Interview: Hellfekted

How long has your band been around?

(Liam) well in all honesty it was around abit longer but I don’t class that as Hellfekted because nothing was properly done when Hellfekted really started was the beginning of this year when me(Liam) Chris and myles got together and created everything from scratch!

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

We are from stoke on Trent and what influenced us from here is really lemmy he showed us that someone from stoke can take shit to the next level and make something out of it, his attitude, the way he use to be, the stories we hear it’s a true stokie that led his dream, now it’s time for us to do the same!

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

Well we were looking at two names Hellbound or Infekted and one of the old members said Hellfekted and I instantly loved it straight away I was hooked because to me it’s just a evil fucking word, there’s power behind it, potential and true form of evilness where your are pretty much getting infekted with hell itself!

If you could play any show with any line up who would it be on the ticket?

I would of loved to played with Bolt Thrower, Death and Kreator that would be my show of a life time to play because it would just be none stop shit show and everyone wouldn’t stop going crazy and it would of been something to live through!

If you could go back in time and give yourself advice what would it be?

(Liam) to fair i would just say to myself your doing great in the future you have nothing to worry about because the mistakes I’ve made and the shit I’ve done and shouldn’t of done has forged a person that wouldn’t be me unless I went through the stuff I did!

Chris: It would have to be the same thing as Liam. Mistakes are what define you, own them and learn from them to be the best version of yourself you can be.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band and how do you get past them?

We just talk it out, we speak the truth and understand eachother and just talk around it because we a band of brothers and we all have the same frame of mind and dream so we pretty much never have any disagreements in the first place it’s very very rare we would have one

What are your plans for the future and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that’s coming up?

Our plans for the future is keep getting bigger and more known and playing more shows and getting more stuff sorted and more merch! And the stuff that we have coming up is NEW MERCH!! ALBUM LAUNCH!! MAYBE TOUR!!

What got you into music and if you weren't into music what would you be doing today?

Myles: I got into music properly after listening to the 'Dookie' album by Green Day when I was 12, I've always admired their style especially in the early 90's and Trè Cool has always been one of my favorite drummers. If it wasn't for music I would probably be in the police or something similar because that's what I studied in college.

What do you do when you're not playing music and how does it influence your creativity?

Myles: I like to draw sometimes and go into forests and take pictures in the mist and pretend I'm in silent hill, I guess it adds to the atmosphere, I did alot of photography when I was younger but not so much anymore, I may get back into it in the future!

Tell me about the best and worst shows you have played.

Myles: The worst show I played was actually with one of my favorite bands, ingested, I was 16 at the time and I got really nervous before the show and practiced so much I messed up one of my hands and caused an injury, I during the set I dropped all my sticks and had to go scouring the stage between songs to find my sticks! The guys from ingested were really nice though and their drummer, Lynn Jeffs was really helpful and said I should take it easy and not worry too much, I'll always admire them for how down to each guys they are. I'd say the best show was most recently with Devastator and Jackel's Backbone in Bristol.

Tell me about your favorite venue to play at, and what venue would you play at if you had the chance?

Myles: My favorite venue to play is the underground which is a local venue in stoke, I've always enjoyed the PA system and they have a great sound system, however I played Manchester club academy when I was in an older band and that place was awesome! If I could play anywhere it would be Sheffield Achademy I've been there afew times and it has a really great sound.

What advice would you give someone who is starting getting into playing in a band?

Myles: The advice I would give someone starting out is to just take your time and not rush into anything, I remember when I was in high school and it was pretty much a race to see who could play the shows the youngest and soonest and it ever worked out so over the years I've learned to take things slower which is always beneficial!

Of your songs which means the most to you and why?

Myles: I'd say omen of the antichrist is the song which means the most to me, we spent afew montha writting it and I kept changing the drum parts before the final album recording. I was in a dark place when we wrote it as a band so it has alot of conetations there.

Chris: Mine has to be Fractured, just because it talks about the decay of society which is something that I notice more and more on a daily basis and as time goes by it becomes more relatable.

Which songs are your favorite and which get requested the most?

Myles: My favorite song in this band to play is 'fire at will' becauee we wrote it at our first rehersal and very much just happened there and then without warning, although personally I'd say 'number of the beast' by iron maiden is my favorite song to play.

Chris: My favourite song to play of ours if I had to choose I'd say Stigma, if you don't know it, get to a show I'm not saying everything here! If I had to pick just any song in general then I'd say For Whom The Bell Tolls as it was the first metal song I ever heard and what made me want to be a bass player.

What is the creative process in the band and what inspires you to play?

Our relative process is pretty simple, we just come up with riffs and thrash it out, there's no formula we just go with the flow and if someone has ideas then we try them out, there's no 'main' songwriter it's just whatever feels right.

What kind of messages do you aim to get across in your music?

We don't have one particular message to get across, we just write whatever comes to mind, mainly if we've had a bad day/week we come to practice and thrash it out, I'm sure we will come up with different things over the years but for now it's about anything and everything!