Interview Johnny Pettibone HIMSA

MTV2 Headbangers Ball III HIMSA 10/29/04 Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale Photo: Erika Kristen Watt

Click here for Part II of Johnny's interview...

Lineup: Johnny Pettibone - Vocals Derek Harn - Bass Sounds Chad Davis - Drums Matthew Wicklund - Guitar Kirby Charles Johnson - Guitar

"If there’s a barrier, I’ll jump in the crowd. Now that the band has gotten bigger and gone on more high profile tours where there are barriers, it’s still like ‘the stage is yours too!’  They’re a part of HIMSA no matter what because if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be a band!"

HIMSA, a DIY band that is on a course to blow up in the metal/hardcore scene. Even though they have been a prominent force in their native Seattle, I project HIMSA will no longer be a well kept secret before long. Opening act on the current/winter leg of MTV2's Headbangers Ball Tour with Cradle of Filth, Arch Enemy, and Bleeding Through. This band should easily win many new fans during their current jaunt as its easy to see why they earned the praises from the likes of Kerrang and Metal Maniacs. Read on as Johnny Pettibone discusses his projections for the new HBB Tour, the meaning behind "A Girl In Glass" off their latest effort, Courting Tragedy And Disaster, Randy Blythe's experience meeting a member from the band Accused, and much more...

Karma: Thanks so much for doing the interview.

Johnny: No problem!

Karma: I was reading an older interview as it broke the meaning down of HIMSA, how was it chosen?

Johnny: Actually when the name of the band was chosen I wasn’t in the band. They actually started out without a singer.  It was just 4 guys basically, amongst other hardcore bands in Seattle that wanted to try something different.  At the time, and this was at the end of 1997, they actually asked me if I wanted to sing not knowing that I was moving to New York in a couple of months…

Karma: Hmmm….

Johnny: So I think as far as the story goes, one of the guys in the band, Aaron Edge, one of the original members, he studied Eastern philosophy and whatnot.  He came across the name ahimsa which “was to cause the least amount of harm” to yourself and to others.  With more research he found there was an opposite meaning of ahimsa and that was “to cause rage and wrath” so that’s how the name stuck.

Karma: Now that is awesome!!  So originally, how did you hook up with the band?

Johnny: I’ve been friends with most of the guys for maybe 10 years.  Old bands that we all played together within the Seattle hardcore scene and whatnot so we already had a family/tight knit family oriented kinda thing.  So when I moved back from New York, things weren’t working out with the guy they had, Christian [Schmitt], they asked me if I wanted to join up and I was like, “Not really, because I wasn’t too fond of the first record you put out".  It wasn’t really anything…I mean I liked parts of it but I wasn’t really into the whole political thing and whatnot, for me personally.  They asked me which parts I liked, “Well more of the metal stuff that you guys are doing".  And they’re like, “Well that’s funny because that’s the direction basically that the band is going in!” Like I said before that one of the original members, Aaron Edge, he came up with the name but he left the band.  He was one of the main writers and guitar player, so the kid that came in and filled his place had more of a metal influence than him [Edge].  The stuff they were writing which actually became the Death Is Infinite EP that I debuted on was actually more of the stuff I wanted to play which was more of a Swedish Metal sounding kinda thing, so I liked what they were doing. Once I joined, then another guitar player left [snickers, then clears his throat]

Karma: Wow!

Johnny: [laughs] Pfft, yeah!  The guy that we got to fill in was Kirby [Charles Johnson] which he came in about a month after I did.  I’ve known Kirby the longest out of the band, probably about 12 years and knowing what he comes from and what he was influenced by and whatnot.  I was excited to work with him and see what we could come up with and that basically is how recording the of the tracks started out.  There are a couple of songs on there that are kinda 2-3 years old.  I really like his writing style and what not!  From then we’ve had another new guitar player [Matthew Wicklund] and a drummer [Chad Davis] in the past year so…but now it’s really tight knit, we’re all on the same page; we all want to do the same thing with the band.  We’ve already started writing another record.

Karma: That’s great!

Johnny: Yeah, that’s going to even better [than Courting Tragedy and Disaster] 

Karma: Awesome!! 

Johnny: Sorry it’s such a long story!  [laughs]

Karma: But it’s a great story!  [we both laugh]  So it sounds like your songwriting has gotten stronger/tighter since you are gelling as a unit.

Johnny: For sure!  Before there were 3 of us and then Kirby, where we wanted to push the band as far as it could go and make it full-time and be on the road as much as possible with a label that was behind us 100% blah, blah, blah.  As an end result, we always had problems with one of the old guitarists and drummer because they didn’t want to sacrifice that much as far as relationships they were in at home and being away from home so much and whatnot.  All of us were feeling that but we had been playing music for so long why don’t we just try to do it for a living?!  And now all of the hard work that’s been happening over the past 2-3 years has been paying off.  With these new guys, they just add so much more to it and make it even…I mean is that we wanted to have fun with it even though it has to be serious and make sure everything gets taken care of we wanted to make sure it was fun.  And see these new guys make it more fun because our personalities are all the same; the humor is all the same.  It just feels like all of us have grown up together even though they’re new.  They sit well!

Karma: That’s great!

Johnny: Yeah!  We’re fortunate though!  [laughs]

Karma: Yes, you really are!!  I’m sure you’re looking forward to touring with Cradle of Filth and Arch Enemy.

Johnny: We’re very much looking forward to it!!

Karma: How do you think the Headbangers Ball Tour will compare to the STRHESS Tour?

Johnny: Umm, I think we’ll get a lot of kids from this tour that will see us for the first time or maybe that they hadn’t really paid attention before.  And of course there will be bigger venues.  I think also Arch Enemy and Cradle of Filth bring a new type of crowd too!  So the exposure for is tremendous that was the main reason why we wanted to take this tour too!  Just because the Headbangers Ball Tour is one of the biggest tours of the year and also as far as we go, we are still a small, humble band from Seattle!  We’ve been really fortunate to get some great tours and now this is a dream come true!  I mean we never thought…last year it was, you know, it was Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall and Lamb of God, and God Forbid.  Then we played with Hatebreed and Unearth and now this is the 3^rd one [tour].  We are being taken serious and given the chance to show what we have!!  It has been really a dream come true!

Karma: And congrats!  [they deserve it]

Johnny: Thank you very much!

Karma: How have sales been for your latest Courting Tragedy and Disaster, which is incredible album by the way!

Johnny: Thank you very much!  It’s been awesome!  Like especially for our first record we got a lot of good feedback so we’re excited.  Now we’re kind of ending the cycle with this tour off Courting Tragedy so we can go back into the studio in February or March and bang out a new record.  But with that, the first record getting so much attention adds a little more pressure and a little more stress to the second one.

Karma: I’m sure it would.

Johnny: But it’s a good challenge!  You know what I mean.

Karma: Definitely!

Johnny: That second record is always the one that critics kind of look at and tells what a band’s potential is and what are they going to add for the future, you know what I mean?

Karma: Yeah!

Johnny: It’s awesome but right now we’ve written 4 songs so far and now that we’re doing the tour it kinda takes 2 months away and Kirby and Matt both do write on the road but it’s just so hard.  Especially with us being the opening band, I’m sure we won’t get much of sound check or whatnot so we really can’t run through what’s going on.  So when we do get home it’s pretty much going to be a big crunch time to finish what we need to do before we go into the studio.

Karma: Oh, okay.

Johnny: The tentative timeline right now is kind of messed up for us as far as that goes but it’s nothing that we’re not used to.

Karma: And it’s a good sacrifice that you’re making also!

Johnny: Exactly!  I could be sitting behind a desk all day and being miserable!!

Karma: Exactly!  Exactly!!

Johnny: [laughs]

Karma: And speaking of your writing process, how does that go?

Johnny: Basically like I said before, Matt & Kirby get together and they have a studio that they have set up at Kirby’s house that has a drum machine on it.  Since our drummer lives in Portland, Oregon he can only come up 3 days a week when we are at home so we try to practice 3 days in a row.  Matt & Kirby will bang something out, Chad will come in and kinda lay the drums over and then Derek will fill in on bass and once the song is finalized, they’ll give me a tape.  I’m constantly writing thoughts or whatever and then I think of what I want to write about and then it goes from there as far as a theme goes.

Karma: I LOVE a "Girl ln Glass"; it is my favorite song.  Can you explain what the song's about?

Johnny: Well thank you!  It stems from an old friend in high school.  She was just so precious and had this grace to her and she was everything to me.  She showed me so much of the world and wasn’t even like a girlfriend…

Karma: Wow!

Johnny: …just somebody that I was close to.  She had a big influence on me yet she had so many problems.  The “Girl In Glass” part is like on the outside she seemed invincible but on the inside she was so shattered, so broken.  And as much as I tried to help her and how other people tried to help her, there was no way of getting to her yet she gave the best advice to me on how to live life!  And basically go out there and do all you can and sacrifice ‘cos that’s what she would do but she had so much pain going on inside that she wouldn’t take her own advice.  She just left the world it’s kind of like a tribute to her.

Karma: Wow!  The video very clever and is more haunting than the song.  At the end of the video is she supposed to be dead or that’s she’s captured in her own world.

Johnny: I don’t see it as death, she still goes on in my memories in fact that’s how she still lives.  That’s the thing with MTV you have to do have to edit a lot of what’s going on.  It actually shows me trying to get to her.  You’ll see when I…it shows her, it looks like she’s drowning.

Karma: Right.

Johnny: Or suffocating or whatnot and the ice has formed and I can’t get to her.  And that’s her conscious not being able to get to her at all as once you see the shot pan back and I get up, when I hit the light, she’s not in the tub anymore.  She actually not there but she is because when I hit the light the light shatters, it goes out but the tub is still there and that’s kinda like the memory! 

Karma: Whoa!  Please describe a HIMSA show to a fan that has never seen you perform live before.

Johnny: It’s just energetic, out there 100% giving it all.  I personally, and so does the rest of the band, love crowd interaction: stage diving or singing along.  If there’s a barrier, I’ll jump in the crowd.  We have a DIY ethic to us, I mean we come from playing in basements and house shows and small clubs.  Now that the band has gotten bigger and gone on more high profile tours where there are barriers between the stage and whatnot, it’s still like ‘the stage is yours too!’ We’re not just a band up there for the entertainment, people come to pay their money, and they’re a part of it too!  They’re a part of HIMSA no matter what because if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be a band!

Karma: So true.

Johnny: The crowd interaction with us is the main thing about playing live! [sniggles]

Karma: [laughs] I love to hear stuff like that!  Later, we will be interviewing Randy (Lamb of God) and I know he’s one of your favorites as well as him being a big fan of yours as well!

Johnny: AWESOME!!  Yes!  I just got to hang out with him 2 days ago!

Karma: Now that’s cool!!  Do you have any questions for him?

Johnny: Ummm, ask him about the Accused. [as he says in an excited intonation]

Karma: The Accused, okay!

Johnny: The old Seattle thrash band and he’ll go CRAZY!  [laughs]

Karma: Oh, okay!  [laughing]  Why is that?

Johnny: He got to meet the guitar player, Tommy, the other night and he FREAKED OUT!  I watched him be like a 15-year old kid!  It was awesome.

Karma: Oh that so cool!

Johnny: [stoked] It was really rad!  Especially Lamb of God being such a big band right now; they’re the main reason why we are where we are right now.  They helped us get on Prosthetic [Records] and whatnot.  They’ve always been there for us and to see him…Accused is a band I grew up seeing in the 80’s a lot.  Accused was the local band that we were behind as it put Seattle on the map.

Karma: [grins] Okay.

Johnny: [sniggles] To see Randy freak out about the Accused, he said something about it on stage the other night.  I got goose bumps just because I still get the feeling sometimes when I see bands or whatnot.  I mean I’m still a big fan boy/fan nerd about certain bands and what not!

Karma: [gasps and snickers]

Johnny: [laughs] And to see Randy go back and to meet an idol of his of even someone that I’ve known a long time, it was really really impressive of him being such a big fan of music where as with a lot of bands, things just go to their heads!  They just kind of forget where they come from and whatnot but he really, really freaked out.  It was really awesome, it so inspiring!

Karma: How cool is that?  [laughing]

Johnny: Yeah!  Ask him about the Accused!

Karma: Okay!  Will do!!  And speaking of fans, how have yours changed since you first started doing this?

Johnny: Our fans?  Well because of where the members come from the hardcore scene, the music is more of a metal influence.  But I see a lot of crossover coming as far as some hardcore kids who like more mainstream Ozzfest type kids which is who we are trying to reach because those kids because those kids are true music fans. 

Karma: This is true!

Johnny: They don’t care where the bands come from or who’s in it and whatnot!  You know, that’s awesome because they’re there to have a good time and come out.  There is no politics involved in it.  Even though I’m still involved in the hardcore scene, and that’s my family, that’s where I feel comfortable.  It’s just like we have gotten some flack like, ‘Well you don’t have breakdowns in your songs and stuff like that…’ but we’re trying to stand out from the typical sound of what’s going right now or that’s been going on!  We’re trying to make influences across the border of what we’ve grown up with and make it our own unique way.  I think that the biggest thing as far as fans go these days.  But what’s great is that we have this weird kind of like an image fan thing going as of late. 

Karma: Really?

Johnny: Yeah, I have a Devilock you know and it’s kind of like an ode to The Misfits.  And The Misfits are one of my favorite bands.  But I had a pompadour, like a Morrissey quiff...now they are my favorite band!  Morrissey quite for like 10 years and I just got sick of putting grease in my hair and whatnot so I was like hmmm, I’m just going to go for the Devilock now.  I started doing the Devilock and now there are just tons of kids that have that same look.  And I think it’s awesome!  [laughs] It’s funny because a friend of mine coined them as the “Petticlones” because my last name is Pettibone, which is awesome!

Karma: [breaks out in laughter] Wow!

Johnny: [laughing] They’re like my little dominion of evil kids. [laughs devilishly]  It’s great!!

Karma: [continues laughing] That is great!

Johnny: That’s okay, I like playing big brother!!

Karma: That’s awesome!!  After reading your bio you speak about your passions, what pisses you off?

Johnny: What pisses me off?  Shoot, just living!

Karma: Understood!

Johnny: You know I mean everyday is a fight!  I work, when I’m at home, at a club here that gets a lot of international tours and whatnot and I do security so it’s like everyday…I’m straight edge and yes, I work in a bar!  I see kinda the damage of what that does and even though a lot of the people are having a good time.  You see the same faces in there and it’s…kinda sad because that’s what the people live for.  They work 9-5 [jobs] then they come and sit in a bar all day and it’s kinda like they’re wasting their life!  That's fuel for anger right there!

Karma: Okay!

Johnny: Again, get out and do something, you know what I mean!  I’m 32 years old and I see these guys that are 24-25 and I can already see how their lives are going!  Then being a security guard, I am always either in the middle of a fight or breaking up a fight or throwing guys out…and you know that’s a constant kind of anger going on.  It’s just the basics of human nature of how people treat each other.  It’s like we’re all equal but it’s just this whole fight/beef of trying to be better than the other.  And you know, it’s just messed up!  And working on both sides of the Industry: being in a band and being able to tour around the world and yet working at a club and seeing the other side of it.  Seeing the two evils between the two gives me enough ammunition to be pissed off so…!

Karma: Well…

Johnny: Plus Seattle is kind of like a really, dreary depressing place and I love it here, but it’s really gray and whatnot.  It just keeps this kind of tone to your being and just living here you’re just always constantly thinking, constantly being on your guard.  Seattle’s a strange place!

Karma: From what I’ve been told, but it doesn’t necessarily make you want to visit any faster now either! [laughs]

Johnny: [laughs] A lot of people come here and love it!  I mean I’ve lived here for most of my life and I lived in New York and other places in the country and there’s no other place I want to go.  But there’s just this weird feeling that I’ve always loved.  I guess it’s kind of unexplainable!

Karma: Since you are straight edge, do you catch flack for it in the Industry?

Johnny: No, I mean I’ll get someone making a comment or whatever but it’s no big deal to me.  I’ve been straight edge since I was 14 and it’s a personal thing.  It’s just for me; I don’t care what people do with their own lives, it’s their choice!  But if you can show me respect, I can show them respect.  I mean as long as they’re not doing damage to themselves then I’m not going to say anything.  I’ve had numerous friends’ overdose and whatnot I mean even kids I grew up with that were straight edge you know…they just fell off the deep end!

Karma: Wow! Sorry to hear…

Johnny: And they experimented tremendously with everything they could and actually losing them just makes me stronger in my morals and beliefs because I know I would go down that same path if I started using and abusing.  [his voice trails off]  I know that I would just be messed up and I know would it would kinda revolve in my life and be a major part of it.  I just never wanted to end up like a lot of my family did.  There's a lot of alcoholism and drug abuse in my family and I never wanted to be a part of that!

Karma: And it would detour you from accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself.

Johnny: Exactly!  I have set goals and I think straight edge is a part of that!  It helps me get through and that's just for me; and I know that, you know!  I never really got any flack when I was on tour or whatnot 'cos one we do tour with other bands that have straight edge members in them.  Like Bleeding Through, they're all straight edge, I've known those kids a long, long time; they are very good friends of ours.  It's awesome to be on the road with other straight edge kids because I'm in a band full of dudes that drink all the time!  [we both laugh]  I'm the guy that always gets to drive after the shows and whatnot!!  [we both share a hearty chuckle]  But I don't mind, I know they want to party & have fun…so…

Karma: And speaking of Bleeding Through, I'm interviewing Brandan later…

Johnny: AWESOME!

Karma: Do you have any questions for him?

Johnny: Do I have anything for him? 

Karma: Yeah.

Johnny: He's HOT!

Karma: He's hot!  [breaks out in hysterical laughter] Okay!!  [laughing continues]

Johnny: [laughs] Boy, I love him!

Karma: I'll let him know that!  [we both laugh]  In your opinion, what do you think needs to change in the Industry?

Johnny: Ummm, I'm not naming names, but I worked this show the other night but for crew members that work for bands you know, they need to get off a pedestal.  Yeah, okay, you're teching for them and whatnot, but it's like, you don't have to be an asshole!  I'm here to work for you!  And that's what I do too, I do stage detail in the city.

Karma: Oh okay.

Johnny: I do load-ins and whatnot and get the bands up on stage and stuff like that.  And it's like a lot of band's crews come through and like I said, they're just assholes and it directly reflects on the band.  Knowing this, I mean I get to work directly with the bands so I know how they are and whatnot but I just cannot wait until one day I can get big enough I'm gonna hire ALL the assholes I ever had to work for…

Karma: [laughs] Wow!

Johnny: [snickers] …that work for metal bands right now and I am going to hire each and every one of them and treat them like so much shit!  [we both laugh]  Because they are the biggest dicks ever!  [we both share a hearty guffaw]  So I actually have a list of guys that I can't stand that work in the Industry…

Karma: Wow!

Johnny: And some day, I'll get to work with them!!  [we both laugh again]  And I'll get my revenge! 

Karma: [laughing still] Oh my god that's great!  Good for you!!  [he joins in laughing] 

Johnny: I mean it's awesome because I mean the scene in the 80's it just seems like there was a lot of competition and whatnot and who can get on top.  Not saying the bands created that because a lot of them have but I like it now because a lot of the smaller bands are getting a lot of worldwide recognition and they are turning around and helping smaller bands out.  Bands like that have helped us out like Bleeding Through, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God.  It's those guys that remember where they come from and are willing to go out and help the smaller bands out and bring them along for the ride and I love it!! 

I love that there are fests now like the Ozzfests' or like the Hellfests' and whatnot.  In a whole weekend, you can actually find out what's going on in the world within of the music scene, within the hardcore genres and there's a taste of everything.  I think it's awesome, it's a great way for this style of music.  Now there's this new wave [NWOAHM] and I think it here to stay!  A lot of the kids have moved away from, I hate to using the term, but the grunge thing.  It got so big and they were like, 'Oh, it's this new type of music and it speaks for me even though I'm depressed and I can't deal with life!'  Where I think this music is much more real; all those kids still have that anger inside of them.  With all these bands that are coming out, I think it's how the kids feel and where they're going and how the bands speak for them.

I'd like to thank Johnny for the wonderful interview and Jensen Lee from Adrenaline PR for setting the interview up! 

Now click here for part II

of Johnny's interview.

Points of interest

q       New interview with Johnny

q       Click here for live shots of the band from the Dirty Black Summer Tour

q      Click here for more pix of the band from the Chicago Headbangers Ball's show