Hinder: “When it feels like it’s just a job it’s time to quit but, right now, we’re having fun with it.”

After more than two decades in the rock scene, multi-platinum band Hinder is charging into a new chapter armed with their seventh studio album, Back to Life.

Fueled by the energy and anthemic hooks of the album’s first single, “Bring Me Back to Life,” the Oklahoma City-based quartet has found themselves reignited creatively. Maintaining that momentum following the release of the album, and a year which saw them playing over 100 shows, the American rockers are now about to hit the road again for more extensive touring.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with drummer Cody Hanson to talk about the exact moment that creative spark returned, keeping things fresh after twenty years in the business and what the future holds in store for Hinder.

As a founding member of the band, did you ever think you’d be talking about your seventh album?

“Not when we first started. It’s hard to imagine doing any job for 20 years or, in our case, plus. It’s over 20 years now for us, if you know, count the time before we signed our record deal. There was a time when we had a seventh album already written, but decided that we weren’t happy with it so we just left it on the hard drive, and then at that point decided that we weren’t gonna do any music.

There have been times where I thought we’d do a seventh album, and then I thought we wouldn’t do a seventh album, and now we’re back here.”

The album title Back to Life. Tying that in with what you mentioned about the previously shelved album, does this feel like a reignited Hinder on this record? How did it feel going into recording this album?

“It was good once we got going. We weren’t sure how it was going to go, but honestly, it was the song ‘Bring Me Back to Life’ that jump-started us and inspired us to go ahead and move forward with a full record. It was a cool experience because we wrote a bunch of new songs for it, but we also had the chance to go back through our catalogue and check out songs that we had written for other projects or were just messing around or that we had hoped for sync licenses or something like that.

We got to go back and check out a lot of songs that we’d written in the past and reimagine them as Hinder songs. That was pretty fun to do to take some of these songs that were a little bit more alternative leaning or pop leaning and bring them back into the rock realm a little bit.”

Comparing this album to the last album, what felt different?

“On the last one, The Reign, we were focused on trying to make it a heavier, darker rock record. We were doing some things that were a little more outside the box. The songwriting part and the song structures…we were experimenting a little more.

On this one, I feel like the songwriting and the structures are a little more straightforward. We’re able to play with production elements a little more. We were a little less concerned with the entire thing being some dark, heavy rock record, and we just wanted to make the songs the best that they could be, no matter what.”

“It was the song ‘Bring Me Back to Life’ that really jumpstarted us and inspired us to go ahead and move forward with a full record. ”

Do you think part of that attitude to the writing process goes back to what you said about reimagining old songs and having a bit of fun with your music again?

“Yes, it was a lot of fun. It’s always cool to revisit stuff and bring it back to… It’s kind of hard to explain, but you’re almost bringing the structures, from a songwriting standpoint, back to the basics. Even when they were written a different way, you’re trimming the fat and making them straight down the middle, then you go back and make them interesting on the production side. Producing songs like that is a lot of fun. You get to get creative, play with different sounds and learn different elements from different genres of music. That’s a lot of fun for us.”

Looking back at the whole process. What have you learned about Hinder as a band?

“I don’t know that I could say we necessarily learned anything about ourselves. The process was pretty straightforward, like it always is. Marshall and I have been writing and recording together for so long that it is second nature for us. The two of us come in and get the bulk of the work knocked out fairly quickly.

I really enjoy the mixing and the mastering. Polishing the songs off to make ’em sound really good and as big as you can get ’em. We were on our own through the process. There weren’t any outside influences or factors. There wasn’t a label involved at the time when we were making it. It was cool to do it all on our own for once.

We did have a brief moment where we thought we were going to sign with another label, and that was attached to kind of like a production deal, so we did go out to LA and try to record a few songs out there with another producer. It was okay, but it didn’t feel quite finished. We left some of these parts open because we thought that they were going to want to contribute something to the songs.

In doing that, we felt like it wasn’t well thought out in a couple of spots, so it was cool to come back home, set those versions aside and rework ’em how we would do it ourselves. In that sense, the one thing that we did learn is that we know what we’re doing sometimes. We’re always happier with the end product when it’s us in the room handling it.”

V13 – MagazineCover – Issue99 – Hinder

You’d gone through the process with the last set of songs and decided to scrap them. What conversations did you have before you started this record?

“The one thing that we wanted to accomplish is to… we’re a rock band and we know that. It’s not like we don’t want to be a rock band, but we also don’t want to do the same thing over and over and over again. We want to show that we can write songs outside of the active rock realm and still keep that rock fan base intact, that fan base that we’ve had for so many years.

It’s tricky to write songs like that have maybe a little bit of pop and a little bit of country, but still keep them in the Hinder realm. It’s tricky, but it’s also fun and it’s cool to show people that we can write different types of music.”

You have name-checked ‘Back to Life’ as a particularly important song in this cycle of writing the album. Was there a moment there where it felt like it had reignited the fire?

“Absolutely. The day that we finished writing that song, we hadn’t even really finished the production. I think we felt like we remembered how to do this. We can do it. We’ve been discouraged a little bit from writing an entire album and not being happy with it and it had just been a long time so, that song coming out the way that it did, it felt special to us. It helped us. It gave us the confidence to jump off and finish an album.”

“We’re a rock band and we know that. It’s not like we don’t want to be a rock band, but we also don’t want to do the same thing over and over and over again.”

What do you think is so special about it that brought that magic back?

“When you write a song that you feel like people are going to relate to. Anytime you write a song that you think people are gonna hear it and go, ‘Oh my God, that’s me. I can relate to that…’, that feels good. You never know for sure until you put it out, but that song just has that lyrical hook that I think a lot of people are going to relate to. It’s catchy and it’s fun and it’s vibrant and that’s pretty cool.”

You’ve talked about how, sometimes, you feel like you’re running out of ideas or, when you’re writing, it’s difficult to write new things. A lot of bands have said something similar in that it’s hard to keep it fresh after 20 or 30 years. How do you snap yourself out of that?

“In our case, we wrote a song about that. We wrote a song about not having anything to say and being uninspired, and in that process, we became inspired again. Another theme that people will find throughout the album is that Marshall was going through a really difficult period and had just gotten out of a relationship of like 15 years so, a lot of it was inspired by his sadness and his grief.

Us being in the room together, I got to add some different elements to it that almost made it very storyteller-like. It’s interesting to sit in a room when somebody’s going through something because you want them to pour their heart out, you want to add to it, but you don’t want to disrupt that.

It’s a very delicate balance there, but we’ve been doing it for so long, we’ve been writing and recording together for 15+ years, I think that we know how to do it.”

Compared to writing the album, which you scrapped, was the mood in the band different?

“Honestly, I don’t think so. We stay pretty tight. We’re good friends and we’re always open and honest with each other. Blower (Joe ‘Blower’ Garvey) and Mike, trust us in our songwriting and production abilities. I don’t know how else to say it, but there’s a lot of trust involved so I think our relationships have been pretty strong throughout the year,s and I think that’s why we’re still here.”

Even though you’re two decades into your career now, the title of the album Back to Life, it feels like this is a fresh start for the band. Is that the case?

“I certainly hope it is. We always said that once this thing stops being fun, then we’re done. When it feels like it’s just a job, it’s time to quit, but right now, like I said, we’re having fun with it. It feels good to have people hear the new music and give us such positive reactions. As long as that continues, we’re gonna keep going.”

What’s the reaction been from fans?

“It’s been great. It’s been more positive than we expected. There’s a lot of hate out there on the internet these days, so to even find positivity seems difficult. The crowds have been great. We’ve been playing to full rooms, and to watch people singing lyrics to brand new songs is an amazing feeling.”

Hinder ‘Back to Life’ Album Artwork

Does that make you think, what were we worried about?

“It does. It hasn’t always been like that. Every band has its ups and downs, so being on the back of one of the ups feels great. It feels like we’re just starting again, but we’re not so green, we have everything in place and this seems like the team’s marching forward at the same pace, and that’s great.”

Going back to what you said about messing around with old songs, what’s that like playing them live again?

“Those songs are the reason that people come to the shows. For the most part, those are the songs that they want to hear, so we’ve left them intact. It’s the songs that we’ve had sitting on the hard drive for five years or more that we’d written for other projects that we were able to bring in and reimagine, and that was a lot of fun.

We’ve been playing those old ones for so long. We’ve had the same set list for so long that bringing this new stuff in, it feels a little challenging at times, especially when you’re trying to introduce a new production. We handle all that ourselves as well, so it’s challenging, but it’s fun.”

“We always said that once this thing stops being fun, then we’re done. When it feels like it’s just a job, it’s time to quit.”

Where do you see the story going from here?

“The only thing you can hope for is to continue to grow, continue to keep the fans you have and continue to make new ones. Go out there and have a good time. As long as people show up to the shows and have a great time… as long as we see smiles on faces, that’s all we can hope for.”

Back To Life. It’s a new chapter for the band. What does it mean to you and Hinder?

“I feel like it’s almost a fresh start. I think we’re trying some new things sonically and, hopefully, that catches on and hopefully, it’ll give us the ability to continue on the path that we’re on now, which is trying to write the best songs that we can write no matter what they are.”

Tour Dates:

07/15 – Hopewell, VA – The Beacon Theatre
07/16 – Johnson City, TN – Capone’s
07/18 – La Porte, IN – La Porte Civic Auditorium
07/19 – East Troy, WI – Summer of ‘99 And Beyond Music Fest
07/20 – St. Louis, MO – The Hawthorn
07/22 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
07/24 – Menahga, MN – Mid-Summer Music Fest
07/25 – Sioux Falls, SD – The District
07/26 – Sioux City, IA – Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
07/28 – Billings, MT – Pub Station
07/30 – Rock Springs, WY – Sweetwater County Fair
08/01 – Omaha, NE – Barnato
08/02 – Taylorsville, IL – South Fork Music & Mud Festival
08/08 – Sturgis, SD – Sturgis Buffalo Chip
08/23 – Mount Pleasant, MI – Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort
09/13 – Marion Center, PA – Rayne Drop Inn II
09/21 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life Festival
10/04 – Sparks, NV – Nugget Casino Resort
10/05 – Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival

Hinder Summer Tour 2025 Artwork