Hed P.E. Set To Rock Australia This February

Fresh off a relentless touring schedule across the United States and Europe, HED P.E. are ready to conquer Australia once again and, for the first time since 2018, New Zealand. HED P.E. has been a cornerstone in the rock and metal scene, captivating audiences with their unique blend of rock, punk, rasta, gangsta rap, and soul, affectionately coined as “G-Punk.” If you have not experienced HED P.E. live, you can expect pounding riffage, solid grooves and funk infused rhythms all laced by the flow, melody and cadence of frontman, Jahred Gomes.

Many bands three decades into their career would be happy to tread the boards and play for the nostalgia, not HED P.E. their most recent and incredibly fifteenth album, Detox, was released in December 2023 and shows a band with no time to sit on their hands and muse about the past. Detox is a crushing return to the G-Punk sound that the bands fans know and adore. On this highly anticipated tour, HED P.E. will be delivering an unforgettable assault on the senses, tearing through both nations with stops in every capital city. Jahred Gomes talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

Three decades in and you’re still on top of your game, you must see that as real feather in your cap?
You’re damn right. It is, I’m proud that, proud is a funny word. I’m happy that I can go to Australia and play some punk rock shows and come home. I’m no stranger to markets drying up, like we don’t go to Japan anymore, you know, and we used to, and it’s not that I wouldn’t like to go there, but no one’s inviting me. So, it’s nice to be invited to Australia! I’m finally playing in South America and Mexico City. So that’s nice. So, that’s a new place, a new market.

On this tour you’re playing some smaller venues, particularly here in Adelaide. Do you prefer that compared to festivals and bigger arena type shows?
Well, Hed P.E. never got to that level where we were like headlining arenas. We’re always like in a support position. So, you know what, I’ve been fucking making my living in small clubs and bars around the world for fucking twenty years. I could think of a lot worse ways to make money, but as far as comparing small shows to big ones, I don’t really have a career where I can compare bigger shows because they’ve always just been club shows. But you know what, anytime you can rock a house where people are into your music it’s just a good feeling whether it’s twenty people or two thousand. I just got off the road for nine weeks and we played a lot of small shows, but then we like played festivals where there were thousands of people. That of course is totally fun. I mean, you can’t lie about that, but it’s also fun though to play a packed little show. I love it!

How have the shows on this tour gone?
You know what, it was fucking great. There were some lightly attended shows, but who fucking cares? It was great. I’m out there, we’re rocking out six nights a week. It’s just a good way to make a living

Are you focusing on the new album Detox on this tour?
Definitely playing all the hits, like all the old shit like Spotify’s Top 15 or something, so that’s just like a lot of old shit. We’re going to play stuff from “Detox”, the newest record because that fucking debuted number one on iTunes. So, we’ll play a couple tracks from there, but we play all the old hits too. We try to play what everybody wants to hear.

Have you been really stoked with how fans have embraced the new album?
Yeah, that was great. I was just talking about how every time I work on a record it’s with the intention for people to like it. It doesn’t always work out though, but the feedback on Detox is overwhelmingly positive.

How would you compare it to the last couple? Do you think you sounds changed much?
Oh, definitely. Detox is one of the better sounding albums of the last maybe four or five records, just in this weird state of putting out records and searching for a kind of vibe. It’s hard to articulate but I’m enjoying the new vibe of Detox, and playing the shit live.

Is there plenty more new music to come this year?
The new record won’t be out till probably next summer. I’m working on it right now, but it’s a slow process. I’m balancing touring with recording. Before I used to get enough money to just sit home for eight months and do a record. Now it’s like record, tour, record, tour that. It’s good to hear stuff with fresh ears between tours. The thing with “Detox”, I really took my time on it. I took over two years creating that record.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Hed P.E on the following dates, tickets from October Presents…