From the Pacific Northwest, we have another classic heavy metal band willing to flex their creative muscles in Hangfire. Burn is the group’s debut album – featuring a wide array of styles that incorporate country and western, hard rock, thrash, and modern textures that allow listeners to appreciate the versatility while still being traditional in the hooks, harmonies, and overall atmosphere. We reached out to guitarist Sean Searls to learn more about the start of the group, the years of songwriting ideas that make up the record, live performance thoughts and special memories, cool video shoot memories, how skateboarding and an injury provided a pivotal moment to his musical dexterity, plus lots of metal talk and future plans.
Dead Rhetoric: Tell us about the origins of Hangfire – from what I understand, most of the members were aware of each other through the local Washington music scene?
Sean Searls: Yeah. When Hangfire first started I lived in Vancouver, Washington for most of my life and I ended up moving up to Lacey, Washington which is an hour and ten-minute drive north. I was looking for bands, and I ended up finding this drummer Scott who was our original drummer, my brother knew him, and then met Steve, our bass player. We were doing cover songs, “Double Vision” by Foreigner, some oldies but goodies. It got to the point where I was always writing my own material – we wanted to make an original band. So, we added a couple of original songs I wrote, and then I wrote another song we called “Hangfire” – we decided to call the band that. We had a bunch of different names – I wanted something that sounded kind of 80s metal that had a really cool ring to it. And a one-word type deal.
Slowly we pieced things together. We got Shannon later, our drummer we have now, and we’ve always been on the look out for a singer. We had two other singers that were kind of in and out. The first five years, we played shows with no singers. We did thirty shows with no singers. That’s been a little trip there.
Dead Rhetoric: Did you know straight away the properties or qualities you wanted to put across in this act that maybe differed from your other bands/projects?
Searls: I did because a lot of the bands I was in before – including another band called Within Sight, it was more of a metalcore band. I’ve always been a fan of 80s metal; Metallica is probably my number one all-time favorite band. Actually, my favorite band of all time is The Presidents of the United States of America – which is hilarious, because not a lot of people remember who that band is anymore. I love the 80s style, how it’s fast and aggressive with Testament, Megadeth, all those bands that have that drive. I didn’t really have room to do that with any of the bands down here, so I tried to do something on my own. I kicked ideas to the guys, and they liked it, it’s up their alley too.
Dead Rhetoric: Burn is the debut album for Hangfire. How would you describe the songwriting and recording sessions surrounding this set of material – and what are your thoughts on the final product now?
Searls: Oh man. A lot of the songs were written awhile ago. The ballad that is on there “Falling Awake”, I wrote that sitting on a curb in Seaside, Oregon. I was playing an outdoor acoustic gig with one of my other bands eight years ago. The song just came to me. It’s always been sitting in the back, waiting to come out. There are three or four songs on the album that were written pretty fast, on the spot. “Outlaw”, I’ve had one of the parts for that one for over fifteen years. I sat on it for a long time. I was taking a train ride up to my brother’s house in the summer, I was watching 3:10 to Yuma the movie on the train, and at the end of the movie it has this really cool country song. I wanted to write a country western meets rock kind of song, and I wrote that song in a stairwell in my apartment complex. The main opening riff line, I almost lost it. I tried to capture this on my cell phone, and I was at 1% battery life. I figured if I opened my video camera on the phone, I could film myself playing. I had to get this down, and literally after I recorded it, it shut off. I forgot the riff and I couldn’t figure it out. A month later I was going through my riffs, and I was like ‘oh yeah, I had that riff’.
There are older influences and a range of sounds that happen on the album. Other than that, there’s no real theme to this album. It’s balls to the wall as much as we can, and it’s more like what we feel like playing. I feel like you sometimes need a ballad even on a rock album, or some heavy and faster stuff. There should be one song that everyone can identify with on an album. If you like country, you will like “Outlaw”, if you like faster, Judas Priest stuff, you’ll like “Warhawk”, if you like a ballad, “Falling Awake”, and if you like some newer modern stuff, you may like some of the later songs. We tried to hit the mark with different styles but stay within the Hangfire vein. It’s been interesting to do this, to try to keep this process going.
It’s interesting to try to write in a way where you want to stay on the same path, but also be diverse with your sound. I have a lot of songs that we haven’t put out yet in other styles. We have tons of other things and there will be a lot more in the future that people may say, ‘what the hell is this?’.
Dead Rhetoric: That is one of the aspects I really enjoyed about your debut record. You are into dynamics and diversity, and some bands don’t think about that when it comes to a full-length. You want to showcase all sides of the band…
Searls: That’s why I want to keep the door open as much as I can. If you are stuck on a certain writing style and you want to do something different, people could say, ‘oh, they sold out.’ If you start doing something random right from the start, you won’t know what you are getting into. At the same time, we could do a punk rock song, and it might just fit. There is a certain sound that once you hear it, you know it’s a Hangfire song. We like having all the diversity that happens in say classic rock. We love The Eagles, The Beatles, and all the older stuff. My stepdad and real dad were in the same type of cover band, Top 100 kind of thing. They used to do “Seven Bridges Road”, I got to get the diversity of all types of music together when I was younger to write like that.
Dead Rhetoric: How did the cover art come about for Burn? Do you think cover art is as important in the modern scene as it was during the 70s and 80s?
Searls: Oh yeah. It’s one of my favorite things, going over cover art. I feel like you need to be able to stare at the album cover. As a teenager, it was half the attraction, the cover. That was how my sister got me into The Offspring, when I was like eleven. I didn’t know who they were, and my sister wanted to get me a birthday present, she went to a Sam Goody record store where they had it in the mall. She told the people that work there that my brother is into skateboarding, and he loves Metallica – they said he’ll like this, and they gave her the Conspiracy of One album. Because it had the skull and flame on it. Then I literally fell in love with that band. You can’t beat the attraction to it. You get to wonder what they are thinking.
One of my favorite covers is Powerslave by Iron Maiden, where they have the whole Egyptian background. Then Dio with Holy Diver, that’s creepy, as well as The Last In Line. I used to make up my own stories with Dio. Maybe they are so good back in the day, they made a deal with the devil, and they were the last ones to be in line to get into hell. Who makes up stuff like that? It’s because the album artwork stands out.
For our (album), it’s an amalgamation of our singer who had this idea of talking about setting the world on fire with our music. It’s like walking into the fire, which is the music industry, I think. You don’t know what you are getting into, from the left to the right. You have no idea what’s going to happen, the chaos of that is attractive. To have all that burning chaos everywhere, so you really don’t know what you are getting into. It’s like a fire that you see at a random house party, you end up staring into that forever, you get lost in it. That’s the goal we were going for, to keep people guessing.
Dead Rhetoric: What can you tell us about the video shoot for “Headspin”? It seemed like quite a fun undertaking, especially the twist that happens with the band performance aspects at the end…
Searls: Oh man, that was a blast. We drove further north in Everett, Washington – there’s a venue there called Tony V’s Garage. They let us use the venue for the day, which was pretty cool. We also had a few people show up to get the crowd going, make it look like a show was going on. It’s supposed to be like a daydream. Our singer shows up, carrying her briefcase and acts like she’s this rock star. We are all in our daydream thing, acting like rock stars. I wasn’t going to wear sunglasses at first, but I knew I had to make the look as a rock star. I had my guitar down lower than I usually do. At the end, it’s a snap out and you are at a coffee shop. It’s hilarious, I love it. That was a blast to do. You don’t usually play when you have a music video going – I had my amp on the whole time, playing to the song. It’s always fun.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you believe the visual medium is important to express the brand of the band? Especially on social media platforms to get the message out more about your craft?
Searls: Part of it, yes, and part of it, no. It is such a strange world with all these social media platforms. I feel like word-of-mouth catches fire quicker than anything else. If you put on a good show, it’ll spread like wildfire. Other people are going to hear about it, you need to go check these guys out, and then people will put it on social media. Social media has always been strange to me, but it’s because I’m older. It’s always been odd to me; it helps to make the music go around. It’s an active battle for me, I want to be on social media, but I’d rather write music over anything else. My drummer is like, why don’t you just put up a playthrough of you doing guitar, film myself live. I guess I could do that… and then I don’t. (laughs). I’m the worst at social media, but I know it’s helpful in getting the word out there.
Dead Rhetoric: How would you describe the band’s live performance philosophy compared to what people hear on the record? And what have been some of your favorite shows to date with the band?
Searls: I’ll start with that we like to try to match the album as much as we can when we play live. It’s one of my favorite compliments that we’ve received, that we sound just like the record live. There are aspects where you may have backing tracks, and we are going to start incorporating that with certain songs that we can’t do without multiple band members. As far as the first five years, what you were hearing is how it sounds on the album. We can pull it off live. That’s another huge selling point for people to come and see you. If you sound like this, and they are going to get that same sound every time, then they hear the next record, they will want to come to the shows. Nothing is more disappointing to me than hearing a band live, and it doesn’t sound anything like they sound on the record. You want to nail it. I’ve always instilled this into my playing. You have to be able to do this live.
As far as our coolest shows, there’s two that come to mind. One was before we had a singer – I do a lot of four-wheeling with my brother-in-law and family up in Elbe Hills, it’s 100 square miles of trails. I remember going up there one time, it’s up in the mountains, with no power or cell service. Maybe it would be cool to do a show up here. I had seven months of building this whole show idea. We got two generators, and set the whole thing up in the middle of the woods. We had a thirty-foot tarp thing, and we built this whole thing, we ran the generator behind one of the trucks so you couldn’t really hear it. We played for almost 12 hours straight. We had an hour-long set, played through our stuff, then at the end we would do a jam. The first jam was maybe three minutes long, and we would grab a beer. 10-15 people would come walking up before the next set, and then more people would come out until 1 in the morning. At the end of the night, the jam songs got so long, the last one was 45 minutes long. My hands were so messed up. We did this twice out there. People were driving their four-wheelers at night around us to help shine the lights on us. Our bass player’s son grabbed this rock and put it between some pieces of wood – he had some oil and ended up making some burgers with a campfire.
The second show, it’s a movie theater place in Beaverton, Oregon. They have a whole show spot dedicated to a venue. They run movies at the same time – you walk in, this is insane. They had our Hangfire logo on a big movie screen in the back of the venue, it was so cool. The place was packed, it looked like a giant, major show. The stage was so big, you could run across it. That was really cool, the whole experience. Those may be tied for first as far as my favorite shows.
Dead Rhetoric: Unfortunately, you are now seeking out a new singer for Hangfire. What circumstances took place for Jenea Firoe’s departure – and what qualities are you looking for in your next singer as it seems like big shoes to fill?
Searls: Yeah, they are pretty big shoes to fill. It got to the point where we are doing a lot of diversity, and Jenea wants to go into more of a pop direction. We were trying to do more rock and roll, and it just came down to writing differences, it always seems to come down to stuff like that. She wanted to do her own pop venture. We wanted her to go do that; we had to figure out what we want to do on our end. We have a couple of candidates right now, and we are kind of contemplating on trying a male singer. I don’t think there’s ever been a band with like a Pat Benatar or Joan Jett that’s like hard rock and metal. Kind of like Evanescence with a twist of older heavy metal. There are some bands like that, but maybe not coming out right now. It’s intriguing to have a female singer with this style, I know it can work. When we first had Jenea come in, we didn’t know if we could make it work with our style. We had a song called “Hunter”, and I threw our hardest song at her. It ended up being really cool, and I knew it would work.
I feel like we have a female singer, there’s always going to be a really good diversity that we can have. It’s been hard to try to replace her, but there have been a couple of people that we’ve checked out around those lines, and I’m really excited for it. The future will be great – I have a lot of stuff already written. I write pretty much every day; I can’t help it. I have stockpiles of songs that I’m guiding into what the second album is going to be, and not overdo certain things. We could have a whole country/rock album, or a whole Egyptian metal album, because I have all these different styles of songs. I’m trying to find the best way to reintroduce all of this stuff together and have the same elements incorporated. It’ll be fun.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your thoughts on Rottweiler Records and being a part of their roster?
Searls: I love it. Jairus Pascale has been awesome with us. He’s super cool. I met him through my other band Tyraels Ascension. We got signed through them first – and I asked them if they would think about signing Hangfire. They loved it. They are doing something most labels aren’t doing. They are literally in the favor of the artist. My buddy looked over the contract, and he said he didn’t know how to say this, how are you making money? He said he was trying to revamp the industry, and that this is about you guys. You don’t hear that a lot now. He’s the other way around, he wants to get us coordinated to what needs to happen for us next. Nothing but awesome. Rottweilers are actually my favorite dogs, so that makes it more awesome.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see the state of the heavy music industry currently? What worries or concerns you most – and if you had the ability to change any aspect to make things better, what area(s) would you concentrate on most?
Searls: That’s a good question. I think about this almost every day, because I’m a purist when it comes to music. I get shit from my buddies all the time. I’m in multiple bands; I’m in a band called Foghorn that is super heavy. Our highest tuning is drop B, then it goes to A sharp, A, then G sharp. I have that realm of the super heavy stuff – As I Lay Dying, Polaris, one of my favorite bands of all time right now is Bleed From Within. I love that kind of writing. The music industry nowadays, where it’s going, it almost seems like sterile to me. There’s nothing that’s intriguing besides show antics. The songs aren’t connecting as much as they used to anymore. One of my favorite songs around that people identify with is “Lose Yourself” by Eminem. It gears your ass up, anyone who hears it. Music can be for fun, but the way I always do things, I want songs to tell a story. You have to finish the line, and write with a bunch of capitals. You have to have periods and quotation marks. It’s losing that sense nowadays. It’s more about how heavy can we make things and how crazy can we look. Not enough connectivity with the band and the audience of what story they are telling. It’s a premade up, cookie-cutter deal – if you don’t sound like this, no one wants to do it. How about something original?
If there wasn’t originality, there would be no Led Zeppelin, no AC/DC, no Metallica. I want to hear more diversity. If I could change anything, it would be that. Have more connectivity with people and their songs, try to reach people personally to get your own things across. When that movie came out A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga had that “Shallow” song. That was one of my favorite songs to come out in a long time, because it is in that vein of grabbing people through the music.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your thoughts on the legacy of the Pacific Northwest metal scene – where there were a number of acts that ended up gaining acclaim and signing major label deals especially during the 80s and early 90s? Do you believe there has been a resurgence / interest in classic heavy metal style acts such as yourselves – not just stateside, but also on a global scale?
Searls: I don’t know. I remember there was a big boom with the grunge scene in the 90s here. One of my favorite bands The Presidents of the United States of America, their guitar player is from Olympia. I feel like it comes in waves from the Northwest. There are a lot of good bands around here. It’s weird, none of them get enough attention. There needs to be a bigger scope or spotlight in this area. There are good bands in Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s weird how different the music is in a sense. You can feel a wave of how the music is going to be depending on the area. There is a festival that goes on around here every year called the Riverafest in Oregon. It’s a badass festival, with all local bands. It’s a three-day event, almost like a Warped Tour. They make it a super cool event. All the guys appreciate it.
Dead Rhetoric: When looking at your personal career arc as a musician, can you think of a specific moment or two that was pivotal to reaching the next level of admiration or respect, possibly vaulting you up the ladder as a result?
Searls: Man, there are a few. I first started playing guitar at 14, and I didn’t really want to play guitar. I have some family members who are musicians. My real dad who wasn’t really around much in my life was a bass player, and my stepdad was a guitar player. I always heard solos, and I would hear the riffs in Metallica. I would stare at guitars all the time. At 14 I figured out how to play “The Unforgiven” on acoustic. My stepdad asked me who taught me that. I said I just figured it out on my own. I did random things here and there, like Nirvana “Come As You Are”, things like that. At 17 things really hit, I used to skateboard every day. I broke my ankle so damn bad, I couldn’t walk at all, my mom got me a guitar – a BC Rich Warlock with this tiny Dean Markley amp. It was a pile of shit. I cranked everything to eleven for the gain, it sounded close to “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica. It was a pivotal point for me. If I hadn’t broken my ankle, I don’t think I would have taken so much time with the guitar. I sat there all day playing “Seek and Destroy”, it was so badass.
My buddy came over and showed me what pinch harmonics and squeals were. I needed to learn that, and I kept building and building. I heard leads in my head when I started joining bands, but I knew I can do better. I figured it out and three years later, I was grinding my ass off to play what I wanted to hear. Also, my buddy let me borrow a guitar scale book, I used to go through it and go through every scale as much as I could. I tried to familiarize my hand with things. And Guitar Hero actually helped me click it all together. The different colors you have when you play that game, they are shapes on the guitar for what they are doing. The next day I did super-fast solos and leads, because I connected things with the patterns in my head. For some reason, it worked for me. That was the second step that elevated me to get to where I play now. Having my right hand move as much as I can, like Metallica.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the agenda for Hangfire – or any other musical activities with the members of the group – over the next year or so that we can look forward to?
Searls: Once we solidify a singer, we are definitely building up some cool shows. We have the backing tracks dialed in, as I built all the click tracks myself. You will have the violin sounds and the orchestral stuff going on. I was working on a light show, but I have to do a little more work into that. We know we can throw down – we want everything badass. The sound guys end up loving us when we play. Mic one thing up and go. But now we will build a show mentality of it with what we have now. We have so much on the table for writing the second album. Picking what songs we want. We can call out an audible for songs – we can do two albums worth of songs. There is a lot of stuff in the future for writing and building the shows for actual rock shows. We want to make this a huge experience for people.