In an industry that’s obsessed with aesthetics, it’s rare to find a band that is all about the music, even to extent of taking a downfall and having to go back, regroup and realise you’ve come back to normality.

Braver are the bands that take that all-important dive into the unknown and attempt to rebuild the following you had. To do that, you have to want it so bad, you bleed for it.

Jeff Irwin is one of the many driving forces behind Will Haven, alongside that of newly recruited vocalist, but long-time musical associate, Jeff Jaworski. Jaworski is so entwined with the band that he has had a track named in tribute to him on the band’s second album, WHVN.

They emanate resolve, and a resolution to regain their former notoriety in a society that has now bastardised the metal revolution to the point of no return, of which Will Haven once formed a significant part. So the return means all the more after five years, with the herald of their new album The Hierophant, pushing forward with help from their friends and a desire to return to their metal roots laid in burning ashes of their former selves.

Being led up the stairs to the dressing room at the Princess Charlotte, little could be done to not make the moment one to savour and welcome their return, be it without the erstwhile GradyAvenell, and to discuss the hows, whens and whys of their reunion.

Was it difficult taking over lead vocal duties for Will Haven?
     Jeff Jaworski: “Nah, it’s been really easy for me to settle in to it, that took no time at all, I’m familiar with all their songs, even going back to stock. The minute I joined the band it was instantly moving forward and pressing ahead with all the new stuff, the new album.”

When you joined did it change the dynamic of the band?
     JJ: “You’ll have to ask the other guys!”
     Jeff Irwin: “Not songwriting but vocally yeah, he was just as good straight off the bat. Jeff has a bigger range than Grady, Grady was more monotone, Jeff has a lot more to offer and before he even got in the band we’d already written a lot of the songs and he added more to our stuff vocally. He did a great job, added more to the soundscape, but Grady just did what he did, and he was just a vocalist whereas Jeff is a musician.”

So the difference is more in experience?
     JI: “Yeah, Jeff writes music that’s what he does but Grady didn’t, he had great timing and cadence, which he was amazing at but understanding dynamics and songs is where Jeff does a better job.”
     JJ: “Thanks man.”

What’s your main reason for coming back?
     JI: “Well when Grady first quit, me, Mike and Mitch decided just to let Will Haven die. We did have a few guys that came in to try out, but everyone that came in sucked and we wanted Jeff Jaworski but he was busy with Red Tape, and we couldn’t go on really without him. So we decided to put it aside, carry on with Ghostride, did a couple of tours with Crowbar and then I started talking to Grady if he wanted to do a show, a re-union tour and for that it was sold out in Sacramento, so there was still an audience for us so we should try to keep going, so luckily this time Jeff could get out [There’s a yell from substitute bassist Ray as he emerges from the tour bus. Cue laughter].”

How long have you been working on the new album?
    JI: “As soon as Grady said he wanted to come back into the band, I started writing music, just because I’d always wanted to do a new Will Haven record, it’s all I knew.  So as soon as Grady got back to America, we just started doing it so the album’s pretty much brand new, maybe a couple of ideas from on old demo tapes somewhere when Grady got back in January 2005. Maybe a year before we recorded the record after all the shit with Grady and getting a new vocalist.”
    JJ: “One of the songs is really old though, Sammy Davies Jr’s One Good Eye, we started playing that after Carpe Diem right.”
    JI: “It never went on a record though.”

How much influence did Chino (Moreno) and Shaun (Lopez) have on the finished album?
    JI: “As far as songwriting, there was no input, when we went into the studio we recorded the tracks, Chino & Shaun said, ‘change this, make this different’ - both had really good suggestions. I mean they’ve been our friends forever, he (Jeff) has been Shaun’s best friend and I’ve known Chino forever. Just them being friends already had an influence on us; we wouldn’t sound like we do if it wasn’t for them.”
    JJ: “It was basically pre-production, you know, Will Haven never went through pre-production in prior albums, just the chance to get some reliable outside people, Shaun, Chino, just to go through what’s weird about this, what can we change, or try this noise, especially with Shaun as he was there throughout the whole of the recording and continued to make us all think about the music more.”

How did it feel abandoning Will Haven after the success of Carpe Diem?
    JI: “It was kind of weird.”
    Mitch Wheeler: “It sucked for me, I was fucking gutted! [Laughs]”
    JI: “Because when you live with something for so long, me, Grady and Mike started the band in ’95, right until we broke up in 2002, it was fucking hard. We had great tours, and did some cool shit, but we never made any money. We were constantly on the road in some beat, broke-ass car sleeping on people’s floors, freezing our balls off and we did that for ten years before Carpe Diem took off.
     “For us it kinda sucked, because when Grady quit, we did a tour here with someone else, our videos were being played, we were on Kerrang! and we felt like we deserved it too. We worked our ass off for so long and finally we got some recognition, like we’re getting good. When Grady quit we were almost burned out with him in some regards, like fuck it, let’s take a break.
     “We were still on a shitty label, in America we weren’t anything but here we were a success, but in America we weren’t shit. So we couldn’t make money, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Even on the Carpe Diem tour we made no money - just lucky that everything ended up paid for. We came out with nothing, it felt like a constant struggle. A month later we realised that Will Haven was done, and it sucks.
      “We had all these ideas, we cared about the fans but more about the music, making music for Ghostride was more challenging I had to think about it more but with Will Haven it just spills out of my blood. For me I missed making the heavy guitar shit that was what we were all about.”

Did you feel more welcome here, but now do you feel better here or in the States?
     Unanimously: “Over here.”
     JI: “The States, I don’t know, we’ve never really had the love that we’ve had over here. Mostly because of the record label, the label sucked, they didn’t give a crap about us and the label over here actually gave a shit, they’re the ones that got us the press, got us on MTV and they really gave a shit about us, and once we had that little extra kick, stuff started blowing up for us.
     “In America no one gave a fuck about us so we constantly toured and did it on our own, the only way we would have kept the buzz about us. Big tours with no advance meant being on the road for six months then coming back with nothing. Whereas over here, the machine’s still going so we’re ok. Even now today in Sacramento, our hometown is pretty much hit and miss; sometimes they’ll be packed out and next it’ll be half the crowd.”
     JJ: “Yeah it’s weird.”

What do you think of mixing genres, is music’s message getting lost through constant re-imagining and combining music styles?
     JJ: “I think Will Haven has its own sound, especially Jeff’s guitar sound that no one can quite come close to, so we don’t worry about that, we just do our thing and sure, I’ve heard bands that kind of copy WH but it’s not the same so we just write our stuff. Last thing we do is listen to other bands while we write music [Laughs].”
     JI: “It’s kind of weird, there’s always someone saying they sound like us, but they don’t have that wall of sound, the crushing guitars, even the singer between both Jeff and Grady. They have a voice so powerful, so emotional.
    “Most other bands just have [makes screeching/howling sound], I mean there’s a whole combo, vocally Will Haven gel so perfectly, others just have an ass of a lead singer, it’s like the whole entity of Will Haven. When you look at other copies there’s just a piece missing that doesn’t make them us. We’ve been so down with each other since day one, we’ve all been homies that it’s in our blood, we’re always gonna sound like this because that’s where we come from.”
    A: “There’s no sense of rhythm like Jeff, his infusion of rhythm and the riffs that he writes, I’ve never heard anyone come up with anything like that, it’s so natural.”

What’s been the reaction to your comeback?
     JI: “It’s been a psyche storm, I’ve had kids come up to me and say ‘I’m glad you’re back, I don’t care that Grady’s not here, we just need your music back’. A lot of kids were sad and started looking for that Will Haven fix, to find something that resembles us.
     “Some of my favourite bands that broke up, so I go back to old records, like Jane’s Addiction, there are no bands like Jane’s Addiction now. Just like I made a connection with them, our fans make a connection with us, they want that back in their lives but there’s nothing there. From our point now, after we toured in ’97 with the Deftones, those guys have families and don’t listen to metal anymore.
     “So for us we have to break new ground and try to set up a new fanbase at the same time, even bringing those old fans back.”
     JJ: “The way I see it, a band doesn’t abandon its fans unless they completely change their sound, or if you leave for an x amount of time, but you’re a true fan of that band it doesn’t matter because you still have their albums.
     “Like Christ On Parade that I grew up listening to back in junior high, they stopped playing way back in the eighties then they got back together earlier this year with the original line-up, I went to every show that I could, I was so appreciative and they sounded killer, it was amazing. I never felt like they didn’t stick around long enough.
     “Now I know the challenges of being in a band, people think that it’s so easy and people break bands up just because they’re over it. It’s not always the case, a lot of times it’s just too hard, not just economically, or time-wise, but people’s personalities change, you grow up and you’ve got to have your own space. Going back to WH, so far the response we’ve gotten is a great sense of appreciation, people that are true fans always make a point of saying ‘first time I saw you guys was back in 1997, I have every album and I wanna say thank you guys for coming back and making up for lost time’.”
     JI: “But now, we’ve got to keep going, there were times in the past where we tour then go home for six months and have no contact with the fans then suddenly re-appear, we just have to keep the machine going, get the next album out.”
     JJ: “That’s the thing as far as continuing to gain new fans and have a bigger audience, you can’t have a five year, six year gap between albums, you’ve gotta keep things going that’s just how the mechanism of the music bizz works.”
     JI: “Life moves so fast man.”
     JJ: “Because kids forget people, but for those hardcore true devoted fans they’ll always be there I think and that’s nice to know, we’d serve them better to get more music out.”
     JI: “This tours been kind of good, as we haven’t been out in a while, the shows haven’t been packed but there’s still a good core fanbase, our hardcore fans gave us the positive light, people still want to see us.”