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Lzzy Hale of Halestorm spoke with Kyle Meredith about Everest, the band’s roaring new record born from a “desert island” headspace in Savannah with Dave Cobb. Nearly three decades into their run, Hale framed the album as a live-wire snapshot instead of a genre exercise: big melodies, bigger punches, and zero interest in coloring inside the lines. It’s the sound of a band refusing to calcify. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
“We were writing and recording in real time,” Hale says, describing how the band ditched old riffs and notebooks to chase whatever felt electric that day. That gamble paid off on “Watch Out,” where a 4:00 a.m. voice-note flipped the entire track: “Dave’s like, ‘That’s the chorus—screw the other part.’”
The goal wasn’t to make a “heavy record” so much as a true one, as Hale explains, “Once we start limiting ourselves to what we think we are… the creativity goes out the window.” The trust fall hits hardest on the piano-lit “Darkness Always Wins,” a song that arrived first and landed like it had always been there. “I can hear us still with something to prove,” Hale admits. “We jumped off the cliff and hoped we packed our parachutes.”
She also lit up at the mention of Nick Cave, praising the way he can drop a single word—like sin—and suddenly the song carries a new kind of gravity. “He’s one of those rare, once-in-a-lifetime artists who can be otherworldly and still completely genuine,” she says. “There’s this balance he mastered long ago that I really admire.”
Listen to Lizzy Hale talk about Everest, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. You can also grab tickets to Halestorm’s upcoming tour here.
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