JADE PHAM talks to guitarist JARED HARTMANN from Texan alternative rock band FLYLEAF.

Flyleaf are a five-piece out of Belton Texas of inevitable Evanescence comparisons, with their heavy rock, haunting female lead vocals, and Christianity. Since the band’s inception a few years ago, they’ve been taking the ideal path to rock stardom; signing to a major record label, trying their sound on a self-titled EP, making a strong debut album, touring and gathering momentum in their home country then turning their attention overseas starting with the release of their self-titled debut in Australia.

We meet guitarist Jared Hartmann at a truck stop in the middle of a tour with Korn and, he grins, one of his favourite bands, the Deftones.

“I didn’t think I’d be doing this for a living. I thought I’d just do it for fun and then I’d have to go to school. When I started in a band I couldn’t even drive, I was only 15. When I was a senior we were getting label interest and we got signed when I turned 18. I never went to college or anything so I’m glad this worked out.”

Things could have turned out very differently for this Texan quintet if Hartmann hadn’t kicked Flyleaf frontwoman Lacey Mosley out of his high school band. As Hartmann tells it, “Me and Sameer (Bhattacharya, guitar) were friends and we had a little band - it didn’t really count, it was just a high school band, we weren’t very good. We were looking for a singer because Sameer was singing and he’s not the greatest singer, and Lacey was in town and she was looking to be in a band. So Sameer and I tried her out, she sang a song with us at one show, it was in a garage for one of our friends’ birthday parties, and then a week later Lacey called Sameer to ask when practice was because she thought she was in the band and Sameer said, ‘Ah, we’re not really looking for a singer anymore.’ So we kind of kicked her out, and then a couple of weeks later our band broke up and Lacey had gone back to writing with James (Culpepper, drums) and she found a bass player (Pat Seals) or actually the bass player found her and James, then she invited me to come play guitar and I invited Sameer along and that’s kind of how it got started.”

Did you have any reservations about having a female lead singer?

“I thought that it might be kind of weird because all the bands I listened to had guys singing but, um, I don’t know. Lacey’s a great vocalist and she’s really cool, she’s a great person.

“When we come together the songs kind of fit the story that Lacey has or her vision. Like sometimes she’ll come to us with lyrics or music and she just kind of gives it to us, and if it needs to be heavy then we’ll make it heavy, and if it needs to be soft then we’ll make it softer. We try to make the music match the songs, and it just comes out. It all fits really well.”

Flyleaf’s self-titled debut album is out now through SonyBMG.

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