Halestorm: Rock music isn't part of the mainstream… and we can live with that

Halestorm

Halestorm have enjoyed success throughout their career thanks to their memorable live shows and albums including 2015’s Into The Wild Life and last year’s Vicious.

However, despite their success and other rock bands like them, guitarist Joe Hottinger says that at the present time, rock music has shifted away from the mainstream. But rather than see that at as negative, he says it’s a good thing, as it’s created a different vibe in the scene.

He tells Sam Ash Music: “I like that it's not in the mainstream culture right now. We've got our thing, and it's going well. We're making a living at it. I think it's cool. People are coming out, but it's not a household thing so it feels like there’s like a club – and that's regardless of the genre of rock.

“Besides Greta Van Fleet, what rock band has come through recently? Imagine Dragons isn't a rock band. Sorry, they're a pop group. Same with Paramore. They're a pop band.”

Hottinger adds: “I think one of the luckiest things that ever happened to us was not getting on the pop charts and doing that scene and just maintaining that rock and roll thing. Because you go up, but then you come down real fast. That's gotta be a shitty trip.”

Halestorm will head out on tour across the UK with In This Moment and New Years Day later this year.

Halestorm: Vicious

<a href="https://target.georiot.com/Proxy.ashx?tsid=38569&GR_URL=https%3A%2F%2Famazon.co.uk%2Fgp%2Fproduct%2FB07D9CR2TP%3Ftag%3Dhawk-future-21%26ascsubtag%3Dhawk-custom-tracking-21" data-link-merchant="Amazon UK"" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Halestorm: Vicious
Halestorm return with their highly-anticipated follow-up to 2015’s Into The Wild Life, with frontwoman Lzzy Hale describing it as “our most rock record to date.”

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.