BROKEN HOPE Members Discuss Reunion In New Interview

Mark Kadzielawa of 69 Faces Of Rock recently conducted an interview with guitarist Jeremy Wagner and bassist Shaun Glass of reformed Chicago death metallers BROKEN HOPE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

69 Faces Of Rock: I've heard rumors that you were trying to get the band going in the last few years. What steps were taken?

Jeremy: I always say BROKEN HOPE was done in 2000. There was some fallout from the breakup, and we still had some obligations to do. But, by 2002, it was all in my past. I formed this other band, Shaun was doing SOIL. It took from 2002 to 2007 to not even speaking to any other band members. The fan mail throughout that time had never stopped, ever. And the Internet, and the illegal merchandise kept popping up here and there. We've had people asking us to bring the band back, and promoters from all corners of the planet, asking us what it would take to get BROKEN HOPE back together. We had headlining offers from festivals. Shaun and I would talk about it from time to time, and we finally heard from other members because they were hearing the same types of things. And we all sat down in 2007, as men, older and wiser, following our own path. We had a nice meeting, and agreed to do this. The big problem was logistics because Shaun was still involved in SOIL, and they were touring all the time. Brian Griffin had since graduated from tour management university, and became LAMB OF GOD's tour manager and a soundman. And that's still, to this date, his number one priority above anything else. So it was all down to schedules, and everyone was always on tour. The good thing that came out of that meeting was that I reconnected with [vocalist] Joe Ptacek. I was really upset at him for years, and he was upset with me; we had this bad blood. You know, he had quit the band right before a major tour, out of the blue. Outside of Shaun, he was like my other partner in crime. He and I put BROKEN HOPE together in high school. For years I held a grudge, and he didn't like me, but when we had that meeting, and sat down as adults, it was great. Him and I reconnected, and our friendship started again.

Shaun: We've actually went with Joe to this extreme biker club, that's where we had that meeting. It was really weird. I was like, "Are we safe in here?"

69 Faces Of Rock: As good as things were looking back then, Joe's life was cut short. He died tragically in 2010.

Shaun: Right, which is still a mystery to me.

Jeremy: After Joe and I had started becoming friends again, hanging out and stuff, unfortunately, he died, by his own hand. It was a big shock to a lot of people. At that point, we were like, "Maybe this whole BROKEN HOPE thing won't happen."

69 Faces Of Rock: Was Joe showing any signs of depression or anything like that?

Jeremy: No, not at all. When I was hanging out with him, it was like old times. We'd be having drinks, we'd be laughing and having just a great time. We'd be cranking old death metal albums that we loved, like the first PARADISE LOST album. He lost a copy of it, and I just burned him a copy. We were having a great time. Right before he died, which was 2.5 years ago in January. We just talked right around New Year's, and I never saw it coming. I don't want to go off on some weird theory or anything like that, but I've had time to reflect on Joe's death, and I discussed it with Shaun. Part of me wonders if it was really an accident, and no one will ever know. What if he was just screwing around with that gun, and it went off. There is not a note, there is nothing. It's just strange. It was very unfortunate.

69 Faces Of Rock: With Joe being gone, and him being such an important part of the sound, how did you even go about getting the idea of reforming?

Jeremy: The first thing that I ever told people after Joe died, is that I didn't think we'd be doing this. Mind you, we toured with a singer we were forced to use when Joe quit, and we were accepted pretty good. The fans were really what made me feel better about getting the band together. The fans would be writing and say, "We loved Joe, we miss Joe, but carry on as a band, bring BROKEN HOPE back." Other would say, "It's not your fault Joe is not here." You know, I named the band BROKEN HOPE, when I formed it in high school. I wrote the majority of the music. Shaun wrote some of my favorite BROKEN HOPE tunes as well. I wrote the majority of the lyrics too, so BROKEN HOPE is like my baby, but I don't go around saying, "I'm Mr. Broken Hope." It was the fans that pointed it out to me, and things went from there.

69 Faces Of Rock: When did reforming the band actually become reality? I mean, you were rehearsing for a while, putting the new line up together; nobody knew it was happening.

Shaun: I actually found the drummer. Me and Jeremy started talking, and we decided to start jamming just to see what it felt like.

Jeremy: I'll tell you what really happened. It was in November, 2011. And I have say this, we needed to learn from our past mistakes. I'm all about the chemistry, and I'm about maintaining and staying true to the BROKEN HOPE brand. Whether it's always using the green logo, to the tuning we do. Everything's got to be what BROKEN HOPE sounded like, and part of that also is chemistry. We really do want our cake, and eat it too. We don't just want to be hired hands in the band anymore. We wanted guys who would be members, and had exceptional skills whether you're a drummer, a guitarist, or vocalist. But, also, had the right attitude, and “yeah” that's asking a lot because there is a lot of primadonnas and assholes we've met and jammed with, enough of them to know. And Shaun found our drummer, Mike, and we started jamming with Mike. The set we played on the last tour was the set we started re-learning with Mike. We've made a wish list of our favorite BROKEN HOPE songs we could squeeze within 45 minutes. We started, and it sounded great. We get into the New Year, and it was still the three of us. We didn't know what would happen next, but like that old cliché, things happen for a reason. We didn't even announce that we were jamming, and doing anything. We did tell some close friends in the industry. Out of the blue, we got approached by a management team, and they hooked us with a booking agency. We sat down with them, and someone said, "Hey, all those fans from the '90s have kids, and those kids are BROKEN HOPE fans now. You guys are bigger now than you've ever been. We came to you because we know promoters who are asking for the band to do live work, and you got to make it happen. We want to manage you, and start the ball rolling, and give you a career." We just had to find a couple of jigsaw pieces on guitar and vocals, and we did it. We were already doing the hard work between the three of us. We had our set down, and needed to fill the lead and the vocals, and when we did that, we signed on the line, and the announcement was made. Within days of the announcement, amazing things had started falling into place.

69 Faces Of Rock: Who are the new BROKEN HOPE members?

Shaun: It's Mike Miczek, who is our new drummer. He's a young kid from McHenry; he's really young and hungry, very knowledgeable in metal. That was one thing about him. When I met him, he was talking to me about everything I grew up on, and on his iPod was, like, everything I could think of. I was like, "How do you know this?" The kid was really well versed in extreme metal and punk. And he could really play BROKEN HOPE songs. And then, the hardest thing was to find a vocalist. Jeremy and I were doing some research. Obviously, we wanted someone that lived sort of close. We've had a couple guys that were showing interest early on that thought they were coming onto this project. Then we finally felt that, it was time to move on, and find someone who was really 1000% serious. The name GORGASM came up, and we checked out a video on YouTube, watched some footage, and saw Damian Leski. We thought he looked evil, and he was from the bloodline of Illinois metal bands. GORGASM is well respected in the extreme death metal world, and he's been doing this almost as long as us. In his band, he plays guitar, and sings. But, we knew that style and tonality of his voice would fit with what Joe Ptacek was doing.

Jeremy: Yeah, he embodies Joe's approach to guttural death metal vocals. And to Shaun's point, his back story with all those GORGASM albums, and how they're respected on the underground gore/grind type of level lends us a nice deal of legitimacy, especially as we come back with a tour. We did nothing but old songs, mostly off the first three albums, and a couple off the fourth. So, BROKEN HOPE has one foot in the underground, and one foot on the next step. Joe Ptacek, especially with some die-hards, and even in certain countries, is so revered, that we don't want to tarnish any perception of what Joe left for us. And we want to take it in the future with us. We respect that, and as much as my guitar is tuned to D, and I have a riffing style, Joe had his own vocals tone, and we want to maintain that vibe if you will. No one is trying to be Joe Ptacek Jr., but at the same time, we need someone that's close and has that feel. I mean, JOURNEY, they got a singer who had that Steve Perry stuff because that's what the fans wanted to hear. You're in a band, you got to make sure you're nailing it, and doing everything justice, doing our old catalog justice.

Read the entire interview at 69 Faces Of Rock.