—>HATRED was formed in 1991... What do you think off all these years of headbanging? Worth it?<—
"Definitely, it's been worth it! We have had a blast for the most part and have had the opportunity to meet a lot of cool people into the same stuff. And have had the chance to play with a lot of good bands."

—>Why exactly did you start up this band? What were the motivations? Did you play with other bands before this one?<—
"This is really everyone's first band. Me and Tim tried to get some things going for about two years before HATRED but nothing ever happened. The main reason we started playing was that were really into the music; both of us listened to a lot of the same bands, so we had common influences. This and the fact that we weren't exactly social people in school. We couldn't care less about all the preppies and cliques and the trendy bullshit that followed them around. We both had the same ideas of what we wanted to play and we had similar goals, so everything has worked out well so far. In the beginning, there were bands like KISS and AC/DC who were there from the time I was a little kid. I saw them and just knew I wanted to play in a band."

—>When you started, what was your main goal as a band? And personally, as musicians?<—
"Our main goal as a band was and still is to make music we like to play. With this type of music, it's close to impossible to make a living from it. We would at least like to get to the point where we are able to tour on a regular basis and hopefully, we won't kill each other, so we can continue to make new songs and just keep going. I don't know what I'd do without it. My personal goal is to be successful doing something that is what I really want to do and not what other people tell me to do. By successful, I don't mean $ but to just have the opportunity to keep playing without life's obstacles getting in the way and putting a stop to things."

—>You did a few recordings... Tell us about those... What do you think of the old demos?<—
"We really did three demos before "The Offering"; The first one was untitled, not much more than a rehearsal tape which we only made a few copies of. It wasn't too good. Next were "Suffer" and "Daze Of Darkness". "Suffer" was the first and is a four song tape that we later recorded the songs over, with David on drums. We released it as a MCD. "Daze..." is a six song cassette from '94, which our second drummer was on. He left before we finished putting the tape together. That's why David is in the picture on the cassette."

—>You've had exposure from various compilations... Was it beneficial? What about that apparition on Black Marks' compilation?<—
"Yeah, all the exposure from the compilations has been good. They have spread our name around some and got us a little radio play and some orders for our stuff. The Black Mark compilation "Out Of The Box" was cool because it enabled us to reach more people than we probably could have on our own."

—>Was Black Mark interested in the band? Did they offer you guys a deal of some sort?<—
"When they asked us to be on the compilation, they said that it was basically a screening process to see what kind of response the bands would get. If a band got a real good response, then they would consider releasing their stuff. They told us some time after the compilation was released that they weren't interested in putting out our stuff at the time. Anders, who is the one who put us on the compilation, really liked "The Offering" and said he was interested in it. But the big man wouldn't go for it."

—>And then you finally released the album on your own... Was it a difficult task?<—
"It took quite a while. In the beginning, it was a pain because we had to switch studios due to the engineer. His full time job was too much work and he backed out when we were almost done. We went to Oblivion Studios in Upper Marlboro, Md. and recorded everything over. We are much happier with the end result anyway. Plus, it's such a relaxed studio and Mike Bossier (the engineer and owner of the studio) is great to work with. We had a blast, I can't wait to go back! King of DECEASED/OCTOBER 31 got us a good rate on the duplication of the CD and Jim, also of OCTOBER 31, did the layout. We had a lot of help, so it definitely made things easier."

—>Who's handling the marketing and promotion side of the business? And what about your distribution?<—
"I normally do most of the stuff. A web page is in the works through spinrecords.com, where people will be able to download mp3 files and we will have some video up on the site, along with all the normal stuff; bio, pics, etc. I don't know when that will be ready. I sent everything out to them but I haven't heard back yet. We have Relapse and Red Stream helping us with distribution here in the United-States, Oz records out of Mexico and of course Great White North records out of Canada."

—>What are the feedbacks toward "The Offering" so far? How is it selling?<—
"So far the feedback has been pretty good. I'm just starting to get reviews back now. It's been selling okay. We'll see what happens."

—>What about that possible European release? Is it confirmed yet? Anybody supposed to release it?<—
"The CD is going to be released by Attack Records, which is out of England. As of now, they are planning a release for January 2000. Their territories for the release are everywhere except the United-States."

—>What do you think of the album's general production? Are you totally pleased with it? Anything you'd be willing to change?<—
"Overall, I'm happy with it. Things can always be better. I wish we could have had more time to make things a little tighter. Maybe fatten up the guitars a little, but we are all happy with it. The next time in the studio will be better because every time you go in, you learn better ways to approach things."

—>You guys are playing a lot on the east coast... Are you planning a tour to support the album?<—
"I don't see any kind of structured tour happening at this time, just mostly weekend shows. Kind of short bursts, like Friday-Saturday things. I would love to go for longer lengths of time. I guess it's possible. We just have to work things out with our jobs."

—>Any cool stuff happening while you were touring?<—
"Nothing out of the ordinary, except when we played at the Florida Metalfest; on the way back, we went to Jacksonville beach. There was a hurricane about one hundred miles off shore and the rip tide was very strong. David kind of got pulled out pretty far... We got him back in after a little bit of struggling. Really, there hasn't been anything too strange. We have just been able to meet a lot of cool people and drink quite a bit of beer."

—>What do you think of the internet as a promotional tool??? Is it an essential tool?<—
"I think that it's becoming a very helpful tool. It is amazing how many people you can reach for the relatively small amount of money. It seems like the government is trying to put a stop to it though, with all the talk of e-mail charges through the post office and long distance charges."

—>What are your short term goals? Future plans?<—
"Short term goals are to make it through the new year without any major catastrophes. I would really like to go to Europe and do some shows. That was one of the main reasons I always wanted to be in a band; it was to travel and see as many things as I can before I die. We started working on some new material. Hopefully we'll be able to have another CD in a year or so."

—>Thanks for the interview! What else do you want to add?<—
"Thanks for the interview and your support and I'm looking forward to getting that GORGUTS shirt! We can be contacted for merchandise or anything by mail at: HATRED, P.O. Box 10264, Alexandria, Virginia, 22310, U.S.A.
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