Albums of Purgatory Interview Broken Hope's Sean Baxter

Thanks for the interview

AoP: Firstly, hows the new album coming on?

SB: The album is coming along fine.  As of right now, the only thing needed to complete the record are vocals.  Everything else has been laid down and is ready to go.  We do have to wait, however, for Brian to get back off of tour before we can put the finishing touches on the project.  Everything is looking to get done later this fall.

AoP: Has it been decided under which guise the album will be released? Does this new title mean the end of Broken Hope?

SB: The album will be released as an entirely different entity from Broken Hope.    We will be releasing our new name as the album gets closer to completion.   Unfortunately, it looks like this does put an end to Broken Hope.  During the recording of the would-be BH album, alot of internal, musical differences arose which, in turn, made certain members leave.  Brian and I are the only ones from Broken Hope in this new project and it doesn't look
like we will be working with any of the other x-band mates for a very long time.

AoP: How did you come to be involved in Broken Hope?

SB: I was in a band back in Omaha, Ne. and we hooked up with Brian's Qualitone studios to record a demo.  While we were up there, Brian and I got to talking and it turned out he was looking for musicians (a violinist, in
particular) for his side project Em Sinfonia.  As luck would have it, along with playing guitar and bass, I also played  violin.  So, I joined the band and not six months later, a North American tour came up for Broken Hope in support of their 'Grotesque Blessings' album.  At that time, their bass player Shaun Glass had recently left to persue his other band, Soil, full time.  I offered my bass playing for the tour and became their full time
bassist.

AoP: Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

SB: My first gig with BH was somewhere in Portland, Oregon.  I was sick as hell from the trip up there and the venue was packed.  So, here I am headbanging, my head about to explode with snot flying out of my nose, in a packed house, and stage lights burning the shit out of me...it was great!!  The show went off really well and the crowd enjoyed it.   It was one hell of a "first show."

AoP: Who are your musical influences?

SB: I was brought up with classical music and to this day still listen to it.  I like to think I have an appreciation for all kinds of music (as long as it doesn't suck), but I really only listen to classical and metal.  Major metal influences of mine would be Megadeth, Carcass, In Flames, Iron Maiden, Sinister, and Arch Enemy...(in no specific order)

AoP: What are your favourite Broken Hope tracks?

SB: My all-time favorite BH tracks would have to be (again in no order), Wolf Among Sheep,   Siamese Screams, Gorehog, Skin Is In, and, of course, Swamped In Gore.

AoP: What are your favourite all time songs?

SB: That's hard man.  To list a few:
Heartwork - Carcass, Inquisition (Burn With ME) - Morbid Angel, S.Y.L. -
Strapping Young Lad, and Art of the Damned - Sinister

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

SB: Ha!  I think it was the Beach Boys Greatest Hits!!!  How fucking metal is
that?!

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

SB: My dream band, huh?  That's a hard question.  I think everybody is pretty well lined up with who they work best with.  But, if I had to choose, it would probably include Eric Rutan, either of the Ammott brothers, Shagrath
and Nicholas of Dimmu Borgir, and Alex Webster.  Of course, I'd have to find my in their too!! ha ha ha.

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

SB: I think that metal is growing again.  Just recently it seems that heavier music has come back to the forground of the music scene.  It is a cycle, one that happens over and over again.  I see these "nu metal" (whatever the hell
that means) bands like Slipknot and Mudvayne bringing heavy music back into the mainstream just like the 80's hair bands did.  And just like in the early 90's, I forsee the real heavy/death/black metal bands making another
huge leap in popularity.  It's already happening.  Dimmu Borgir is on a sold out AMERICAN tour right now.  That's fucking great! As far as music in general goes, we are always going to have to put up with teen hip-hop and top 40 bullshit.  It does seem to have gotten alot worse in the past couple of years though, hasn't it?  I think the general public of music listeners, especially in America, are plain retarded, and the major music corporations are capatilizing on that fact.  We, as responsible metal heads, just have to know when to turn the radio station, and when to just put a cd in the god damn cd player!!

AoP: Do you have any funny stories about the band your willing to share with us?

SB: I wouldn't know where to begin!  Here's one:  on our last european tour, we decided to make a home movie.  We turned our bus into a "Galactic Battle Cruiser" and proceeded to act out a war between the humans (Broken Hope) and the aliens (our Dutch friends in Sever Torture), with a couple guest appearances by the boys of Macabre.  Sounds pretty damn retarded, doesn't it?  Needless to say, we were all pretty damn drunk, so you can imagine what kind of chaos we created!!

AoP: and finally what do you see in the future after the release of "Flesh Mechanic"?

SB: Hopefully with the release of "Flesh Mechanic," people will like it and we will tour in support of it.  In this business, I've found you can't really look too far into the future because you never know what may be around the
next corner!!  But, I do expect this album to do well, so hopefully we'll see all our friends again out on the road.

AoP: Thanks for your time and good luck

SB: Thank you and keep it brutal!!