10 Years: Holding the Centre

There was an era where alt-metal bands like 10 YEARS were the kings of rock radio. The mid to late 2000’s was a wellspring of up and coming talent amidst a sea of nu-metal and post grunge stalwarts fighting to the top of the charts on a weekly basis. The constant battle was a way to see what bands would stand to leave their mark in a genre that certainly had many sound-alikes and copycats, but the competition led to innovation and a newfound awareness of rock in the public consciousness. Both brands and media worked together to give these bands platforms to find their fans and give them a boost in pop culture.

The Knoxville quintet emerged from the fray as one of the victors, having just released their ninth album, Violent Allies, and having a string of radio hits throughout the years that have stood the test of time. But will the tenets of this time in recent history come back? Bands like 10 YEARS and the sound they deliver isn’t exactly in vogue as it once was. What will it take for rock to save itself from redundancy? That’s where lead vocalist of 10 YEARS, Jesse Hasek, begins.

“We’ve discussed this amongst ourselves in the band,” he says. “Every new generation wants their own thing. Every decade is distinct from one another. The 80s was a party and the 90s was the hangover. It’s a shift and swing that will always happen, and you can adapt, but if you fully conform to what’s popular you will lose your identity. Rock music is so powerful and relevant that it will always come back. It has to hang onto its identity and hold its centre amidst these shifts. Don’t bastardise yourself and try to fit into something you don’t fit into. We need the party, we need the hangover, then a reality check, and then a party again. It all comes in waves.”

It’s a manifesto from a band who has lived through that world and come out the other side working as hard as they did to enter it. The band’s new record is a testament to that identity and centre holding, with the band returning to work on Violent Allies with legendary rock producer Howard Benson, who last produced the band’s fifth record Feeding the Wolves, an album with big hits right at the tail end of that aforementioned period. It shows immediately, as the album comes out the gate swinging with massive hooks and anthems perfect for a main stage slot on Mayhem Festival, another relic of a time gone by that finds itself returning.

“There’s a reason we went back to him,” Hasek says about Benson. “There’s a connection there and the chemistry works. His strong suit is searching for the most powerful songs to present to put out as singles, but he’s not the guy that says every song on the album has to be a single.” That may be the case, but almost every song on Violent Allies, could be a single, from the swelling Start Again, to the raging Déjà vu. Hasek’s voice is one of the most unique in hard rock; his intonation and tone captures a sense of emotion and depth that few others can reach. Musically, it’s textually rich while being immediately accessible, but more so than anything else, it’s an incredibly melodic and hook focused album, more so than the band’s last few records, and the sense of cohesion on this record feels palpable. However, that’s not to say that there wasn’t a degree of friction within the band when crafting this batch of songs.

“There’s a reason why the album is called Violent Allies,” explains Hasek. “It’s very strong willed opinions in each of us that are trying to go for the best thing, but we know it’s ultimately as allies that we’ll have the strongest result.” He affirms that there was a deeper sense of examination and craftsmanship that made the hooks and melodies so strong on this new record. “On previous records, everyone had their own little stuff separately and brought it to the table together. We still do that, but we really dissected what everyone brought more than we ever have and reached a sense of open-mindedness so that even when we disagree, we agree to create the best result.”

Connection is the theme of the record, and the main facet that the band wanted to attack going into the writing sessions, which is apt because of, well, the world at large and the distinct lack of connection, and early on, even before the pandemic, eerie prophetic lyrics were starting to form. “The early conversations were all about connection,” says Hasek. “We wanted to connect with the listener, and that holds value because they can take hold of it for their own. I’ve always been a voyeur of the world, and when I wrote the lyrics for The Shift, and the virus reference in it, everyone was asking how I predicted stuff, when really I was just focusing on the chaos of the world.”

The other half of that connection is the one that’s forged and battle tested with live audiences across the country, which is obviously now impossible in the world’s current state. With touring out of the question, the band’s normal opportunity to debut songs from the new record to test their reaction with fans is going to have to give way to new, alternative ways to test the waters. “You can’t really predict how songs will go over until you go out and do it, and we’re missing that element very much,” says Hasek. “It makes it tricky because we’re used to being on the ground doing it and finding out what captures an audience. We’re staying home and trying to figure out ways to promote it, and it’s actually going to help us to sit back and look at it instead of forcefully winning people over at concerts.”

10 YEARS are the quintessential example of a band that emerged in an era inundated with hard rock bands trying to work their way to the top and climbed to the top of the pyramid with grit, work ethic, and a constant honing of their ability to craft a great hook. Violent Allies is their strongest release in quite some time, and it deserves to be heard live in spite of the circumstances. Because for a band like 10 YEARS, that is holding the centre; it’s grinding away and staying true while always working to improve, trends be damned. The tides will shift again, perhaps, and perhaps rock will again find its way to the mainstream. For Hasek, a small story came to mind:

“We were label mates with HINDER. They’re cool dudes but our music is totally different, and at one point the industry was trying to push us in that direction because of how popular they were. But now there’s a place for all identity. The best thing to do is be the best at who you are.”

Violent Allies is out now via Mascot Records. 

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