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 Expect Oklahoma rockers Hinder to party like rockstars when they play Southern California later this week--and not just because they’re touring with Nickelback.
Known as much for their extreme behavior as their hit singles “Get Stoned,” “Use Me” and “Without You,” the men of Hinder definitely know how to take it to the limit, which, of course, is the name of their second album released late last year. Still on the road promoting their sophomore effort, Hinder joins Nickelback, Papa Roach and Saving Able as part of Nickelback’s Dark Horse Tour, stopping by the Irvine Meadows/Verizon Wirelesss Amphitheater in Irvine Sept. 3 and the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista Sept. 5.
“We’ll be playing for about 40 minutes, so we’ll get in eight songs, though we’ll try to pack in nine,” said Hinder’s guitarist, Joe “Blower” Garvey. “It’ll be a rockin’ set, though, as we’ll try to weed out the few ballads. But girls love them, so it’s difficult.”
Despite the fact that the band’s breakthrough hit was the power ballad “Lips of an Angel,” Blower admitted he’s not a very romantic guy in real life.
“I’m just not creative enough,” he said. “I’m sort of a movie and dinner kind of guy. But I’m not really sure I want to settle down yet; I’d rather just try to be nice and romantic with our fans backstage (laughs).”
 When asked if the fact that Hinder front man Austin Winkler is no longer on the market effected the band’s wild party ways backstage (Winkler married actress-model Jami Miller, who appeared in the band’s music video for “Born to Be Wild,” during the summer of 2008), Blower admitted that Winkler had “calmed down” a bit since saying “I do,” but that the rest of the band--which includes drummer Cody Hanson, guitarist Mark King and bassist Mike Rodden--does their best to make up for Winkler’s tame ways whenever his wife’s around.
“The sleeping arrangements have changed,” Blower stated, “but when his wife’s not on tour, Austin’s back to his usual self.”
Even though the boys of Hinder are always looking for a good time, that doesn’t mean they don’t take their career seriously.
“Our music--that’s serious,” Blower said. “Everything else, though, is a party.”
Hinder recently used that carefree mentality to help entertain the troops, something Blower said is the least the band can do.
 “We always try to give back a little bit and help them keep their minds off what they’ve been doing,” he said. “But we’re still our crazy, dumb selves.”
When asked what’s the craziest thing he’s done lately, Blower replied that he got a certain body part pierced recently, but discovered since then that it’s “hard to keep clean.”
“That had to be the most extreme, jackass thing I’ve ever done,” Blower said with a laugh. “I don’t know where I’ll go from there.”
While there’s no doubt Hinder’s enjoying their fame and fortune (“It definitely doesn’t suck to be us right now,” Blower said with a laugh), deep inside, Blower insisted they’re still the same easy-going guys from Oklahoma City they always were. For while their lives may seem wild and extravagant when they’re onstage or in the public eye--for example, the band’s CD release party for Take It to the Limit, which took place in the Hugh Hefner Suite at the Palms in Las Vegas last year, came complete with naked models roaming around passing out shots; how rockstar is that?!--when they’re on the road traveling from gig to gig or simply by themselves, Blower said they’re still just old-fashioned Oklahoma boys at heart.
“I don’t bring too much on the road ’cause I’ll probably lose it, so I tend to keep things that are really important to me back home,” Blower replied when asked about what reminds him of home when he’s on tour. “But the rings on my hand, they’re from Oklahoma, so I’ll always look at them and they’ll remind me of home. Plus, the clothes I wear are still the same clothes I had, so they remind me of where I come from, too.”
 Having spent the majority of 2009 on the road and not in a studio, fans may wonder when Hinder plans on releasing their next album. Blower said that, even though the band’s been busy touring this year, they have been writing some new material, and that they hope to get back in the studio as early as December or January to work on their third CD. Right now, though, their main goal is to keep on touring, and the band is currently discussing the possibility of going overseas once their tour with Nickelback comes to an end in mid-September.
As for what they’ve learned on the road this year traveling with everyone from Nickelback to Mötley Crüe during their Saints of Los Angeles Tour, not surprisingly, Blower said the most important lesson learned came from the original bad boys of rock--even though they are, as Blower put it, “tame now.”
“I learned that we have to put in a lot of hard work and dedication, and that we just have to keep putting out new songs,” Blower concluded. “But what’s more important than all of that was just seeing how cool they (Mötley Crüe) still are. A lot of other bands [who achieve that level of fame] are assholes, but they haven’t let success go to their heads. It’s cool to see that kind of attitude.”
But for Blower and the rest of the fun-loving, laid-back guys of Hinder, they don’t have to be in the presence of the Crüe to see that kind of attitude--they just have to look in a mirror.
Hinder performs as part of Nickelback’s Dark Horse Tour Thurs., Sept. 3 at the Irvine Meadows/Verizon Wirelesss Amphitheater in Irvine and Sat., Sept. 5 at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista. Both shows start at 6 p.m. For tickets, visit Ticketmaster.com.
For more on Hinder, visit the band's official Web site, and check out OhMiBod to find out how women can take the Hinder concert experience to a whole new level with the release of Hinder VIP. Sorry--adults only.
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