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Hurt Elevate Worn Road Of Hard Rock

By: Brett Hickman

Sunday October 21, 2007

On Vol. II, Hurt elevate the rather tired and cliched hard rock genre.
What's most surprising about the hard rock band Hurt after listening to their second album, appropriately titled Vol. II (Vol. I was released early in 2006), isn't the use of melody, or the symphonic aspirations the band has, but rather the conviction the band brings to their harder edged material. You see, singer/guitarist/lyricist/de facto band figurehead J. Loren Wince grew up in a household where rock and roll wasn't allowed. Raised on a diet of gospel and classical music, studying to be a classical violinist at an early age and citing Antonio Vivaldi as his idol and greatest influence, J. Loren discovered hard rock later than many others.

This late blooming explains why Hurt doesn't sound as cliched or trite as so many of their brethren do. There's a feeling that anything can happen in Hurt's music, that this is a band intent on turning people's expectations on their collective ear and making them do what they command. The closest comparison to Hurt one can summon is the Maynard James Keenan-led project A Perfect Circle. With APC gone, Hurt fill a void for melodic, virtuoso hard rock with a commercial bent. Vol. II positively shimmers, all bright sounds and perfectly mixed instrumentation. In all honesty, perhaps the album is a little too perfectly mixed. The album is a hair close to going overboard into becoming a soulless piece of product until someone, probably J. Loren, pulled back the reins just in time.

There are some masterful songs here. Though album opener "Summers Lost" would indicate something different awaits the listener, it's not until the double-dose of "Alone With the Sea" and "Talking To God" that hammers this notion in. "Alone With the Sea", features layered harmonies, gorgeous symphonic sweep and delicate banjo picking. "Talking To God" takes to task a hypocritical mother who spends her time praying yet ignores her son. The song mixes hard-driving guitars with a melodic rush that's undeniably powerful to listen to. Bursting through after the second chorus wherein J. Loren lets out a blood-curdling scream and a gospel choir falls in, the whole thing is sent to the heavens before ending on a lovely bit of muted guitar.

Split into two parts (as if the band long for the days of the LP format), the second half comes close to matching the highs found on the first. Leaning a little more on the hard rock edge than the first, songs such as "Loded", "Better" and album closer "Thank You for Listening" are surefire crowd pleasers live. If a little less majestic than the album's first, the second portion of Vol. II shows the listener where the band came from.

Though Hurt haven't made a revolutionary album with Vol. II, J. Loren and company (Paul Spatola - guitar, dobro, piano, Joshua Ansley - bass guitar and Evan Johns - drums) are making strides towards something truly special in the future. The mere fact that they elevate the rather tired and cliched hard rock genre as much as they do here would indicate that great things are in store for the band as well as for their fans.

On a recent tour stop in Youngstown, OH, I spoke with Hurt's J. Loren about where his band is now and tried to find out where they were going. Keeping things close to the vest, J. Loren wouldn't divulge much on the latter, but was eager to speak about the here and now.

Static Multimedia: Does touring get any easier over time?

J. Loren: No. Unequivocally no.

What has changed from the beginning?

JL: Bigger venues, thankfully, which means more people. The more people the happier we are. More material out with the Vol. II. That's about all that's changed. We're still the same guys. We're still insanely poor. We just play our asses off every night. We go home to Alexis. In fact, we still don't have homes. Nothing's changed.

What was the idea behind the titling? Is there a plan to continue down the same path?

JL: The next thing we're going to do is a different title, it's not going to be Vol. III. Which does not mean there won't be a Vol. III. But that would be a little silly. In fact, I almost did an interim album between Vol. I and Vol. II, but demand was so great for Vol. II we just couldn't hold off any longer. The plan was to make Vol. I & IIand have that come out immediately, but at the time we had just gotten signed to a major and that's a significant investment for a major label to put out a dual-CD and the touring to support that. It actually worked out in our benefit because we took the time to, instead of just releasing what we had for Vol. II we went back and re-recorded it and I think we bettered it.

What things did you do differently when you re-recorded it?

JL: We were looking to fill out the morning-after feel that we were getting. All of the members had rotated slightly, we had a couple of new members. I wanted to get their input into what they do best. Too much of one person's thing is not necessarily a good thing. Hopefully, you can hear the chemistry the band has on the second album. Vol. I is meant to be Vol. I and all the pieces fit together for that. And Vol. II is a more distinctive sound and effort. I'm not sure the general public was ready for that.

You said you're playing more shows in bigger venues, what sort of reaction are you getting from the fans?

JL: We have had the pleasure of having a really wonderful fan base. We have the kind of fans that have such endearment to our music that it's really hard to gauge which show is better than another show, because it really means a lot to these folks. If it didn't mean a lot to them, I damn sure wouldn't feeling like scream my brains out for an hour and a half every night of my life. The reaction has been very good. I was surprised that when we played in Cleveland...I think it was a day after the album came out...the people knew all the words from Vol. II. I'm not really sure how that happened. But the reaction has been really good.

How has your relationship been with the label? Positive and negatives.

JL: I have to say it has been a difficult relationship. Purely by the nature of it. We're a very idealistic band. I personally have very little regard for technical law. I believe that, when I do something, I need to do something to the satisfaction of what is universally right. And corporations don't live that lifestyle. They can't. Immediately we had a rift there. But far be it from me to start some crap about people who are literally just trying to help me. We might not always see eye to eye sometimes, but we are working together and trying to get this music out there for people. At the end of the day we're both right when it comes to something. But we fight a lot. It would be easy to be despondent because what they would call a project and what I'd call my life. But I'm not gonna go talking crap about them. They're doing their job and they're trying their hardest. With the state of the music industry the way it is, it's very difficult for anyone to function at all.

If something were to happen where you had the option to go and put out your music on your own do you have that ability or desire?

JL: I have always been in this to make music, whatever I have to do to do that it doesn't matter to me. We have to do what we have to do to get the music out there.

Are you working on other projects or writing while on the road?

JL: We haven't had any downtime so my writing has slowed. I have had this song in my head for the last couple of days that I'm still trying to hash out. It's slowing down my faculties at the moment. I'm constantly writing, whether or not I actually write anything down.