On Tuesday (Sept. 30), Carla Harvey and Charlie Benante joined Loudwire Nights to discuss their collaboration on new music for Harvey’s band, the Violent Hour.
Listen to the complete conversation in the player near the end of this article.
“I was a little bit shy bringing my ideas to him,” Harvey shared with host Chuck Armstrong. Harvey and Benante were not just friends or writing partners; they were in a relationship and are now engaged.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, he’s just my boyfriend or fiancé, but I’m very aware that he is a prolific musician. He writes music all day long and has been doing this his whole life.”
Harvey’s shyness also stemmed from uncertainty about her future after leaving Butcher Babies. Fortunately, Benante recognized that she had much musical potential left.
“During the pandemic, I was doing these jams [and] and asked a bunch of my friends to help me out, which snowballed into something else,” Benante recalled. One of his friends was Harvey, who joined him to cover songs by Tom Petty and Massive Attack.
“Those two songs were so different from what she was doing,” he noted.
“I always knew she could sing, but pushing her out of her comfort zone was significant. Once it was done – and I think she heard herself — she realized, ‘I could do this.’ I knew it.”
Eventually, everything came together as Harvey and Benante created the Violent Hour’s self-titled debut EP.
“The ideas started to flow and the fear was gone,” Harvey said.
“At first, I felt trapped when I began writing. When it all started to click, it felt incredible.”
What Else Did Carla Harvey + Charlie Benante Discuss on Loudwire Nights?
- What’s next for the Violent Hour from Benante’s perspective: “The next EP is already written and some of it’s recorded. Now, I’m just looking to the future because the goal is to put these two EPs on a full-length record.”
- Harvey gaining a new lease on life after Butcher Babies: “After we had been in the studio a few times and were writing, I became really excited again about getting in the studio, about opportunities, about filming videos. I hadn’t felt that way in years.”
- What Back to the Beginning was like for Benante, who performed with Anthrax and Pantera: “It was all about love and camaraderie. Every band was onstage watching others or backstage hanging out because it meant something to everyone there. To me, that was the metal community coming together to pay respects to these four men who influenced hard rock and heavy metal.”
Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below
Carla Harvey and Charlie Benante joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday, Sept. 29; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7 PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also check if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.
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