There’s nothing quite like a hard rock/metal band. I have had the honor of meeting many people in the music industry, but those members of bands truly are interesting people. Normally they create a community of fans who really support them in the very beginning. However, sometimes they blow up because of hit music. Then, that intimate community becomes a world of fans. Things change. If they can remain together they grow to be better musicians and songwriters – together. Halestorm fits into that category. They still seem to be those kids from Pennsylvania whose dad supported them by playing bass. A family band that grew to something bigger than anyone would dare to dream.
Hopefully, many of you reading out there who know nothing of Halestorm, will gain some knowledge and respect for how they made it to this Grammy-award winning outfit that travels around the world performing for audiences who love their music. If you are a fan, perhaps you will enjoy an inept look into their rise and music.Let’s start from the beginning.
Siblings Arejay and Elizabeth “Lzzy” Hale have been actively writing and performing original music since 1997 when they were 10 and 13 years old, respectively. Lzzy started learning piano at the age of 5; she later progressed to a keytar, and Arejay the drums. She took guitar lessons at 16. The teen siblings released two EPs titled Forecast for the Future in 1997 and (Don’t Mess With The) Time Man in 1999.
The keytar is a lightweight synthesizer that is supported by a strap around the neck and shoulders, similar to the way a guitar is supported by a strap. Keytars allow players a greater range of movement onstage, compared to conventional keyboards, which are placed on stationary stands or which are part of heavy, floor-mounted structures. The instrument has a musical keyboard for triggering musical notes and sounds. Various controls are placed on the instrument’s “neck”, including those for pitch bends, vibrato, portamento, and sustain.
In 2003, Joe Hottinger joined the band. In Halestorm’s earlier days, Lzzy and Arejay’s father, Roger Hale, played bass before Josh Smith joined the group in 2004
The group signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records on June 28, 2005, and released a live EP titled One and Done on April 28, 2006. The EP, now out of print, featured an early live version of “It’s Not You.” Their self-titled debut album was released on April 28, 2009. The song “I Get Off” served as the album’s lead single. Both the song and video for their second single, “It’s Not You”, were released in late November 2009. Singles and videos for “Love/Hate Heartbreak” and “Familiar Taste of Poison” were released in 2010.
At this point of this post I want to concentrate on the period of time between 1997 and when Halestorm signed with Atlantic Records in 2005. An eight year period that is not much time to an adult, but in the life of a band of youngsters it was used wisely. The kids developed musically and became adults during that time. They recorded music, learned to play more instruments, wrote songs and even made additions to the band. Every move led up to that recording contract. Of course, the work didn’t stop there. Four years later Halestorm released their debut album and were on their way. Even artists can make good use of time by continuing to develop musically. I heard that word of advice from a well-known band manager several years ago. I can only imagine that it helped early on with Roger Hale in the band.
Halestorm developed a real strong work ethic as they toured and recorded extensively. The years from 2009-2012 probably seemed like a blur full of activity. That activity was very good for the young band as they continued the creative process that would only make them better. Their second full-length album, The Strange Case Of… was released on April 10, 2012. Four of the album’s songs were previously released on the sneak-preview EP Hello, It’s Mz. Hyde. A deluxe edition of the album was also released containing three bonus tracks. A different version of the song “Here’s to Us” featuring multiple guests including Slash was included as a bonus track on the reissue version of the standard and deluxe version of the album in 2013. In interviews about the album, Hale noted that the album was heavier than their previous album, but was significantly closer to the sound of them live.
On December 5, 2012 during a show at the Majestic Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, before Lzzy could start her piano ballad “Break In”, guitarist Joe Hottinger ran up to her f rom off stage and told her that the song “Love Bites…(So Do I)” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Category. Drummer Arejay Hale asked on his mic what happened and after Lzzy replied to the audience that they had just been nominated for a Grammy, the crowd erupted in celebration. The entire event was recorded by a fan and posted on YouTube. On February 10, 2013 Halestorm won the award, becoming the first female-fronted band to both be nominated and win in that category.
As mentioned earlier Halestorm is one of the hardest working bands in the world, often performing as many as 250 shows a year. They kept that pace even after winning the Grammy award. They continued to work in the studio as they completed their third studio album and toured worldwide over the next few years. Halestorm provided live music to fans and gained newer fans worldwide.
Halestorm announced the release of their fourth full studio album, Vicious on July 27, 2018. The band released the first single from the album, “Uncomfortable” that same day. It was followed by “Black Vultures” on June 22 and “Do Not Disturb” on July 19. The song “Uncomfortable” earned them another Grammy award nomination and set the band apart from others. Lzzy Hale commented to Blabbermouth.net: “In my opinion, this is gonna be the first record… And we always say this, we hope we get better as musicians as we go on, with each record. But this is gonna be the first record where you can really hear all four corners of Halestorm and what makes us a band. And if any of you have ever seen us live, I think this is the closest to what you see when you see us live. In a lot of these records that we put out, ‘Okay, we have a catchy song, and I sing on it,’ and then that’s about it. So there’s so many different layers to this record that I’m so proud to show everybody.”
The pandemic has changed the lives of everyone, certainly bands like Halestorm who play so many live music dates every years. Therefore it left them to do the one thing that they could; the began recording their next studio album, with a “socially distant” studio process.On August 17, 2021, the first song, “Back from the Dead,” off of the new album was released, and the band said the fifth album would be released in 2022.
That brings us up to today. We have a very good hard rocking metal band with a twelve year track record of powerful music. It doesn’t appear that they will be stopping anytime soon. In fact, there may be more critical acclaim coming for the quartet. Yes, the Halestorm is still raging!