Rob caught up with Josh Storm from Halestorm to talk about their current uk tour, their covers EP, their forthcoming third studio album much more.

You are currently towards the end of your headline tour of the UK, how have you been finding the tour so far?
Josh, Bass) The shows have been remarkable, we have been completely blown away by the support we have been getting, we have been off the road for 3 months, writing, getting some more material together so we have been itching to get back out on the road.

You have Dayshell and The Smoking Hearts supporting you on tour, how have you found touring with them?
They're great, they are wonderful people, Dayshell are American counterparts, they're good dudes. The first show in Newcastle, we invited everyone into our dressing room for drinks, on some tours it seems there's a distance between the head-liners and the rest of the bands, then you get to know people, it's like why didn't we hang out a month ago (laughs) so the first night we broke the ice with everyone. We knew Calvin Roffey from The Smoking Hearts for some time now because he works with Bullet For My Valentine, and the rest of his band are super cool.

What can we expect from your show tonight?
A little bit of everything, it's gonna be rock show, we have changed the set list around a little bit, we haven't been on tour in months so we are getting used to some things, ultimately not making do with what we have, we are playing a lot of stuff from our first and second record, a few cover songs, and we are trying out a new song. We still send Arejay out there for 5 minutes to go nuts (laughs)

After the UK shows you are heading out on tour in mainland Europe are you looking forward to playing any country’s or city’s more than others?
Yeah there definitely are, the last time we were over here, some more people caught on, in the UK you people caught on so quickly and you come out and sell out clubs, its unbelievable but on mainland Europe its taken a while, I'm not sure if it's a culture or language barrier, but it's slower, a little behind but not in a bad way it's just how it is, touring in the UK is now on par with the US. Germany is starting to pick up now, the Scandinavian countries are the same, Sweden is catching up too. I'm looking forward to all of them to see where we are at, to see how far we have come in 5 months from the last tour. I love Paris, Milan is a blast, Zurich is awesome, Vienna is very cool, it's gonna be amazing.

You have just released your second covers EP ‘Reanimate 2.0’ in the UK, what has the response been like from your fans and the press?
It's been really great, they are fun to do, it's something to get out while we are in the middle of a tour, the response here has been awesome, 'Get Lucky' has got some airplay, we like those songs, we enjoy playing them but we don't do them with the expectation to push them as singles, we learn why these songs are successful and how they are successful, then we put our own little spin on it, and the comments on them have been good, which is cool.

When it comes to doing covers you have a good diverse collection, how do you go about choosing songs to cover? And what would you say your favourite cover is so far?
I really enjoy playing 'Straight Through The Heart' by Dio, If we do another covers album, we get a list together, an email thread, which includes our team at our label, management, friends and family and our fans of course, we put the question to them for what works, we get a massive list of songs, we then start cutting songs out and narrowing down to the final choice, it takes a few months, our fans pick. On the first one, Lady gaga, they wanted us to do that, it was like really? That's what you want us to do, then some people said why are you doing that?, well you asked us! (laughs).

You also have a cover of ‘Straight Through The Heart’ featured on the recently released Dio tribute album, how did this come about? And how does it feel to apart of such an important album release for a really good cause.
Honestly, it came about a few months prior to recording the covers album, our manager Vinnie, he was very close to Ronnie growing up, he would call him Uncle Ronnie, he was a big part of his life, he was the one who suggested the song to us. We started playing it live long before we recorded, then we recorded it for the covers EP, in the meantime Wendy Dio got hold of it, then got in contact with our management and wanted to put it on the tribute album.

You released your second studio album ‘The Strange Case Of’ back in April 2012, the album was a huge success for you gaining great response from your fans and the press and also lead to a pretty hectic touring schedule but what has been your main highlight from the whole cycle?
2013 was amazing for us, we started off the year getting nominated for a Grammy, going out to LA to record the Reanimate EP, did the Jimmy Kimmle show, won the Grammy, which we are so grateful for, the other big thing was going to new places on tour, like Russia, we did a lap of the world, we said yes to a lot of things, maybe we said yes a little too much but it was great, so many perks and high points, we are having a great time and it doesn't look like we have lost any momentum in our down time.

We understand that you started the year off with working on material for your forthcoming third studio album, how has that been going and what can you tell us about it?
It's been going great we have been writing every day, it's going very well now, we are starting to get an idea where the direction is going to go, but it takes time, we write when we get excited at any given time, that manifests itself one day writing a Tom Petty sort of song, a Country or a ballad, it could end up a great song, there was a lot of great songs in the first two months,but it was a case of where are we going with this, but now we are honing in on a direction we are excited in the way its going. I can't think of any word to define it as of yet, that keystone to the album, but a hint to the album direction is the song we have been playing live called 'Mayhem', it's a fast one and it seems to get the crowd going.

If you met someone who had never heard of Halestorm what one song would you ask them to listen to, to understand what the band are all about?
I think 'Miss The Misery', I enjoy playing it live, even after we pushed it as a single it took on a life of it's own, I'd say that's a pretty safe choice.

What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
Unfortunately we are not doing any festivals over here, we're taking a year off from it, so look for us in 2015, the back quarter of this year hasn't been allocated yet, but the main focus this year is writing and getting new material out, after this we are gonna try and nail down a producer and date to get into the studio to record and then do some fly shows state side in between recording, hopefully at the end of this we will do a small tour and test out some new material on the road and go from there, then in 2015 get on a bus or plane and tour for a while.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a Zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
A heterosexual Giraffe (laughs) what comes to my head right now is a scene from Gladiator, where Proximo is arguing with a merchant about being sold queer giraffes (laughs) apparently a lot of giraffes are homosexual creatures, but I like giraffes, plus you don't see videos of them being eaten and they are tall.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Thank you so much for the support, we are gonna be back on tour sooner rather than later, and we hope you like the new material, we cant wait to come back here and party with you again, you guys know how to party.

Interview by Robert Lawrence