Photo by Travis Duncan.
Many wrestling fans (myself included) were introduced to the Southern rock stylings of Shaman’s Harvest when Drew McIntyre began using their song “Broken Dreams” as his entrance music in 2010. Considering the success McIntyre had in WWE as Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion (not to mention his continued success as the current Evolve Champion as Drew Galloway), and the subsequent exposure “Broken Dreams” got on Raw, SmackDown and other WWE events, the largely unknown Shaman’s Harvest suddenly started gaining a lot of new listeners. The band has continued its relationship with WWE, recording another entrance theme for Wade Barrett/The Corre (though I didn’t realize it was even the same band given that song’s more industrial pop sound) and appearing on the soundtracks for some of WWE’s movies. More recently, however, the band released Smokin’ Hearts & Broken Guns, it’s fifth album and first for Mascot Records. The album continues the band’s foot-stomping swamp rock sound, at times bordering on country and bluegrass territory. Hitting the road on Nov. 10 for a few headlining dates before joining up with Fozzy and Texas Hippie Coalition Nov. 20-Dec. 13, Shaman’s Harvest front man Nathan Hunt talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about working with Jim Johnston, how recording entrance themes has changed the band’s songwriting process and his love of The Bushwhackers.
My introduction to Shaman’s Harvest was when Drew McIntyre used your song “Broken Dreams” as his entrance music in WWE. How did he end up using your song as his entrance music? Was he a fan of yours or was WWE responsible for choosing his music?
Photo by Travis Duncan.
Jim Johnston is the genius behind all the music for WWE. We sent him our song “Dragonfly” and he wasn’t really into it for an entrance song or any of their pay-per-views or anything. But he liked the sound, so he wrote “Broken Dreams” and sent it to us and asked if we wanted to do it. We were like, “Sure. Hell, why not?” It was a good thing because they have something like 40 million viewers every Monday night. So it definitely helped us. Subsequently, he sent us a couple of other tracks after that and I’ve been working with him ever since.
Right. I didn’t realize you also did entrance music for Wade Barrett and The Corre. Was that a similar process where Johnston wrote the song, then sent it to you guys to record?
Yeah. Then he used “Dragonfly” in the Legendary movie, because he writes all the scores and soundtracks for the movies that WWE produces. I flew up to their compound up there to do that Wade Barrett track, “End of Days”. I’ve done a couple of others since then. We did another song called “Anger,” which he didn’t wind up using for an entrance theme, but he used it in another movie they made called No One Lives.
Since you submitted your music to Johnston in hopes of it being used by WWE, I assume you’re a wrestling fan.
Oh. Fuck, man. I think all of us grew up watching wrestling, or as we call it here, “wrasslin’.” Yeah. I mean, growing up, for me it was the Bushwhackers. That was it for me. I could relate. Obviously, the Undertaker is absolutely legendary. When he came out, man, I hated his guts because he was such an asshole.
Yeah. He was evil, but people eventually started to like him.
Yeah. Well, I think he just had the longevity. And the badassness he had, people started looking up to him. Which is easy to do because he’s, like, 7-foot-something, isn’t he?
Why did you hate him so much? Was it because of who his targeted opponents were?
Photo by Travis Duncan.
Yeah. Back in the day it was Hulkamania. There were the good guys and the bad guys and there was such a separation between the two in the ’80s. And he couldn’t lose. He was just going through and destroying people. As a kid, I wanted the good guys to win. That entrance music is probably the most iconic entrance music ever. There’s actually a thing, I think, where nobody else can use those tolling bells. I think that’s a copyright for the Undertaker just because when you hear that first bell, you know who’s coming out.
What was it about the Bushwhackers you liked so much?
I just thought the were badasses and they were just slightly unhinged. They weren’t quite all there and they were just cool, man. They were probably the first tag team I ever really got into.
I was a big fan of the Bushwhackers, but I don’t often here anyone say the Bushwhackers were their favorite wrestlers.
Yeah, man. They were definitely my favorite tag team.
You just released a new album, Smokin’ Hearts & Broken Guns? Has WWE used anything off of that album yet?
Not yet. We’ve been in talks with them about it, but we’ll just see what comes up. Usually how they work is as they develop characters or as characters develop themselves, that’s when the brains get together and decide on what’s going to work for who. So it just stays in their pool of tracks and hopefully they’ll decide to use it for a pay-per-view or something. We’ll see.
Aside from the songs you recorded specifically for WWE, would you say that wrestling or any of its personas have ever influenced your music or songwriting process?
Probably, man. “Dangerous” off the new record kind of has that feel of being straightforward and being a badass. After working on some of those songs with Jim, you kind of start thinking of songs as entrance themes. When you’re doing an entrance song, you’ve got to visualize a guy walking down, most likely real slow at first, then it picks up, then you’ve got to think about the pyro and all that stuff. Which is completely different than when you’re thinking about just writing a song for radio. I think quite a few of our tracks, after working with Jim, build as the song progresses throughout the track. So, yeah. It’s probably influenced us in our style of writing, a little bit.
Shaman’s Harvest is headlining these first few tour dates, then you’re being joined by Chris Jericho‘s band Fozzy. Have you ever performed with Fozzy before?
Photo by Travis Duncan.
We played with them in Peoria about a month ago and all those guys are really nice. Chris might be one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever met in the music industry. Most of us tend to be a little on the lazy side and imbibe a little bit with the alcohol and all that stuff. But he works hard. And it’s not like he’s a wrestler or an actor trying to be a musician. He really is a musician and they’re a badass band. Way more badass than I expected before I heard them. They work hard and the dude is running podcasts out of the bus, then doing shows and sound checks and meet-and-greets. We opened up for them and he sat there and watched our whole show from the balcony. Not a lot of headliners come out and do that. He’s a genuine dude.
There’s a common thread that runs between the three bands on this tour, yet each band has its own distinct sound.
I think a great show is to have three bands that, like you said, have a common thread, but they’re not the same thing regurgitated over and over again. You’re going to get different aspects of rock ‘n’ roll throughout the entire fucking show. It’ll be a little bit of everything. It keeps it more interesting and people don’t get bored.
The personalities involved in those two bands will also keep things interesting.
They’re definitely out front. I don’t think anybody’s too reclusive out of that bunch, and neither are we. So there’s going to be some shenanigans. Plus, you’re at the end of the tour in Atlanta and usually some crazy shit goes down there at the end.