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Hi guys, how are you doing? Could you introduce yourselves?
We're Hacktivist, this is Ben.
I'm Josh.
Tim.
I'm Rich.
J.
You just played Euroblast festival this weekend, what do you think of the lineup?
Awesome, best lineup. Couldn't think of anyone else that could possible be on it, apart from Meshuggah.
They were busy.
The Algorithm, Monuments, ...
So you're happy to be a part of it.
Yeah, half the guys... at least three or four of the bands are from our area,
so it's cool to be over here with people that we know anyway.
A reunion.
Yeah. To be playing such a big stage as well, a massive crowd, it's cool.
What's the story behind the name 'Hacktivist'?
Is it a reference to the whole 'Anonymous' shenanigans? Where does it come from?
I think... I like what they do.
And I like the fact that they're just doing what they want to do,
they're standing up for themselves without using guns and knives. They're using their brain.
And I just like the whole idea, behind a mask and nobody knows who you are.
It's different, and nobody knows what they're going to do next.
When we came up with the name, it was really relevant when we started.
It was the talking point, it tied in with everything that's going on right now as well.
Trigger people's minds in another way.
And they're standing up for what they want to do, they're doing it regardless of what people think.
It's the same edge that we're having as well.
Your music features a combination of styles, there's the rap and there's the metal.
They don't have much in the way of a common fanbase.
Despite that you seem to have made your mark on the scene already.
A lot of people seem to enjoy what you do, even before the release of your debut EP.
How did the idea to combine these styles form?
By accident. Simple.
Just jamming with friends.
Me and Tim were in a band called Heart of a Coward, obviously we aren't anymore.
We did a dubstep remix of one of their songs, so we got J to jump in and do some rapping on that.
That went well, and then Tim, once he left Heart of a Coward, just started Hacktivist as a project,
and got me and J to do some rapping on it.
It was an experiment that turned out better than we thought it would.
There was no grand scheme or plan, we just...
We didn't think we'd be here now. It's just a bit of fun.
This combination of styles implies that you have different musical backgrounds, is that the case?
I'm from the grime scene.
Anything groovy.
J is a grime MC, Rich was initially a jazz drummer. We're from the metal and rock background.
It just kind of merged together. We've mixed everything we all listen to together.
That's another thing: the combination of styles seems to be extremely polarising.
There are a lot of people that love it, and then there are a lot of people that hate it.
Some people feel that you're tainting their metal with your rap.
Definitely. I love that.
So how do you deal with the backlash?
We laugh.
To be honest, I think all of the negativity just adds to the whole hype of it.
If people are going on about "what is this ***? listen to this",
and people will either like it or hate it, it'll just create a buzz.
I don't think bad news is bad news, because it still gets things around.
If someone posts on their wall "this is ***", someone might like it.
We'd rather have haters than people thinking we're average.
Any publicity is good publicity.
Exactly.
If nothing else, it's fuel as well for us to just go out and do better.
We like *** people off.
If someone says they hate a song, we'll make the next song even more...
"I hate this", so then we just focus on the bit they hate.
Turned it up a bit, have a bit more of it.
The vocal delivery features clear elements of grime music.
Was this a natural evolution of sound or a conscious decision?
I think it was conscious. Everything came together, just seemed to fit into place.
I think, the lyrics, you bring a lot of your style into it. We all write lyrics together.
I still stick to the same as I was in grime. I don't change anything.
I just do what I like to do with the lyrics.
I think we could easily fall into changing the lyrics to metal style.
Even from the grime, I used to listen to everything anyway, it wasn't just grime.
Our first song 'Hacktivist', the first thing we ever released, on YouTube anyway,
the initial lyrics for that, J had already written them before we started.
We literally moved them on to the metal track, no change, and that's when we knew it worked.
People seem to like the word 'clunge' though. So we left it in.
We're trying to keep it serious, but people like that, so we put it in there a little bit,
just to show that we're not all completely serious all the time.
Do you think the rhythmic delivery associated with grime is a good fit for djent?
Definitely, I think they go hand in hand.
It's the same sort of thing, you dance the same to it.
Grime and metal, they're both punchy music.
Obviously you have a lot of people who like one or the other,
but essentially they're both just punchy music with a heartbeat.
We're getting good responses from both sides.
We get people that are into the rap scene and never listen to metal,
that listen to it and go "that's pretty dark, I like that".
And then you get a metal guy go "yeah, I can really feel those lyrics".
So as much as we're dividing people, I think we're bringing together people as well.
Your lyrics are clearly politically motivated, what is the message you wish to get across?
The state that the world is in at the moment...
We're all positive people, but we want to bring out...
we're not just going to chat about something that's irrelevant.
We want people to see what's going on.
In recent times, everyone's on to the way the world's working,
and we're just trying to bring that out, but in a positive way.
Saying "this is what's going on, but this is the way you should focus your mind and stuff."
We are just talking about what we want to talk about.
It's not necessarily exactly what's going on but we think...
If you feel strongly about your music then you put your lyrics into it.
If you feel strongly about what you're saying,
you want to make sure that the message you give out is what you feel.
We're not going to talk about *** and hoes and guns, because... well, maybe a little bit.
That does come into our lives every now and again, so...
There is a strong message, but nobody's got to take it seriously.
If you connect with it, brilliant.
If you don't feel the lyrics, just feel the music.
We're going to chat about whatever we want to chat about.
Do you think music is a good medium for political expression?
Definitely. It's the best, one of the best.
You just released a single 'Unlike Us',
and you're getting ready to release your self-titled debut EP next month.
What can we expect from it? Any surprises?
It's just filthy basically. Beefed up.
It's all been rerecorded, there's a lot of different stuff in there that we've done again,
just to make it a bit more exciting for the tracks that are already on there,
we changed quite a lot.
We were considering holding it back and going for an album,
but I think people needed to have something to hold.
So we just wanted to get that out there, there are a couple of new tracks on there.
There are some surprises coming, but we can't tell you what they are.
Because they're surprises, and we want you to be surprised.
The EP will be everything you expect and more.
The press release about the EP didn't make mention of any label.
Are you releasing the EP on your own?
It's a surprise. That's one of the surprises.
We're not working with anyone major, we've done everything ourselves.
We recorded the video and the songs ourselves.
We did a whole lot ourselves, we want to push that and try and make...
If we can get to the top and say that it's all on our own back,
we kind of prove that you don't need all these money-swindling labels and...
Not to say that they all are.
I'm not saying that at all, there are some people out there, I won't mention any names.
If one band can get from the bottom to the top without that, just by spirit,
then we've got to be proving a point there.
Have you had any offers from labels so far?
Possibly. Yeah we have.
Okay, we're not going to ask anything else about this.
Do you have any plans yet for a full-length album?
Yeah, we already started to write the full-length.
It's going to be different again I think.
I'm looking forward to making the album.
I've already been getting ahead of myself on a couple of things.
We all write together but our separate elements come together sometimes.
Everything we've already done, we're going to stem off even more.
You'll get more of every element we have.
Because it's an album we can actually spread that over every song.
Alright, that's all we wanted to ask. Is there anything you'd like to add?
got-djent.com, big up!
Come see us on tour!
If this goes out before, come check us on tour from October 31st until November 10th, UK tour.
Expect us.
We've got a little present for you guys.
Sweet.
Here you go, you can fight over it.
Thank you guys very much.