A heavy metal hope

If you are a regular reader, you should have noticed that this is the first time that I am introducing an interview. I am doing this because according to my personal opinion Hanker is a very special act. If you've read my review about their masterpiece The Dead Ringer, you should know that I appreciate them a lot. Hanker is among the greatest hopes of Metal for the near future, and I strongly believe that with their new album (read below for more info) they will conquer a great number of new diehard fans. For the time being, enjoy the interview with Luc Guay (drums).

Luc - Hanker was formed by Patrick Gravel, Pascal Cliche, Martin Jones and Jeff Fillion in 1985. They performed in several places around the city of Québec for about five years before the current drummer, Luc Guay joined the band. A first demo was recorded in 1991 and the album In Our World was released in 1994. We played for all these years in many bars, arenas and show places doing opening acts for bigger names such as Lee Aaron, Slick Toxic and Big House. More than 200 shows have been done by Hanker since then.

Luc - The name «Hanker» was found on a Saturday afternoon after a brainstorming and a deep search for a name had been done. A friend of Hanker's came up with the name taken from the dictionary and the meaning of the word seemed to well define the vision of the guys at the time and today still.

Luc - The real way Hanker look at their music, we would say that it is some very melodic metal. As the European people say, it is Power Metal and we think that it well describes the style; powerful, metal-oriented with-no-compromise music that simply takes you from maybe a state of boredom to the pleasant feeling of satisfaction while listening to it.

Luc - Basically the attitude. The first album was our first real studio experience and was compiling a lot of songs that had already been written years before. The second one was exclusively made with new songs written especially for the recording and also benefited from our previous experience in the studio. As for the music itself, we've always found that The Dead Ringer was heavier even if it has slower songs. The deepness of the beats, the cutting edge of the guitars and the conceptual approach bring the second album to a less global view of Hanker's music but to a darker side of it.

Luc - The concept was not elaborated at the very beginning. We had a couple of songs that were getting to life while thinking that the fans would appreciate heavy stuff. First, we didn't want to be told that we were getting bored and lazy doing ballads and/or commercial songs, which would have horrified us. So, the first ones appearing were pretty rough sounding and got us to keep bringing more aggressive ideas into the songs. By the way, when writing songs, we usually start writing about the subject that the music inspires us; it's never happened that words brought us to music. Music is always the key and what we strive for at first. Of course, we don't want to say stupid things just to put words on music, but it is not the first thing in Hanker's music.

Unsung Hero

This song is just a thought that Pascal had about people who sometimes do special things in their lives or who have to go through very difficult things that you never hear about and that should be told of. It simply tells everyone who can remember of one tough moment he had to go through that we salute them for what they could face up.

Holy Screen

The story of a guy, like every teenager or adult who cannot take his carcass away from the couch in front of the TV. The song tells the kind of despair or distress somebody could face at that particular time in his or her life. That guy may tune out of real life.

You Won't Live Eternally

This one is about people you cannot recognize once they got lots of money. You may know a friend who became like a stranger once he had a new girlfriend or inherited a fortune and suddenly got snob or not human anymore with you or some of your friends. Didn't he use to hang around with the gang?

The Clown

A simple matter of an inner trip into a child's mind when, on a particular night, his mother, before going for dinner, takes away from him his clown doll which he likes more than any other toy. He doesn't go mad on the outside but in his head his whole life has changed. He will never be the same again.

They Are Gone

Tells about the sadness of olden people who are neglected by their own children. When you get old, left alone, you can feel so sad sometimes. We wanted to denounce the unfair treatment reserved to our parents. Taking conscience of it is the purpose of the song.

Dead As The Night

This one is a bit more imaginary. Sure it takes vampires to stir up one's imagination but it basically takes its own dark side in the music itself. At the same time you can feel anger, sadness, solitude and rebellion. We think it's a pretty moody song that can take you flying into that dark sky.

The Age Of The Quick Fix

Pascal Cliche had seen that phrase written in a newspaper and it was something we were discussing about while rehearsing some weekend. It ended up as the title of the new song he was writing and we had no problem putting the words on that one.

F.A.T.E.

It describes the fatality we all have to face on this planet. Another moody song, which has more to be understood in the music than in the lyrics. You know when some nights, you start thinking deeply about what you are doing on this earth, what your path of life is, you know all these existential questions. That is what it is all about.

No More War

We are always concerned by the lack of justice in so many situations in life. War is such a stupid thing and always is a no-win situation. It's our own version of "let's give peace a chance" in a simpler and more direct way.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

This one came to life almost at the end of the writing and corresponded with a time when we had many obstacles to surmount and had to use everyone's strength to succeed. We think it's true for anybody anywhere in the world, so let's keep ourselves together so that we can make this world a better place.

Luc - The cover is kind of showing the spirit in which the Ringer's soul is at the time of his death. In fact, the CD booklet is just as if you found the Ringer's diary and you read some of the passages he describes in it and that you could find yourself living through these passages. Each song is a little story in the life of The Dead Ringer and the booklet wants to recreate the actual book in the pages where the lyrics are and the picture shows you the atmosphere.

Luc - We all had the great metal kings' influences. Let's start with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Metal Church, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple... they all were great influences but there are also more progressive ones like Saga, Genesis, Rush, Styx, all of the great rock of the 80's are the main sources of inspiration for Hanker.

Luc - We haven't been signed by a major label if that is what you mean by label, but we signed this winter with an independent label called Attack Records and went this spring to Toronto to record our actual third album, which should be released around mid-September 1999. We know that time had not been on our side as the metal scene appeared virtually dead in North America since 1985. However according to the Billboard magazine and many other reliable sources, 1999 is the year for the revival of Metal Music and we know that something great is coming our way. We don't mean to say that we didn't worry about why things weren't working out too well, but we simply refused to let go and continue doing our music the way it has always been done, the most professionally possible without any compromises.

Luc - To make a short story of our shows, let's compare that to Iron Maiden. It's not the most integral show you would ever see, but the energy, the enthusiasm and the aggressiveness of the guys on stage are the vibrating ensemble that makes it a real happening which you can say about: That is simply it. No one can do Maiden like Maiden. Well, that's the same with Hanker, no one can play Hanker like Hanker do it. It's a complete non-stop power delivery of melody, harmony in a metal fashion that you can only bang your head onto or stay stiffened listening to because of every second is a delightful flow of adrenaline and joy.

Luc -

Pascal is a bohemian guy that has no problem making friends with anyone who is not too shy. He's a guy of feelings who can bring so simple but efficient parts in a song that you can only say, yes, that is what fits in there.

Patrick is a nervous, intelligent performer who lets his stress go away by playing music and has a sense of discipline so big that every one of us had to get stricter to get in his patterns. Definitely a wonderful friend who plays guitar like he drives his life, very seriously still having one of the most memorable capacity of being hilarious in any situation. By the way, Patrick has been friends with Pascal since they were 6 or 7, he takes a back seat to nobody when acting crazy is the order of the day.

Denis, the new guy, is a very kind man, helpful, understanding, and resilient enough to support one month of 24 hours a day of intense training after being in the band for only six months and having to master two albums, 12 new songs and perform his first studio bass takes in only 5 hours. I think you are getting to know what Denis is like now.

Luc, the one who brings maturity in all that mess. Only kidding. He's the one who always comes with the old-timer reflection which irritates the others but that keeps the wheel turning. The band, to him, is like a woman, you can't live with, but you can't live without. Hanker will always be a marvelous accomplishment for him and he won't be satisfied until he reaches his ultimate goal, playing music for a living.

Luc - To Hanker, Internet has been some kind of a real start. The worldwide interest Hanker have created has come from Internet contacts that made us available to people from as far as Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy and so on. Maybe this is it too big for music, I mean the market is now so spread up that you can hardly discover somebody that you will be able to recognize two years later because so much is offered that almost no one makes it anymore to the big league. Everyone is like a fire that burns out so fast that you could almost not remember it the week after. We hope that definite advantage it gave us won't turn out to be a devastating killer in the end. We would dearly like to mention the incomparable support we have received from our friend Pierre Begin, our Webmaster.

Luc - At first, for Patrick, Pascal and Martin, it was only the pleasure of imitating the Beatles and being able to recreate the magic in the back yard. They had many guys trying to keep the beat for them till Jeff Fillion arrived in 1985. Luc Guay arrived in 1990 and, since then, the only change in personnel took place last fall when Denis Cossette joined the band. The music, I think, has always been in us, for as far as I can remember, I was singing when I was a kid and I was looking at my big brothers sticking their heads in between the two loudspeakers and I was tripping so much when I did the same, minutes after. We always enjoyed music. It's always been playing in the house of everyone's family. Becoming a musician has never been a question. We simply did the best we could with what we had till we realized that we had to make a choice, continue or stop.

Sweet Suffering e-zine - Which five albums would be your desert island discs?

Luc -

Luc:

Rush: Exit stage left

Genesis: Selling England by the pound

Judas Priest: Painkiller

Bach: Toccata and Fugue by E. Power Biggs

Supertramp: Breakfast in America

Pascal:

Iron Maiden: The Number of The Beast

Kiss: Dynasty

Metal Church: The Dark

Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell

Metallica: Ride The Lightning

Patrick:

Iron Maiden: The Number Of The Beast

Deep Purple: Perfect Stranger

Def Leppard: Pyromania

Helloween: The Time Of The Oath

Queensrÿche: Operation Mindcrime

Denis:

Kiss: Alive II

Savatage: In The Hall of The Mountain King

Black Sabbath: Paranoid

Dio: Holy Diver

Judas Priest: Jugulator

Luc - The musicians for a rock, heavy band would have either Rob Halford or Geoff Tate on vocals, Scott Travis on drums, Steve Vai or Eddie Van Halen on guitars, Jaco Pastorius or Jeff Berlin on bass. If keyboards are involved, I'd go for Steve Moore.

Sweet Suffering e-zine - If you could jam with any musician, dead or alive, whom would you choose?

Luc -

Luc: Steve Smith, formerly with Journey, but great Jazz drummer.

Patrick: Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple

Pascal: Ace Frehley of KISS

Denis: Jaco Pastorius

Luc -

Luc:

I had Rush «Exit Stage Left» at 11. I loved and listened to it so often with the lights off, I can almost remember some nights where I almost fell asleep after playing the two LPs 3 or 4 times.

Patrick:

Iron Maiden, «Killers» at the age of 13. It was a revelation, which conducted Pat's style of writing.

Pascal:

Kiss, «Dynasty», the mystic image Kiss was projecting was impressive and got hold of Pascal and still they have his total respect as artists and show businessmen.

Denis:

Black Sabbath, «Paranoid». The rumors and tales about them and the raw power of their music had gotten him very excited at that time. Still you know you can rely on this kind of music to teach your kids the real basics of Metal music.

Luc - You won't believe this but Patrick and Pascal listen to very disco, pop stuff sometimes like Milli Vanelli or Snow. We listen to progressive stuff like Saga, Rush, Genesis, Supertramp, Gentle Giant, also Jazz, like Uzeb, Steve Smith with Players, and some more classical like Mozart, Bach organ, Vivaldi but more rarely.

Luc - We like what great painters can do like Dali or Van Gogh and Renoir. To me, Monet was the best. Tastes will vary, you know. Of course, we like movies and see many of them. We can' t really say that we are getting involved in other artistic areas.

Luc -

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are some of the most fabulous artists you could ever get together for this kind of music. Talented, dedicated musicians that have so much feeling transpiring into their songs, it's simply devastating and soul taking. Everyone in this band does a tremendous job and their music has always moved us.

Jag Panzer

We hadn't known of this band before we received a review from Germany and we got to listen to their music only a couple of years ago. We always thought that we sounded closer to other bands than Jag Panzer, which is a great band by the way. You know, Pascal is a bit tired of being compared to the Tyrant and we think that he is right. Their voices sound alike at times in certain areas in their range but are definitely different.

Iron Maiden

That band has been one of the greatest influences for Hanker and we love the albums with Di Anno and Dickinson. The structure and the aggressiveness in that music are very close to what we like to express in our music. The fast riffs and the melodic tracks are very stimulating and satisfying, that's what we like in Maiden.

Luc - Our ambition is the size of the dream, we would love it to play in as many countries as possible and to get to be seen in front of millions of fans for our music to be known by millions of teenagers who will grow up with a music that has real meaning. If you take what Maiden have done, it would be fantastic if we could duplicate that.

Luc - As I told you before, we've just recorded our third album. It sounds like you won't believe your ears, I won't tell you more, just wait till we send you a copy or you get to hear songs that will be available on Internet this fall. So, we plan on shooting a video this summer and prepare the show for the tour, which might be in Canada and maybe in the U.S. also. We're actually putting the finishing touches on the CD cover. So, we are trying to get the wheel turning as fast as possible and we've got lots of stuff left to do till then. Don't worry for the future, your questions should be answered faster. You have to know that we started writing the songs in January, finished only a couple of weeks before entering the studio in April and that we finished recording by the beginning of June. It has been a race to the finish line, which we haven' t crossed yet for the album release is scheduled for mid-September. Till then, take care and thanks for your support and infinite patience.

Chris Condos

Source: Sweet Suffering e-zine, Interview with Luc Guay, July 19, 1999

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