Hometown and homebase: Kansas City

Why are you called Hyborian?

It just seemed to fit. Our songs are about ancient conflict so it just sets the stage. The Hyborian Age was the time period that Robert Howard set his Conan stories, dating before the advent of the written word and after the fall of Atlantis.

How do you describe your music to someone who's never heard you before?

We try not to; metal? Definitely some stoner influence, some progressive stuff thrown in there, with a fairly heavy dose of thrash as well.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Pantera, High On Fire, Black Cobra, early Metallica, Sabbath/Ozzy, Thin Lizzy. We all grew up in musical families; Bates’s dad had a garage band, Martin was in music lessons his whole childhood and Justin’s dad loves the rock. We were all playing in some capacity very young, so we all lived and breathed music our whole lives.

How does living in Kansas impact your music?

Kansas City is full of barbarians, wizards, warlords and demons. But seriously, it is a great place to base a band, with easy touring access to both coasts and fairly low cost of living make it perfect as a home base.

What's fun to do in Kansas?

We really just play music and party. There are always a ton of great shows coming through KC, so our nights out usually involve live music of some form, but we spend most of our time at the rehearsal space.

Why name your debut Hyborian Vol. 1?

Well, we knew we wanted to call the second album Volume II, so it seemed like a good place to start.

Is the first song you wrote as a band still around?

"Get in Line," the lyrics were kind of nonsensical. We don't really play it any more, we hadn't really defined our sound yet at that point. It is available on our Bandcamp for free/name your own price. 

What's your craziest concert story so far?

Someone brought two goats with big ass Baphomet looking horns to one of our shows once. It made for an interesting, albeit unusual, mosh pit.

If you were a hashtag, what would you be?

#hyboriancult

Do you have a Myspace-related story as a musician?

Back when we were younger, MySpace partially introduced us all to promoting our music on the internet. Definitely did a lot of show promoting for DIY tours on Myspace.

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