape?
Rody: It’s starting to take shape. We’ve recorded the drums for some songs and the guitars are getting done when we get back. I’ve written lyrics for a handful of songs but it’s coming along. We’re pretty happy with it.
Rock Sins:: So do you have much else planned for the near future?
Rody: We’ve got some plans but I’m not allowed to speak of them. They’re super exciting for the people that listen to our music, especially those that have for a long time. But for anyone else I guess it’s just another band doing another record.
Rock Sins:: Finally because Hevy Festival has it’s own zoo, I wanna ask what animal you think you’d be?
Rody: A Slow Loris, are you familiar with the animal? It’s got huge fucking eyes, people hands and it’s like Australian or something. When you tickle them they’ll wave their arms in the air. They’re really cute looking but they’re also venomous, so they’re dangerous too.
Rock Sins:: Cheers man that’s everything.
Rody: Thank you very much.
You can check out our review of Protest The Hero’s performance at Hevy Fest as part of our huge review of the first day’s action here – Hevy Fest 2015 Day One Review. You can also follow Protest The Hero on Twitter at @ProtestTheHero@jRodyWalker.
