This officially marks my first in-person band interview for Pivotal Rage!  Unfortunately, from the moment I stepped foot into the venue, I experienced problems with the extremely lame security guards that are employed by the House of Blues in Chicago.  Matter of fact, when I tried asking security about Hate Eternal’s whereabouts to conduct my interview, they told me the band had left!  I knew that wasn’t true because I saw them watching Chimaira from the balcony just minutes ago.  Luckily, I was still able to work around security and briefly catch Erik Rutan of Hate Eternal.  After all, I didn’t want to give up my first interview without a fight.  At the time of the interview, Erik Rutan and Hate Eternal were on the Jagermeister tour with God Forbid, Arch Enemy, and Chimaira.  Hate Eternal are currently supporting their latest release, I, Monarch.

Dimple Thakkar:  First of all, how are you doing and how’s the road treating you so far?

Erik Rutan:  I’m doing great; the road is treating us awesome.

Any thoughts on tonight’s show?

It went good, but it was kind of early.  I don’t ever like to play at 6 o’ clock, a lot of people ended up missing us, but it was still good, though.

Now this is just a heads up before we go further:  I have a great passion for music business and how bands progress from nothing to something.  So please forgive me if a lot of my questions relate to these topics.

But based on that, I was wondering, overall, how has Earache Records been accommodating the band’s needs?

They’ve done a good job, but it could always be better, I think.  I would really like more exposure and better distribution.  Our distribution is still good and Earache have always been behind us a 100% with the means that they have.

Obviously, there are times when you want something done right, you gotta’ do it yourself.  So how challenging, if it all, is it to execute certain tasks to keep the band going?

They’re all tough.  I write the lyrics for the band and that’s a tough task.  I sing and play guitar and that makes things even more challenging.  I also record the records at my studio, so I’m involved in almost every aspect of the business.  Sometimes it’s a lot to handle to run the band.

Can you tell us about a time you experienced a difficult challenge for the band and how you overcame that obstacle?

There’s never a time I can’t do something because I’m too positive about things when it comes to this band.  I always try to work hard and get good results.  I don’t try to have any unrealistic expectations and try to stay down to earth.

Things seem to be working out well with the current line-up in Hate Eternal, but do you think it’s an advantage or a disadvantage to have 3 members in the band?  And why?

Definitely an advantage!  Oh man [laughs].  The less people in the band, the less problems you have with chemistry.  If you think about it, if there are 3 guys in the car, you’re less likely to get into an argument.  I’ve been in a band with 3, 4, and 5 guys – 3 is by far the easiest!  By default….it’s much simpler.

How about musically?

I would say musically it’s not as easy.  For me, I have a lot more responsibility on my mind, especially being the guitar player.  I’m a perfectionist and a work-a-holic.  I have a hard time taking vacations and breaks.  I did like 8 records this year in the studio and my own record in addition to all the touring, so yeah it’s very tough.  But I’m learning now, I’m getting it all down.

Are you ever looking to add more members to the group?

I don’t…[then we got interrupted by security at the House of Blues and never got this question answered and were told to hurry up].

Certainly, because of your current status, people find something about your music that makes them want to come out to the shows and get the albums.

So I’m wondering, when writing music, are you purely doing it for yourselves, or do you consider what a fan or a potential fan may experience from the music as well?

I consider it all.  I write what I feel and I am also thinking about what the fans might want to hear, like more solos and things like that, but when I’m writing it’s all based on how I’m feeling.  When I play on stage, I don’t think about playing or singing, I just do it.  I think about crazy things like, don’t drop your pick, or watch the pedal, you don’t want to pull out your cable [laughs].

Here’s a pretty broad question:  What do you think is the best thing a band can do while on tour?  And you can’t say showering either.  That one’s obvious.

Well, for us it’s been seeing the sites.  Like on this tour, we went to the Grand Canyon and all this shit I’ve never done before.  I’ve been touring for 15 years, and I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon.  If you’re touring, I say enjoy it because you’re privileged to be on tour.  I know it’s hard to see the sites, but definitely try.  It’s hard to tour, it’s not all fun and games, and it’s not a big party like everyone thinks it is.  You have to appreciate it and enjoy it because there are millions of people that would love to be in your position, that’s the way I look at it…

OK – I saw your profile on Myspace and noticed a photo of a van named Betsey with a caption that read “RIP”…..is there any interesting story you’d like to share in memory of Betsey?

Betsey crashed off of a highway in Mauston, WI from black ice and got totaled and the trailer came around hit the van and I got hit in my head while I was sleeping and I chipped my vertebrae and got whiplash and all kinds of shit.  Those were some rough times, so when I think about that time I think well, if I can overcome that type of adversity, I can overcome anything.  My whole arm was numb for like 2 months because my nerves were all fucked up.  We weren’t even going very fast, it could have been much worse.  We did have good times in that van before its demise, though.

If there are any changes you would like to see in the realm of extreme music, what would that change be and why?

Well I would expand extreme music and have it reach more people.  That’s why I’m on this tour, to try to expand our audience.  We want to get other people interested in this type of music.

Do you feel that extreme music is currently doing well?  What are some of the problems or improvements that you’ve noticed as of late?

I do, I think that extreme music is doing very well.  When I listen to today’s music there’s so much mixture of different types of music.  Everything is a hybrid now and metal is a melting pot of all these genres.

Ok, let’s have a little fun.  Would you like to mention anything exciting or scandalous about bands you’ve toured with or are currently touring with?  You know, something in good fun that can make the readers laugh…

[thinking about it for a while]  No comment [laughs]!  What goes on tour, stays on tour, how about that!  I’ll get in trouble [laughs].  I can’t break “the code!”

Alright back to band related-stuff then, can you tell me a little about the album artwork on I, Monarch and what it means.

That was Paul Romano who came up with the artwork.  He did Mastadon and The Red Chord and all this other stuff.  He got the music and lyrics before he even started listening to the album.  The whole time he was doing the art so he could get a feeling of what it was all about.  He came up with the concept based on the duality of man, which was one of my lyrics for one of the songs, but he didn’t even know it, and just came up with the concept which was really interesting.  I’ll have him do all the artwork from now on, I just connected with him, you know.  We had very tradition death metal records, but we want to become more of a hybrid death metal band and try to expand and do it musically, artistically, and every way we can.

With your live show, ultimately, what impression do you want to leave on the crowd?

I want people to say, “that’s the most intense thing I’ve ever seen” and we have been hearing that from a lot of people, but then there are a lot of people that think we suck [laughs], but that’s ok because there’s always going to be people that think you suck.

Well, looks like security is getting pretty pissed [laughs], I guess we’ll wrap it up now.  I just want to thank you for your time and the interview.

No problem!  Thank you.