The Helmet Interview

"One woman from Imago Records gave me a blank check, and others were saying a million dollars!"

For many years the Minneapolis-based Amphetamine Reptile Records had been one of my favorite record labels. It had the underground bands like the Melvins, Cows, Killdozer, and God Bullies—in other words, the label was not afraid to go weird. But New York's Helmet was different: they were not the left-field noise artists the label had been associated with. Really, they were metalheads that just so happened to have crossover appeal. The riffs were strong, crunchy, and structured—they were outsiders, but who could not dislike them? And the band, led by Page Hamilton, had a clear and concise vision: they were going to make it big. And that they did. They went on to release Meantime and the rest is history.

But before that came their debut, the album that got them signed to AmRep. Strap It On was released in 1990 and it put Helmet's name, even if to only a few, into relevance. It was a mixture of hardcore punk and metal with elements of funk and noise. It took off where Black Flag ended in the '80s, ran alongside Nirvana in the '90s, and paved the way for new acts such as Power Trip in the 21st Century. Helmet had their fingers on the pulse.

Also, someone named "Chicken" is thanked on the credits of the record, so that had to have helped. "Oh, yeah. Chicken John. I worked with him at one of the many gigs I did in New York before the band took off, Hamilton recollected. "He played guitar with GG Allin and he drove bands around." Before Helmet broke big, Hamilton worked for a moving company. "We had one crappy van that was held together with chewing gum and wire and we would move million dollar pieces of Mark Kostabi art, apartments in the Bronx, and bands across venues"

The frontman also recalled being in the midst of a bidding war to sign his band. "Tom Hazelmyer, our dear friend and record boss at Amphetamine Reptile, said 'I am getting too many calls to handle any more with Helmet,' because the band was just exploding, you know?"

Hamilton and co. later left AmRep and signed onto Interscope. "At the time, [Interscope] didn’t have a lot of artists," said Hamilton. "They had Gerardo—the guy behind “Rico Suave”—and they had Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. They hadn’t signed NIN yet." However, Primus was already on their roster, so the label was willing to take risks. "We related to them because they were an off-the-wall, cartoony band, yet they had sold a couple hundred thousand records."

In 1992, the band released Meantime, peaking at number 68 on Billboard's "Top 200." The album also went Gold, selling over 500,000 copies. Most notably, it featured the single "Unsung," which would go on to be a heavy rotation on rock stations around the world. AllMusic's John Franck described the track as "hinting at a gasp of commercial accessibility."

What's more, Meantime was recorded by the notable—and objectively legendary—Steve Albini, whom would go on to produce Nirvana's In Utero just one year later. The two met when on tour while Hamilton was in the outfit Band of Susans and Albini in the controversial Rapeman. "He is a funny guy with an incredibly unique approach to things. He is very talented and never short on opinions," Hamilton proclaims. "If I asked him if a recording was good, he’d go 'well, if that’s what you’re going for.'"