411Mania Exclusive Interview: Hinder

Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 03.02.2006

Warning: this interview is not for the easily offended, faint of heart, or people that had the extremely wrong misconception that a band with a song called "Get Stoned" are actually a group full of strapping young church-going, God-fearing lads. Yeah.

Editor's note: Why I am putting this note up here like this when I conducted this interview, I have no idea. Anyhow, this is part one of a 411Mania Music four part Hinder special. The other three parts will include a show review, a Bands That Need Fans column, and the review of their major label debut album Extreme Behavior. A lot of work went into this special, but I wholeheartedly believe in this band's chances at success, so I feel as if it were worth it. So sit back and enjoy the ride, because by the time you are done reading all four parts (assuming that you do of course), you are going to know more about the boys of Hinder than their own grandmothers.

Hinder are currently living rather large, as they say. Their single Get Stoned is tearing up the rock radio charts as of late, and it definitely shows no signs of slowing. I recently had a chance to see them play live, and also I was able to sit down with the entire band to do an interview which ranged many topics all the way from record labels, rock and roll antics, and even at what points sex is a better overall experience. Seriously, read the interview. I'm not even joking. So let us get to it. This is the 411Mania interview with the rising young band Hinder.

Brandon Ratliff: Can you guys introduce yourselves?

Austin Winkler: What's up? This is Austin, and I sing.

Mark King: This is Mark, and I am the lead guitar player.

Mike Rodden: Mike, and I play the bass. The lead bass.

Cody Hanson: Cody, and I'm the lead drummer.

Joe Garvey: Blower and I'm the other lead guitarist.

AW: We're Hinder...fuckers.

BR: And what's the name of the song everyone's hearing on the radio right now?

AW: I think it's Get Stoned. *contemplative look*

BR: That's been getting some crazy airplay (here in Kansas City).

AW: That's a good thing eh?

BR: Oh yeah. So what got you guys on Universal Records?

CH: Well...

MR: A lot of sucking dick!

CH: Umm, basically what he said. A lot of cock smoking.

MK: Wait a second...

CH: What got us to go with Universal was we were like a day away from signing with Roadrunner, all great people by the way, but, I don't know, when our A&R guy came and got us fucking hammered, which is pretty much the key to our hearts...

JG: It's who got us the most booze.

CH: ...yeah. Anyway, he kind of had the same vision...

*someone can be heard in the background going "balaaahbalaaahbalaaah"*

CH: ...the same, like, everything that we did you know? Money, booze...same vision! But yeah, they had the same marketing ideas as we did; it was just all perfect I guess. We all got along great you know?

BR: When you were recording (Extreme Behavior) did they pressure you guys in any way, to you know, make it more radio friendly or whatever?

All: Oh, no. No.

CH: They do that with a lot of bands you know, but I guess everything we wrote, they liked what they heard. I was going to say, I guess one of the big misconceptions about like, us especially, you know I guess being a mainstream rock band is that we take shit from the label and the label kind of tells us what to do, but it's definitely not that way at all. We do have creative control over pretty much everything. And that was one of the things in the beginning when we talked to Universal was that whatever we want to do, they'll be behind it. They're there to offer their advice, but that's pretty much it you know? They'll say what they think, but after that it's pretty much up to us.

BR: How long have you guys been together?

AW: Cody and myself have been a band for about four and a half years, and we picked up Mark (King, guitar) and Mike (Rodden, bass) about a year and a half ago, so yeah.

BR: Do you have any independant albums out?

AW: Yeah we have an independant album out, but it's like a whole different band, and it was like three or four years ago. Three years ago I think.

CH: That was a little more (bread?) rock and dark, not at all what we're about now, so we just kind of moved on from that.

BR: Am I the only one that thinks it's hotter than balls down here? (we were in the basement of a very un-air-conditioned venue...the place was small and there were about fifteen guys down there)

CH:No, I'm sweating my balls off here.

JG: Am I the only one that thinks it's bullshit that we can't have fucking chicks down here?

BR: Are they actually doing that?

AW: Yeah, they won't let any down.

*right after this, everyone begins expressing their annoyances with the venue security...nothing can be clearly made out during this time*

JG: Tonight is Girls Gone Mild (this is the only thing that can be heard of the jumbled mess of complaints, and keep in mind that this was the Girls Gone Wild tour)...

*everyone laughs*

JG: ...mild and very clothed.

BR: Oh god... So what is it that you think draws people to your music?

AW: I think people want to have fun. We're a band that likes to have fun...that's one of the main things that we state about our band, that we like to have fun. I mean they can relate to that. We don't take ourselves too seriously; we do have the fun songs, but we also have the relationship songs that everyone can relate to, you know what I mean? I think that's very, very important. And you know I think our lyrics are very simple and easy to understand; I think that's also the key. That's kind of what we pride ourselves on...

BR: "...because the sex is so much better when you're mad at me..."

AW: That's a true fucking fact and you know it dude!

*it is clear that everyone agrees with this due to everyone once again talking at once*

JG: ...those are cold hands, get away from it!

AW: I'm gonna slap that bitch's ass extra hard...right?

BR: Uhh...whatever works for you I guess. Shit, I can't think of anything else really to ask.

AW: Alright, well why don't we just ask you questions?

BR: Yeah, maybe you'll have to. Okay, so where was your first show?

AW: First show? All together was Oklahoma City, our hometown. It was a showcase for Roadrunner Records.

JG: Well, it was supposed to be. They didn't show up.

AW: Oh, that's right. They bounced on us. They bailed.

CH: They didn't come for our first show.

AW: It's probably a good thing then. We'd all been together about three weeks. It was actually one of the songs we had written about three months before that/ Goddamn, I don't know.

*various chatter*

AW: Yeah, we went into the studio and kind of wrote all the songs while we were recording them, so we'd never performed them live.

BR: That's a lot of creativity.

AW: Yeah, we just got fucking hammered, wrote a bunch of songs, and when we got back home, we got these two guys...

MR: ...got blessed...

AW: Got blessed with these two lovely ladies (referring to Mike and Mark), and yeah, that was the first time we'd ever played the shit live was in our hometown. So yeah, we played the shit at a sold out show, and it was good.

BR: How many bands have each of you guys been in?

AW: Us three (Austin, Cody, and Joe), combined, maybe...three?

JG: Yeah.

AW: This is my first band, really.

CH: I was in a band a long time ago...

JG: One of the greatest bands of all time Cody.

CH: I was in the greatest band of all time...Andromeda. Our single was Insanity.

JG: (singing) Why is the sky blue...?

AW: Sorry to disrespect man.

All: (growling) What the hell is wrong with me?

AW: It's a smash. He had the black hat on with the sunglasses, and you can't look at anyone when you play...

MR: I've been in a shitton of bands, usually at the same time. Like three or four at a time.

MK: The police here are weird...

MR: They smell good though. *pauses* They kind of smell like piss.

BR: So how about your first show in Kansas City?

MK: There was eleven people here and it fucking rocked!

AW: What about your second show?

Joe and Cody: The Grand Emporium. Twenty-eight people.

AW: I knocked over (Cody's) cymbal.

CH: The club was rad man.

AW: The left side of the stage didn't work, including amps...

CH: It was awesome...

AW: Yeah. We had fun. Actually my left didn't even work, it was weird.

MK: I hear there's a lot of people today.

BR: Yeah, it was fucking full when we came down here.

AW: Eleven people to a couple thousand.

BR: Not too bad.

AW: Yeah! Not too shabby.

BR: Yeah, we kind of got lost trying to find this fucking place because (my roommate and I) live about an hour away from here in Leavenworth. The only reason you would have heard of it is the prison there. So are there any nicknames for members of the band?

AW: Blower, Rex, Areal, Sashown (not too sure on those last two, it's hard to make out what he's saying), and...Austin.

All: *laughing then pointing at Austin* Steener!

BR: And once again...I got nothing.

JG: I don't know...we can make up shit and tell you stories.

BR: Whatever, go for it.

CH: I got a blowjob in front of all of us in the front room of the bus. And we fucking videotaped it.

AW: (Cody) ran outside naked at a Kelly Clarkson concert, and all the little kids were going "Oh my god! What's that fucking...snake?"

CH: My johnny was dragging on the street...

AW: "Look at that worm!"

CH: Umm, let's see, what else?

AW: "He's got a pinkie coming out of his stomach mommy!"

CH: Uhh, let's see, more stories. Mike eats so much asshole that he grew tongue-balls.

MR: I got gonorrhea of the throat six times!

JG: I'm just dirty damnit, don't tell them all that. And so are my crabs.

MR: Blower's got crabs...

MK: Which we shoot with a machine gun nailgun. Rapid-fire.

AW: With that Brandon; machine gun, we shot him in the asshole with fifty rounds. Three of them went in and he had to shit them out all over the floor.

JG: That was a fun date.

BR: Right. So the guards are pretty gay huh?

Shawn (Hinder's Tour Manager): Those guys are douches. They gave me shit about bringing (my roommate and I) down here. It's like "dude, they have to interview the fucking band."

All: Fuck them!

CH: Put down your article and light it up.

*Their tour manager came down and told us the guards were kicking us out of the dressing room*

BR: Last words everybody?

MR: It's the Girls Gone Wild tour. They want to see titties. What's their fucking problem?

AW: They said if anyone gets naked they're gonna arrest them...somebody's getting arrested tonight.

CH: My dick's coming out...helicopter style!

BR: Alright, later guys. We apparently have to run.

All: Later dude!

So there it is. Defiitely the oddest interview I've ever done. So what do you think of the band based on this? Personally, while liking to have fun, they are all down to earth guys who are the best of friends, which is all you can really ask for.

I'd go on longer at this point, but this, after all, is only the first part of a four part Hinder special here at 411Mania. So make sure to check all of that out. Until next time, I'm your editor Brandon Ratliff, signing off.