Lzzy leads Halestorm Downunder

NZ Herald

3 Dec, 2015 04:00 PM4 mins to read

Lzzy looks like the ultimate glam-rock chick in the Halestorm photos, but over the phone she's distinctly down to earth, a little goofy even.

There can't be too many siblings out there who've gone from forming a two-piece band as early teens and playing at their local county fair, to winning a Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance 15 years later.

But that's the story of Arejay (drums) and Lzzy Hale (vocals), who formed Halestorm as classic rock-mad kids in Pennsylvania, and gathered two further band mates in the early 2000s before they signed with Atlantic Records.

Since then, they seem to have remained immune to the waxing and waning enthusiasm for rock music worldwide, and have steadily grown their fan base, touring the US, and winning that coveted 2012 Grammy - becoming the first female-fronted band to both be nominated and win in that category.

"Yeah, it blows my mind, I feel like a very lucky girl," Lzzy laughs down the line from her home in Nashville. "It was totally nuts, because it feels like that doesn't happen to bands like us. It was like something we joked about came true. But that was very much a stop-and-smell-the-roses moment for us. We all went out afterwards and sat down with a glass of champagne and had a toast, and just shared lots of stories like 'Remember when we played Fiddlesticks, and there were four people in the crowd? Can you believe we came all the way to this?' So yeah, it was a very cool moment."

Lzzy looks like the ultimate glam-rock chick in the Halestorm photos, but over the phone she's distinctly down to earth, a little goofy even, with a husky, friendly voice, and is clearly thrilled to be coming to perform in New Zealand for the first time.

"I'm not quite sure what to expect but I have a lot of friends who have been there and they always tell me there's nothing like New Zealand rock fans, so I'm excited!"

They'll be playing songs from across their back catalogue, including last year's release Into The Wild Places, which saw them change approach, change studio, change city, change producer and end up recording in a converted church.

"You'd walk in to this huge congregation room with big tall windows and lots of sunlight, and it didn't really feel like you were in a studio. So even that aspect of recording in the church, I feel added to the mood of experimentation.

"This entire new record is a series of what we've been calling happy accidents. We screwed up every single song on this record but in the best way. I guess we were looking to capture that human element, making moments and playing off each other, and not really knowing what we were doing, and figuring it out as we went, and recording all of it, rather than chasing after perfection."

Halestorm have been a classic rock act right from the get-go - Lzzy and Arejay's father was a bass player in local bands during the 70s and 80s, and there was always plenty of classic rock records on the stereo when they were kids.

"Through my mid-teenage years I was obsessed with Black Sabbath and Van Halen and Cinderella and Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy and Pink Floyd and AC/DC. My interest in heavy music was always through classic rock; I loved those sounds. And somehow it all just became part of my identity, down to the way I dress and how I view myself, and my music has always been rooted in that classic rock tradition."

She's well aware she's in the minority as a woman leading a rock act, but it's never been an issue.

"If there's ever been any negativity, I think I've always been a bit blind to it. I guess I do music for quite selfish reasons - not to make anybody like me, really, just because it was something I could do pretty well that I enjoyed.

"Occasionally when you have to clarify, 'Oh yeah, I'm actually in the band, I'm not just dating someone in the band or a groupie', that's when you notice it. But I think regardless of your gender, you just have to work very hard to make sure that you're good at what you do. If you can knock it out of the park every night then no one cares what you're wearing, or if you're a guy or a girl."