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When it comes to North Carolina rockers He Is Legend: you either love them, or you’re about to love them, there is no in between.
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Once described as “your favourite band’s favourite band” by their resident vocalist and lyrical shaman Schuylar Croom, He Is Legend have achieved cult-like status over the years, thanks largely to their meticulous melodics, eclectic heavy stylings, and an unmistakeable authenticity with every move they make.
Previously appearing in Australia way back in 2015 for Soundwave Festival’s last edition alongside Soundgarden, Faith No More, Incubus and more, the godfathers of gritty and glam Southern-meets-face-melting sonic beauty are at long last returning down under this May, hitting up the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth with Gold Coast heavy-hitters Hammers. As He Is Legend frontman Schuylar Croom and drummer Jesse Shelley recently revealed to Hysteriamag.com, it was a series of fortunate events that sparked this sensational upcoming journey.
“This tour literally came about because the cats at Beats Cartel reached out to me after I said on Twitter: I think we’re going to Australia again this year,” Croom says. “That’s not bullshit, that’s how it happened! I tweeted it out and then they reached out to us and said: let’s make it happen – and we made it happen! It’s been going very seamlessly, and I think with those kismet things like that – you just gotta ride the wave, ride the snake and see where it leads you because usually you’ll find good things at the end of it.”
With He Is Legend’s previous appearance at Soundwave in 2015 also resulting from Croom tweeting into the universe, the otherworldly vocalist is now officially two-for-two when it comes to manifesting down under performances via the famous online blue bird.
“It’s happened twice now!” Croom says. “I should start tweeting out everywhere I want to go. I’m going to Disneyland this year!”
While He Is Legend’s most recent opus, the lauded 2022 full length Endless Hallway, is undoubtedly the band’s literal freshest material, the interruptions courtesy of the pandemic and a gap spanning nearly 8 years since the band last reached our shores means there are multiple albums fans have never actually witnessed live, notably Endless Hallway as well as 2017’s few and the searingly popular 2019 release White Bat. With two decades of existence under their belts, as well as seven full length albums and multiple EPs, just what might a 2023 He Is Legend headline Aussie set entail?
“This tour literally came about because the cats at Beats Cartel reached out to me after I said on Twitter: I think we’re going to Australia again this year… That’s not bullshit, that’s how it happened!”
[ Schuylar Croom ]
“We’re going 20 years back,” Shelley says. “I mean, we’re playing something from every era and that is exactly designed to make sure that if it’s someone’s first He Is legend show or not – they’re not walking away disappointed or feel like they were short changed at all.”
“We’re never gonna be stingy with our music,” says Croom. “I don’t think we would ever come over there and force people to just hear one thing. If we were gonna do that, it would probably be funny, you know, we would cover In Utero or something like that. But yeah, we’ll definitely try to touch all the veins and make sure everybody’s happy for sure.”
Having previously shared stages with the likes of Killswitch Engage, Dragonforce, Sevendust, and Attila, to name a mere few, it would seemingly take a lot these days to subvert expectations for such a seasoned and revered band in a live setting. If Croom does eventually Tweet his way to Disneyland this year, all bets are probably off. But ahead of returning to Australia where new memories lie in wait, there’s a shared stand out touring moment for both Croom and Shelley that took them off dry land and entirely by surprise.
“Playing on a boat, man,” Shelley says without hesitation, referring to He Is Legend’s appearance in 2018 onboard at ShipRocked with Stone Sour, Seether and many others.
“Yeah, ShipRocked has to be one of the craziest things we’ve ever done,” says Croom.
“Playing on a moving ship is weird!” Shelley adds.
“It’s so weird, and it had such a cool crowd of people,” Croom says. “The people that go on ShipRocked are a family, and they live for that. That’s what they do every year, and they wait for that every year, they talk about it and they go and support the bands that play the shows. And they don’t stop coming to your shows, you gain fans from this community.”
“We hadn’t even played the first time when we did it, there were some people at some shows on a tour we did prior, I think we were out with Sevendust,” says Shelley, “and some dudes I had never met and had never seen us before were like: You’re on ShipRocked! Can’t wait to hang out!”
“And they’re buying you a beer,” Croom says, “because you’re part of the family now, you know? But then you go, you’re corralled onto this giant parking garage on the water, and you’re swaying around the whole time while you’re rehearsing and swaying…”
“It’s very overwhelming,” says Shelley. “Like – you look and there’s no land in any direction. You’re just like: why is there a drum set in the middle of the ocean?”
“The cool thing about that show though is that: the reason it exists, and I assume the reason that these things exist is because: you can’t get away from the people that you’re on the boat with,” Croom continues. “It’s an experience. I mean, if you don’t party, you’re gonna have a hard time on ShipRocked. Number one, because it’s 24/7, it’s like a little Las Vegas on the water. And you might bump into a person that saw your show last night and has never seen you before, and they just know you as a guy in a band and they just want to chat in the elevator and follow you to your room and hang out. It’s just this thing where this experience doesn’t really exist anywhere else where you’re basically backstage the entire time. I’m sure that some of the bigger bands had some back elevator access that we didn’t.”
“I’m sure some did, but at one point it was just me and Corey Taylor and Zakk Wylde eating french fries,” Shelley laughs.
But it’s not just nautical adventures that float He Is Legend’s musical memory boat.
“Even just coming to Australia,” says Shelley of his own personal career highlights as part of the He Is Legend legacy, “it’s very odd to think about. It’s just these weird decisions that I made in my life, I dropped outta high school and I played all these shitty clubs and then enough people thought that was neat enough to ask me to get on a plane and come somewhere – and they know the songs! That’s pretty cool, and it’s weird to think about. The older you get, it’s just like: man, I’m still doing it!”.
“At some point you can’t call yourself old, you become “seasoned”, you know?” Croom says “And as much as people would shy away from that, I do feel like we’ve earned that because we have been doing this for so long now in such a fashion.”
With their Aussie setlist tentatively in the works, there are certainly plenty of solid-gold tracks to choose from for the North Carolina heroes, with the Gold Coast first in line to cop the long-awaited return. But one thing’s 100% certain: do not expect generic metal or heavy tunes to soundtrack their walkout.
“I’m cool with anything but it cannot be metal and heavy stuff,” Shelley declares. “It needs to be hip hop or cheesy 80s stuff.”
“The Beach Boys!” Croom says.
“Yeah! It’s gotta be something totally different than what we’re doing,” says Shelley. I don’t want there to be really a lick of heaviness. I’d rather it be cheesy and singing, nothing like what we’re about to do. It sucks when we go out and the playlist is up for grabs for whoever’s behind the board that day. It’s like they always try to impress you, like: ‘I’m gonna play them the heaviest stuff I’ve got!’ But we’re like: ‘dawg, please knock it off!’
“Adam [Tanbouz, guitarist] would request it to be hip hop,” says Croom. “And we used to have playlists! That’s actually another really fun thing about touring that I’ve forgotten about though, how we would have playlists that would evolve with songs that we were digging on that tour and we would play them at night before and after the show. Like, it was just songs we were jamming really hard and they would make it on these playlists.”
“We’d put some crazy ones on there, there was that Type O Negative cover Summer Breeze,” Shelley laughs. “Almost every single night of that tour, about halfway through that song some guy who worked at the club would go: “skip it” because he could take it any more. It was so slow, it was awesome!”
“Or we’d have Hotline Bling playing,” Croom laughs along with Shelley.
“We’ll put together something cool for this tour, for sure,” Shelley says.
Regardless of what songs make the eventual He Is Legend official Aussie tour playlist, there’s plenty more irons in the fire for these rock‘n’roll rascals, including some massive plans for the remainder of 2023 that still have Australia in the mix.
“By the end of 2023, He Is Legend will…go to Japan!” Croom says on the band’s not-too-distant plans on the horizon. “And I think we’re gonna come back to Australia.”
“Yes, on the way to Japan!” says Shelley. “I think we’re gonna have a ton of new music written as well, because any time we have off from touring this record – we’re gonna be writing more stuff. So by the end of 2023, He Is Legend will rock.”
“Yeah, we will continue to rock,” Croom smiles. “And maybe we’ll cover some songs or something like that too!”
HE IS LEGEND AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES MAY 2023
Wednesday, 17th May 2023 – Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast, QLD
Thursday, 18th May 2023 – The Zoo, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, 19th May 2023 – Crowbar, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, 20th May 2023 – Stay Gold, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday, 21st May 2023 – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide, SA
Wednesday, 24th May 2023 – Badlands, Perth, WA
Tickets on sale now from https://www.beatscartel.com/showtickets
