Halestorm drummer Arejay Hale has teamed up with the drummer from Lit to create an “aggressive” new mission known as Kemikalfire. Hale’s partner-in-crime is musician Taylor Carroll, who has been behind the package for Lit since 2018.
Chatting with the “Thunder Underground” podcast, Arejay says he and Carroll are outdated mates. “I’ve identified him again when he was enjoying drums for a band known as Pillar. And we met on the Mall of America in Minnesota when he was in his bus and we had been in our R.V. And he simply came to visit and knocked on the bus and he was, like, ‘Hey, you guys are in a band?’ And we had been, like, ‘Yeah. You guys are in a band too? Cool. Come on in. Have a beer. Let’s hang around.’ And we simply by no means misplaced contact.”
In the course of the pandemic, they began to jot down collectively together with different musicians. “We needed to keep busy, so loads of Zoom writing periods with different writers. And we simply realized, ‘Man, we’ve got a extremely good chemistry writing music collectively,’ and we each sort of choose up the place one another lacks, in a way; we’ve got an awesome artistic partnership. And never solely that, however he is additionally a extremely gifted producer as nicely — and multi-instrumentalist. So, as a songwriter, I simply felt actually glad that I might simply placed on my artistic hat and let him do extra of the mechanical work with the track concepts that I’d current to him.”
Taylor Carroll and Arejay Hale of Kemikalfire
Hale explains that the sound of Kemikalfire is “extra aggressive” than what he does in Halestorm, however he additionally thinks Halestorm followers will “get it.” “It is completely different… I am doing much more singing and much more loopy drumming. It sort of throws again to our punk roots; there’s punk parts in there,” says the drummer. “There’s moments the place it is heavier; there’s additionally moments the place it is a little bit bit extra melodic, a little bit extra hovering… nevertheless it’s additionally simply digestible. I feel the typical Halestorm fan might hear it and be, like, ‘Oh, okay. I get it. This works.’ ‘Trigger clearly your private writing fashion seeps into all the things that you just’re part of, so you may most likely hear Halestorm parts in there as nicely, from my finish.”
So far as when the world will hear what Kemikalfire has been doing, Hale says, “We’re nonetheless writing, however we’re planning on releasing some music quickly, as a result of everyone seems to be chomping on the bit. We launched our social media platforms as a result of, clearly, these days, one of many foremost objectives is to simply sort of construct your on-line following, however we shortly realized that as quickly as we launched the social media platform, positive sufficient everyone stated, ‘The place’s the music? The place’s the music? I wanna hear it’… We had been, like, ‘Oh, okay.'”
Kemikalfire’s Arejay Hale and Taylor Carroll in Studio
Hale says Kemikalfire have a couple of songs completed, however are in nonetheless placing the album collectively. “We’re nonetheless writing, however we’re planning on releasing some music quickly, as a result of everyone seems to be chomping on the bit. We launched our social media platforms as a result of, clearly, these days, one of many foremost objectives is to simply sort of construct your on-line following, however we shortly realized that as quickly as we launched the social media platform, positive sufficient everyone stated, ‘The place’s the music? The place’s the music? I wanna hear it.’ The demand for individuals to wanna hear music. We had been, like, ‘Oh, okay.’ (laughs)” Hale additionally notes that, sure, there are two drummers within the band, and they’re going to share some completely different duties. “He is enjoying guitar and singing, and I am enjoying drums and singing. However we’re considering perhaps… We each can play each, so we’re, like, ‘Perhaps we must always commerce off and do some…’ However we even have a few songs the place he was, like, ‘Hey, you wanna play piano?’ And I am (like), ‘Positive. Why not?’ So we would change some issues up for our reside present, which we’re enthusiastic about. That is the dream. He and I personally are simply, like, ‘Man, I am unable to wait till we will play a reside present. It is gonna be a lot enjoyable.'” Kemikalfire’s Instagram is chock stuffed with pics of the duo and a few amusing shorts just like the one beneath. Take pleasure in what’s taking place there till we get some precise music from the mission, with Hale says will “hopefully” occur in a while within the yr.
