We would like to thank Kevin Martin & the Hiwatts for doing this interview for ROCK N ROLL UNIVERSE.
Cheers ! ~ Rikki & Sandi

Nadja: It's your last show tonight, how has the tour been?

Kevin: Pretty great, I mean Seether is the first band that’s actually given us this time the opportunity, a lot of other bands don't wanna take an independent band that doesn't have money behind them and nobody knows about, so when we are up for a tour we like so this is gonna be a lot of fun and it's ended up being one of the greatest tours I've ever done.

Kevin Martin & The Hiwatts lately did the support job for Seether during their last European tour. At the last gig in Cologne on October 26th I was lucky enough to ask these amazing guys some questions:

Nadja: What is the difference between touring in the USA and touring in Europe?

Kevin: USA is a lot easier, convenient, you need anything it's always around, so you don't have to worry about work papers, you don't have to worry about power differences, you don't have to worry about the Euro and the Pound and the Swiss Franc, you know, but that’s really the only - in my opinion the only difference, greatest thing about touring in Europe is fans' appreciation of music, and the responses you get from European audiences you just don't get in America.

Nadja: How would you describe your music?

Kevin: Oh ask that to the other guys!

Jason: Rock'n'Roll, straight up Rock'n'Roll.

Colin: The music in its form is very simple, a song shouldn't need to be confusing to be good, but that doesn't mean a song that is confusing or dynamic in its structure is a bad song. Rock'n’Roll in its pure form is based around Blues music and Blues music is based on a very simple structure, and I think what we try to do is we try to let the music be as simple as possible and we try to make the melody as beautiful as it can be, and when we inject a bit of dynamic into it, it's maybe mostly in the lyric or when we have a solo or something like that; but I think everybody believes in this band that if you can't play a song at an acoustic guitar than it's not really a good song.

Nadja: What are your musical influences these days?

KEVIN: Musically I'm not really influenced by anything from 1990 'til now, my influences come from the 60's, the 50's, the 70's, I get inspiration from some recent stuff, I mean Seether's a fucking amazing band, very inspiring, great melodies, great songs and not only that, great guys, so it makes you feel like you can draw from that energy from them, so my inspirations are you know, they can be anyone from Seether to Killing Joke to, I don't know, Johnny Cash, Otis Reading and Marvin Gay, Black Flag, you know, I take a lot from all of my influences and hook them into my music, but nothing really for the past 14 years, 15 years has influenced me in any way.

COLIN: One thing that Kevin and I talk about a lot, that’s unfortunate, is a lot of today's music is not so influential because so much of today's music is a repeating of the past and so rather than hear a song that is new and supposed to be the best thing, if you listen to the song closely it’s really easy to hear the past in this song and they didn't change it so much, so when you listen to somebody today, maybe it's not as good, in our opinion. However a band like Radiohead is very interesting and I think a band like The Muse, which is very similar to Radiohead is also really interesting, because they change Radiohead, but really the classics are the bread and butter of influences. And I think today musicians have gotten very lazy when it comes to finding influence and we collectively as musicians have failed fans in bringing something new because music in general has become such a business, that when you play something to a person, they want it to sound like this, they want something close because Sony has this band that sold so many records, so you have to sound like this because we know that sells. And so an American expression is that it's very like a cookie cutter, you just put the shape on the doe and you cut cut cut and it’s the same cookie. The music in general used to be something that would gather people and help them with their voice, and today music is something that misses the voice before they write a song, and so it's really hard to find something out there today that has substance. For example we come from a country where unfortunately we have a president who - I probably shouldn't say this word in Germany - but who seems like a bit of a Nazi and a bit of a Fascist, and there's so many things to sing about, there's so much pain, there's so much suffering, there's problems in the Sudan, there's problems everywhere in the world, but if you turn on the radio you’ll hear about my girlfriend and you'll hear about my drugs and you'll hear about my car and how I want more bling bling, but at the same time the song's playing, a hundred people just died. So it's really sad, it's a problem in the music industry now. And unfortunately the fans are not demanding more from the musicians and so we've gotten lazy. And I think our band we try to believe in humanity, and we try to believe in good things, and maybe it's why we don’t have so many fans.

JASON: That is why it's so invigorating to come to Europe and play, to came to a European audience because people understand where we’re coming from as a collective, as supposed to in America, because of the situation how the industry is, even though it is somewhat global. In America it is just cookie cutter base, and fans will expect, one audience will expect to hear something because it is played on the radio, but in Europe, here, we have a band like Seether and a band like us, completely from two ends of the spectrum and we really see every night playing here in Europe exactly what we want out of an audience, and that is acceptance.

ADAM: They listen here more than anybody back home. I think in America people tend to listen for what they've been told to get and what seems to be the current trend. That’s getting what Colin said and it's so much about the business and less and less about the art. Like he said about the expression of humanity and everything, that music is supposed to be an art form. It's really become cookie cutter and standardized business. When you bring something out that is fresh and new and actually has art to it, I think in lot of places people don't know how to hear it. It's easier to get an audience that’s willing to listen than back home.

Nadja: So when you write your lyrics you take global problems, themes that are on the news and not only stuff like my girlfriend or something like that.

KEVIN: We don't really take from the news, it's more like an understanding. This whole record was inspired by Rilke, Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Possibility Of Being", and in his poetry and in life in general and in the world and in the world news, you're dealing with politics of life, constantly. I think for us what we try to do, what I try to do in writing lyrics, I try to find the emotion in the song and then I create a lyric to that emotion, and that lyric comes from what it is I've read or what it is I've heard or what it is I've seen. One title of the record is, you know, a political statement, "The Emeny", and it's about dictators, it's not about people, and the rest of the record is about humanity in general, the relationship between friends, family, enemies, everything that has to do with the people, how they do their lives. That is how I approached the lyrics.

COLIN: I think it's impossible for anybody to separate their life from the life around them. And on this record there are a lot of personal experiences and at the same time there is a lot of global experience and so the lyric is really a mix of personal experience feeling a global experience and sometimes a global experience feeling a personal experience because we don't separate our lives like A and B, we really work A to B, so it’s important if you are going through a bad relationship or if you are going through a great relationship, to include that feeling with what you're seeing in the world, because when you're not writing lyrics and you wake up, you still feel this, and so to be truthful in lyrics you have to put your personal with the global and make it you. That’s what this record is. It is called "The Possibility Of Being", because the only way you can be is to be yourself and the world and to feel it all at one time, because we live in a global village.

Nadja: I think I don't need to ask you again what you think about the music business today?

KEVIN: No you needn't that! … Scheiße!

COLIN: But I do think there is something important people need to understand. It's that the music business had all their vinyl records and then they got to put out a compact disc, they got to resell the same record and then they built a big house because they made new money, and then they had to keep their house, and so the pressure they put on musicians today is unfair, because the money that they made from being able to go from vinyl records to CD's, it’s almost fake money, because it's just new technology, the same product. In one day you have one person buy a vinyl record, and then the next day they get a compact disc player so they have to re-buy the same record. So now the record company just made twice as much money. And if all the sudden you have much money and hire a new staff, get a bigger car, you get a big house, then all the sudden the vinyl is gone, cassettes are gone, it’s only CD's, where’s the money gonna come from? And so the pressure on a band is so high, and because it's unfair and it's impossible for the band to actually make that kind of money now. What you have is say a kind of litmus test: amount of records sold, your contract gets renewed. It’s based on something that’s faked. And so when people say downloading is a bad thing in the music industry, we will say: Tell me about the "Grateful Dead", the "Grateful Dead" are so big because of bootleg records, and that's downloading, it’s the same thing. When we were kids our radio station said: Sunday night we're going to play Candlebox's record in its entirety at 8 o'clock and so everybody hit record. And so is downloading, it took longer, but it was downloading. And then people said: Oh check it out! You made a tape for your girlfriend: Here’s a mix tape. It's the same thing, and what happened, it's advertising, it's free advertising and it helps a band get bigger. But because the music industry built up this fake money, because of the compact disc, they blame downloading for something that really is the best thing that ever happened to music, and you know a fan has gonna want to download a record, and if they love it, they're gonna go to the concert, and they're gonna buy a CD and they're gonna ask the band to sign it and then they have it, so it's cool. So the music industry, it may be the biggest problem, and it's a really unfair problem, and bands have no power.

ADAM: The whole downloading thing really became just a huge scapegoat for executives who having to answer the corporate managers to keep their jobs, to say: Here's the reason why we are not making our money! And it made sense to the people. At first it might have had some of an impact, but as it's said, it's going on, people have made cassette tapes of things for years, recorded out of the radio, it is the same. It’s just someone's way to give another answer for why they want make money they don't make anymore. They're out, they're easy out!

Nadja: Let's do kind of brainstorming; what comes to your mind to the following things: MP3

KEVIN: Great!

COLIN: Great!

Nadja: the internet

KEVIN: Brilliant.

COLIN: Same, brilliant.

Nadja: Music television

KEVIN: Scheiße!

JASON: Killed the radio star.

KEVIN: Yes, it did! Music television took away the mystery, you know, it took away the element of surprise. And it's become its own worst enemy as well. It's boring.

JASON: Now it's more money. A band used to just record an album and then go on tour, now a band has to record an album, dress nice, look really cool, you know it's one more expense, and then it's a tool, it's a marketing tool.

COLIN: It also … sucks. It's two things, one: fashion, and second: people don't see the same thing, everybody is different, and when you put music into a visual and it gives the power of creating an illusion, you're making up what people should be thinking. And it's made people very judgemental about music, from the wrong point of view, because music is not necessarily a visual, although it can be. Music is a sensual, but MTV and the things like this have really made music more visual than an auditory. If someone hears a song that they love, but they don’t like the fashion of the singer, then they have a judgement, and the judgement really doesn't matter because it's not about nothing it takes away substance. And substance is something we've lost, and that's really sad.

ADAM: Another aspect on the whole music on television thing, I think especially in America, I can't really speak for other parts of the world, but when you can see a band's entire concert, their entire show shot from the best angles, the best of sound, you can see it from the convenience of your home, you can see it at any time you want, I think it actually does two things, it makes you too convenient to see the band that way and not actually go to the venue and buy a ticket, cause you can see it for free, and I think it just interludes the whole experience, it takes away that mystery of what a band is like live, I remember being younger and getting records from bands and wanting to see what it’s about, there was a mystery element, I wanted to see these people live and in personal and in action. But if you can see it all perfectly mixed, better than it would sound at a concert on your television at all, it removes some of the motivation to go out and support that band live, that combined with high ticket prices, I think has really hurt the whole touring industry, whether being on a club level or a large band level, I think it takes away from the overall experience.

COLIN: But I will say, tour videos are great, "It smells like teen spirit" made kids wanna go to a concert because they wanted Kurt Cobain to jump on them, so there is and there have been music videos for a long time before MTV, and they are great, I mean the problem is as a marketing tool it gets dangerous, so if you want a word when you say MTV, the word is dangerous.

Nadja: American Idol or other casting shows

KEVIN: Shit! Fuck!

COLIN: It’s made it too accessible.

KEVIN: Let’s make it a one-word answer: Shit!

Nadja: Reunions of bands of the 80’s

KEVIN: Funny.

ADAM: Entertaining.

KEVIN: Fucking hilarious!

Nadja: Which band would you like to reunite?

KEVIN: The Clash

COLIN: Bob Marley and the Wailers

JASON: Jimmy Hendrix Experience

COLIN: Led Zeppelin wouldn’t be bad. Nirvana would be pretty cool.

Nadja: What about those dance acts that take a song out of the 80’s and just put a beat behind it and sell it as their own song?

KEVIN: Cheaters.

COLIN: Dangerous.

COLIN: Sometimes it can be good, but it’s lazy.

ADAM: Dangerous! Sometimes it’s art and sometimes it’s shit.

KEVIN: One word comes to my mind: Andy Warhol ...

Nadja: When you get home tomorrow, what is the first thing that you will do?

ALL: Sex!

Nadja: What was the strangest thing you’ve done in your lives?

KEVIN: Sex!

JASON: Joining a band!

KEVIN: Yeah, joining a band, it’s been the strangest experience in my life, absolutely, brilliant answer Jason!

Nadja: What will you do after the tour?

COLIN: Go on tour.

KEVIN: We go on tour again in America, pretty soon.

ADAM: Four days off!

JASON: Join a band! (Laughter) I mean this band!

Nadja: Where do you see the future for the Hiwatts?

KEVIN: Europe!

COLIN: Europe.

KEVIN: Every fuckin' year, two or three times a year, absolutely!

Nadja: So we will see you here again.

Nadja: Thank you very much!

COLIN: A lot!

KEVIN: Yeah!

JASON: Too much!

Nadja: Any plans where you will raise your tents?

KEVIN: We are planning to take another year conquering Europe entirely.

COLIN: Eastern Europe! I think it's a really important place, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, I think that's a place where we'd really love to go. I also think Azerbaijan, Russia, I don't really know about the "Stans", like Turkmenistan and the others, but I do think Europe is getting very interesting, and it's getting very easy to travel in Europe for a band. You don't get pulled over on the other side of the road and you get your stuff ripped through, you don't need to worry about papers as much, it's becoming very similar to touring in the United States, where really crossing a boarder is a matter of a mile. And so I think that for us it's really important to get to places where it hasn't been so easy. That's what we'll do.

KEVIN: Yeah, you're welcome!

COLIN: Thank you!