Some brothers and sisters ride bikes together, others build snow forts, but the Hales played Rock-n-Roll. Growing up surrounded by music, Lzzy Hale and her younger brother, Arejay Hale, seemed to find something extraordinary when they began playing music together. Little did they know that decades later, they would become the leaders of the massively successful Rock band Halestorm.
What dreams are made of, with Arejay Hale behind the drum kit and Lzzy Hale on lead vocals, Halestorm took a definitive shape with the addition of Guitarist Joe Hottinger and Bassist Josh Smith over twenty years ago. Since then, topping charts with each album they have released between 2009’s self-titled debut and 2022’s Back from the Dead, Halestorm has consistently won a Grammy, toured the world, and solidified its place among the elite in American Rock-n-Roll
Pushing themselves with each passing year, now in 2025, they present listeners with an intense Everest. Set for release on August 8, 2025, Everest finds Halestorm digging deep, and what they find might seriously surprise you. Excited to share the experience of Everest, Arejay Hale sat down to talk about it all, look back on the band’s successes, express the importance of positivity, and more.
Cryptic Rock – Music is something you and Lzzy have been passionate about since you were very young. You built that into the significant success that is Halestorm. Now nearly twenty years since your major label debut, how would you describe the journey for Halestorm?
Arejay Hale – It’s been a nice, slow, and steady journey. I feel like our mentality and our end goal as a band isn’t to blow up and have an overnight success. I feel like we’ve always been comfortable on a nice, slow, and steady trajectory moving up. We enjoy the journey and love doing it.
Honestly, our only goal in life was to be able to do this for a living and to do what we love, while having our bills paid. (Laughs) That’s basically what we got. Every day, we’re so thankful that we get to keep on doing this and that enough people are with us on the ride.
Cryptic Rock – And the band has done a fantastic job of being consistent. As you said, it has been a very steady climb. There has not been a massive explosion. Some bands explode and fizzle out quickly. Halestorm has done a fine job of making each album different.
Arejay Hale – Every time we go into the studio for a new album, we have three more years of experience touring and making a record. It becomes a little more cohesive every time. I think we become more confident every time we enter the studio. We feel like, “Okay. I think we can take this record up a notch from the last one.”
Cryptic Rock – Right. As stated, each album is a bit different. That is what is exciting about the music: you have not done the same thing over and over.
Arejay Hale – I feel like we’re the kind of band that doesn’t like to get too comfortable. I feel like when things start feeling comfortable and routine, it’s time to shake things up. I think we thrive a lot better when we’re not in our comfort zone and we’re trying new things and experimenting. It also keeps it fresh and exciting.
Cryptic Rock – Another notable aspect of Halestorm is that, for the most part, the band has maintained the same lineup of players since achieving commercial success over the past twenty years. It has been you, Lzzy, Joe Hottinger, and Josh Smith. Many bands typically have moving parts, but you have kept it together. What do you attribute that to?
Arejay Hale – We definitely noticed that. It’s a weird anomaly for a band to be the same consistent for players since basically the beginning. Lzzy and I had already been doing Halestorm for six years or so before and had gone through a lot of different band member changes until finally, we landed on Joe and Josh.
I think it just took finding two other people who had the same mentality that Lzzy and I had. We had tunnel vision. We just wanted to make this band work, and we just wanted to do it. It was also challenging to find other players with the same mentality. Joe and Josh fit us perfectly like a glove. It could be the fact that we have that family dynamic established. Lzzy and I are literally family. (Laugh) Luckily, with Joe and Josh, it felt like we found our long-lost brothers. Were we all siblings in a past life? I don’t know.
At this point, now that we’ve been together for over 20 years, I think for all four of us, it’s really hard to differentiate who my actual blood relative is and who’s my extended sibling. It feels like all four of us are just four siblings. We’re one big, hilariously dysfunctional yet functional circus of a family. (Laughs)
Cryptic Rock – That connection shines through in the band’s music and their live performances. You mentioned how you and Lzzy worked on Halestorm six years before welcoming in Joe and Josh. Working with a sibling can be a varied experience. It does not always work well. Does working with your sibling give you more of a comfort zone to be honest with each other?
Aerjay Hale – I know a lot of sibling bands that don’t get along anymore. I mean, I think I’m not out of turn by saying Oasis might be one of the most publicly sibling bands that are just constantly fighting and arguing. I hear stories from many other sibling bands, and they’re continually in constant arguments.
I think Lzzy and I don’t have the energy to fight with each other over little things. It’s weird how she and I have always gotten along so well. And you’re right; I think it just comes from being brutally honest and open in our communication with each other. If something’s bothering one of us, we’ll talk about it.
I’m the same way with my wife. I’ve been with my wife for five years, and we have never had a fight, which is so bizarre. I think it takes really striving to be the kind of person who isn’t reactive. I often discuss this topic because I’m also a strong supporter of mental health advocacy groups. I’ve had a lot of conversations and conducted interviews on mental health. In my life, I learned a great life lesson about not being reactive but being more responsive as a person, and realizing that getting mad isn’t productive. It’s like the old adage, ‘you’ll attract more flies with honey than vinegar.’
Lizzy and I have always had a really good, open dialogue with each other because both of us have our own menu of mental disorders. (Laughs) I suppose the advantage is that we’re crazy enough to be doing this, love doing it, and are in a creative field.
I think that type of interaction, with any band or camp, starts at the top and trickles down. So, if she and I are able to work really well together, then it’s easier for Joe, Josh, and me, as well as Lzzy, to all work together because we’re all on the same page in that sense. It also trickles down to our crew, our management company, our label, our booking agent, and our business management. Everybody involved feeds off that energy. I think whatever energy you put out is the energy you’re going to get back. I think that’s been a huge advantage for us just by maintaining that type of attitude.
Cryptic Rock – That is a good attitude to have, not just for a band, but for life.
Arejay Hale – Absolutely. I am 100% a major psychology and neuroscience nerd. Not that I’m like really smart with it, but I just think it’s really fascinating. I think that applying myself to learn these things has really helped me to just be a better bandmate, a better co-writer, a better business partner, and, overall, a better partner to my wife. Hopefully, that will continue to help me in life.
Cryptic Rock – It certainly will. Halestorm has a hectic touring schedule in 2025, which includes dates in Europe. You did some headlining shows, but you also played with Iron Maiden. How has all the touring been going?
Arejay Hale – It’s been great! Touring has always been our main thing. We always love to be a live band. That has just been our first and foremost passion. That’s how we started. Then, later on, as you continue to work on writing songs, producing records, and making records, you pick up skills along the way. But our main starting point was always being a live band. That’s what got us signed in the first place. It’s what helped us establish our careers. That could also be why our trajectory has been so steady, because our mentality was like, “Let’s just get in front of audiences and let’s just do our thing. And hopefully, enough people will like it and follow along with us.” It’s great because it’s great to be confident on stage with your band. I trust my three bandmates with my life, and we all have to trust each other.
We’re all jumping out of a plane and hoping that we packed each other’s chutes correctly, as we like to say. That was how it was on this last tour, too. It was like, “Let’s go out there and do our thing and just hope and pray that the Iron Maiden crowds will like us.” And it worked. I was really surprised because Iron Maiden fans are incredibly loyal to the band. A lot of times, they’re just like, “Oh, why do you even have an opener?” But it was such an honor for them to ask us to open for them and play in front of their audience. The fact that their audience received us so well was just another little victory for us. We were thrilled about that and hoped that doing the tour with them would be enough for people to like it, so they would want to join the family and follow us along. Jump on the fun bus.
Cryptic Rock – That is wonderful to hear that Halestorm was received so well. Halestorm has a new album, titled Everest, set for release. The songs released thus far are all very different. It is raw, moody, and quite interesting. What inspired this new record?
Arejay Hale – This record was a different approach from any other record that we’ve done. Like I said earlier, when we made our first record, we weren’t really songwriters back then. But it was great because we got to work with a lot of great songwriters and write songs with them. It felt like attending songwriter school when you dive in and are with such a seasoned songwriter who knows how to grab amazing melodies and lyrics out of thin air and turn them into incredible songs. It was a driving force for us. We’re like, “Oh, God, someday I hope that we can get to the point where we can just get into a room and just create amazing songs like this.” With every album cycle, we get a little bit more experienced and a little bit more confident.
With Everest, we just felt like we’re at the point now where we’re confident enough that we can go into a room and just start writing together and start making music. That was a bit of a beta test to see if we could do it. From the very first day we linked up with Dave Cobb in Savannah, it was a testing ground to see how we got along with them and how the vibes meshed. Right away, we went into this amazing house studio that he had built in Savannah and started jamming together.
I think we finished “Darkness Always Wins” on the first or second day. And we’re like, “Wow, this is like so unlike anything that we’ve ever released before.” But at the same time, it reminded us so much of the way that we used to write way back in the day, when it was just the four of us in my parents’ basement, just shooting ideas out and seeing what worked. However, the key difference is that we now have over 20 years of additional experience. That was another little confidence boost. It’s like, “Oh, God, if we can create that song with just you know us and Dave and his songwriting friend, Aaron, who was there helping us out. Who knows what else we can do?”
We basically took everything, all the rules, all the mold that we already established, and just threw it out the window and started from scratch, and just chased whatever the music, or I should say, followed wherever the music was taking us. We were chasing whatever got us excited in the moment. That was a really good, challenging thing for us to forget about: will this song fit on the record? Will it fit the sound? Does it make sense? Instead, it was: no, take all that out and just be present in the moment, focusing on the here and now.
I think going with that approach to making the record not only made this the most honest record, because I think that what you’re hearing on this record is the most genuine you’ve ever heard Halestorm, without thinking about all those other little details and focusing solely on the raw creative process. It also ended up becoming our most diverse record. Because let’s be honest, we have a really wide range of influences. We have a diverse listening diet when it comes to music that inspires us. Dave was the same way.
I feel like many people are the same way now, in terms of how we consume music. My wife’s a great example. She’ll listen to everything from Sabrina Carpenter to Slipknot. We just listened to everything in the car. And yeah, so that’s just kind of how it happened. It definitely made the song sequence challenging because there’s such a wide range of different flavors, feels, and sounds.
I like that personally. I like the fact that this record showcases a variety of different sides of us, because, after all, we’re all humans and we’re all complex. We all have different moods of the day and different things that make us who we are. I think that this record is just a snapshot of where we were mentally in that moment.
Cryptic Rock – It sounds like it was an inspiring experience. From what has been released thus far, it appears to be a fantastic album for fans to delve into. We have spoken about the past, present, and future of Halestorm. To reiterate, it is no small feat to have stayed together as long as you have and achieved the success you have had. Do you feel like the band is very flexible? It seems like you are open and willing to try new things. Do you think that is what contributes to longevity?
Arejay Hale – That’s a good point. I’ve never been asked that before. Now that you mentioned it, yes, that does seem like a good reason. I guess, because, yeah, we’re always up for a challenge.
Opening for Iron Maiden, for example, we were like, “I don’t know how this is going to work out, but let’s try it and see if it works.” A lot of little things like that have happened throughout our careers. We’ve opened up for a wide range of acts. We opened up for Eric Church with the Country crowd. That was way different from anything that we’d experienced, going from Eric Church to an Iron Maiden crowd, but we’re still just doing our thing.
I think it’s just because we like the challenge. We want to get out of our comfort zones. We also aim to broaden our audience. I would be totally up to open up for anybody. I’ll tour with Slipknot. I’ll tour with Sabrina Carpenter.
I think having that mentality helps. I also think it helps to just be genuine and honest with your sound. I always say to new artists, ‘Don’t try to chase trends.’ I tell them, “Don’t chase the radio. Don’t make music just for the sole purpose of trying to create something that you think will work or will go or take off. Make music that really connects with you.” I think that audiences can tell when an artist is truly feeling what they’re singing, playing, or writing, rather than if they’re doing it to try to get famous or something like that. That’s never been our mentality. I think it is probably a combination of a lot of those things.
Cryptic Rock – That is another positive outlook. You should follow the artistic inspiration.
Arejay Hale – I agree. I think rather than being anchored in your pre-existing sound and trying to form the creative process to fit that mold, I loved the approach of just letting the music do the talking. Then later worry about that stuff, and then later figure out how it’s all going to work together.
I think that Rock bands nowadays, such as Sleep Token, are making music that I love by taking the rules and throwing them out the window, doing their own thing. I think that makes it exciting, and it’s working. I feel that many people who listen to Rock music also have a broad appreciation for various styles and genres, as Rock itself is a broad term. It doesn’t have to fit into one particular mold. I guess you could say that for any music genre. That’s what makes it exciting for me, when a band can show a lot of different gears. It happened by accident with us from that approach. I’m really happy with how it turned out because it reminds me a lot of what those other bands that I love are also doing. It just makes it really exciting. If anything, it makes it very fun to play the songs live. We have been loving that to bits.
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