Hinder happy to be back on the road again
In late 2013, Austin Winkler ended a tenure of more than a decade as the lead singer of multiplatinum recording artist Hinder. After his departure, the Oklahoman hard rockers went dark, disappearing off the road and social media.
This January, the band resurfaced in a big way, touting not only a new lead singer — longtime co-producer and co-writer Marshal Dutton — but also the May 12 release of its fifth studio album, “When the Smoke Clears,” and a packed touring schedule that will bring it to Rhythm & Brews tonight, April 16.
“We’re grateful to still be out and doing it, but we kind of feel like this whole thing is new again,” says Cody Hanson, the band’s drummer since its inception in Oklahoma City in 2001.
“I don’t know,” he adds. “We’re almost treating this as our first album.”
He sounds upbeat. Not bubbly, exactly, but happier now than he would have sounded in the days before the band took its hiatus. They all are, Hanson says.
“It probably would have been a depressing conversation for you,” he laughs.
Historically, Hinder has had plenty to smile about. The band’s 2005 debut album, “Extreme Behavior,” was a breakthrough success, yielding radio hits such as “Get Stoned” and “Lips of an Angel” and ultimately achieving triple-platinum certification (3 million sales).
In the last 15 years, the band has shared the stage with the likes of Nickelback and anthemic arena rockers such as Mötley Crüe and Guns N’ Roses, who Hanson says are among the band’s greatest influences. They were inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
But all signs point to 2015 shaping up to be a new — Hanson says better — chapter in the band’s saga.
“It’s nice to be back out on the road and happy and enjoying it again,” he says. “For so long, we were all so unhappy and miserable and depressed. Now, everybody gets along great, and we’re back to being a band and a family again. We’re excited.”