American Head Charge
American Head Charge Interview
Michelle LaRose talks with Cameron Heacock for Metal Masters TV
Photographs by Michelle LaRose
Welcome to Metal Masters I hope you’re enjoying the show so far. You just saw Cowards by American Head Charge. Our next video is going to be Loyalty by American Head Charge, but before we play that we have the pleasure of catching up to Cameron from American Head Charge here at Boomerz Boiler Room.
MM: Cameron, you’re out promoting your brand new album The Feeding. This just came out. It was supposed to come out in October. Why the hold up? Why did it take so long?
Cameron: I think it was just a thing that our new label wasn’t exactly ready to put the record out. The set-up wasn’t right. It was frustrating at the time because it had already been two or three years that we had been writing to get ready for it. It was hard to have it pushed back even just four months. In retrospect, I think it worked out very well for the band. I love your accent by the way.
MM: That’s Michigan. Thank you very much. I heard you had fifty songs or better for this new album. Now you had to narrow it down. How do you do that?
Cameron Heacock – American Head Charge
Cameron: Somebody’s exaggerating. I don’t know if we have that many.
MM: But you had a lot. How do you narrow that down?
Cameron: Good production. Our producer was really good. As hard as it is and as close as we get to the songs that we write, it’s hard sometimes. But we put our faith in the producer and he was like, “This is the one we should put on it, this is the one we shouldn’t.” He kind of directed us in the right way.
MM: So the songs that you didn’t keep on this album, will they show up in the future?
Cameron: There are definitely elements of songs that will probably come up. I know that there was a song that we wrote for The War of Art and I took lyrics off of that and put it on the song on our new record called Leave Me Alone. It’s just the lyrics and the bridge. I do that all the time. If there’s something that I really like the way I wrote it or the lyrics of it, I’ll pull it if it’s not had the chance to be on a record yet.
MM: I’ve heard you guys have had drug problems. As in they can’t find any [laughing]. No, but you’re trying to overcome that? This is something you’re trying to do, overcome your demons?
Cameron: Well yeah of course. This band is definitely therapy for me. I don’t know how expensive my clinical costs would be! [Laughing] But not that I could really talk to anybody. It’s better when I can just talk to the microphone. Whoever wants to hear it can hear it.
MM: You’ve been known to fire shotguns on stage. Has this issue changed for you since the Dimebag incident?
Cameron: It changed kinda’ right when it was happening. It was just kind of a spontaneous thing. Our ex-guitar player, Dave Rogers had kind of a small surplus of weaponry. It just seemed like a fun idea. We were playing at Ozzfest in the morning. First on second stage. It was kind of like the starting gun for Ozzfest.
MM: Maybe with the Dimebag Darrell thing, bands should be armed!
Cameron: Well I bought a machete; I can’t remember where we were. But I never bring it up on stage. Maybe I do? I don’t know.
MM: You’ve got a machete! You’re getting ready to go on tour with Mudvayne at the end of the month. Where are you guys going to be heading to?
Cameron: Everywhere. I think its at least forty dates. Check it out. We’ll be here, somewhere.
MM: You guys are going to be on the Head Bangers Ball on April 9th? What’s going to be on that? Are you going to talk or play or what?
Cameron: I’m not exactly sure of the details. I just know that I’m going to give Jamie a big hug because it’s been a while since I’ve seen him. They actually are already playing it on Head Bangers Ball. It’ll be cool to go to MTV2 and hang out and I don’t know, act like we’re cool.
MM: We’re getting ready to go in to Loyalty. This is brand new for us. We haven’t played it yet. We haven’t even seen it. What are we getting ready to see here?
Cameron: Kind of a visual depiction of some of the stuff that goes on in my head. Some of those demons. Whether they be figurative or literal. And how that relates to me with other people and other people with me.
MM: Sounds very interesting. We’re going to check it out right now. Loyalty with American Head Charge right here on Metal Masters.
Michelle LaRose & Cameron Heacock
