Interview with Leroy Hamp of War of Ages at 10 for 10 on July 22.
Well as always, we’re just conversing. How’s the 10 for 10 tour life treating you so far?
The tour is going great! It’s really a different type of tour for us for the most part. We’re really the only metal band on the bill, so it’s different. There’s definitely a lot of hardcore kids that come out to the shows, so it’s a pretty different crowd. For us honestly, it’s a challenge. Here we are as the only metal band who just don’t have as many breakdowns as some of the other bands so we have to try that much harder to get the crowd into it. Ultimately, they’ll just be like, “cool, let’s just stand and watch,” but we want to get them into it. Nonetheless, it’s just been great. We’ve gotten crazy good responses!
Not to mention it’s teaching us as a band. Metal fans, they pretty much like us. “You got a solo? Oh sweet we like you,” you know. When it comes to these kids, we just have to strive and work harder. This is just showing us you’re not always gonna get the easy crowds, so it just shows you how good of a band you even are. So yeah, we’re having so much fun and learning a lot. I mean we’re pumped to even be apart of this!
Yeah, the lineup is pretty intense actually.
Yeah! I mean 10 bands for 10 dollars this time of the year? That’s crazy! Kids are so stoked to scrape up the 10 bucks and come to enjoy these bands that it makes it that much better. Plus the atmosphere is so great. It’s 10 dollars and not like $35 to see 10 great bands. People are in a good mood whether you like ALL of them or not. There’s 10 bands; Pick one! Plus economy wise, I know so many people have been hurt by it. Especially out here (California) I know it’s pretty bad.
Yeah, that’s another thing I wanted to talk to you about. So many kids can’t really dime out the cash for shows anymore so they’re just not coming out to support which sucks for them, and hurts the bands. What do you want to say to the troopers who do scrape up the cash and come out to support?
Umm, we’re just happy. I know money is hard right now and I know even coming up with 10 bucks is hard. We’re definitely noticing that. Call it what it is, the economy is hurting. Parents don’t want to give their kids as much money anymore, and if they do, they want to go out and do other things. Bands like ours are hurting because of the fact that there’s so many of us and there’s so many tours going on. People really have to pick and choose so much now. Not to even mention merch! So these kids who are coming out to 10 for 10, thank you. Also, the people who are interviewing and coming out to be apart of this, thank you.
Aww, Brownie points for Leroy! Alright, well there’s something else that sets you apart from some of the other bands on this tour also and that happens to be your guys faith. Tell me about how you came upon your walk with Christ. Raised in a Christian home? Experienced a watershed moment?..
My walk with Christ was actually established not too long ago. See, I come from a very intense family. My mother was very religious; My father was not. My mother was really religious because she was over compensating for what my father lacked. He was a drug dealer, crackhead, etc, and my mom felt like because my dad was all these things, she had to over compensate. Which turned her faith into anything from breaking my xDisciplex cd, or anything that was heavy even if it was Christian or I just said it was. So ultimately that just turned me away and to say I wanted nothing to do with Christianity.
It took a while, but God got a hold of my life. It wasn’t necessarily even for God in the beginning, it was more like my life was already going down the tubes with drugs and whatever else and I just sat and thought, “I need to make a change so that I can be the man that I want to be for my wife and kids that I may have some day”. First, I just made the decision to consciously change my life. In doing that, I found Christ.
Everyone has their one way about how they came to Christ. A lot of people just take upon the, “Oh you accepted God into your heart. You’re good to go,” and that’s not the case. There’s so much more to that. You have to change your life from what it already is then allow God to work in your life and grow in there. A lot of it is really just accepting and being open to it also.
What would you say to those kids who may look up to your band and want to look at you guys of Godly examples, but are struggling with their walk with Christ?
Umm, that it’s not just those kids; It’s myself and everyone of my band members. We are to work through our salvation with fear and trembling daily. If you’re ever in a place in life where everything is just all cool, you’re in trouble. You should always be working on who you are and how you approach things. What I’ve learned is that there’s bands out there that are way more bold than we are and that I can learn from that.
To these kids that are hurting and struggling, or may know God but are having a tough time, just know God is GOD. Allow God to be God. Just keep working and striving and be vulnerable to let him do what he does.
Tell me what you guys are doing musically right now. Are you just focusing on tour? Writing?…
We’re actually writing on the road right now. We have about 3 songs at the moment. I guess you could say we’re doing this a new way due to the technology that’s out now. We have access to stuff now that allows you to record on the road, which is great. So this time around we’re doing it that way and just really trying to figure out where to go instrumentally.
We’ve noticed a lot of stuff about our band. We’re really a complicated band. So this time around, we wanted to be intricate, and be like, “wow that’s an awesome riff,” while at the same time, incorporate what we use to do in the beginning, which was more of the simpler stuff. So, we wanted to take those two platforms and kind of put them together. Also for this album, we want to have stuff more vocally driven. But also when it’s time to show people we can play our instruments, it’s just in your face. So basically, the songs we’ve written so far are like that and we’re definitely excited about them.
Any last comments?
Just a big thank you to everyone who has been supporting us and please come out to a show and just hang out and chill.
