Bringing The Thunder With JOE HOTTINGER From HALESTORM

Interview by Kris Peters
Halestorm took the world by storm towards the end of 2022 with the
release of their fifth studio album, Back From The Dead.
A rock album in every sense of the word, Back From The Dead drew a
fresh generation of fans to Halestorm's side with its harder edge
and attitude-stained delivery. That album saw Halestorm tour
relentlessly, hitting Australia in early 2023 before dominating
their home and surrounding countries.
Such is their popularity Down Under that Halestorm have been
invited back as part of Knotfest 2024, with guitarist Joe Hottinger
joining HEAVY to talk about a massive last 18 months. We ask first
if he is packed and ready to go, or if he is more of a last-minute
type of traveller.
"I'm usually a last-minute guy," he laughed, "but I have gotten 90%
of my pack together. I have some things I'm struggling with. I've
got the clothes all together, but I'm a photographer too, so it's
like 'what camera do I bring'? I don't wanna bring another
suitcase, so I'm trying to shove in as much shit as I can without
overdoing it, and I'm struggling in that department right now
(laughs). I don't know what lenses to bring… I'm struggling."
Halestorm were here last just over 12 months ago, so we ask Joe
what has changed with the band in that time.
"Man, I feel like we're… I feel like we're a new band," he
measured. "We did those shows last January and after that we went
and did some US military base things and got home from that whole
run of touring and kind of like, had a powwow. Like, what are we
doing? We re-thought our whole purpose, like went through a
playlist of the music we were listening to when the four of us
first started playing together back in 2003, 2004. We were
listening to that and looking at old set lists from back 20 years
ago and asked why was it that people started coming out to our
shows? Why did we get signed? Trying to get back into this
headspace, and I think we did. We spent two or three months before
the June European festival run - that was our next real tour - and
we were working on new music, but we also spent the majority of the
time restructuring our live set and our goals. I say this word way
too much, but it really came down to moments. That's why we love
what we do. That's why we love what we do. That's why we love
music. You sit there and create these moments together, and it
makes the crowd go 'woo'. That's the currency is the woo. We just
kinda rewrote how we looked at some songs, kind of wove some
together, and were trying to be more dynamic. We don't use
computers or click tracks or anything, so it's just the four of us
making noise up there, and what you hear is what you get. Mistakes
and all."
In the full interview Joe talks more about how Halestorm have
worked on their live set, returning for Knotfest and what fans can
expect, the Australian bands on the line-up, what sorts of things
crowds can do to Halestorm put on the best show possible, his
personal preference between festivals and headlining shows, their
headline shows with Skindred, Back From The Dead and how it was
received, how much of that album is still in the set list, changing
things up live, new music and more.