Page Hamilton: That’s accurate. Helmet is more akin to a blues band than a fashionable rock band. I jump off stage after the shows now to talk and hang out and take pictures. There are people who’ve seen me over the last ten to 15 years that say I’m better now. It may take me a little longer to recover from a show. I need a full 24 hours to recover. I don’t smoke anymore and I’m trying to keep my scotch to one. But when you look at my heroes, it’s Thelonious Monk and Miles and Train and Bird. They continued to play.
Playing probably isn’t grueling on Bono, but he has an army of assistants. I’m schlepping gear with the boys. The rock road is a little more demanding. I’ll do it as long as I enjoy it. Believe me, the grind of the road and the business is disheartening. I’m thinking more about having a home life with someone. We’re talking about kids. I love doing this and she wants me to continue, but this might be my last extended tour. I don’t know yet. I’ll see how we’re doing at the end of the 12 months.
The beauty is that she has reminded me that when you get up there you love it so much. And she’s right. I love to sound check and I love the gigs (laughs). It’s the traveling and everything in between that kicks your ass. I went to bed at 3:30 last night and got up at 10 am. Thank God I love this record. We’re playing everything off the next record except “Morphing,” which is not playable unless we have a mini-orchestra. “LA Water” is also a bit of a challenge because there is a lot of weird switching and backwards sounds.
Are you now able to interact with fans in a more meaningful way than in the past?
Absolutely. I’m more comfortable with myself. I’m at peace with who I am and what I’m doing. I know what it is I do and what I’m good at. Also, the communication with my old band, as great as they were musically, was awful. All three of us were to blame. It wasn’t just them or me. We had just come to the end of our time together after almost ten years.
I harbor no resentment against them whatsoever, but we weren’t happy and it wasn’t a brotherhood. John always made a point of telling people we weren’t friends. It made me kind of sad and I wish we could have some communication and just say I’m proud of what we did. I’ve heard through some folks that John does feel that way, but felt he would always have been my little brother if he stayed with us.
The guys I’m with now are comfortable being my little brothers. They love playing the music and that makes me more comfortable. And I don’t feel guilty when I bring in new songs. Near the end of the last lineup I felt like (bassist) Henry (Bogdan) didn’t want to be there and John ultimately didn’t want to be there. I respect that they were honest, but it made it tense at times.
Do you feel like you are offering a new lineup of younger musicians a musical education?
I’ve always felt like I had an idea of what I wanted to do and had a system. The reason I’m confident is that I work hard. I’m obsessed with the guitar and writing and arranging. Whether I’m trying to do an orchestra piece for a movie or Helmet, I have an approach, and when you are disciplined it gives you confidence.
The band knows that I expect them to be great. (Drummer) Kyle (Stevenson) started studying with someone a year ago because as great as he is, he had some holes in his playing and he knew that. (Guitarist) Dan (Beeman) started studying jazz. There’s no end to studying and practicing music. That’s why I chose it over banking or medicine.
Do you feel like you’ve made the technical side of music and things like scales something people care about? Is that part of Helmet’s legacy?
I never write with a scale in mind. But I hear things because I know scales. I don’t say, “let’s employ an alto scale” when I’m writing. I’ll get a melody in my head and then hear the change. When you learn these things, you expand your palate and vocabulary. Just by knowing things like major and minor chords you see patterns.
Frankly, I get bored with a lot of rock music because it’s boring. It’s nothing against kids who get into it, but to me it’s boring and I’m not interested. I’m interested in thematic writing and using different intervals and that’s why people think I write great riffs. I also listen to jazz and classical and country and western and reggae. It expands your writing. Maybe that’s why Helmet sounds like Helmet.
Sometimes people will send me reviews and I’ll get a little pissed off when a writer mentions something like chord changes. And I’ll think, do you really want to talk to me about chord changes? Do you want to want to talk about dominant scales and diminished scales and triad superimposition and experimenting with the melodic minor? You really want to talk about this?
I practice, I still work at music. I listen to everything. It’s not a technical exercise when I write, I just let it rip. That’s part of the beauty of Helmet, these tight arrangements and these solos that dive in head-first. Sometimes I hit it on them on the first try. On this album half of the solos were done on the first take. Then I drive everyone nuts because I got it right the first time and do it four or five more times. On a song like “Speechless” I struggled and couldn’t find the groove. I was finally so pissed off that it triggered something in the studio and I did a solo and it worked.
Mozart said a musician needs brains, ears and heart. All three make a great musician, not one or two of three.
