with any common sense) would have jumped ship from long ago. We definitely love what we do and are too stubborn to do anything else! <CV WW> What do you think has been your secret to longevity & success for all these years? <Brian Smith> Yeah, my last answer pretty much summed it up – we love what we do, nothing else will suffice.
<CV WW> Tell us about the early years – how much of a struggle was it back then – if I remember, the early 90‘s was grunge rock‘s heyday, how was the beginning for the band? <Brian Smith> I think it's always been a struggle to be in a metal band. No matter how many fans there are of the genre it's not main stream. We have seen metal climb and metal come and go along with so many other styles of music. All the while we just kept plugging along playing the music we enjoyed playing. We have just always pushed to be the best Hemlock we could be regardless of what's going on around us and we have a very high energy, entertaining live show which I think has always set us apart from a lot of other bands and other trends. You can't argue that writing good music and having a good live show should be the forte of any band. Unfortunately that's not always the case.
<CV WW> Okay, I‘ve got to call you out on this… on your website, in the bio, you state ―Hemlock has been called ‗The Kings of self-promotion‘ and have been noted as the hardest working up and coming metal band.‖ – really, ―up and coming‖ still after 20 years?! ROFL <Brian Smith> Kind of chuckle worthy, but still very true in fact. We have never had any great commercial success, no hand outs and have gotten stepped over by so many less worthy and (I feel) less talented bands with less heart. We've seen many bands come and go, and THAT shows you the integrity in their hearts. The record industry is, and has been for many years, a complete crock of shit. We stay hands on with pretty much everything we do. So yes, we are very involved in promoting ourselves. We still hang posters and hand out fliers for our shows. It's very disheartening to go to a show and not have any posters of yours hanging in the club. People have gotten very lazy (bands, promoters etc.) and everyone thinks a Facebook post is all you gotta do...well once again very few bands can claim the longevity of 20 years.
<CV WW> What do you think was your biggest hurdle just starting out those many moons ago? <CV WW> A lot of years and a lot of members – tell <Brian Smith> Our biggest hurdle has always been us about the journey through the years, about the having the money to invest in and push our crazy ideas. That and being naive and getting sucked into bad management deals and being taken advantage of by promoters in our early years. Our age didn't help back then either. We had to sneak into several of our own shows because we were too young to get in to our own performance! <CV WW> Tell us about the ―big break‖ that took you guys to the next level. <Brian Smith> “Big Break”?! What "Big Break?" LoL! We have had to work hard for any success we've ever gotten. We've had perhaps stepping stones that have helped further our career but we have fought a long hard battle that most bands (or anyone