"Spotlight On Saudi Arabia" HED2GROUND !

HED2GROUND are a Hard Rock band with Metal influences based in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

The band was formed in 2007, by 4 Western Expatriate workers who currently live in Saudi Arabia. They are known around the local scene as one of the most professional and entertaining live acts. The band aims to work together with local and mid-eastern hard rock and heavy metal bands to help expand the scene.

HED2GROUND, performs a wide variety of originals and also covers for bands like Stone Sour, Tool, Slipknot, Chevelle and the list goes on.

The band donates all profit from gig payments, to charities of their choice, the charities are chosen on a gig by gig basis.

I got the chance to ask the group's drummer James about HED2GROUND's sound and upcoming material, who would he like to work with, the local scene, which band's is he currently listening to and alot more.

Here's how it went:


TMR: First of all, how’s it going?

James: Very well thanks. We are enjoying a break from our usually hectic band schedule and duties over the Christmas and New Year’s period. We have all recently been (or are currently on) holidays visiting our families etc.

It’s kind of nice to have a social life that isn’t directly involved with our H2G schedule for a change.



TMR: Can you describe HED2Ground's sound?

James: I would describe our sound as Hard Rock with tendencies towards Metal. We have a very artistic sound that you can hear is based upon our earlier musical influences and training. Overall though, we are loud, in your face and enjoy experimenting with all of our musical tonal qualities.



TMR: You guys have built a rep for yourselves around the GCC region, what do you think of the scene nowadays, do you think it’s a constantly growing one?

James: Hell yes!! It is an awesome scene with so much talent here in this part of the world.

When I first accepted my job in Saudi Arabia I thought my music would have to go on hold for awhile but I was so incredibly wrong. I have been completely blown away with the level of professionalism and quality of rock and metal music in this part of the world.



TMR: When can we expect more material from HED2Ground?

James: We have just about got enough original material to record our first album and hope to have this completed within the next few months by having it all professionally recorded so we can then get it out to the masses.

As the new stuff gets tweaked to the way we want it, and we record it, we will place it on our
page, so you can expect to hear the new stuff starting to appear in the next month or so.



TMR: If you got the chance to work with your favorite musician, who would it be?

James: For myself personally, my first pick would be Danny Carrey from Tool. In my opinion he is a genius at fusing artistic and sometimes incredibly complex percussion beats rhythms and poly-rhythms with that Tool heavy sound.

Also Corey Taylor, the vocalist from Slipknot and Stone Sour. We as a band all have the utmost respect and adoration for his lyric writing and vocal skills with both Slipknot and Stone Sour (he is someone I would love to have help produce one of our albums in the future so Corey, give me a call mate!)



TMR: Which bands are you currently listening to?

James: Slipknot!!! Their new album ‘All Hope Is Gone’ is absolutely amazing and I can’t get enough of it.



TMR: Who are some of the Middle Eastern bands that you enjoy listening to?

James: All of the bands from the SA Metal (www.sametal.org) are awesome, not just to listen to but to perform with and/or watch their live performances as well.



TMR: On your official MySpace, it states that you "decided to donate all profit from gig payments to charities" what made you choose this?

James: We are all Western Expatriate workers working in the Middle East for our ‘day’ jobs so we all earn decent salaries. We thought it would be a nice idea for us as a band to donate any profits we receive from gig appearances to worthwhile charities from around the globe. It is not a lot of money and we don’t need the cash in our current positions, but there are people and organisations out there that can definitely do with a helping hand.

I think it also shows to the general public that we as ‘metal heads’ aren’t all about making noise, wearing black clothing and are not full of anger, but we like to help out the community as well.



TMR: Thank you so much James for this opportunity, would you like to add anything?

James: Yeah firstly, please go out and buy the March issue of ‘Revolver’ magazine (on newsstands late February) as they will be doing a "Meet and Greet" piece on us in that issue. This will contain links to our MySpace page and also a link on the ‘Revolver’ website to download our song ‘Blood In’.

Also visit our
page, www.myspace.com/hed2ground and listen to our music. If you get the chance to come and see us perform live, please do as we love to actually perform and put on a stage show not just stand there and play. Our live performances are definitely H2G’s strong point.

Help to spread our name people as we are on a massive PR push to get our band known throughout the worldwide scene (US, Australia and Europe); hopefully getting us booked for a tour. Make us your friend on MySpace, tell all your friends about us, drop our name casually into conversation at parties and so on. With your assistance we want to get signed to a good label in the near future. You’d be amazed what word of mouth can achieve!

Also do not hesitate to contact us through MySpace or our email address. We try to respond personally to all mail that we receive.

Lastly if you would like to be put onto our mailing list, send us an email hed2ground@windowslive.com so we can send you future gig dates, any new song details and general band information. Your email address will remain private and will not be handed out to anyone for any reason whatsoever.

Thanks


I would like to thank James for taking the time to answer my questions, make sure to check out the band's Myspace to get a taste of their music and also to stay updated with all the band's future work.