Can you tell us about the origin of the band name, a history of the band and a little bit about the various members?
The band was founded in Arlington, Texas in 2003 by Blake Kincaid and Jared Evans. They were friends in high school and they actually met playing the tuba. We were on our way to a show and hadn’t picked a band name yet, so when they asked us for a band name I looked around the room until I saw it on a quote on a t-shirt Jared was wearing. And it stuck with us. We cycled through several drummers. The joke was that every show we played had a different drummer. We were headlining a show in Fort Worth and our drummer quit at the last minute. Jared brought in Brandon Keebler in 2007. He killed it in the audition, like absolutely blew us out of the water. He learned the whole set in one day, so we brought him in permanently. He introduced us to Chris Bell who started out as another guitarist but is our current bass player. We did our first studio album “Hard to Let Go” in 2008. We went on tour with it briefly. Jared left the band in 2011. We did an EP called “Immunized” in 2010. Our next studio album “Baked in Alaska” came out in 2016. Then we had three more back-to-back. A double LP “My Monkey, My Circus” in 2021, “Haunting Hominies” in 2022, and “Multifaceic” in 2023. We’re mostly a studio band now.
Are you all from the same area? How did you get together as a band?
We all went to school in Mansfield, Texas. We were all in the marching band together in high school. It just kind of worked out. The Dallas area is home to our fan base. Blake lives in Cincinnati now, so our challenges of later still finding ways to get together and make music even from a thousand miles away.
Who are your favourite artists/bands and how have they influenced your own sound?
We initially bonded over our love of grunge music. It kind of made us one of the last of the post-grunge era rock bands probably. We found that all of us knew Nirvana songs and we could cover them pretty well. I would say Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Screaming Trees, Aerosmith, Marilyn Manson. All of those bands we grew up with. Yet we also had an affinity for the classics. Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Paul Simon, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, RATT.
Did you always have the ambition to be a musician and in a band or did you originally have other plans?
Brandon is the only one who has really made a career out of it. He does sound engineering, live performances, lighting, and studio work. His dad was also in a rock band so he was kind of born into it. Blake and Chris are teachers. Chris has another band called Playtime Rabbit. Brandon plays with several bands, After a Night of Unsettling Dreams being one of them. Social Hazard is mostly Blake’s child but he’s been playing music his whole life. It’s just been unrealistic to try to make music the only thing. I’m sure on some level we all wish that one of our songs would blow up and we could all quit our day jobs and rock full time. It’s just unlikely. No one has heard from Jared in years, so we don’t really know what he’s doing, but I don’t think makes music anymore.
What songs or albums are on your current playlist?
The real question is which one? We’ve all got playlists for days. I post mine to the Spotify page. Since it’s the Metal Asylum your listeners might appreciate some of the heavier ones. Facelift – Alice in Chains. Holywood – Marilyn Manson. Out of the Cellar – RATT, Aerosmith – 9 Lives, Ugly Mustard, Godsmack, Hole. These albums have been with me for most of my life now. Who is on my playlist? Rock bands your dad was listening to. Maybe even your grandparents at this point. I don’t believe that music has a fixed time period. Hundreds of years of music are at your fingertips now. Current is whatever you’re listening to, and if it’s new to you, it’s new. I do try to keep a list of about 100 new or “undiscovered” artists that we sound like.
Do you sing in the shower?
Yes. True story. I actually record my vocal tracks in the shower sometimes too. I have a 50-foot cable that I drag from the studio into the bathtub. The acoustics really are pretty good in there for some songs.
Do you have any plans for the band for this year and into next year?
We’ve put out 3 albums in 3 years. That was a whole lot of plans. Now I feel like we kind of spent too much time making music and not enough time sharing it. I guess our plan is to get the message out. We’ve got such an eclectic mix of songs it’s hard to cultivate a fan base that appreciates everything, so the plan is to just keep trucking along like we always have been.
Do you currently have any new songs/albums ready to be released?
We just released the “Multifaceic” album in August. We probably won’t release anything new until at least this time next year. I’m not really a fan of the always-be-releasing-a-single phase that music is going through right now. At this point, we have 60 songs in our discography. If we had released them all individually it would have been a crazy mess.
If you could play at any venue in the world where would you choose?
Shea Stadium! Except it doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe Woodstock?
Do you have a favourite album? If so, what is it?
It’s definitely Facelift – Alice in Chains. I know I’ve dropped it like three times now. To be honest, I haven’t even listened to it in years. It’s not even my favorite to listen to. It was just very influential.
Do you have any guilty pleasure songs/albums?
The song “Lemon Tree” by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Somehow it was my most listened-to track of 2020. I would say most people find that unexpected. My other one is the band Flick.
If you were putting together the greatest show on earth, who would be playing?
Layne Staley, Alice Cooper, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, Mark Lanegan, Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson, Courtney Love, Phil Colins, Matchbox Twenty. A lot of ghosts would be attending for sure.
Can you remember the first album you bought with your own money? What was it and do you still have it?
The first record I ever bought was Rick James – Street Songs. I wore out the vinyl playing Super Freak over and over again. I still have it.
As your fans will be reading this, is there any message you would like to send out to them?
Thank you for listening. Thank you for having a diverse musical palette. Thank you for skipping the songs you don’t like to find the ones you do. Thank you for coming out to the shows and believing in us all these years. Thank you for spending your hard-earned money. It’s truly been an amazing ride and we can’t wait to continue the journey with you. Let us know who you are. We love to hear from the fans.
Finally, let us know all your social media sites so your fans, old and new, can find and follow/like you!
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSWDui6-L26b5Tg8yKGCL6w
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/5i0eF8R20shSdjECNKOcJY?si=JXWXuAhuTP6EZVhcZeMuCw
Twitter – https://twitter.com/hazard_social
Tik Tok – https://www.tiktok.com/@socialhazardband
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/socialhazardband/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/socialhazardband/
Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/us/artist/social-hazard/291473646
Itunes – https://music.apple.com/us/artist/social-hazard/291473646
We, at The Metal Asylum, would like to thank you for your time. Is there is anything further that you would like to add?
Thank you for sharing! You’re amazing.
This interview is the property of The Metal Asylum