RockMonthly: Where are you?
Jesse Hasek: In Knoxville…Tennessee.
RM: How is the tour going?
JH: We just got through with it and we don’t start our next one until the 11th of this month. Right now we’re
working on the (album) artwork, did an alternate version of the single and just finished shooting a video.
RM: How’d the video turn out?
JH: We just did it this past weekend but we haven’t seen it yet but think it went really well.
RM: How does the new album Division differ from you last album, The Autumn Effect?
JH: There’s a lot of different things to make it different; first of all, we wanted it to be different than The Autumn
Effect and expand our horizons and we wanted to try a different tone for sound altogether. We wrote about 30 songs and
narrowed it down to the ones on the album. The reason it’s called Division is because it was such a grueling process;
with a first record there’s a saying, “you have your whole life to write your first recordâ€� and the second recordâ
€™s always said to be your “sophomore slumpâ€�, so we thought we were going to go in (to the studio) and throw
one out but we just kind of hit “pause� and took almost a year creating a vision; we really wanted to be sure we
had something that could follow up Autumn Effect. When you have success, you’re competing with yourself, which
makes it tricky. Lyrically, the direction I took…on the first one, it was the record that we had before getting signed or
anything, it was very more internal, like head-thought stuff on the Autumn Effect, and on this one I noticed from touring
how much people want to relate to lyrics so instead of being as ambiguous as the last record, I was a little more open, a
little more straight forward lyrically.
RM: How did “Actions & Motives� come about?
JH: “Actions & Motives� was one of the later ones to make the cut (onto the album); we were trying to write
something a little more up-tempo and we nicknamed it “The Nirvana Song� because of the rhythm and tempo.
Lyrically, it’s probably one of the most spiteful and angry songs on the album; it’s almost like a, George Bush, if
you will, where the chorus is “bear your cross/wear your crown/but there’s just some evil you can’t bleed outâ
€�.
RM: How about “Beautiful�?
JH: The original idea came from our drummer, Brian, and he came up with the chorus, “Just as beautiful as you
are/so pitiful you are� and he got that from sitting with his wife watching reality shows on T.V. He gave me that idea
and just said, “Run with itâ€�, and it’s just so current, and with everything that’s going on right now youâ
€™re more popular for being a train wreck than you are for your accomplishments. That’s really what that song is
about.
RM; And “All Your Lies�?
JH: It’s kind of in the same vain as “Actions & Motives�; they’re probably the closest, lyrically, together.
It’s almost about a Napoleon syndrome, where you’re invincible, you know? “Smile and do a toast/brag and
boast/fill the world with all your lies�.
RM: Where do you think this, as the album suggests, this division within the band came from?
JH: First and foremost, just the pressure. We had all been in the band since ’99, touring and we had success off of â
€œWastelandâ€� and the whole record; in comparison a lot of people don’t even make it, they have one record and
they’re done. It’s a hard industry, you know? We had a lot of pressure to surpass The Autumn Effect; we had
management and labels that we were sending demos of songs we had written and they were saying, “We need another
one, we need another “Wastelandâ€�â€�. Half the band had the mentality of “screw themâ€� and the other halfâ
€¦granted, it’s a product and we have to create…but we had to come together where “productâ€� and â
€œcreativityâ€� met, or else it wouldn’t work.
RM: How did you as individuals deal with the pressures?
JH: We were all almost listening to the opinions of the business world more than each other, and that’s what is called
“division�; we almost had to have strong opinions in opposite directions as individuals. What I think it did was
made us appreciate one another more; we had to come as far apart as possible to actually create this record and become
the closest we’ve ever been. It was such a process that now we feel like we can get through anything.
RM: What do you think was the turning point for you to band back together?
JH: We had 20 or 30 songs to choose from and we were saying, “Well, this one is going to be a hit� or something;
we all wanted to make a very diverse record, like a roller coaster ride. From song to song, it changes pretty drastically. It
came down to democracy, and voting for which one’s made it on the record.
RM: Do you think this record would have turned out differently without all these obstacles?
JH: Yeah, I do. Another determining factor in all this was we started this record with someone in our hometown, and
that’s who we did our independent record with, prior to The Autumn Effect. He’s a great guy and worked really
well with us on the independent record but when we started doing this record with him, we almost felt like we were going
backwards. One of the guys said, “You know, we really need to re-evaluate thisâ€� and the label agreed and said, â
€œWhy don’t you pull the plug and try someone else?â€� and they sent us to Seattle with Rick Parasher; two totally
different types of producers. The other thing that brought us back together was working with Rick because he’s a
very strong, opinionated producer and we’d never had that before. That was an obstacle! (Laughs)
RM: You mentioned you were going back on the road on the 11th; where are you guys headed?
JH: We’re doing some headlining shows mixed in with a lot of festivals toward the summer. The headlining shows
will be rather short, I don’t think we’re even getting over to the West Coast; our drummer is having a baby at the
beginning of May, so we’ll be home for 2 weeks but then going back out two weeks later on the 17th.
RM: I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area; when are you guys coming out this way?
JH: We just confirmed a slot on the Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour so during the summer we’ll definitely
head out that way, and we’ve got another tour lining up for June in the works. We getting ready to be busy for the
next year or two.
Jesse Hasek: In Knoxville…Tennessee.
RM: How is the tour going?
JH: We just got through with it and we don’t start our next one until the 11th of this month. Right now we’re
working on the (album) artwork, did an alternate version of the single and just finished shooting a video.
RM: How’d the video turn out?
JH: We just did it this past weekend but we haven’t seen it yet but think it went really well.
RM: How does the new album Division differ from you last album, The Autumn Effect?
JH: There’s a lot of different things to make it different; first of all, we wanted it to be different than The Autumn
Effect and expand our horizons and we wanted to try a different tone for sound altogether. We wrote about 30 songs and
narrowed it down to the ones on the album. The reason it’s called Division is because it was such a grueling process;
with a first record there’s a saying, “you have your whole life to write your first recordâ€� and the second recordâ
€™s always said to be your “sophomore slumpâ€�, so we thought we were going to go in (to the studio) and throw
one out but we just kind of hit “pause� and took almost a year creating a vision; we really wanted to be sure we
had something that could follow up Autumn Effect. When you have success, you’re competing with yourself, which
makes it tricky. Lyrically, the direction I took…on the first one, it was the record that we had before getting signed or
anything, it was very more internal, like head-thought stuff on the Autumn Effect, and on this one I noticed from touring
how much people want to relate to lyrics so instead of being as ambiguous as the last record, I was a little more open, a
little more straight forward lyrically.
RM: How did “Actions & Motives� come about?
JH: “Actions & Motives� was one of the later ones to make the cut (onto the album); we were trying to write
something a little more up-tempo and we nicknamed it “The Nirvana Song� because of the rhythm and tempo.
Lyrically, it’s probably one of the most spiteful and angry songs on the album; it’s almost like a, George Bush, if
you will, where the chorus is “bear your cross/wear your crown/but there’s just some evil you can’t bleed outâ
€�.
RM: How about “Beautiful�?
JH: The original idea came from our drummer, Brian, and he came up with the chorus, “Just as beautiful as you
are/so pitiful you are� and he got that from sitting with his wife watching reality shows on T.V. He gave me that idea
and just said, “Run with itâ€�, and it’s just so current, and with everything that’s going on right now youâ
€™re more popular for being a train wreck than you are for your accomplishments. That’s really what that song is
about.
RM; And “All Your Lies�?
JH: It’s kind of in the same vain as “Actions & Motives�; they’re probably the closest, lyrically, together.
It’s almost about a Napoleon syndrome, where you’re invincible, you know? “Smile and do a toast/brag and
boast/fill the world with all your lies�.
RM: Where do you think this, as the album suggests, this division within the band came from?
JH: First and foremost, just the pressure. We had all been in the band since ’99, touring and we had success off of â
€œWastelandâ€� and the whole record; in comparison a lot of people don’t even make it, they have one record and
they’re done. It’s a hard industry, you know? We had a lot of pressure to surpass The Autumn Effect; we had
management and labels that we were sending demos of songs we had written and they were saying, “We need another
one, we need another “Wastelandâ€�â€�. Half the band had the mentality of “screw themâ€� and the other halfâ
€¦granted, it’s a product and we have to create…but we had to come together where “productâ€� and â
€œcreativityâ€� met, or else it wouldn’t work.
RM: How did you as individuals deal with the pressures?
JH: We were all almost listening to the opinions of the business world more than each other, and that’s what is called
“division�; we almost had to have strong opinions in opposite directions as individuals. What I think it did was
made us appreciate one another more; we had to come as far apart as possible to actually create this record and become
the closest we’ve ever been. It was such a process that now we feel like we can get through anything.
RM: What do you think was the turning point for you to band back together?
JH: We had 20 or 30 songs to choose from and we were saying, “Well, this one is going to be a hit� or something;
we all wanted to make a very diverse record, like a roller coaster ride. From song to song, it changes pretty drastically. It
came down to democracy, and voting for which one’s made it on the record.
RM: Do you think this record would have turned out differently without all these obstacles?
JH: Yeah, I do. Another determining factor in all this was we started this record with someone in our hometown, and
that’s who we did our independent record with, prior to The Autumn Effect. He’s a great guy and worked really
well with us on the independent record but when we started doing this record with him, we almost felt like we were going
backwards. One of the guys said, “You know, we really need to re-evaluate thisâ€� and the label agreed and said, â
€œWhy don’t you pull the plug and try someone else?â€� and they sent us to Seattle with Rick Parasher; two totally
different types of producers. The other thing that brought us back together was working with Rick because he’s a
very strong, opinionated producer and we’d never had that before. That was an obstacle! (Laughs)
RM: You mentioned you were going back on the road on the 11th; where are you guys headed?
JH: We’re doing some headlining shows mixed in with a lot of festivals toward the summer. The headlining shows
will be rather short, I don’t think we’re even getting over to the West Coast; our drummer is having a baby at the
beginning of May, so we’ll be home for 2 weeks but then going back out two weeks later on the 17th.
RM: I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area; when are you guys coming out this way?
JH: We just confirmed a slot on the Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour so during the summer we’ll definitely
head out that way, and we’ve got another tour lining up for June in the works. We getting ready to be busy for the
next year or two.
