“I haven’t been to Australia before, even as a tourist,” Hottinger says. “We don’t get around, man. We’ve never actually been on vacation. Granted, we travel constantly, and to me life is kind of a vacation – I do what I love with people that I love, and it’s awesome. But yeah, we’ve never vacationed before, so it’s kind of exciting to get to these new places, and maybe one of these days we will.”
Given it’s his first trip to Australia in any capacity, Hottinger has no predictions for the behaviour of Australian audiences. “I don’t know what to expect, which is kind of half the fun,” he says. “But from what I’ve heard from all of our rock buddies that go to Australia and New Zealand, they say you’ve got some of the best rock crowds in the world. That sounds good to me, I can’t wait to experience that for myself.”
The band promises a big and emotionally cathartic, yet no-nonsense rock show for Australian crowds. The setlists will cover all three of Halestorm’s studio albums and some tracks from their earlier EPs.
“We always say that when you come and see Halestorm, what you see is what you get,” Hottinger says. “There’s no trickery, there’s no backing tracks, we don’t even use a click track. We like to be able to do anything at the drop of a hat. I just love feeding off the energy of a crowd and I know Arejay [Hale}, our drummer, does too. If it’s a great crowd, sometimes the songs are going to be a little faster, and that’s all right.
“So yeah, we’ve been building a lot of improv into our set. Like, we try to trick each other, you know? It’s a blast. It’s rock’n’roll. We’re not saving any lives here, it’s a rock show.”
Halestorm are actually planning to unearth some special and largely unheard tunes during this coming Aussie tour. “As Lzzy [Hale, vocals] was saying, we’re calling this the ‘Do whatever the fuck we want tour’. We’ll probably play some of the new record, play a bunch of the old songs, stuff we haven’t played for a decade.”
The band will be joined on tour by Los Angeles-based Aussie expats, Bellusira. Hottinger can’t wait to get on the road and share the stage with them.
“I love those guys. We met them in LA when we went out there. They’re the sweetest people and they’re so good. We went to see them there when Will Hunt [Evanescence] was drumming for them, and it was such a good rock show. It was just awesome. They are true rock warriors. They do it with their hearts, and God bless them they’re awesome.”
Halestorm’s popularity has been on a steady rise since the release of the debut self titled album back in 2009. Right now they have a list of tour dates stretching out as far as the eye can see in front of them, and the demand for them to play is only increasing.
“Yeah, it really hasn’t slowed down, it’s been just growing. Since I joined the band 12 years ago, it’s been nothing but a growing behemoth, really.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
