Interview with This Is Hell guitarist Rick Jimenez
Sometimes a band's name can perfectly describe what they are. For instance, This Is Hell delivers an unholy onslaught of metallic Hardcore that will destroy you in the pit. As if you needed any further reason to go to Sounds Of The Underground, the band will be playing alongside Gwar, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, and Every Time I Die (among others) on that tour. That line-up destroys Ozzfest, so if you're anywhere near one of the dates on that tour, don't miss it! To give you an introduction to the band, i spoke with guitarist Rick Jimenez, who gave us ths the full scoop. The readers of this site have been asking for us to cover some heavy shit, so here you go fuckers. This is heavy. This is loud. This Is Hell!
Anarchy Music: For the newcomers to the band, tell us about how you got together.
Rick Jimenez: We had all known each other from being in other bands for a few years, just from playing around Long island and such. Some of us were doing Scraps And Heart Attacks and The Backup Plan and I was in Subterfuge. At some point we decided to get together to do a side project, just to play some fast hardcore stuff. I switched from drums to guitar, I was playing guitar in another band at the time also. We decided to do the band just for fun. We went on tour with our individual bands with This Is Hell's demo and when we got back from the tour our other bands dissintegrated for one reason or another. that's when we decided to do This Is Hell full time.
Anarchy: Being from Long Island, does hardcore get in your blood?
Rick: I don't know. Long Island has always had such a rich Hardcore history, in my opinion. Especially in the early '90s when it really started getting going on it's own and not being so reliant on New York. New York City had it's own City and Long island had it's own scene. I was always a Metal kid and from that I got into Punk and Hardcore and then found out about Long island Hardcore. From there I was just always wanting to do it. The first Hardcore show I went to I knew that that was what I've been looking for all along. Long island a great place for music overall, but especially for Hardcore.
Anarchy: Who were those bands that you went to see that made you realize that this is what you wanted to do?
Rick: Definitely bands like Sick Of It All. Biohazrd was one of the first hardcore bands I was listening to. Then their were local bands in Long island like Overthrow. That was pretty much the bands I was listening to when i got into Hardcore.
Anarchy: A lot of the praise that you guys get is from having that oldschool vibe to your music. Does that comes from having the influences like Sick Of It All, or is it part of your mission to return Hardcore to where it came from?
Rick: I think at this point it's just kind of what I'm most into, what I related to the most. When Johnny and I were in Subterfuge before it wasn't something that we wanted to bring back this style or anything. Everybody was doing more of a Metal or Rap stuff and it wasn't really what we wanted to do so we played harder and faster. I think that with anything that I'm involved in with hardcore, this is just what I'm into and relate to.I think that combined with everyones elses influences, regardless of whatever else I'm listening to it's going to have that oldschool tunes and more traditional backline. It's much more that then as opposed to wanting to bring back that style or wanting to make that style prevelant. It's just what we want to do and if people get into it then that's cool, if not then it wasn't some kind of grand mission to purify any genre or scene.
Anarchy: But you guys have been pretty vocal about some of the bands that use hardcore as some kind of fashion statement to transition themselves to wealth and fame though...
Rick: Oh yeah, definitely. Especially now since traditional Hardcore is more accepted now than it was a few years ago, even bands of that style do that. Doing anything musically with the intentions of cashing in on a trend, whether it be playing Metalcore or dressing a certain way, or playing just hardcore. We're definitely against that.
Anarchy: Your video for "The Polygraph Cheaters" has been getting played on the Headbangers Ball. What was it like to film the video and it must be cool to be getting that kind of exposure.
Rick: It was really cool, man. We met up with the guys from High Roller in southern New Jersey and spent a whole day in a warehouse doing performance stuff. It was cool. We wanted to do a video for a while but it took awhile to come up with a concept that we liked and everybody wanted to work on. It was fun, it was definitely an interesting experience. We put our all into it. we played the same song about a thousand times over the course of seven hours until everybody was really satisfied with what we saw on the playback. We wenton tour and went back and forth on the concept to make sure everybody was happy with it. by the time we got back from the tour they had a rough edit of the video. So we back and forth on the dits until everybody was real happy with it. From there it was up to everyone to just pitch to this tv station or that tv station. Headbangers ball on MTV 2 was into and played it. We're really happy with the video and it's This Is hell through and through, despite whether it's live or not on on MTv or not. Hopefully it'll get some kids into the band or into the artform.
Anarchy: You mentioned concepts. The album itself isn't so much a concept album, but more of an autobiographical snapshot of what you were going through at that time. Do you think that the personal issues that you were going through made the recording more difficult or did it spurred your creativity?
Rick: Oh, I think it definitely helped the creativity a bit. It focused us and motivated us to put our all into everything because everything was 100% personal. It helped us get our point across in how we felt, in negative way or a positive way. Plus, it was our first full length so even besides everything else we wanted it to be something we were really really happy with. just because it was our music, but all that stuff on top of it helped us focus the lyrics and the whole feel of the album. The drive and intensity we had when we recorded the album helped to make sure every line has that sincereity and every note played on the guitar or drums is very deliberate. You can feel something on every point of the album. It definitely helped to focus us and drive the creativity.
Anarchy: I know you're going to be working on a new album this summer. is the autobiographical songwriting style going to stay the same or have you been working on new stuff all along? Also, what can you tell me about teh direction of the next album?
Rick: We usually go through the music before we do the lyrics. We tried to keep the wrting going, but we went through some line-up changes and of course we're on the road, but before we went on this tour we hammered down and wrote a bunch of songs and started getting some lyrics in orderfor some of the stuff. i think that with the nature of our personalities and the way we go into the music it's always going to be autobiographical. I don't think it will be so thematic as the last album, but that's the way we think of doing music. It might not be chronological as 'this is what we did for the last 6-8 months" but it's going to be about our personal experiences and the waywe deal with certain things. A lot of the directions we're going in now is like exploring the same topic, but different sides of the sme topic. take one topic and speak about it positively in one aspect and negatively in one aspect. Like I said, we're still pretty early on in the lyrics, but musically it definitely sounds like This Is Hell. It's fast, aggressive, still super heavy, very dark and emotive. we're not cutting the same album again but we're not going off in some direction where people are going to go 'what the fuck is going on?" So far we're pretty happy with where we're going. We're working on some new songs during soundchecks. We don't have a set schedule as far as when we're going to head back to the studio, but we'll probably get in before the end of June. we're going to take our time and put out something we're really happy with as opposed to rushing a new album out. It's definuitely exploring some new aspects and still sticking with the base of what we are and how we deal with things.
Anarchy: And there's a split coming with Cancer Bats right?
Rick: Yeah, I don't really know when that's coming out. The dude who runs the label just moved from North Carolina to LA so i think his label is not really his top priority of what he's douing right now. We recorded a cover of a Cancer Bats song and another new song in September or so. Cancer bats are working on a cover of one of our songs and another new song. hopefully that will be out this Spring.
Anarchy: A lot of the people reading this will be hearing about you for the first time...anything you want to say to them?
Rick: Come check us out live. i feel like that's the best way to get to know us. You'll hear some radical jams and catch onto our energy. That's our main focus, the intensity and the typical hardcore stuff like getting out your negative shit that's built up in your life in a positive way.
Anarchy: That's why there's more lawyers that kill people than hardcore kids.
Rick: (laughs) That's the first thing I thought of too. If everybody could get into Hardcore they'd find a better way to deal with shit.
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I want to thank Rick for taking the time to talk to us, and for working around a scheduling dificulty on our end. if you are into Hardcore then definitely check thes eguys out at ThisIsHell.org or visit This Is Hell on Myspace