Righteous Vendetta

Pain the Grass Festival
White River Amphitheater
Auburn, WA
August 21, 2016

Righteous Vendetta at Pain in the Grass 2016

Pain in the Grass
Annually, a thrilling, all-day, hard rock festival called Pain in the Grass occurs in Auburn, WA, a city neighboring Enumclaw. Both cities are about 30 minutes south of Seattle and are in clear view of Mount Rainier, weather depending. For the past three years, my sister, Andi, and I have been fortunate to attend the festival, and we’ve seen some killer bands over the years, including Godsmack, Slipknot, and Disturbed. This year, I was covering the show via camera, and was invited to interview several of the bands. I requested interviewing Righteous Vendetta because my sister and I had seen the band perform in October 2013 at the now-defunct Rock Factory in Akron, Ohio, when the band opened for Taproot. We loved the band’s performance, loved the guys, bought T-Shirts, and have followed along ever since.

Taking Over
In case you haven’t heard, Righteous Vendetta is a band that is on the verge of completely invading the hard rock music scene. Great music, fantastic performances, good looks, and really cool dudes make up this band, originally formed in 2008. Since then, the band has been touring, practicing, increasing presence – including airplay on SiriusXM Octane – and ramping up for the release (end ’16 or early ’17) of their new album with record label Another Century. Prediction: this album will be the tipping point of success for the band. In the meantime, though, make sure to listen to anything on the EP Defiance, or the songs This Pain and Take Over.

Ryan Hayes of Righteous Vendetta

The Jekyll and Hyde Phenomenon
The most fun part about meeting and interviewing bands is to see the different personas. And I don’t mean the difference between the people; I mean the change in personalities from the typically calm, sweet people who my helpers and I meet in person versus the wild, raging beasts we see on stage (aka the Jekyll and Hyde Phenomenon). True to form here, Righteous Vendetta’s founding members Lead Singer Ryan Hayes and Guitarist Justin Olmstead were perfect gentlemen, sweet, kind, and (sorry guys, but) adorable in the interview… and, our hearts melted. Then on stage a few hours later, the “Hyde” brothers erupted into full force, singing, screaming, raging, and making the crowd go wild… and, our brains exploded (in a very good way, of course).

Justin Olmstead (left) and Ryan Hayes (right) of Righteous Vendetta

Meet with a Handshake, Leave with a Hug
Prior to the start of the Pain in the Grass festival, we had the amazing opportunity to meet with Ryan Hayes and Justin Olmstead of Righteous Vendetta. The best interviews I have are those where I formally meet the guys, begin the discussion, and then we find ourselves bonding within the few priceless moments we have during the conversation. We start with a handshake and end with a hug. Join me in the transformation below in the chat with Ryan and Justin!

Left to Right: Justin, Nici, and Ryan ● Justin, Andi, Ryan

The Chat

We saw you guys perform a few years ago in Akron, Ohio, when you opened for Taproot. What has changed since then?
Ryan: Well, we have two new members: a drummer and a bass player. They joined right after the Taproot tour and were teenagers when they joined. Since we were on tour with Taproot, we released one album, and we just finished a brand new one that will be our debut on Another Century. So, a new album coming out, and we’ve been working hard getting our live show as good as we can. Everything’s the same, it’s just better!

Ryan Hayes of Righteous Vendetta

Cool, because you guys were awesome back then! How did you get started as a band?
Ryan: We started in 2008. [Justin and I] were going to college together… a little community college in a town of 3,000 people: Powell, Wyoming. Our piano professor was the other guitar player.

Justin: So, we had to skip a class or two to tour.

Your professor was OK with that, I’m sure. 😉 What were you studying?
Ryan: We were both studying music technology. So, we did our first two years of college and played out every weekend. We played Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then we typically missed class on Monday because we were so tired. We played every weekend as much as we could, wherever we could. We did that for two years, graduated, and then we went on tour.

Justin: We finished our degrees, so we met our parents in the middle.

Zack Goggins of Righteous Vendetta

When we met you, one of your band members was only 16 or 17, and explained to us that his parents trusted him out on the road.
Ryan: That’s Goggins! Zach.

Justin: He’s our drummer now, but was playing bass on that tour.

We were impressed. How cool would that be to be so young, on tour, and without your parents?!
Ryan: On the day he was supposed to graduate from high school, he was playing Rock on the Range. So, he’s still with us, playing drums, and he’s 20 now.

Justin Olmstead of Righteous Vendetta

You are from Cody, Wyoming, and I just passed through there the other day on the way to Yellowstone National Park (see the post). We also took a little detour to Big Sky, Montana.
Justin: Yes, near Bozeman. It’s amazing!

Ryan: It’s the best part of the country, the best place to live.

So, being from that area, if you’re home, how often go to Yellowstone for the day?
Ryan: We take it for granted. It’s like someone who lives near Manhattan or Vegas. But, I’ll go maybe once every two years.

Justin: There are other mountain ranges nearby, too. In the summer, we’ll go four-wheeling.

How exciting is it to be playing at Pain in the Grass?
Ryan: We are super stoked. We wanted to play it last year… we begged, but it didn’t work out. 🙂 We love playing festivals like this. So, when they asked us, we were like, YES!!!!

Justin: [We’re here with] bands that we grew up listening to. Alter Bridge and Breaking Benjamin have been our favorite bands for a long time. It’s awesome that people who are watching them, will be watching us, too. It’s really cool.

Riley Haynie of Righteous Vendetta

Righteous Vendetta has been on tour quite a bit in the past. What are you doing now?
Ryan: We’ve been doing a new album. We just finished that two weeks ago in Los Angeles.

Justin: We went from touring 300 days a year to just stopping… writing. This is our first major deal, so there are more moving parts. We were off the road making sure that everything was done right.

When will the new album be released?
Ryan: Hopefully the end of this year or beginning of next.

When you are on tour, for us, touring across the country seems like a dream-come-true adventure. Is it for you?
Ryan: For sure. It’s one of those things…. the grass is always greener on the other side. 🙂  We’ve been doing it now for eight years, so we’ve toured all over. So, that part of it has kind of worn off – going to all of these different places. But, as long as you keep your perspective, you realize, “I get to do this. There’s nothing to complain about.”

Justin: There are a whole set of difficulties that comes with touring… Relationships; it’s hard to make all that work. But, at the end of the day, how would we feel going back to a normal job? We used to do that. Ryan and I worked construction for three years in between tours. So, at the end of a tour we would think “we get to go home, see our families…” we would work for three days and think, “can we go on the road again?” [Laughter]

Carl Heiman of Righteous Vendetta

What do you like to do for fun or adventure outside of music?
Ryan: I snowboard like a mad man. Golfing and snowboarding.

Justin: Jet skiing, four-wheeling, and fishing. We play heavy music, so I like to go fishing because it’s calming. It’s the exact opposite of what we have in music. What’s the least amount of stuff I can do and the most relaxed I can be? Waiting for a fish to bite a hook!

What was your first concert, where was it, and who were you with?
Justin: First concert was Def Leppard in Billings, Montana. Still to this day, Def Leppard is my favorite band ever. My dad took me. At first, I thought, “Def Leppard? Whatever.” But, they will forever be my favorite band because my dad forced me to go.

Ryan: My first concert was a band called As I Lay Dying. They’re super heavy metal. My first concert was technically a Warped Tour, but an actual concert where I went to see this band was All That Remains, As I Lay Dying, Through the Eyes of the Dead, and Haste the Day.

Justin: He was ruined ever since. [Laughter]

Is there anything else you would like to share?
Justin: Come out to our shows! Check us out!

Ryan: Yes, listen to our music. We are a new band to most people, and it’s hard for people to give new bands a chance. When they give new music a chance, they like it. So, we try to encourage people… even if you haven’t heard of it, go check it out…. whether it’s us or whoever it might be. Every fan, every friend is important.

Clockwise from Top Left (2013): Zach, Nici, Andi, and Jodi

Left to Right (2013): Zach, Andi, Nici, and Justin