AREJAY HALE Says 'Vicious' Is 'One Of The Most Genuine And Vulnerable Albums' HALESTORM Has Released

Kat Mykals of Evansville, Indiana radio station 103GBF recently conducted an interview with HALESTORM drummer Arejay Hale. You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the best part of touring:

Arejay: "There's so much positive things about being able to travel, being able to say that you're world-traveled. I think that experiencing other cultures and other cities and seeing so many different things around the world is a great benefit to have, just to have a good outlook on the world, on other cultures, and it kind of changes your perspective on a lot of things. I definitely love… I mean, when it comes to worldwide traveling, I love being able to experience other cultures, being able to experience different types of food. But I think being able to get up and play shows while you're traveling, it kind of makes it even more exciting, knowing that I get to go up onstage and do what I do, and being able to interact with fans and feel the energy and just be engulfed in the great, positive vibes that come along with being able to play music for music lovers. I think I really get to see the best of people everywhere that I go in the world, and that's a real blessing for me."

On the strangest interaction the band has ever had with fans:

Arejay: "We have a lot of strange interactions with fans. [Laughs] Just the other day, one of our fans that has been with us since the very beginning… well, I don't know about the very beginning, but he's been with us for a long time, and he hit his 90th show — that's nine-zero, 90 shows. He had this big bag of onesie pajamas, of these random stuffed animals and stuff like that. Every time we see him, he always wants us to take some crazy photo with him. But he's been one of our dedicated and most loyal fans. It's just, like, 'Whatever you want, you got it.' So every time we see him, it's an interesting experience. It's very much the same with a lot of our other fans. And every time we do a tour in the U.S., a lot of them travel to several shows and they see us so many times, so we're always trying to switch up the setlist. And now it's become the same thing in the U.K. and Europe and all that. We see fans traveling from show to show. They're practically on tour with us. We usually have fun and awesome interactions with fans. Nothing that's too crazy or dangerous or scary. Everything is very positive, very laid back; all of our fans are super-cool. That's why I love interacting with them on Twitter and on Instagram and through the social media — just because they're just good, honest people. So, yeah, nothing too crazy — just all fun, all good."

On the release of their most recent studio album, "Vicious":

Arejay: "It was a long break between albums. And I think — I was just talking about this earlier today on another interview — I was just saying this last album eventually, finally came into fruition. During the process, it took us a while to actually figure out what we wanted to do for the record, what direction to go in. And we also didn't really have a lot of outside writers this time. This was the first record that we've done that's pretty much strictly just the four of us writing. So it took us a long time to finally catch our rhythm and find our stride, but once we did, it started coming together really naturally. But it just took us a long time and a lot of work and a lot of dedication, locking ourselves in the studio for several hours just trying ideas and working with Nick Raskulinecz, who's one of the better producers out there nowadays, and his influence and energy and his coaching was a great factor of us putting this record together. So it took us a long time to finally figure out how to do it, but we were up for the challenge. We didn't wanna go through the usual process of coming off the road, going to co-writers, getting song ideas, demoing them up, going in the studio, recording them, putting it out, touring. We wanted to actually step up to the challenge and see if we could make a great record strictly on our own. It was very nerve-wracking putting it out, because it's very vulnerable. This is one of the most genuine and vulnerable albums we've ever put out. So to see a positive response and just to see the momentum continuing has been really reassuring. It's definitely upped my confidence as a songwriter. And I think I can speak for all of us, I think we feel a lot more confident now."

"Vicious" was released in July via Atlantic. The disc was recorded last year at Nashville, Tennessee's Rock Falcon recording studio.