High Tone Son of a Bitch are about to unleash a new EP, Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky, out June 21.
“The root idea that became High Tone Son of a Bitch was something that was bounced around early on by my brother Andrew and I, really early, even back in the 90s,” says Paul Kott, formerly of Kalas. “Russ [Kent, vocals, synth] tells a story about my brother Andrew telling him at a party about how we were going to be starting this band that would ditch the pretenses of a punk and metal scene that was feeling increasingly defined by genre archetypes and return to hard rock roots. It’s funny, because we wanted to return to the basics, which is the same shit you heard punks saying in the 70s. I guess we were coming at this from almost a punk rock or hardcore mindset, where we felt like this crazy, undefinable and creative scene we had grown up was becoming more and more conservative about what you could and couldn’t do. We felt like there was this increasing expectation that bands all sound a certain way, and we were really reactive to that.
“The list of people who we were fortunate enough to work with in our initial incarnation was pretty amazing, and that continues to be true with the current lineup,” he continues. “When writing for the Death of a New Day/Eye in the Sky EP, it was great to bring in a collective of people like Dave Edwardson (Neurosis) and vocalist Scott Wagner, folks who have been actively a part of HTSoB in the past, along with the new members of the core lineup, and Sonny Reinhardt (Necrot, Saviours), who is an old friend and sort of a psychic match for this project in many ways. Billy Anderson is almost an extended member of the band, like a family member, really. There are a lot of ways to be heavy. This is music made by a bunch of people who, in various projects, have essentially created the template for conquest by volume and amplifier worship. We’re trying to pull our hearts out using instruments and voices as tools. This feels like an honorable tribute to my brother’s memory, for all of us to really, intentionally try to carry on in the spirit of our original efforts and to realize the dream of unlimited expression through hard rock psychedelia.”
