Himsa has one of the best websites ever, and the band is pretty fucking rocking as well. I interview Derek Harn at the Worcester Palladium on April 6, 2004.

PL: Start by stating your name and what you do for the band.

DH: My name is Derek Harn and I play bass for Himsa.

PL: I read that you guys sold 666 albums the first week your record came out. Do you find that ironic at all?

DH: Yeah, actually. Its kind of weird. We never expected that to happen at all, but since it did, we used it towards our marketing advantage. So it was pretty cool. So, yeah, it just worked out that way and it was kind of strange.

PL: I was at Best Buy one day and I heard them play one of your songs over the intercom with the DJ hyping you guys up. What kind of feeling does that give you?

DH: We were in Best Buy one time when we heard it. We didn't even know it was happening so we were like "Oh, weird." It was probably the same reaction that anybody would have had. It was kind of funny because we totally didn't expect it and had no idea that it was going to happen. We called our label and we were like: "Yeah, we just heard ourselves at Best Buy; whats up with that?" And they said that they got us on this Best Buy intercom program or whatever they call it. They said that it wasn't supposed to happen until the month after that, so it was news to our label too. It was pretty cool though.

PL: Do you know how that works?

DH: Yeah, its just like a marketing program that our label got us on. Our label's actually in with Best Buy. They do a lot of offers and a lot of different marketing type things with Best Buy because Best Buy is such a big store and a lot of kids that are into metal buy records from there.

PL: Do you think the average Best Buy listener would hear your song and want to go buy your record?

DH: The average Best Buy listener?

PL: Yeah.

DH: No. I don't even think that people really pay attention to whats going on over the intercoms. I think the people who have told me that they heard it on there were people that already knew about us and it caught them off guard. I've actually had maybe one or two people tell me that the first time they heard us was over the intercom at Best Buy. The thing was only for a month so its already done. I don't know how much it helped out. I don't have any statistics about how many records it sold.

PL: Being from Seattle, has Nirvana or grunge in general had an influence on you musically?

DH: Grunge in particular has not, but the Seattle music scene definitely has. The music scene is Seattle is pretty big and its a very large community; and its also a very supportive community. And it always has been, even before grunge was around. So living in Seattle and being a part of that community for 10-11 years has helped us to get out to the rest of the world. Bands don't get very far if they don't have a home base or a scene to support them; to push them out further into the U.S. and the world. In that way, indirectly I guess, maybe grunge us. Musically, we don't draw any influences from that. Some of us like bands like Soundgarden and some people like Nirvana. Other than that, we don't really take anything from what those bands have done in the past other than I wear combat boots and flannel and grow my hair long.

PL: Your new album is a bit more metal than your four song E.P. for Revelation, but its kind of subtley more.

DH: To me, its a lot more metal than the Rev one. Actually, we had a different guitar player help us with the writing on the new album. Even if you go back further than that, you can kind of see the steps we were taking to get to how metal we are today. Some of those were big leaps, but for us, even without those records, we were always moving towards that; whether it different members who had different metal influences or the original members who were just kind of tapping more into their metal background. Everything's been kind of leading up to what we're doing now. Now that we're doing this, this is what feels natural to us and what we're most proud of. Thats why we've been touring for the past year to push the crap out of this record because this is something we fully back and we think other people would like it too.

PL: Do you remember the first album you ever bought?

DH: Its a toss up between ? Kentucky Fried Rock or Rush Moving Pictures. But then I was also a big fan of the Cars and I was into Devo as well.

PL: I saw you at Hellfest a couple years ago and was totally blown away. How do you approach the live show? Do you approach it any differently then when you go into the studio?

DH: I think we try to bring as much as we can to the live show; even in recordings I guess too, but we've been playing live for the last year so, for us, it feels a little formulated because we've got it down so well now. It feels that we've done it so much now that where as every time you go in to record, its like: this is something we're gonna be doing forever; this recording will have to be something that will last us for years, where as if we fuck up a show, people will hopefully just forget about some screw up we did. When we go to record, we put a lot of planning into what we're gonna do and we try to take a little bit more time into what we're gonna record and the way things are gonna sound and try to get exactly what we want out of recording. When we play live, we just try to put as much energy into it and just try to go nuts. When we play live, I don't personally play perfectly every single time and almost every show there's times I fuck up in different places. I'll just try to cover them up, but thats only because I'm trying to put the energy out there and make it as strong as I can.

PL: How much practice do you put in before you go on tour?

DH: What do you mean; how much rehearsal time?

PL: Yeah.

DH: None, actually. We've been touring pretty much non stop for the past year, so we don't really ever have time to go home and practice just because we're playing every single night. In between tours, we might practice a few times just to get a new set down and try and figure out song orders and where the kinks are and where we're gonna put samples, but generally it doesn't take that long because we have a list of songs to choose from that we're gonna play. Every time we go home, we just redo our set and try to add a different element to our live show that we didn't have on previous tours.

PL: I was checking out your website and I noticed all the people who killed themselves. What were you trying to convey with that?

DH: Mostly, when I did that website, I did it when the Death is Infinite EP came out, so its kind of old but its new for a lot of people.

PL: Its a really good website.

DH: Thanks, I actually do web designs. I spent about a good month and a half straight working on that thing. I'm pretty proud of it. And with me doing that site, I wanted to do something that was kind of grim. I also wanted people to have a memorable experience, whether that was good for them or bad. Its been both for a lot of people, but its something that they remember and I just kind of wanted to make an impact. The subject of suicide is kind of a fasination of mine and I wanted people to look at it and just kind of question what it would take for those people to do what they did to themselves. Plus, I live in Seattle, which is the suicide capital of the world. And I wanted people to remember going to our website, and I think its worked for the most part.

PL: Would you ever put a 1-800 number or try to do something with the Plea For Peace (I forgot at this point that they did play some dates on last year's tour, though they didn't play the show in MA)?

DH: We've actually been on that tour. We didn't play here. We played the last couple dates of that tour. It was kind of interesting that they asked us to do that, so we've kind of become acquainted with suicide in regards of how our website worked out and our last video was actually based around the concept of what I used for the website. I never really intended for us to have this big suicide thing happening around us. Its kind of funny how it all worked out like that. We did that tour and I support that hotline and helping people get through whatever they need to get through it, so I wouldn't be opposed to doing it at all.

PL: Vinyl or CDs?

DH: I only buy CDs now but I still have all my vinyl records from when I was 14, 15, 16. All I would buy was vinyl because I couldn't find any of the records I wanted back then on CD. For me, I'm not a collector anymore, but we still do vinyl for the collectors and I still like vinyl because there's a definite sound on vinyl that is nostalic; so, for that reason, I like vinyl but I'll only buy stuff on CD because I want the best possible sound when I'm listening to something now.

PL: Studio or stage?

DH: Stage just because I like to travel. I love travelling.

PL: Puppies or kittens?

DH: I haven't really had good luck with dogs in the past, so I'd have to go with the kittens just because they fit me a little bit more personality-wise. I'm not a real big people person, so I kind of tend to stay to myself a little bit and I know that cats are kind of like that. I guess kittens.

PL: Do you have anything else you want to say?

DH: Just thanks for doing the interview and supporting Himsa and if anyone reading this hasn't picked up the record, please check it out.

Interviewed by RF

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