Lzzy Hale Explains How the Pandemic Has Affected Halestorm’s Next Album
A global pandemic hasn't stopped Halestorm from charging ahead on their next album, albeit safely and in as much of a socially distanced manner as possible. But now, about a year to the day when COVID-19 lockdowns first swept the U.S., singer-guitarist Lzzy Hale has taken stock of just how much the situation has affected Halestorm's in-progress fifth studio effort.
Due to health concerns early in the pandemic, the process began with Halestorm members largely writing on their own, before virtually sharing their ideas with the other band members. Now that recording's underway with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Alice in Chains), Lzzy realizes just how much the pandemic might shape the creative tone of the imminent album, as well.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
"It's been a roller-coaster ride," Hale told Matt Pinfield on 95.5 KLOS, "because we were writing for the record and actually getting together right here in my home studio every single day before the … lockdown happened, which I think tomorrow marks a year to the day when all that craziness started. So we were getting together, and we were writing songs, and then, slowly but surely, it just felt like every single day we were getting more bad news. And we just basically made a decision, like, 'Okay, guys, until this blows over ' — [laughs] which we thought it was going to blow over — 'let's everybody just stay at home.' So the songwriting process kind of became more or less this relay sport, where it would start with myself or myself and my guitar player [Joe Hottinger], and then we would pass it off to Josh [Smith, bass], the bass player, and [eventually] send it to Arejay [Hale, drums]. And so we just ended up building up this kind of Dropbox of ideas." [via Blabbermouth]
At that point, the band started involving Raskulinecz in their shared inbox with "all of these ideas," Lzzy continued, "and so we'd go back and forth with that. And then, finally, just a couple of weeks ago, we got asked to perform The Who's 'Long Live Rock.' … And so that was kind of our, 'Okay, well, we have to get together and do this in a real studio. So everyone get tested, and everybody wear your mask the whole time.' And it was kind of like shaking off the dust — it was getting the band back together again."
But will the pandemic's presence be felt in the lyrical focus of the new Halestorm originals? For the singer, does it look like the record could end up offering a creative snapshot of her lockdown life?
"There were the songs that we were writing just kind of coming off the road, where it's very confident and very live and energy," Lzzy said." And then it kind of starts to get — still keeping the energy up, but then subject matter starts to get a little crazier and maybe a little darker. And then it's kind of starting to dip into some more hope now. So I feel like, in real-time, this is going to kind of be like almost a musical documentary of what we've gone through, through this past year and change."