LZZY HALE Says New HALESTORM Album 'Vicious' Is About Being 'Bold And Fierce'

Sweden's Bandit Rock radio station recently conducted an interview with members of HALESTORM about the band's new studio album, "Vicious". You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On why the band chose "Vicious" as an album title:

Lzzy Hale (vocals/guitar) "What we loved about the word 'vicious' is that I think that it just said everything we wanted to say. With me, I like taking words that are normally derogatory and then making them into positive words, so for me, 'Vicious' is about being bold and being fierce and what I realized by writing this record is that for me, nowadays, it takes so much more to handle life and everything. It takes so much more than being strong and taking it and weathering the storm. I have to face everything head-on and be completely unapologetic with myself and everybody that I know. To me, 'vicious' is a very positive word."

On whether Lzzy felt emotionally drained upon completion of "Vicious":

Lzzy: "For me, it was almost a rebirth with this record. I started out right before we started recording not really understanding or knowing what I wanted to do. We're very bad at that. We never want to repeat ourselves. If we get bored, you're going to know. It's a fight to keep that fire and to keep that excitement, you know, going with things that we do. We kind of had to find that throughout this record. We came out on the other side like 'Hell yes! Awesome! We still got it!'"

On where the members of HALESTORM get their "energy" from:

Lzzy: "Our energy, we dig deep. It also helps not to think about it, especially in the beginning of this tour because we knew it was going to be six weeks we're out here. You don't think about time. You don't think about being tired. The goal is doing a rock show."

Josh Smith (bass): "You could be ready for a nap 30 minutes before the show, but then as soon as you get onstage it's like, 'Whoa, alright!' instant adrenaline."

Joel Hottinger (guitar): "We learned that lesson, though. That's a rule — no napping within an hour of the show because you can't get your brain together."

Lzzy: "You wake up like you came back from outer space and you're trying to deal with gravity. No naps. Just keep going. It's funny because the last tour, we were out for like five weeks straight and everything was great and I never lost my voice, we didn't get sick once, then the day after the tour ended, we got home and I think I slept for 12 hours straight. Dead to the world. You wait until after."

On whether HALESTORM has any future musical collaborations lined up:

Lzzy: "I usually say yes first, then figure it out later. Usually something will come through and we'll be like 'Oh, this looks interesting. Sure!' Then we're like, 'What do you want me to do? What?' Absolutely. There's a couple of different things that actually is coming up that I can't talk about. [Laughs] You will probably see pictures."

On the songwriting process for "Vicious":

Lzzy: "In the beginning, we were kind of keeping everything simple. Also, this was our first time being involved with a major label so there was a lot of people around me that were, like, 'Hey, what do you got?' So, I kind of immersed myself into just the songwriting circuit and I got to write with a lot of amazing people and I learned a lot just about being a songwriter and what it takes to do that. Before, the first record, that's what we did in my parents' basement'. It was just the four of us hunkering down: 'Okay, who's got an idea? All right, let's make a song out of that.' 'Oh, you got a line? Cool? You got a riff? Awesome. Here's a bass line.' So, really for this record we wanted to take everything we learned over the past couple of years but also throw away all of the rules. We threw all of those things away and just, honestly, it's so much more freeing when you are not working with a formula. So, for me, there's some songs on this record that came from me, as in, 'Hey, guys. I have this song. How can I make it cool?' And they help me make it cool. Then there's some songs that basically started off instrumentally just jamming with each other and just chasing after what got us excited. Songwriting is more about chasing what gets you excited and going down that rabbit hole, being willing to work for three days straight on the same song then be like, 'Eh,' and throw it away. We did that for this record and so far so good."

On the importance of making a record in this day and age:

Lzzy: "I think it's a personal choice because I still love records and I still love hearing… if I love an artist, I want to hear what they do. I want to hear how they would put these songs together. I want to look at the artwork. Because, we can attest to the fact that it's hard, it's hard work. Yes, it's fun and thank whoever up there that we get to do what we love as a living now. But, it's tough. It's hard work to put songs together and to deal with the politics of the business and to even write a great song, you have to write 60 terrible songs and then you have two that are like 'They'll do!' So, I love thinking about all those things when I'm listening to a record. At the same time, yeah, it's becoming more trendy to… instant gratification."

Joel: "Maybe it's better to keep putting out new things all the time."

Lzzy: "I would rather do that. Instead of waiting three years to do another record, let's do another one next year. [Laughs]"

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