HEXX
DAN WATSON
Hexx started out as a heavy/power metal band in 1983. They released two full length-albums in No Escape (1984) and Under the Spell (1986). But in the mid 80's thrash metal took hold of the Bay Area. And the thrash metal movement inspired Hexx to play faster. In 1988 Hexx released their EP Quest for Sanity, By this time Hexx had developed into a thrash metal band and they became more aggressive by each release.
Hexx released their Watery Graves EP in 1990 and a year later Hexx released their last full length-album Morbid Reality which was a thrash metal release that bordered unto death metal.
A few years later Hexx disbanded. But in 2013 Hexx surprisingly reunited, old vocalist Dennis Manzo was back in the band. Hexx will go to Germany within a month to play the infamous Keep It True-festival. I have spoken to Dan Watson, Guitarist in Hexx.
Hexx has recently reunited. How does it feel to be back?
It feels great to be back playing our old music again! I never thought we would ever play any of it again in our lifetime!
It took us a while to dust off the cobwebs of the years and get back up to speed with the material from our first two albums, No Escape and Under the Spell! We have spent the last six months or so rehearsing the live set for the Keep It True festival.
Will there be any new Hexx material?
Yes, last summer we wrote and recorded four new songs with our first singer from No Escape, Dennis Manzo, in the similar power metal style of our first two albums. We have been shopping it around to various record labels trying to get a deal going for a new studio album.
Why did you change your name from Paradox to Hexx?
When we first got signed to Shrapnel records they did a name search. (This was 1984, before the internet was the way it is now) They said there were already a few bands around the world operating under the name Paradox and we should change our name to avoid confusion and any legal problems down the road.
After an exhausting time of trying out different names and logos we finally arrived at the name.... Hexx. It was the only one we could come up with that every could agree upon and did not seem to be in use at that time.
You will soon play this years Keep it True-festival in Germany. Is it the first time you guys play in Europe?
Yes, this will be the first time any version of Hexx has performed in Europe. We are very happy and excited to finally get the opportunity to play our music in Europe!
No Escape (1984)
You have also reunited with original vocalist Dennis Manzo. How is it to have him on board again?
Dennis is great! We mostly refer to him as Manzo! It has taken him a lot of hard work to get his voice back in shape to be able to perform this style of music live again but he is all fired up and ready to belt it out for Hexx at the KIT festival!!
Hexx evolved from a heavy/power metal band to a more aggressive death/thrash metal sound by 1988. What made you go into that direction?
Three things; one was the difficulty we were having finding and keeping lead singer/front man types. The second was that was the way the music scene was in the San Francisco bay area at that time..we felt that if wanted to keep being relevant and keep doing shows, we had to become faster and heaver to compete with all the other bands playing in the clubs in the bay area.
The third was just out of pure frustration about how things were going for us. We got no tour support from Shrapnel records at all! By the time we recorded Quest for Sanity we were all pretty pissed off and it just naturally manifested itself in our songwriting and musical style. When you listen to those death metal records of Hexx you are hearing our frustrations and fury recorded!!
Morbid Reality (1991)
The Bay Area thrash metal-scene in San Francisco was boiling in the mid 80's. How was it to be a part of that era? You must have gigged with almost all great bands from the area?
Yeah, it was really something. We played the key stone circuit, Berkeley, SF and Palo Alto, Wolfgang's heavy metal Mondays The Old Waldorf etc.... and of course Ruthie's inn! And a bunch of other places I can't remember right now.
We did gigs with Death Angel, Sadus, Autopsy ,Coroner, Destruction, Cro Mags, Dark Angel, Quiet Riot, Dio, Lita Ford and lots of other bands I am sure I am forgetting. Those were great times!
Your albums was all released under different record labels. What was the reason for that? Didn't they support you well enough?
Some supported us better than others but I think it was also having to do with the way our style evolved.
Did your albums sell well back in the days?
I don't think they did that well, maybe four or five thousand copies per release for Europe and about the same for the states. Not enough sales for us to make any money. Just enough for the record labels to recoup there costs if we were lucky.
Why did Hexx disband?
After we released Morbid Reality on Century Media records, about a year later they chose not to exercise there option to do a follow up record. We were all ready with a brand new batch of songs but by then the whole metal thing had run it's course and Grunge rock was coming in and we did not want to play that so we decided to stop for a while, like 20 - 25 years!
What have you been up to all these years? Were you still involved in the music business or what?
Yes, bassist Bill Peterson and myself along with John Marshall of Metal Church started a kind of hopped up rock a billy band called the Tombstones. We released two albums and recorded a third. That John Marshall is still mixing down to this day!
After that I joined up with a psycho-billy band called the Hellbillys, recorded and released five or six records and toured in Europe three times as well as some here in the states. I still perform with them on occasion. You can find the Hellbillys online if you want to check it out, our last album, Blood Trilogy volume two was pretty fast and brutal!
Probably when the Hellbillys headlined the House of Blues in Anaheim and in Hollywood! After Hexx plays the Keep it True festival in Germany at the end of this month.....I am sure that will be the highlight of my career!!!
What's your plans for the near future?
We are hoping to get all our old records re released and hopefully be invited to play some more gigs and festivals!
Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or so?
Yeah, one time when Hexx was on tour in the states to support the Morbid Reality release and our tour manager from Century media got a hold of us just in time before we drove into Arkansas for our next gig. He said thank god I caught you in time, whatever you do DO NOT GO TO THE GIG IN ARKANSAS!!!!
The whole town is waiting there for you with pitch forks and torches to drive you out of town and the sheriff there wants to arrest all of you!! It turns out that the local church group got a hold of one of our albums and did not like the lyrics and or record cover or something.
So we sure dodged a bullet there didn't we!
Any last words for our readers?
Yeah, I just want to thanks all the fans and people that have written to us and supported Hexx in it various forms and incarnations. It means a lot to us to think that there are still some people out there that are still interested in what the band is up to! We have two facebook pages if you want to see all the old pictures we have posted.
Check out the official Hexx facebook page and join up!
(15-04-2014)
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