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Indy: I don't hear a whole lot of AC/DC influence in your other band, KMFDM. Is it a real different experience when you're playing in this one?
JH: Oh, completely different. I mean, both bands have their rock elements. But when I'm playing guitar in KMFDM, because it's a very electronic-based band, it's more like I'm playing a programmed instrument. Whereas with the Spittin' Cobras, it's much more of an organic, straight-down-the-line rock band.
Indy: How did the Spittin' Cobras first get together?
JH: Basically, myself and Andy [Selway] in KMFDM, we'd known each other for a long time and we'd been talking about this kind of band ever since we'd known each other. So when we found ourselves in a bit of a gap, we wrote a tune in my studio and just kind of stuck an advert in a local paper. The first person to respond was Alx, the singer. He was in this band called Murdock, which we kind of knew, and they were great. And it went from there, really.
Indy: So what bands did you grow up with that you might have wanted to emulate?
JH: There are just a whole bunch of different bands that I've been into all my life, since first hearing music, like AC/DC, Motorhead, Stiff Little Fingers. The Damned are one of my favorite bands of all time. The old British punk stuff through to the early rock and metal stuff: Sabbath, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Whitesnake — when those bands were good, anyway.
Indy: Your debut album [Year of the Cobra] includes a cover of Rainbow's "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll." Do you think it will?
JH: Yeah, I think it will. Every so often, a new generation of people gets into the fact that rock 'n roll is all about having fun and expressing yourself. And that's exactly what we do.
At the Triple Nickel Tavern, Nov. 27.
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