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(Spring 2006) by George Dionne
Hydrogyn released their debut album Bomshell (read
CD review) in early 2006. The buzz has been growing ever since.
Led by the rock godess Julie, Hydrogyn elisted the talents of hard rock
uber-producer Michael Wagener. Together with Wagener, the group delivers
a powerful and melodic assault with just the right amount of classic metal
influence. Some say band's like Hydrogyn sell themselves with a pretty face.
I'll admit it, it was their provocative album cover that peaked my interest
before I heard a single note of music. Face it, a lot of you are only reading
this interview because Julie's hypnotic image raised your eyebrow. All that
aside, taking a peak at Hydrogyn is worth giving them a listen. The band
will prove to you that they are more than a pretty face.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Hydrogyn, how would you
describe the group’s
music to me?
J: I would say the music is very energetic, melodic
hard rock. If you enjoy good old rock and roll form the eighties and nineties,
I think you’ll
really enjoy us. We do have a modern stance to ourselves, but we still go
back to the old rock and roll with the melodic vocals. You’re not going
to hear a lot of screaming and yelling, you’re going to be able to
understand the lyrics to each song.
RIL: If I were to but your current album Bombshell, what tracks should I
pay particular attention to and why?
J: Everybody has their favorites. We hear that all
the time, I love this or that, but it’s really all about people’s preference. For me
personally I like “Blind” for its energy and straight forwardness.
I’m a big fan of “Confession.” That’s a bit slower,
but it’s pretty kickin’. I like that song a lot. Everybody loves “Breaking
me Down.” I have more people telling me that it’s their favorite
song. We had that song on our first album as a demo.
RIL: You’re releasing a limited edition of Bombshell that replaces
your cover of AC/DC’s “Back in Black” with a cover of Skid
Row’s “18 & Life.” Why is that?
J: That’s already been done. The first pressing of the album had “Back
in Black” on it. We actually did a recording workshop with Michael
Wagener. Michael has people come in from all over the world for this workshop.
We always record a song there. It’s hard to be creative if there is
a room full of people. The first year we did it, we picked Back in Black
for our cover. The next year we did “18 and Life.” Michael actually
requested us to do both songs. After we did “18 and Life” we
just got a great response. We felt that it was a better fit with the album
musically. So with the next pressing we made the replacement. So if people
have the one with “Back in Black,” that was all we had.
RIL: Speaking of Michael Wagener, how did that opportunity for him to produce
your album come about?
J: A guy that we were kind of working with on some
consulting and managing stuff somehow got Michael’s phone number and passed it along to one
of the members of the band; our guitar player. He said you should call this
guy to record your next album. We’re thinking that this guy has produced
everyone from Metallica, Skid Row, and Dokken. Our guitar player was a little
hesitant about calling at first because he was thought there was no way [Wagener]
is going to give us the time of day. We called Michael and he’s a great
guy. We talked with him for a little while and he said to come down to his
Nashville studio. A week later we were in Nashville. We spent about an hour
and a half at his studio letting him listen to some of the stuff we did on
our previous album. It was more of a demo quality album, but he listened
long enough to know there was some potential. He said, ‘this is what
I charge’ and we said, ‘let us go mortgage all of our homes!’
RIL: What did you learn from Michael?
J: For me, the writing process was very new to me.
I started out doing a lot of country stuff; I lived the sheltered life. I
didn’t listen
to any rock and roll. It was when I joined the band about three years ago
that I started listening to rock. I had never written a song before, and
when we got together as a band a couple of years ago, I started attempting
the whole writing thing. I was not real confident, but being able to work
with Michael…he will sit down and go into pre-production with you
before you go into the studio to help you to structure the songs and make
them better. That made it a lot easier in the writing process, because
once you know what he is looking for, you’re going to listen to what
he says. Vocally, as far as coming up with good hooks and stuff like, I’ve
really learned a lot from him.
RIL: What do you think is the reason behind the current trend of female
fronted rock bands?
J: You did have people like Pat Benatar and Ann Wilson
from Heart that were very popular, and they made great music. For a while
in rock music it was
just men, men, men. There’s nothing wrong with that, but women are
really trying to get out there and do more. Some people don’t like
it at all, but I think it’s great. As a woman fronting a band, you
take the crap sometimes, but I could care less. Some people are going to
love it and some people are going to hate it. If you hate it, just don’t
listen to it.
RIL: Rock music is generally a male dominate genre. Have you run into any
difficulties because of this?
J: As far as being able to get gigs and stuff like
that, that part of being a female in this genre has been super easy. It’s new, it’s something
different; so in that sense it has not really caused any problems. There
are some websites right now that are slamming me and a lot of other female
front women saying we’re using a woman to front the band to sell it
with her image. I do a lot of modeling and stuff like, but I don’t
have a perfect body by any means. I get a lot of crap from that. Sex does
sell, and I’m on the album cover, but it gets people’s attention.
We have the music to back it up.
RIL: So that is you on the album cover?
J: That would be me. We actually went in and had John
Scarpedy do it. He’s
done everyone from Great White to The Dixie Chicks. He is a fabulous photographer.
We kind of wanted to do the Sin City effect with the album cover. A lot of
people that see that album cover go, ‘oh my gosh, that’s you!’ It
is me, but that’s not how I look in everyday life. I’m a tomboy.
RIL: Do you think that some men are sometimes coming out to the show to
ogle you instead of listening to the band?
J: I’m sure that it’s going to happen. When you’re doing
anything promotional you’re going to have posters with pictures of
the band, and having a sexy women on the cover may have a certain excitement
about it and make some people come out to see the band. I’m sure there’s
going to be people that come out because were fronted by a female..and men
love women!
RIL: Hydrogen just announced that there going to do a tour of local strip
clubs, how did that idea come about?
J: You know the song “Blind” on the album? It’s actually
based on a strip club. It has a lot to do with a woman who basically falls
in love blindly .When we sat down to do a video for one of the songs on the
album we choose “Blind.” I really wanted to tell the story. We
went to a strip club to film portions of the video. We’ll be incorporating
shots of the band and stuff with it. When we were in there shooting the video,
we thought it would be a really cool to play a show. So at the strip club
that we filmed in, we actually talked with them, and they loved the idea.
They thought it was great because nobody else is doing it. We decided to
get in contact with some of the strip clubs in our area, and they were all
up for it. So far were getting a good response.
RIL: I noticed on your website that you have some solo dates booked as well.
What do you play when you do those solo dates?
J: Oh, that’s probably a little outdated. I did the National Anthem
for a football game. Some of those “solo” dates are just me doing
some stuff locally. I’m doing some things with our local Budweiser
distributors. I’ll be making some special appearances with them.
RIL: Why do you go by just Julie?
J: There are a lot of reasons. There is another member
in the band with the same last name, so the first thing everyone wants to
know is; are you brother
and sister, are you married, are you divorced? I was constantly battling
with those questions. Now I don’t have to get into any of that.
RIL: So we’ll just leave your relationship with the other
band member open for people to guess?
J: Sure.
RIL: Your record label Chavis Records just signed a distribution
deal with Wal-Mart. Do you think that it will be good deal for Hydrogyn?
Wal-Mart is
notorious for censoring material they deem offensive. Not that your cover
is offensive, but it is a little risqué.
J: Actually, they did have a problem with it. It’s going to hit different
areas though; it’s not going to be in every Wal-Mart around.
RIL: Like the Bible belt?
J: Exactly! We’re from the West Virginia/Kentucky area. The way that
Wal-Mart is set up is that you have certain people who are working for certain
regions. Some regions think there’s nothing wrong with [the album cover],
but others are like, ‘we really don’t know if we like that album.’ I
think its going to be a great thing. I know that Wal-Mart is selective in
what they choose for album covers, but I’ve been to Wal-Mart, and I’ve
seen a lot worse.
RIL: Is Hydrogyn paying the bills, or do you still have a day job?
J: Hydrogyn is paying the bills right now. Like I said,
I’m doing other
things on the side like Budweiser and Easy Rider. I do have some things that
I do on the side that allow for a little extra income.
RIL: What’s the best advice that someone in the industry has
given you?
J: You know, I’m trying to think someone in the industry, but I don’t
know. I mean, that’s the thing, as far as people in the industry…we
have done so much of this on our own. The only person that I could say, that’s
in the industry, would be Michael Wagener. He’s just been a good support
for us. I’ve probably gotten more advice from Michael on how to do
things properly than anyone else.
RIL: Is there anything else that you would like to add that I didn’t
cover?
J: We do have a new website. You can download some
of our music and watch the video for “Blind.” There’s a lot more at the website,
so if there’s someone out there who’s interested in female fronted
bands, come on and check us out!
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JULIE
