Guitar World (1997)
Last updated on January 6, 2010
Originally published by Guitar World in May 1997 (Vol. 17, No. 5)
Born Annoyed
by Jon Wiederhorn
Helmet’s Page Hamilton swallows his contempt and experiences a bitter Aftertaste.
Helmet arrived on the New York noise rock scene in 1989 and quickly became one of the most talked about bands on the circuit. Their unique combination of aggressive staccato riffing and unrefined howling endeared them to both the metal and punk undergrounds, and their confrontational sound helped shape the future of alternative hard rock. After one independent album, Strap It On (Amphetamine Reptile, 1992), the band signed to Interscope and released the Gold-selling album, Meantime.
But while their follow-up, Betty (Interscope, 1994), met with critical acclaim, it was pretty much overlooked by the record-buying public, which had moved on to embrace younger, more tortured hard rock bands like Korn and Tool. Helmet endured further duress when their first guitarist, Peter Mengede (who went on to form Handsome) sued his ex-bandmates for withholding royalties. The two sides later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Mengede was replaced by Rob Echeverria, who also quit, only to join Biohazard. Currently, Helmet are breaking in ex-Orange 9MM guitarist Chris Traynor.
As Helmet prepares for the release of its fourth album, Aftertaste, guitarist and frontman Page Hamilton sits in an East Village cafe in New York pondering popularity, humanity and inter-band conflict while sipping a bowl of carrot ginger soup and munching on a mozzarella sandwich.
GW: How long have you been a vegetarian?
Hamilton: Six or seven years. I became a vegetarian a year or two after Helmet formed. I guess the guitars in my music have to be meaty to give me the proper protein, since I don’t eat any meat. But I do wear a leather belt and my sneakers are suede, so I’m not totally politically correct.
GW: Meantime went Gold, but Betty didn’t fare so well. What happened?
Hamilton: Only half the songs on Betty were typical Helmet songs, and then there was some other, more experimental stuff on there. I think people who are into rock music are not as open minded as they were in 1969 or 1970. Back then, the Doors could have a huge hit with “Light My Fire” and then put out “Show Me the Way to the Next Little Girl” [“Alabama Song”], which was weird shit. But now people don’t want things to be too different. It’s a shame because I still enjoy Betty. My sister was playing it in the car over Christmas in Oregon, and watching her two year old bang his head to “Milquetoast” was really hysterical.
GW: Is it frustrating to be overshadowed in popularity by newer bands like Korn, Silverchair and Tool who are obviously heavily influenced by Helmet?
Hamilton: It’s nice to sell a lot of records, but that shouldn’t be a goal in and of itself. The Melvins and The Jesus Lizard, both great bands, have been making music for longer than us, and they’ve had one-tenth of the commercial success that we have. Yeah, a lot of other groups have come along since we started out and blew a few doors down doing what we are doing. But, honest to God, I don’t have any resentment towards them-especially towards a band like Silverchair. When I was 17, I could barely play guitar, let alone write a song.
GW: Do you ever feel old when you compare yourself to these newer groups?
Hamilton: I don’t feel old at all. I’ll listen to Aftertaste and then I’ll listen to other records, and I feel like the depth and level of awareness is higher on our record. If people have that “out-with-the-old and in-with-new” philosophy, then God bless them. I have complete faith and confidence that our albums will hold up to the test of time. The sound of the three of us getting together is completely inimitable. That’s something I’m really proud of.
GW: How do you feel about the current state of rock music?
Hamilton: It’s bad. American music in particular is in pretty bad shape. But there are also some great bands out there-people like Morphine, Jesus Lizard, Melvins. None of them sell albums, but they’re great bands. The Top 40 is really a drag. I spoke to David Yow of the Jesus Lizard and he said listening to the radio made him feel great. He said, “If you ever have any doubts about what you’re doing, turn on your local alternative station and you’ll feel so good about yourself again.”
GW: How is it that Aftertaste is less experimental than Betty?
Hamilton: I think realizing what you do best as a band is really important, especially live. John Stanier, our drummer, really wasn’t putting his heart into playing “Beautiful Love,” which we opened with at the beginning of the Betty tour. I could see that he thought it was fun in the studio, but it was not a style of music he felt comfortable playing. There’s no point in doing something that makes your bandmates uncomfortable. Helmet started as a very specific sound in my head; I knew what I wanted, and that’s what we have. We’re good at being Helmet, and I kind of look at Helmet as a band like AC/DC, really. I love AC/DC, and one of the things I love about them is they are so focused and clear. It’s great to have restrictions. It’s constructive and productive to try to work within specific parameters and try to grow as much as you can within those parameters.
GW: To play devil’s advocate for a moment, some critics have dismissed Aftertaste as a plodding, lackluster metal record-and even a “sell out.”
Hamilton: If I had the ability to sell out and give the people what they want, I don’t know if I’d do it or not. But I don’t think I have the ability to. I can’t sit down and write a song I don’t want to write. So anybody that doesn’t like the album, that’s their prerogative. Aftertaste is not a response to anything in particular. It’s not an attempt to sell more albums. I’m fond of Betty, but I’m a lot more fond of this album. The strongest songs on this album are stronger than anything that has ever been on a Helmet album. Some of the experimental stuff on Betty might have been a bit of thumbing my nose at the heavy metal world, but I don’t need to do that anymore. I’ve grown up.
GW: Do you read your own press?
Hamilton: Yes, and it does hurt my feeling when I read a bad review, but I know what’s true and not true. I’ve learned as much from bad reviews as I have from all the Helmet praise. It all forces you to look at yourself. If you think you’re perfect and you’re great and you’re God’s gift to songwriting, how could you possibly do anything good?
GW: What are your artistic goals these days?
Hamilton: To try to see things more clearly and strive for the truth. Not to sound too religious or anything, but it’s not uncommon as a person lives more life to get tired of bullshit. For me personally, I spend less time hanging out at night in bars and going to parties because I’ve probably met all the people I really care to meet in my life. I meet tons of people on the road, and there are only about one-tenth of them that I’m really interested in having a conversation with. I’m far less interested in frat-boy camaraderie than I was when I was 18 years old. Also, I want to break the routine a little bit. I think a daily routine can completely impede you from any sort of intellectual or spiritual progress.
GW: How did those feelings translate into the music on Aftertaste?
Hamilton: All I’m trying to do is progress and grow. It’s the process of writing songs that I’m interested in. These days, I just write what comes into my head when I’m walking around, as opposed to spending a lot of time with the guitar noodling. I do noodle some, but I spend a lot less time with the guitar than I used to, and it seems to have helped improve my guitar playing, oddly enough. The more you get away from the instrument and imagine the music, the fresher your guitar playing becomes.
GW: A lot of the lyrics on Aftertaste are rather bitter and cynical.
Hamilton: I like to think of it as sarcasm, not bitterness or cynicism, And I think sarcasm is most effective when it’s humorous. I think being too cynical gets really tired. I’ve always had this thing about awareness and people’s lack of awareness and levels of awareness. Take a line like, “If I’m half informed, sympathize because it’s easy to get bored/I don’t have time to waste/I’m busy cultivating useless good taste.” It’s a pretty strong statement, but it’s pretty humorous as well.
GW: Do you think that many listeners overlook the humor in Helmet’s music?
Hamilton: Absolutely. Probably 90 to 95 percent of the people who come to our shows are just there to get their ya-yas out and bang heads. They think that I’m a violent person and Helmet is a violent band. But I’m at the point where I can’t assume responsibility for Helmet fans. I think I behave responsibly, and I try to set a good example for people. I’m as big a shithead as the next guy, but I’m making a fucking attempt. And that’s what we need to do – show an interest in something besides playing Doom for 12 hours a day.
GW: Do you have contempt for some Helmet fans?
Hamilton: No, It’s not just specifically Helmet fans. I have contempt for the side of human nature that makes some drivers pull out a gun to express their frustration at not being able to pass someone on the highway. We are absolutely violent creatures. That’s one of the things we should all be aware of. I’ve smashed guitars and broken things up because an amp blew up on me onstage. And I feel embarrassed because of that behavior. And I feel embarrassed because I’ve almost gotten in fights at four in the morning with people who have flipped me off. We all behave like assholes from time to time, and It’s a goal of mine to be less of an asshole than I have been in the past.
GW: Aftertaste took an awfully long time to record. Do you perceive it as being a make-or-break album for the band?
Hamilton: No, but I take full responsibility for the delay of the album. I’m not a songwriting machine. I’m not trying to thumb my nose at Helmet fans, but I don’t sit around all day and think about the band. It is completely my responsibility to write songs for this band, and some days, I just get up and don’t feel inspired. Sometimes I work at it and try to force things out, but generally those things end up being things I can’t stand. I’m very selective in what I record and what I show the band.
GW: What happened with Rob Echeverria? Why did he leave the group and join Biohazard?
Hamilton: I think we decided he should go pursue his own thing. We had been with him for three years, and it wasn’t a personal thing because we still care for he guy. But Rob is not incredibly outgoing. He’s pretty even keeled and easygoing, and it’s hard to deal with the three of us. We have a very strange relationship in this band, and we make people uncomfortable. We don’t really talk to each other a lot. It’s not because we don’t like each other, it’s because we don’t have anything to say. It’s really stressful for someone coming into that situation.
GW: Does the tension that exists among the three members of Helmet fuel the music?
Hamilton: Hell, yeah. I’ve thought about it a lot, and I think It’s just human nature for man to be aggressive and competitive, and that causes tension. I hope I don’t lose those guys. I hope they don’t get sick of me and leave.
We have fights about the most ridiculous things. John thought I was mocking him onstage one night, and I wasn’t. I was just thrilled because I looked over at our new rhythm guitarist Chris Traynor, and I was laughing because his shorts were too baggy. It was hysterical, but me and John had a huge fight after the show. We broke some bottles and threatened each other and got over it, and we both felt better afterwards. None of us has the desire to physically maim one another, but we sometimes get pissed off at each other. They make me incredibly angry. Sometimes I feel like they don’t have any appreciation for what I go through and what I do. We’ve all had to learn to respect each other’s space. It’s hard for Chris now. He’ll say, “Are you pissed off at me? Is there something wrong?” And I’ll go, “No, I’m in a perfectly good mood. I just don’t want to be a part of the human race at this particular moment.”
GW: So you guys are basically just work partners, not friends?
Hamilton: No, I think we’re friends. We do work together, but I think after we break up, we’ll stay in touch with each other to a certain extent. But we’re in the thick of it right now. I think we’ve got a few more albums before they put us in wheelchairs and send us to a home.