INTERVIEW WITH HINDER GUITARIST MARK KING

Oklahoma City's own HINDER has set off on a noble journey. They're valiantly trying to ressurect that polished 'Big Rock' sound that hasn't been around since MOTLEY CRUE and AEROSMITH were touring... umm...this summer. Shit, bad analogy. Well, what I meant to say is that not a lot of the NEWER bands are aiming for this crunchy arena rock sound, and with songs like 'Get Stoned' and 'Lips Of an Angel' from Extreme Behavior, the guys in Hinder are doing it better than anyone has been able to in years. We caught up with guitarist Mark King to fire off some silly, and while we are glad he got these questions back to us...we wish he would have taken longer than nine seconds to answer them. With that said, here's how it all went down...

FoundryMusicRob: HINDER, in the dictionary, means to obstruct. What exactly are you guys trying to get in the way of?

Mark King: At the time, everyone was going through their own set of problems or situations, whether it be relationship, addictions, or whatever. We all just had little things that were driving us crazy at that point in our lives.

FoundryMusicRob: Let’s take the name thing one step further: There’s a lot of shit going on in the world today that we could all do without. What are some things you’d like to see relief from in the next few years?

Mark King: Violence and unhappy shit. (Wow. There's a flood of information. Call the U.N. - SC)

FoundryMusicRob: It’s pretty obvious you guys are trying to bring back the look and feel of some older rock bands. Not in a ripping-them-off kind of way, but more like paying tribute to some of the historical big acts of yesterday. How hard is the “Rock Star” lifestyle on a person’s mind and body after a while?

Mark King: Ha..The”Rock Style” lifestyle is definitely something that is not too hard to get used to. Staying up all night, sleeping all day, having beautiful ladies all over you, and partying hard all of the time.

FoundryMusicRob: What’s the typical Hinder groupie like? Is it really a buffet of good looking women these days or are the glory days of the rock groupie over?

Mark King: I guess if you have to call them “Groupies,” I would say that they are looking really good lately…It seems that the bigger that the band gets, the better looking that the girls get…

FoundryMusicRob: Your 2 big singles, “Get Stoned” and “Lips of an Angel” are pretty different from each other. One is a rock anthem and the other is more of a ballad. Was the diversity between the singles intentional? Were you purposely looking to show off both “sides” of your music?

Mark King: We wanted an album that all the songs do not have the same sound, so people do not say “Every song is the same just with different lyrics!” You know what I mean? Plus, we do not set out to right songs that have a certain sound. We just write the songs that we love.

FoundryMusicRob: How do you guys make a living outside of music? Do you have day jobs that you go back to after touring or is this pretty much it now? What kinds of jobs have you worked in the past?

Mark King: We have not stopped touring long enough to worry about that…I think that we are all doing well enough financially to not worry about that at this time in our careers.

FoundryMusicRob: You guys do sing about drinking fairly often, I was wondering what your favorite drink is? I’m a big fan of Whiskey, got any cool mixing recipes for some Black Label?

Mark King: Anything with alcohol in it!! Currently, we drink a lot of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and Diet Coke 50/50…but it seems that the amount of Captain increases weekly.

FoundryMusicRob: Of all the places you’ve toured in so far, which town/state gave you the warmest welcome and the craziest crowd?

Mark King: It seems that every city is catching on and we are getting a very warm welcome everywhere.

FoundryMusicRob: Being in the spotlight and having to do interviews all the time to promote yourselves, you run into a lot of the same questions over and over again. How many times have you had to answer the exact same shit you just answered for me?

Mark King: Ha…a lot of you questions are very unique…Thank you for that.

FoundryMusicRob: Here’s one you probably don’t hear too often: If we were to rummage through your porno collection, what kinds of titles would we expect to find?

Mark King: hahaha….too many to mention.

FoundryMusicRob: Let’s say you’re walking down the street and some kid pulled up to you in a pimped out Escalade (someone who obviously has money) and says “Hey man! I just downloaded your album and it kicks ass!” What do you say to the guy?

Mark King: Whatever, it’s gonna happen anyways. No reason to make a huge deal out of it. The kid is a fan and that is good enough for me. (We're not buying that answer over here. I'll betcha there's an aluminum bat and a thumped skull he's neglecting to mention - SC)

FoundryMusicRob: Finally, any last words or plugs for our readers?

Mark King: Check out Hinderonline.com for tour dates…come check us out, we would love to meet you all. Thanks for helping bring back Rock N Roll and helping our album reach Platinum!!!!!

Read Our Review of Extreme Behavior online now
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