Interview with Frank 3 Gun Novinec of Hatebreed

Interview by: Louie Bones
Big Wheel Music Scene Reporter

After much of the day’s intense heat and controlled chaos had worn off, Big Wheel caught up with lead guitarist of Hatebreed “Frank 3 Gun” to discuss the past, present and future of all things brutal in music! Also joined by Matt of Chimaira!

Hey Frank Thanks for taking the time to do this interview man!
No problem dude!

Last time I saw you was around Thanksgiving in Los Angeles at the Palladium, which was nearly 9 months ago! What has Hatebreed been up to in 2010?
Oh lots! We did a tour of Australia, some touring in Japan with the band Machinehead. Another tour in Europe, a visit to the U.K., we’re trying to build a larger fan base there. Everything’s been great this year, its fun to tour with those guys and everyone in their camps. Rob from Machinehead’s like a brother to us!
So we did that, and then had a couple months off at home, then we were once again off to Europe on our own to do some huge festival shows, oh and we played Graspop Fest, and were direct support for KISS!! That was a dream come true!

Oh hell, tell me about that experience!
Well we got to meet them right before they went on stage! I already had a Paul Stanley tattoo, so I had him autograph it, and then I got that autograph tattooed on me! Man it was great to be direct support to them, there was no other band in between our sets ya know, everything was great with that. I put that at the top of my list! It was one of the best things I’d done in my music career, that and when I got onstage and jammed with Blue Oyster Cult! Those are my two favorite bands of all time, depends on what day you ask me cos I love them both; I’m a huge Kiss Freak and a huge Blue Oyster Cult Freak!

So you’re telling me you can die a happy man now?
Hahaha, well I’ve done everything I need to do with music, not that I’m gonna quit anytime soon because we’re doing great and everything’s cool but ya know I’ve done some things!

Awesome, so how has playing in Hatebreed been in comparison to your earlier days when you played in Ringworm, Terror, and Integrity? And is it a different style of guitar playing for you, perhaps more technical or challenging?
Not really, it’s all Rock N Roll at the end of the day… Ya know it’s just me getting on stage with my friends and jamming out and ya know that’s really what it is and thankfully that’s what it’s always been in everyone one of those bands. It’s huge but it’s a very close network of people, and even at Hatebreed’s level it’s all good!

Very cool sense of family and community…
Yea man! We’re all pal’s and that’s what it is at the end of the day, me and my buddies going out there night after night kicking ass on stage. Ya know we’re kind of like Kiss in a way because a lot of people love the band and a lot of people hate us. I love it, hell I don’t even care! I go to bed smiling every night, there’s a smile on my face every night man, the band is doing what we love, it’s good to be alive in 2010 and to be out here on mayhem fest kicking ass!

Hell yeah, that’s great Frank. Hatebreed is obviously a band that fuses together different styles of intense hard music and mixes it into your guys own signature sound… I hear lot’s of 80’s thrash metal influence, lots of old school hardcore and even UK and American punk rock (check out Hatebreed’s cover album “For The Lions“ released in 09‘), tell me who your most influential metal, hardcore and punk bands are and were growing up in the 1980’s.
Oh man my favorite metal band is early Slayer! Their “Show No Mercy” album changed my life in 1983! From there on out I was such a fan of the band that I was worried that whenever they’d put out new albums that they weren’t gonna be able to top their first record, I was nervous picking up “Hell Awaits” and “Reign In Blood” I just couldn’t imagine the records being as good!
 
Dude, those later records are so good, there was no way you were let down.
Oh not at all! I definitely wasn’t let down! I was a Slayer freak back then big time ya know. With punk rock I’m just a big fan over all, I love it man. My favorite style or era would definitely be the UK 82’ subgenre, ya know the 2nd wave of English Punk ya know the D-Beat, bands like Discharge, The Varukers, Vice Squad and all that ! I do love early LA west coast punk rock like The Adolescents, Circle Jerks, and The Germs. Have you heard of The Chiefs? Everyone needs to check out The Chiefs!! And when it comes to hardcore, man the Agnostic Front record “Victim in Pain” is the be all end all of hardcore records for me. To be able to say that I’m friends with those guys is so rad, it’s an honor.

Speaking of Agnostic Front, let me get to my next question… Recently over in Europe there was the “Big Four” reunion of 80’s metal. Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica all went out together and played shows to huge crowds that as you know went down as being some of the greatest metal shows in the history of music. Lot’s of fans and critics are speculating that with the “Big Four” happening in the metal scene perhaps other bands from other scenes will put together package tours that are “historical” so to speak. With that said, do you think there will ever be an East Coast hardcore big 4 tour with Sick of It All, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags and Hatebreed touring together?
Oh man, that’s a great idea, though I don’t know if they would include us, we came to be a bit later than their era. Those bands are all great though! Honestly though at the end of the day Hatebreed is a metal band. Even the first record is metal, it’s tuned to C and Jamey is growling… I come from the world of when hardcore was The Necros, The Meatmen

More so standard tuned bands.
Yeah! Standard tuned, but even bands like DRI, Negative Approach, less double pedal or metal influenced, that is more so hardcore, the roots. If there were ever something to go on like that, a big 4 of hardcore, man that’d be cool, I think Agnostic Front & Sick Of It all are awesome. And with the big 4 of Metal, man that was cool! It was awesome! Even if some of the bands aren’t as great as they once were, It’s cool, it gives kids who weren’t around back then a chance to see something, some history lessons ya know, if you weren’t around in 1986’ and didn’t catch those bands when “Reign In Blood” or “Among The Living” , “Peace Sells”

Master Of Puppets
Yes “Master Of Puppets” of course! So yea the big 4 is great in that sense, if you weren’t around for it in the 80’s, this is the next best thing.

Oh I bet, so speaking of other fest‘s, you guys are currently on the Mayhem Festival.. Today was the first day of it here in San Bernardino, tell me what bands are you looking forward to checking out and what else are you looking forward to about being on this tour?
It’s all cool man! To me it’s all about hanging with my friends day after day night after night and rocking. We are just about friends with everybody out here, I love all my friends in Lamb Of God and Shadows Fall, and it’s a great party! To be honest with you, I’m an old school cat; I listen to lots of older music and bands. I love old country, old hardcore and old punk rock and stuff. I’m not a huge metal guy but it’s cool because Hatebreed is such a universal band that I can be myself in it ya know.

I think it’s great you guys have found such diversity and acceptance in your fan base, not a lot of bands can draw from so many different styles and make it work the way you guys have, it’s definitely rare.
Oh yeah for sure, especially in Europe where hardcore and punk rock is still very big, it’s just very cool. Were fortunate, ya know today we had London from Samhain come out and to be friends with him and ya know you guys coming out, that’s rad to me, there are good people here and that’s sweet to me, that’s stuff I’m taking to my grave, icing on top of the cake! I’ve got nothing but love for everyone out here, all my friends, I’m happy we are all doing this, making a living, having fun and giving the fans a good show. I’m an old fashioned guy set in my ways and that’s what I’ve always believed in.

Tell me Frank, what was your first concert, I bet it had to be like in the early 80’s??
YES! I saw Kiss in 1983 on the Creatures of the Night tour; it was their last with makeup till the reunion in 1996’.Wendy O Williams of the Plasmatics opened for em! I tell ya, they are the reason I am here today doing what I‘m doing! (Frank has an Ace Frehley custom Les Paul to boot!) I was a young kid in the 70’s listening to Kiss records, ya know at 7-8 year years old I was already hooked on em, I was and still am a Kiss freak! They took off the makeup in the 80’s and I still loved em! I love all their records. So back to when we played with em a few weeks ago in Europe, man I cannot stress enough on how cool that was for me, a dream come true! Because I’d been introduced to good music at such an early age I was able to dig deeper and get into bands like The Rolling Stones and The Who.. Then after that came the heavier stuff.

Totally a natural progression
Oh yeah total natural progression, I’d come to like WASP and Queensryche and with that came my introduction to thrash metal. I love that entire thrash metal scene; I love that Possessed, Sodom, Tanker, and all sorts of obscure bands… Those bands were the gateway for me to find Agnostic Front, Circle Jerks and The Germs. All of that changed my life. I feel bad for the kids nowadays who aren’t exposed to awesome bands from the 80’s, the kids are missing out when they don’t know about those bands like The Adolescents or even 70’s punk like The Dead Boys.

Yes! Frank you’re from Cleveland home of Cheetah Chrome, Stiv Bator’s and The Dead Boys!!
Yes, I am from Cleveland, I’m a huge Dead Boys fan! Man I feel bad for the kids who missed out on that, that’s one of the reasons we went ahead with that covers album last year… We wanted kids to pick up on all those hugely influential bands that shaped Hatebreed… we covered Misfits, DRI, Negative Approach, Metallica and a ton others.

Hey, that was a rad record, one of my favorite metal records of 2009’!
Thank’s I really appreciate that!

So let’s go back to the 80’s once again…how long was it after your first concert that you found yourself playing guitar onstage?
Well my first band was Force Of Habit, and that ended up becoming the band known as Ringworm, and that was us fresh out of high school around 1989! Oh hey! Speaking of the band Ringworm (Frank motions over Guitarist of Chimaira to come over) this is Matt from Chimaira, he played in Ringworm too!

Oh hell, that’s way cool! I saw both Hatebreed and Chimaira together in Pittsburgh last summer; you’re the dude with the Penguins tattoo… Man that rules… Go Pens!
Matt -To hell with the Red Wings!
Frank -Ahh yes Matt has a Ringworm tattoo, check it!
Matt – Let me get in on this real quick if I may, I just want to say I grew up in Cleveland and Ringworm is the best band from that time period, 1991!!
Frank – Yeah dude, we all came from the same place, and we are all still here playing the music we love on this tour, I love it!!

So Frank, what is the Gnarlyest gruesome’st thing you’ve seen at a Hatebreed show? I know you have to have seen a ton of crazy stuff over the years.
The gnarlyest thing that’s happened at one of our shows was pretty scary, we played a show in Winston Salem, it was our buddy from the band Skarhead crowd surfing over the front barricade, he hit the back of his head really hard coming down on the barricade rail and blood went everywhere! He passed out, it was a gory scene, we had to stop the show, and the kids got crazy and started fighting, insanity!

With over 10 years as a touring band, some of your fans are now in their 30’s yet still there’s a new generation of fans coming out, who are you looking forward to seeing at upcoming shows?
We like to see everyone at our shows! We’ve got old fans and new fans coming out every day, it’s really cool. I really want this tour to have more kids who aren’t as into is cuz maybe they’re into lame bands and they’ll see us and recognize how real this really is, it’s real music from the heart. This isn’t new or a trend, it’s something we’ve been doing since forever ya know.

Hey it’s getting late and you guys have to leave soon, any last words for the fans out there reading?
Yeah, thanks to all the fans old and new coming out to the shows and having a good time with us, you guys have stuck with us over the years and you recognize what’s real and you know our roots and you know what we are about. We love each and every one of you; it’s good to be alive in 2010! See you at the shows!

Big thanks to Hatebreed and all the awesome bands who were apart of Mayhem Festival. A huge thank you to Frank for taking the time to do this.