Page Hamilton of Helmet

No, I originally got the idea because I had a chromatic movement in a chord progress and the working title of the song when it was sitting in its folder was Chromatic. I started thinking about the Paul Simon song Kodachrome on that album called There Goes Rhymin' Simon. I love the idea of a monochrome, which in the photography world or art world is a single tone painting or photo, gray on gray. I just started thinking about that as it relates to everyday life, the monotony that life can provide. Also, that song is specifically about a relationship where you fall into these habits of a monochromatic existence with somebody in a relationship. All those things came into play so I thought that would be a great album title.

Emo? I don’t know what you mean by that.

God I don’t know. Okay. Cool.

It was a little too big of a place for us to be a priority or to have the special attention that we got from them when we first signed there in 1991. It was a very small label when they started and they could take an underground sounding New York band and get it in front of a bunch of people. At this point it is all these different companies and it just didn’t seem to be the right place for them to be able to work on a Helmet album and do what labels do. On a personal level, I have no hard feelings with Jimmy Iovine and the guys that brought us into there. I have had a long relationship with them and they’ve always shown great respect for me as a musician. In fact, I ended up working with a rap group they have called Bless the Nation.

Yeah. Helmet’s never been a band that walked in step with what’s going on necessarily in music. When I formed the band, we didn’t really fit into the New York noise scene that was happening at the time. There were some noisy elements, but there were also some metal and hardcore elements in there. We weren’t really in step with that. Then when hair metal was big on MTV, we weren’t really in step with that. I don’t feel like we’re in synch now with what they call alternative music. We’ve always had our own thing for better or for worse and people either dig it or they don’t. The good news is that Helmet is distinctive and unique. The bad news is that that’s not necessarily what is marketable from an image and musical standpoint.

I have a long relationship with Bob Chiappardi, one of the owners of Warcon. I always just thought he was a great human being and when we were doing an interview for the anniversary of Concrete Marketing last year I said, “So what are you up to?” He said, “Oh, I’m starting this new label. Trying to change the music business.” Our deal with them is more of a shared deal. We’re working hand in hand with everybody at the label here and that means bouncing ideas off people. I threw the album in their lap and said, “You guys pick the single. I don’t want to have anything to do with that.” I’ve never known what it is people want to hear, so I’ll just leave it to them to figure it out. They’re good with that. It’s more of a hands-on place. You don’t feel like you walk in and 90 percent of people at the label don’t know who the hell you are.

Jeremy is close friends with Chris Traynor and he auditioned when Frank Bello left and toured Europe with us last year. Then he did the two week tour that centered around the CBGB’s benefit last year. He ended up moving to Seattle and was in a situation work wise where he couldn’t afford to stay with the band and then do the album, but then he was missing it so much that he called us and said, “God. I’d love to do the Warped Tour.” I said, “You’ve got to commit to me for a year.” He talked his wife into it, which I feel good about. Hopefully I won’t ruin his relationship like I ruin all of mine. He’s a great player and a great guy. Mike Jost was one of the drummers I auditioned. He’s friends with the guys from this band Bullets and Octane that I produced. He came out and auditioned and was one of the four finalists in the Helmet American Idol drum finals, which I wish I had tape recorded because it would’ve been funny.

I’d rather not talk about it. It’s too sad. It’s hard to be a guy in a band and to be obsessed with what you do and maintain a relationship. It is difficult for me and I’ve pretty much messed them all up somehow.

We get along well. This is all new to Mike so he was just a total trooper. He was easy to deal with on the phone before the auditions and he’s been easy to deal with on every level. Jeremy’s probably one of the best band mates I’ve ever had. He drove a van from North Carolina so we could do the two week tour around CBGB. He was in Jets to Brazil so he understands the indie rock touring scene and that carrying your weight means you might schlep some gear and tune your own instrument and your personal assistant is nonexistent. Chris and I have a long relationship; it’s been ten years so we’re like brothers. There are times when we want to strangle each other and other times when we are absolutely appreciative of one another.

It depends on how many beers I’ve had. I jokingly said to the band, “You’ll be able to leave stage for about 20 minutes while I do my guitar solo based on Howl.” It’s one of those things that comes about when you sit around playing too much guitar and having no life and you stumble upon these happy accidents, these tricks and things you can do with a guitar. I love the sound of the bagpipe effect of just pulling the string off the fret board, at the 12th fret, the B and the E string. Anybody who probably plays guitar will figure it out like “God, that’s retarded.” That’s the beauty of it. I might use it as an intro to a song or I might not.

Did you do it in person or on the phone?

He totally would’ve hit on you if it were in person. Seriously. I’m kidding. He’s a good kid.

I remember the control freak thing. I don’t remember the egomaniac thing. But I’ve always been accused of being a control freak. If you’re the one that has the creative vision for something, you know what’s right or wrong for it so you have to maintain control. I have great respect for the musicians I play with and for anybody that picks up an instrument and works at it, but I don’t have a lot of respect for people that sit and point and make claims without having anything to back it up with. I work everyday and have since I first picked up the instrument at the age of 17. I have the last word when it comes to the music that I’m participating in. If I’m hired to do a job for somebody then I’m going to listen to the person that’s hiring me to do the job. That’s a different thing. People are going to interpret your behavior in any way that they want and I certainly have confidence in what I’m doing because I do my homework.

Yeah, when I start with a band I tell them, “Look, at the end of the day it’s your record. You’re going to be playing these songs and you’re going to write them. I’m not going to write them for you” although you end up doing some writing anyway. I give them suggestions that I think will help improve the song and make a better record and they can take it or leave it. There are times when I will argue over something with a band. It’s inevitable you’re going to butt heads about things but at the end of the recording process you go, “Well this still would’ve been better if you’d done what I said.” But every taste and experience comes into play to a certain extent. If you have a band like Bullets and Octane that can play their balls off and are four talented guys, then you don’t want to discourage them, you want to encourage them. Obviously it’s very different from making a Helmet record.

When Jimmy Iovine called me in and asked me to make a Helmet record in 2004, he asked me if I was interested in producing. I said no. He was like, “Come on. You’d be great.” I’m like, “Well, there’s just not a lot that I dig.” He said, “I have like 400 or 500 bands at this label.” He was playing me different things and then he introduced me to Gene and we hit it off. We have a lot of the same interests from Gang of Four to PIL to the Jesus Lizard so it turned out to be a lot of fun. I learned a lot.

The fact that our label owner owns the Warped Tour was a major influencing factor in that. It was a no brainer. They tried to get us to do it a couple of times in the past but it conflicted with other tours. I think it’s going to be great different experience.

The director’s name is Jonathon Stewart . I know him through a pal of mine in LA named Brandon Brooks, who was the producer of the video. Brandon’s from Nashville and they’re buddies down there with this production company that shot it. It’s the first time I’ve ever spent a couple of days in some place shooting a video. It’s just me in the video because it was economically more feasible than flying the whole band and putting them up. I told the band and they were happy doing cartwheels because they didn’t have to do it. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

No, I don’t. That’s not my area of expertise. I think some people are under the misconception that if they watch TV, they can be a great director. It’s like, “I listen to music. I can produce an album.” I have had bad and funny dreams that I think would be funny in videos. Obviously there’s a part of me that’s in this video, but I’m not the director. I wanted to be drowning, vomiting cement and reaching into my mouth up to my forearm and pulling out a beehive, but it would’ve cost a lot of money to make me vomit cement. Hopefully in the next video we can pull that one off.

Not necessarily that specifically, but I’ve thought about it many times and if the time and the economy allows me to, I absolutely would love to do something like that. But you do what butters your bread and I want to keep doing this music while I’m still comfortable with it. When I hit 60, I don’t know if I’ll be able to scream anymore, so I might be done with it. I want to keep doing Helmet and do a few more albums before I stop. But I would love to do something like that eventually.

In theory, yes. In reality, no. The Gandhi drummer is the Maroon 5 drummer. One of the Gandhi guitar players is playing guitar with Nena of 99 Luftballons fame. If the opportunity presented itself, I would love to make an album with those guys because they’re all amazing and funny as hell.

There are a few bands that they’ve talked to me about. One is a big band called Shadows Fall. Another band is called The Exploders, from Australia. They are an independent Australian band. It would be their second record. I’ve met with people at Warner Bros several times about three different bands, Avenged Sevenfold, Mastodon and the Von Bondies and none of those panned out. They got bigger, more famous producers than me.

I know that a SuicideGirl is on the cover of the Bullets and Octane record. Also my ex-girlfriend said that they’re suing each other or something? Also there’s hot chicks with tattoos.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

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