Our guest this week, is Wes Hauch from the one and only THE FACELESS. We had a nice chat with Wes about what’s going on with THE FACELESS, his current and potential side projects and some other stuff within the metal nerdery. He also shared “Nations”, the original version of “Ten Billion Years”"with us, so extra kudos to him. Aight, let’s go.
Hi Wes. What have you been up to lately? You guys were on tour through November and what are your near future plans? More touring, recording, etc?
We did a 7 week tour with BTBAM, The Contortionist and The Safety Fire in the US and Canada from September to October. That was a blast and all of the bands were a lot of fun to tour with. We had a week off after that tour and then we did a 3 week international run in Japan, Australia, Thailand, Taiwan and China which was really awesome. As for 2014 plans, nothing is really laid out or organized yet as far as we know. There have been some talks of writing a new record, so I’ve been writing stuff for it and trying to develop my approach.
How did you end up in THE FACELESS? Were you a fan of the band, how did they contacted you, was there an audition?
Yes, I was a really big fan of “Planetary Duality“. I met Michael a few years back at a party through some mutual friends, and I guess from there we just would get together to play guitar and geek out about guitar stuff. Eventually Steve left in early 2012 about 12 days before that Metal Alliance Tour with Devildriver, and Keene asked me if I’d be able to do the tour. I spent the next week or so learning as many songs as I could and then we flew to Austin TX to play SXSW. That was a really stressful but fun tour because I had big shoes to fill. Steve is an incredible player/writer and I still have a hard time playing a lot of his stuff.
In terms of writing and song structures, the band took a different direction with “Autotheism“. How do you feel about that change? Do you like playing older songs which are more riff oriented or the new stuff, which are more varied and textured?
“Autotheism” was completely written and 90% recorded before I joined. I showed Keene some songs I’d written a long time ago, and surprisingly he wanted to add this sort of Sabbathy slow tune I had written with all kinds of bends and slides. So I went in and recorded it and that song eventually became “Ten Billion Years”. Its a lot different than anything else The Faceless has ever released, but then again so was everything on that record. As far as how I feel about the change? I certainly think Autotheism alienated a lot of the band’s long time fans, but on the other hand theres some people who like it. I try not to think about that stuff really, especially since I came into the writing process at the very end so I don’t necessarily identify with it. At the end of the day, I just really love playing shows and touring in general. As for your last question, I love playing the Planetary songs most probably. They’re bangers and ultimately thats the stuff that originally got me into the band.
***Wes also sent us the original version of “Ten Billion Years”, titled “Nations”***
Keene is the main songwriter in THE FACELESS, although you wrote “Ten Billion Years” in the last album. It is definitely one of my favorite songs on “Autotheism”, can you elaborate a bit more on the writing process of this song and how you write songs in general? Also, are you planning to contribute more to the writing department in the new release?
Dude, I actually wrote that song years ago in my apartment and the original version is a lot different, I’m really comfortable writing riffs like that with a lot of bends and slides, so songs like that come out a lot easier than the faster techy/picky stuff. My process for writing stuff is completely unorganized and is usually just sort of an adventure. I usually go buy some beer, sit in front of my computer and record riff ideas to a click track in Logic. I have to make it as simple and non judgmental as possible for myself or I’ll never get anything done. Even though I have an AxeFx and all kind of other cool guitar gear, I still just plug my guitar into my Apogee and go through PodFarm. I used to try and record with the AxeFx, but the editing and tweaking options in that thing are so vast that I’d end up fucking with it for hours and not getting anything done. With my current method, I just go for it and record stuff even if I’m not warmed up.
You are one of the bands who plays with in-ear monitors on the stage and I assume that you guys are playing to a click or backing track (please correct me if I am wrong). Playing this way live certainly makes the performance tighter, but at the same time do you think that it takes away the spirit and joy of performing live?
If done right, in ears are a great tool and I think they give you an advantage in big rooms. I personally only leave one ear in and I have a house wedge with just my guitar in it. I don’t care for the way my guitar sounds or feels through ears so I get the wedge for that feel and weight. Theres something magical that happens when guitar sound comes through a speaker and sort of blooms through a few feet of air. Also, when you have both ears in you can’t really hear the crowd or the room, so thats where I think a lot of the “spirit and joy” is taken away.
Any news on the covers EP? Did you guys record it yet? And how did you select the songs, are they mostly Michael’s choices?
I’m not really sure what’s going on with that. The cover’s EP is Michael’s thing really. I can tell you that the rest of us haven’t recorded a note for it.
Martin Rygiel (ex-DECAPITATED) is going to play bass on your new project with Ryan Glisan. I always knew that he was an excellent bass player, but I think his skills were a bit overshadowed by Vogg and Vitek. How much is he going to be present in the album, in terms of sound and interesting bass riffs?
Man, Martin is just the best. He can play anything, and do so with distinction every time. He plays with such a crushing and really unsafe tone. You really have to have your technique on point to make it sound as phenomenal as he does. He’s gonna be all over that thing, man. I’m really stoked and I feel fortunate to be making jams with Ryan and Martin.
You have a few improvisation videos on your channel and I think they are excellent. If you could give only a single tip to someone about improvisation, what would that be?
Thanks man. Hahaha, honestly
the best tip is to keep doing it. Since I joined the band, I haven’t done much jamming or playing over changes. So basically it goes away if you don’t exercise that kind of thing, at least for me it does. I’ve never considered myself anywhere near decent at improv, but I have dabbled heavily and generally over pretty diatonic changes. If you want to see a guy crush at that stuff, check out Jimmy Herring, Andy Wood or my buddy Brian Sheu. Those dudes are animals.
You have been giving private online lessons on BandHappy for a while. What can you say your experience regarding these online lessons and BandHappy. I think you are not very active there anymore, any plans on doing those lessons again?
I’ve done some lessons on tour, and I’ll probably do a lot more online lessons now since I’m home. I think the lesson thing can be cool and I enjoy teaching people what I can. Ultimately I think I’m more effective at teaching people stuff in person though.
Do you think that the new ideas in shred guitar style is getting saturated and it is getting much more difficult to find fresh-sounding shred guitar solos? For instance, I think the harmonic minor scale is being abused by modern shredders. What do you think shred style will sound like in the next decade or so?
On one hand, yes. On another, fuck no! There are more amazing players out there now then there have ever been. It’s inspiring and terrifying! The baseline, or starting point for beginners and mid level players is more informed than its ever been in my opinion. I mean, I was like 25 the first time I heard guys like Brett Garsed, and now there are like 13 year old kids that just go on Youtube and can learn a ton of Garsed shit without batting an eye. The most extreme, cultured and sophisticated stuff is more readily available and free to youngsters now than its ever been. That’s exactly why you see so many kids that can
rip these days. The same goes for recording and audio engineering, its crazy. There are kids out there who have amazing sounding recordings. Fucking KIDS! Kids on the internet who you can find waxing philosophical about the finer points of side chaining and bus compression. That shit didn’t exist 10 years ago.
You and Keith Merrow do some stuff for Seymour Duncan, are you planning to do something together as a new musical project in the future?
When we both have time, we are definitely doing a full length record. Apparently people ask about it a lot, which is really cool. We talked about it recently, so yeah thats gonna go down.
The internet plays a huge role in terms of helping musicians to make themselves heard. There are many amazing musicians in the metal world right now, whom were discovered through YouTube or some other online channels and ended up in high profile bands. There is also the fact that it’s much more easy to learn to play an instrument, thanks to YouTube with all the
tutorial videos and all. So, even though the majority of the bands are complaining about how the internet ruined the music world, are we to see a younger, more skillfull generation in the near future that will make us feel like the internet actually helped the music world (metal in general) by generating countless young talents?
I think I touched on most of this in the question above. But yes, I think it’s probably going to help make better musicians.
Related to the previous question, there is another aspect of this process, in which the musician is already playing in a band, and his/her online presence makes him/her more popular then his/her band (Andy James is a good example). In this case, do you think the band benefits from the fame of that said musician, or will it eventually lead the musician to focus on his solo stuff more and more and go astray from the band?
I dunno. I mean, if the person in question wants to have a rad band and goes hard at plugging their band then I think it’d the same thing. I think with the internet these days, its up to you how much people know about you specifically. A lot of bands these days are fully on the internet… Like each member has a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. So each person in the band has an equal opportunity to upload content that is specific to what they do like videos of them playing, gear stuff, all that. I mean, Andy James has a christload of videos on the internet of him ripping so of course that is going to make him more identifiable than anyone else in his band. I’m actually the least qualified person to answer this question compared to a lot of people, but thats my view on it.
I know you are a PANTERA fan. I am one too. Huge fan. Can you name some of your favorite PANTERA tunes and how Dimebag influenced you as a guitarist?
Definitely “Throes Of Rejection”, “Hard Lines Sunken Cheeks”…. Well, basically everything off of “Far Beyond Driven” and “The Great Southern Trendkill“. Pantera changed a lot for me when I was a kid. There were a few bands that have done that. Like, before I got into metal fully it started with stuff like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and then I started getting into punk. Propagandhi was a big one, and of course I back tracked and got into older stuff like Minor Threat. I think with bands like Pantera, a big part of it was the brother drummer/guitar player thing. There are few of em man…. Like Joe and Dave of Psycroptic, Vogg and Vitek from Decapitated, Robby and Joey from The Contortionist, Igor and Max of Sepultura, Eddie
and Alex. Theres something going on there!
Can you name some of your favorite new bands that you heard recently and go “Wow”? Any newcomers that you would suggest us to keep an eye on?
Bands are too hard, I’d rather name players I think. Dudes that have inspired me a lot lately would be Anton Svedin of Soreption, Andy Wood, Joe Haley of Psycroptic, Jake Bowen from Periphery, Rick Graham, Jason Richardson of Chelsea Grin, Paul and Dustie from Btbam, Ryan Knight from The Black Dahlia Murder, Per Nilsson are a few that come to mind right now.
This is our last question that we ask all the musicians that we interview. We want you to tell us the headline of this interview.
Ham and Eggs.
That was all Wes, thanks again for your time and music. Take care and cheers!
Questions
Ahmet Saraçoğlu
Nazım Kemal Üre
