HAMPTON BEACH, NH – By combining different styles, a band creates inventive sounds and has a way of wowing whoever is listening. They possess the ability to purely stand out and in turn, they get a burgeoning fanbase. The Native Howl have this going on with a blend of bluegrass and thrash metal to unleash a blistering sound. This has garnered the Leonard, Michigan-based act some substantial success, including winning the first season of “Hit Parader’s No Cover” back in 2022. They’ve gotten to be part of some wicked cool tours ever since, and this time they’re on a headlining expedition that’s making a stop at Wally’s in Hampton Beach on June 13. The show starts at 8 p.m. with Tejon Street Corner Thieves and Toby McAllister & The Sierra Sounds opening things up.
I had a talk with vocalist, guitarist and bouzouki player Alex Holycross, bassist Mark Chandler and drummer Zach Bolling about how they figured out their unique musical approach, their latest album that came out last year, and the last time they played Wally’s.
Rob Duguay: The Native Howl has garnered acclaim for their fusion on bluegrass and thrash metal, so what made you guys realize that this fusion of styles could work for a distinct sound?
Alex Holycross: The whole idea started with the inception of another band we had called Thunderhead, but it wasn’t until 2019 when we figured out the formula. It’s not just a mashing, and hopefully it isn’t perceived as a car wreck of the two genres. We’d rather try to take the bits and pieces we love about both genres and put them in the places that they’re supposed to be. Especially when Zach came on board, we incorporated heavy drums and double kick, and it was the piece that was missing.
RD: From listening to your music, I really got that vibe. Back in October, you guys released your most recent album with “Sons of Destruction” and it was your first full-length release in six years, so what was the experience like making the record after such a long gap of time? Did COVID play a big part in that?
Mark Chandler: It was good, man. COVID did play a big part, we were supposed to go over to Europe and that got cancelled right at the start. We just started writing more and not all of them, but a lot of those songs actually date back to 2019 and 2020 with some new ones at the end that we also put on. We had these songs for quite a while, we were refining them to give them more detail and we just beat them to death until they were in our minds perfect and ready to record out in L.A. at Studio 606.
AH: Our producer Jay Ruston is a great guy and a good friend of ours. We gelled really well with him and he brought out the metal side of us, the sonic aspect that we needed and we were missing in our earlier records. We kind of just honed in and focused on getting back to our roots getting back to the thrash and bluegrass. With our previous album “Out of The Garden and Into The Darkness”, we did 16 tracks and it’s 88 minutes long.
MC: It goes all over the place.
AH: Yeah, there were forks in the road and we tried everything out, but with this time, we wanted to stick to our core sound.
RD: How did you go about getting Lzzy Hale from Halestorm involved in the track “Mercy” as part of the full-length? Was it done remotely or was it done live in the studio? What was the experience like bringing her into the fold?
AH: I actually was texting Lzzy the other day. We chat with her quite a bit, she’s such a sweetheart and such a talent. We met her through “No Cover”, the competition show we did that was put on by Hit Parader and got us a recording contract with Sumerian Records. She was a judge on that show and she was really sweet to us and kind, as she always is. We had it in the back of our heads that Lzzy’s voice would meld pretty darn well with mine, and I had a flashback to when I was in music school and Halestorm had their single out “I Miss the Misery” and I heard it on 101 WRIF, which is a rock station in Detroit.
I remember hearing that song, and I was taken aback. I didn’t know that girls could sing like that, and she suddenly became one of my favorites. Low and behold, nine years later, we’re on “No Cover”, we win the damn thing and I’m sobbing my eyes out on my birthday hanging out with Alice Cooper, which was super awesome. We sort of kept in touch with Lzzy, she has a friendship with Jay, and it’s a small world. We just took a shot in the dark to see if she would be interested in singing a song with us, and she was kind enough to track it remotely in Nashville while we were tracking in L.A.
Then we shot the video in Nashville a few months after we recorded the song.
RD: It’s awesome how it worked out like that. You got this show coming up at Wally’s, and it’s a pretty legendary venue in New Hampshire, so what are your thoughts on playing there?
Zach Bolling: I’m really excited to eat as much seafood as I possibly can.
RD: Hell yeah.
ZB: When we played there last time, that was my favorite part. I’m probably going to do that again, probably until I puke. (laughs)
AH: That’s an inside joke. Zach and I can’t stand seafood, but everybody else in the band and our crew loves it. When Zach and I hit the beach, he’s going to get some chicken, I’m going to get a ribeye and we’ll enjoy the view together while being ten feet away from the seafood smell. We’ve played Wally’s before with Gwar and we had a really fun time, it was slammed. I’m not sure if we adhered to the fire code that night, there were a lot of people, it was awesome.
RD: That’s fantastic. Going forward, are there any plans for a follow-up to “Sons of Destruction”?
AH: If I can be 100% candid and honest, we have been so one-track minded with focusing on making this headlining tour the absolute best it can be. Up until “No Cover”, we were completely DIY. We had done 50 or 60 national headlining tours before we got lucky enough to get Tim Borror as a booking agent after “No Cover” through Sumerian Records, Sound Talent Group and FM Management. We had kind of forgotten what it’s like to be the headliner, so we got this opportunity to finally promote this record on the road and we’re back in the driver seat, so to speak. We forgot that there’s a few more logistics involved when you’re playing last, so we’ve been focusing heavily on that.
However, we have been cutting new demos that we’re very excited about. They’re very on the thrashy side of things and the hammers are going to keep getting heavier and heavier.