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Joining the 3rd Annual Zippo Hot Tour, (hed) pe made a stop through The Vogue Theater in Indianapolis, IN and delivered an incredibly creative and entertaining set.  The SoCal hybrid band has been making music for over ten years with a potpourri of punk, metal, rap, and hardcore music that you won’t find on commercial radio.  Musicpix had the chance to talk with Jahred Shaine (lead vocalist) on their tour bus prior to (hed) pe’s performance.  Jahred proved to be an intellectual pierced rebel who’s vivid voice speaks of (hed) pe’s latest release getting back to the basics with “Back 2 Base X,” Freemasonry, and how blessed he is to be a conduit for that powerful cyclical energy that happens during live performances.

Jahred: (On their next album) "We’ll take a step back to the whole militant thing from what I can see right now because we’re getting ready to go do it.  I think it’s going to get back to ‘it’s time for a revolution’ type of thing".

(hed) pe is one of those rare bands. On the surface crude and anything but "between the lines". But they have a message... and it's a good one. They know where their musical heritage lies, and they pay homage to it through their music and in their words. Their diverse taste in music reflects their diverse and accepting vision of what in their eyes they think the world should be.

Now let's hear from Jahred:

Musicpix:   “Beware Do We Go From Here” from your latest release, “Back 2 Base X”…is a great track!   “I just want to make a difference” seems to sum up where many of us are at.  We want to be involved but we don’t know where to start when there’s so much to do.  How do you find your musical focus?

Jahred:  Wow… I think for us as a band, as we create music at this point, we kind of realize the things that work for us.  With our band, it ranges from roots to punk to heavy metal to whatever…whatever we want.  Our band is about throwing in whatever style of music that works for us…

(hed) pe Concert Photo Gallery

Musicpix:  I think that’s what we like the most about (hed) pe…you’re a melting pot of rap, hip-hop, rock, g-punk.  Is there any musical direction that you haven’t taken yet but want to?

Jahred:   Maybe we need a little bit more of a country influence… (sarcastically).  I do feel a rockabilly sense on some of our stuff already though.  Our influences are always kind of punky, what we call a punky jazz or a punky reggae…not exactly how a jazz musician or a reggae band would play their stuff.  It’s more like garage reggae…garage jazz.  We kind of kick it up by putting our songs on steroids so our songs are intense in their own way.

Musicpix: SoCal has been a breeding ground for many a great punk bands, specifically Social Distortion.  Was Social D an influence?

Jahred:  Of definitely, Social D is an influence of mine… As far as hed pe’s influences, they’re so vast.  Some of its just good old rock ‘n roll, punk, heavy metal, reggae.  Labeling music is laboring because how many styles can fly by in eight bars?  It’s just not mathematical…we kind of go where it takes us.

Musicpix:  This album is more accessible lyrically that prior releases…you don’t appear to be as angry.’ Is (hed) pe mirroring your personal human evolution?

Jahred:  Just when you think that, the next one may throw you back and I think that’s probably what will happen when people get the next album.  We’ll take a step back to the whole militant thing from what I can see right now because we’re getting ready to go do it.  I think it’s going to get back to ‘it’s time for a revolution’ type of thing.  It just depends on how the band is feeling.  We’re just the type that we’ve always given albums that are quite different than the one before.  We don’t have a formula that we tap into that we keep cashing in on.  We’re just grabbing inspiration whenever a new album cycle comes around.  We don’t have an allegiance to any certain genre of music.

Musicpix: “Back 2 Base X” is totally different from your prior releases…it’s live and raw vs. processed. You went ‘back to basics’ by listening to The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Ray Charles, and Curtis Mayfield…so there is an analogy in the title…back to basic timeless artists. So is that what you go through when you say ‘cycling?’

Jahred:  I think that was definitely one of the meanings of the title…”Back to Base X”…back to the core of music…trying to not layer too many vocals or too many guitars and keeping bass, drum, guitar tracks…original ones if you can, and abandoning a lot of studio tricks and going back to the rawness of music.  It was fun for us as a band to explore albums that were done prior to the computer age and listen to the soul that was captured there and emulate it.

Musicpix: Your attitude catches the old Public Enemy “Fight The Power”…

Jahred: Oh yeah, you’re right on with that.  Public Enemy and Beastie Boys are influences for me as a vocalist and definitely into the vibe of the band.

Musicpix:  Speaking of that vibe.  We think that diversity and appreciation of music is a lost art, particularly when it comes to commercial music today.  We don’t buy many albums these days, but we’d buy yours… the heart and soul and realness of it is something special.  Is that something you try to do?

Jahred:  First off, thanks for those kind words.  It’s our cross to bear that we don’t provide the kind of music that generally comes across on commercial radio.  With a few exceptions, music on the radio sounds like a really long commercial… a really polished long jingle about a relationship.  Our stuff is in a different direction of that.  Because of that, we’ve got a following of kids that want something a little bit more meatier.  But I definitely think it’s a calling of the band and not something we attempt to do.  We’re called to make this kind of extravagant hardcore.

Musicpix: One of the things that I really appreciate about you is your desire for your audience to discover your music for themselves…to unweave the lyrical content without trying to connect the dots for the listener so to speak.  Talk about why it’s important for you for to offer provocative ideas vs. providing answers…

Jahred:  There are so many other bands that already do that…bands that will never piss you off and stay safe all the time.  (hed) pe has chosen to not be that band…we’ve chosen to be the provocateurs.  The whole thing about trying to create messages by way of symbolism...not saying things straight out, although there are times that we cut straight to the chase…it’s a longer lasting ability for the listener to enjoy rather than face value immediately.  You’ll love it for like a month and then be over it.  Like a good movie…like a good Martial Arts movie, there’s always something going on and no matter how many times you watch it, you can always catch something new.  We’ve all been preached to our whole lives and everyone has their own individual path whether it’s spirituality or whatever.  It’s more about sharing what you think and move on with it.

Musicpix: You mention symbolism.  Given the name of your band (planetary evolution), and the horoscope imagery on (hed) pe’s myspace, and the release date of 6.6.06 w /the caption “the signs are all around you,” you are obviously aware of an unseen universal connections.  Can you talk about the importance of music in that connection?

Jared:  Well I have more questions than answers…but just like we’ve been off into this thing called the Global Illuminati or Secret Society which involved symbolisms that we tend to find on stuff everywhere.  We could just talk about that forever.  The only connection in the music has to do with (topically as far as the lyrically) are both spiritual topics and global politics…  not really mainstream global politics but underground media.  Like the 911 story that the buildings didn’t fall from just jet fuel...that sparked our interest and on and on and on.

Musicpix: Since you’re fueled by the alternative media, i.e. what we’re not spoon fed via traditional media, can you talk about why music is your outlet vs. something else?

Jahred:   There have always been acts that have done that.  Curtis Mayfield, Rage Against the Machine, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, John Lennon…these artists have used their music to disseminate truth.  As far as the music and the tonalities?  I’m sure that they are more powerful than we know.  Kabbalah teaches that the world was formed by the use of sound.  So, I think that there’s more than meets the eye when you put words and messages on top of music because the music is a vehicle so there’s some power there.  That’s why the FBI and the CIA follow artists that make a difference.  They know that music has some power attached to it.

Musicpix:  Well I think it’s the highest form of spirituality that you can get when you’re able to get that connection going.  As a matter a fact, I was reading where Santana’s goal was to find this perfect spiritual vibe...

Jahred:  Yeah and I’m sure there are as many different ones as there are people.  When you’re in a room and in a club, there’s a cyclical exchange of energy that goes on between the band and the people that are there.  So as a band, you can play for ten people and that’s fine, but how you react as a band correlates to how much energy the people are giving.  That goes back to Druids or any gathering where people get together… they generate some type of vibration that doesn’t happen when it’s just one person.  It’s believed that when a lot of like minded people are together, you can open up new paths of energy.  When you’re creating music, you’re grasping things from out of nowhere and you’re creating something out of nothing.  Being able to do shows and having that exchange of energy, it’s really just a gift…an eye-opener to the whole spiritual thing.

(hed) pe Concert Photo Gallery

Musicpix:  We talked about Social Distortion earlier and with all the talk of Freemasonry.  They have a fez on stage with them because of Ness’s fascination with Masons…

Jahed:  I think it’s very interesting because our country was founded by many Masons yet we were never taught it in school.  There’s a boiling point going on right now where lots of people that are interested in “IT” …in Freemasonry…it’s built into cathedrals all this and people are saying, ‘Whoa, what the heck is going on?’

Mark Young:   Not to mention Washington DC is laid out on Masonic principles.  It you fly over it, it’s an exact geometric design. (Mark is the Bass Player who is also on the bus listening in…)

MusicPix:  Music is about making connections…connections of melody, rhythm, and lyric and ultimately, the connection with the listener.  Describe the ‘ultimate’ connection that you hope to make with your fans.

Jahred:  We’re lucky.  Since we’ve been around for ten years, it seems like that many of the fans that we started with are gone now and we’ve got this whole new generation of teenage fans and that keeps us going.  We’re blessed by appealing to the youth.  The band has a life of its own.  We don’t sound the way we did ten years ago and I think that helps us.  That’s our path as a band.  It’s probably better to ask our fans that question.  I guess they appreciate us on a deeper level because they appreciate our musicality…we give them the metal, the punk, the jazz and the funk at a time when corporate music is so homogenized.  It’s just amazing that these bands get big on the radio but when they’re live, they seem like they almost don’t like them.  This ‘Emo” movement that’s in its death throes… the kids are waking up and asking ‘what are they giving us?’  It’s either booty shaking or gangster rap.  We fill a desire that they have for music without apologies.

Musicpix:  Life is full of defining moments.  What has been the band’s latest defining moment?

Jahred:   Recently we played in Nottingham, United Kingdom.  It was the most magical night that I’ve had as a musician.  That was revealing to me because of after ten years of opening up for huge bands in arenas and then playing in Nottingham …You know ‘the best is always yet to come’ if you make that you’re reality.  For hed pe, it’s pretty sweet that we don’t look back to any glory years. 

Musicpix:  What made that show so special?

Jahred:  The people that were there just had this vibration that they were giving up… like I said, it’s a two way street.  This was truly cyclical.  People just loved it and we were in a flow.  Some of it is kind of intangible …why it was such a magical night, but you could just feel that it just was.

MusicPix:   What is the first musical instrument you played and at what age?

Jahred:   My parents put me on the piano when I was a kid.  I also played guitar when I was really young.  Those were the first instruments that I picked up.  I also played drums before I was a teenager so I had actually put my hands on three instruments before I was 12.

Musicpix:   I’m curious about the evolution of a musician.  At what point, did you know that this is what you wanted to do?

Jahred:  For me, it was just this intangible thing… where does a person’s drive come from?  It’s just some sort of point, there’s something in the center core.  You’re figuring out your voice.  Lots of people can play, but few musicians find their voice on any given instrument.  So when you’re a lyricist or a vocalist, that’s that crossroads when you have to tap into your own soul that comes out of you.  For me, it’s tapping into my inner voice or my calling as an artist.

Musicpix:  Are you happiest doing what you’re doing right now?

Jahred:  It’s where I’m most focused.  The sound of the band is the most focused it’s ever been.  Rap, reggae, punk, hardcore or whatever.  Finally, it feels really natural more than ever before.

MusicPix:   What artist/performer influenced you the most?

Jahred:  [Long Pause]  I want to say Bob Marley.  If I have to choose one but again, I have so many influences but he’s just the guy I hold in the highest esteem.

MusicPix:  If you weren’t in your current band, what band would you like to play in?

Jahred:  Probably Rage Against the Machine….I can’t imagine anything else…

Musicpix:  The original version before Audioslave…

Jahred: Yeah, I don’t even count that…

MusicPix: What are your 3 ‘desert island’ albums?

Jahred:  “Never Mind the Bollocks” by the Sex Pistols, “London Calling” by The Clash, and Bob Marley’s, “Natural Mystic.”

MusicPix:  Who do you think is the most over-rated in the music industry?

Jahred:  I’m not going to engage in that.  I’ve got too many years in this and nobody likes a critic.  I won’t go there.

MusicPix: What’s your ‘perfect world?

Jahred: No more hunger…women not forced to wear burkas in the Middle East…equality between the sexes…and no wars but it’s a complex world.

The Band

Jahred Shaine aka M.C.U.D. (Paolo Sergio Gomes)-Vocals
DJ Product-Turntables/vocals
Mawk (Mark Young)-bass
Jaxon (Jackson Benge) Guitar
Devin Lebsack-Drums

Discography

(hed)pe-1997
Broke-2000
Planet Earth-2001
Blackout-2003
Only In Amerika-2004
Back 2 Base X-2006

The Tour

By
Gwyn Tyme
w/Steve Mitchell