Decades after dirty and rebellious rock was first unleashed on crowds by pioneers like the Rolling Stones and AC/DC, people still fear the danger and risks this type of music embodies. So says Austin Winkler, Hinder’s frontman, who believes his crew might be one of the last groups living up to the true rock ‘n’ roll image.
“If you look at bands in the ‘80s, whenever they sold records was like 15 million or 20 million. Obviously those figures have gone downhill because of piracy and the Internet but rock was the biggest thing in the world,” he says. “There are a lot of people out there scared that music may possibly go back to being dangerous, and be hated on by parents and corrupt the youth like rock ‘n’ roll did when I was growing up. In my opinion they’re scared to bring that back because it was dangerous and it was living on the edge. And that’s what we’re all about.”
Hard rock band Hinder, whose debut, Extreme Behavior, sold a whopping 3.5 million copies, has come back with even more passion and grunt on their follow-up, Take It To The Limit. With tracks that cover garage rock, dirty rock, stadium rock, anthemic rock themes, rock ballads and also feature stripped back rock elements, Hinder has completely nailed its sound on its second delivery. Winkler says so much of what is promoted and sold as rock nowadays doesn’t hold true to the genre’s core principles.
“There’s a lot of bullshit and crap that labels are putting out there,” Winkler says. “I feel like the young generation is going to have this idea of what labels push on them as rock bands—but that’s not a fucking rock band. I definitely feel a lack of rockness and rawness and AC/DC-ness.” Winkler says this time around the band (also Cody Hanson, Mark King, Mike Rodden and Joe Garvey) wasn’t afraid to show the markings of some of their favorite artists.
“We didn’t go out and set a theme for this record but we definitely let our influences show a little more —like the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and Guns N’ Roses,” he says. “We sold 3.5 million records off maybe being a little cautious on the first record, but on the second record we’re obviously a lot more confident. And I think we definitely went forward. It’s definitely the best record we could deliver for our fans and we know they’re going to love it.”
Winkler, 26, says constant touring over the last couple of years made a massive and notable difference to their experience, skills, and energy, and put them in the prime position to push themselves further than they had ever gone before.
“You tour every day for just about three years and you’re going to grow as musicians and as songwriters. And as you go on, with time, anything gets better. What we did is we took Extreme Behavior and we took it up a notch. We shifted gears and we took it to the next level—hence the title Take It To The Limit,” he says. “Comparing Take It To The Limit to Extreme Behavior is night and day. I definitely know we sonically and musically destroyed it.”
With songs that explore love, life lessons, growing up, partying and much more, their hook-filled, melodic and extremely catchy radio-ready hits are guaranteed to reach out to the band’s old fans and hook in plenty of newcomers.
