HALESTORM's AREJAY HALE Was Surprised By Success Of 'Into The Wild Life' Album

United Rock Nations conducted an interview with HALESTORM drummer Arejay Hale on June 17 at Hellfest in Clisson, France. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the success of HALESTORM's third album, "Into The Wild Life":

Arejay: "I really didn't expect that. I mean, with every record we've put out, it's been a little bit better and a little bit better, so it felt like a very comfortable, gradual… I felt like it was gonna be a bit more gradual than it was, but… To see that much of a great reaction, we really didn't expect it, 'cause we felt with this last record, we were kind of doing something very different from our last record; we were kind of playing a little bit more alternative, a little bit more experimental. We went with a different producer, and we kind of recorded it differently; we recorded it live together as a band in the studio. So when the record came out, I really didn't know what kind of reaction it was gonna get. I was hoping it would do well, but I felt like our hardcore fans that liked our first two records would have hated it. [Laughs] But they actually liked it. So I was really excited."

On working with producer Jay Joyce on "Into The Wild Life":

Arejay: "Jay Joyce… You know, he's a very personal producer, which I liked about him. I almost kind of like the fact that he wasn't a rock producer. I like the fact that he brought something unique out of us, and I think he had a very unique background. He mostly does country, 'cause he lives in Nashville. Country music is Nashville. So that's how he pays his bills; that's his moneymaker. But he loves doing rock bands. He did a band called CAGE THE ELEPHANT — a really amazing alternative kind of rock and roll band in the States. They did really good in the States. So I felt like having that kind of background, he really helped us challenge us to create something that was out of the ordinary, out of the traditional active rock, which has kind of gone stale — to me, anyway; it just doesn't excite me anymore. So I like the fact that we kind of got to make something a little more unique."

HALESTORM is currently preparing to record a third covers EP to follow 2011's "ReAniMate" and 2013's "ReAniMate 2.0".

The band's first two albums, 2009's "Halestorm" and 2012's "The Strange Case Of…" were both officially certified gold in March by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for sales of more than 500,000 copies. The certifications came after RIAA started including on-demand audio and video streams and a track sale equivalent in gold and platinum album award.

"Into The Wild Life" debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 56,000 copies in its first week of release — more than double the first-week haul of their second CD — but has not reached gold yet.