The Official HANKER Web Site - Interviews - The Darkest Hours: Interview with Pascal Cliche

Pascal - Hello from Hanker!!! Everything is going very well and we all feel great!!!!

The Darkest Hours - 1- Can you talk a little bit about how you met each others and formed the band & talk about your musical background?

Left to right: Denis Cossette (bass), Patrick Gravel (guitar/back vocals), Luc Guay (drums) & bottom: Pascal Cliche (lead singer/guitar)

Pascal - Patrick, Martin (the former bass player) and I started playing together when we were 11 years old. We were playing Beatles songs!!! When we got in high school (1980-81), the metal scene was starting to rise and we fell in love with this kind of music!!! We changed drummer and we formed the band Cobalt. We did a few shows but our drummer had problems... We decided that we needed a new and better drummer. Jeff Fillion joined the band but we needed a new name. We found the name Hanker in the dictionary (the meaning was to really want something or someone) so we decided that it would be the band's name. After many shows, Jeff Fillion decided to leave the band for personal reasons. We replaced by Luc Guay our actual drummer. In 1991, we recorded our first demo, in 1994 we recorded our first cd In Our World, in 1996 we did The Dead Ringer. After this one, Martin decided to leave the band and we replaced him by Denis Cossette (the actual bass player) we recorded Snakes And Ladders in Toronto in April 1999. Finally, we recorded Web Of Faith in February 2004. For our musical background, it is the metal one!!!

The Darkest Hours - 2- How would you describe your band for people that never heard it?

Pascal - Hanker is a heavy metal band with honest guys who play with their balls and souls! We haven't invented a new kind of music!!! We only try to write true songs that really mean something.

The Darkest Hours - 3- Into the Quebec's scene, Hanker is distinguishing itself a lot by playing this genre. How are you positioning yourself into Quebec's metal scene of today?

Pascal - We have been there for a while, but for a few years we have been doing many great shows with plenty of great bands (Helloween, Nightwish, etc.). And I think we will be there for a long time!!!

The Darkest Hours - 4- You just released your fourth album, Web Of Faith on Skyscraper records. Can you talk about your progress in between each of your releases since you launched your first demo in 1991?

Pascal - I talked a little about it above in question 1, but I could say that we always try to do our best!!! We are honest to one another and when we don't feel the same way for a new song, we just don't put it on an album. I can easily say that Web Of Faith is the best Hanker cd up to now!!! The sound is excellent and we have a great record company!!!

The Darkest Hours - 5- Who produced Web Of Faith? Can you talk about your experience in studio?

Pascal - It is on Skyscraper music and we produced it with Jeff Dagenais (Kataklysm). We worked really hard but we had so much fun while doing it! We loved working with Jeff and we want to work with him again for our next CD!!!

The Darkest Hours - 6- What is the meaning of Hanker for you?

Pascal - This is my lifetime project... I cannot imagine myself playing in another band.

The Darkest Hours - 7- Would you like to explain the title of your new album, Web Of Faith, and the concept behind it?

Pascal - This is not a concept album; all the songs are kind of linked together. In our world, we have many religions and we all believe in something. All these religions talk about love and peace... But we have been fighting for a long time; we have been killing and making wars... All of these for the same love and peace believe... This is very stupid.

The Darkest Hours - 8- How was the response to your album so far?

Pascal - All the fans love it!!! All the critics are great!! Everything is going faster for Hanker and we are very happy about it!!!

The Darkest Hours - 9- You recently toured for the first time in Europe, in Germany, as a headliner! Can you talk about this experience? How is the reaction to Hanker in Europe? Are you expecting to go back in Europe soon and move around, visiting other countries?

Pascal - It was just magic!!! We LOVED to play in Germany!! They had been waiting for us for a long time and we finally went to play there! People in Germany just love metal and we felt it!!!

The Darkest Hours - 10- Now that your album is finished and launched, what's next for Hanker?

Pascal - We will do many shows; we have started working on new songs... We will try to go back in Europe next summer.

The Darkest Hours - 11- I know that you are actually distributed in North America and Europe. Is Hanker is distributed somewhere else in the world and are you expecting to extend your distribution soon?

Pascal - It is also out in the USA. We are working for something in Europe soon.

The Darkest Hours - 12- Could you talk about the writing process into Hanker?

Pascal - This is a little hard to explain... I can say that we write the music first (most of the time) then I try to find themes that go along with the songs and we arrange them together...

The Darkest Hours - 13- What do you prefer between the writing process, the recording an album in studio and playing live? And why?

Pascal - All of these are very great but very different! We love everything!

The Darkest Hours - 14- You have a lot of experience on stage. Could you talk a little bit about it and tell us more about the most remarkable experience you had in front of a crowd? What was different during this gig than others?

Pascal - When we started playing, we were doing arenas once a year, then we started a club tour during four years (we learned a lot!!) But when we started, we were playing cover songs because if you wanted to play in clubs, you had to do that... But we were putting Hanker songs throughout each evening and people got interested by Hanker songs!!! In 1997, we decided to stop playing cover songs when we were doing shows. The most wonderful experience on stage was when I realized that people were coming to our shows to hear our songs!!! They were singing Hanker songs!! It felt good to me!!!

The Darkest Hours - 15- And if you had to choose one or two bands to play live with, even if we have to go back in time, which bands would you pick and why?

Pascal - We would like to play with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS, etc. We loved to play with Helloween!! They have been a huge influence for us! The guys were very nice to us!!!

The Darkest Hours - 16- What can we expect from Hanker in a near future?

The Darkest Hours - 17- Do you guys have other projects? If yes, can you tell us more about them?

Pascal - As I told you, Hanker is our lifetime project. We would not like to have one of our members doing a solo album, and so forth... It would fell like cheating... Hanker is like a family!!!

The Darkest Hours - 18- This is the time to plug your stuff (website, special news, etc...)

Pascal - You should go see our Web site!!! Hankermetal.com!!! We will keep on doing the best we can for our fans all over the world!! And don't worry, when we feel there will be nothing else to say for Hanker, we will just stop playing! But, I'm pretty sure that we will be there for a very long time!!!

The Darkest Hours - Thanks for answering The Darkest Hours questions. Good luck into all of you projects...