We’re of the opinion here at Sentinel Daily that 2022 has been rather a good year for heavy rock and metal, so, as the year winds to an end we decided to revisit some of our writer’s fave albums of the year with the people behind them. So, who better to kick off a new series than Jizzy Pearl…

Congratulations on Hell, CA – it’s been a constant on my stereo since I found it in my Inbox! Are you pleased with the overall reaction that the album engendered now that the dust of release time has settled? “Well I’m glad that you like it. I wish more people would have heard it because I think it’s a great record”.

We’ll look more thoroughly at the individual tracks on the album later – but can you give those of our listeners without much grounding in the sound of the band a bit of a background to Love/Hate? Where does the new album sit for you in the band’s canon overall? “Love/Hate was a great band. We made some amazing music in our time together and then…? Like all good things it ended. But our music has stood the test of time. We were lucky to do some awesome arena tours with people we admired, we had great success in the UK and still do. My new record fits in well with our earlier two records, it’s heavy, melodic and here we are in 2022 and I’m singing better than ever—Good Times!”

Good times indeed! And can you tell us a little about the personnel on this album? Our good friend Stevie R Pearce makes a few appearances, does he not? “Yes Stevie and Christian from my UK Love/Hate band played on the record and they did a great job. Dave Moreno played the drums and Darren Housholder played most of the guitars”.

Touring seems to be getting back to some sort of normal, gradually – will you be able to spend much time next year touring the album? And do you think the pandemic-enforced layoff seems to have made fans hungrier for live music or are people feeling their way back into things? And is overseas travel going to be cost prohibitive moving forward for bands like Love/Hate? “I do have a small UK tour planned for next year 2023. I believe the lockdowns did help ticket sales in 2022, for sure. Hopefully it stays that way”.

Can you give us a brief insight into each of the tracks on the album: One Hot Minute is first. “It’s based on a mini-series I watched about a serial killer. Maybe it doesn’t sound that way but if you listen to the lyrics there’s some creepiness in there”.

Acid Babe is track two. “Acid Babe is about my wife and our ‘burning Love’—tongue-in-cheek of course”.

Gonna Take You Higher is next. “The song is based on the life of rocket scientist/occultist Jack Parsons. The guy hung out with Aleister Crowley!”

Next up is Soul Mama. “It’s a song about musicians that live off their women, a not very flattering portrait. It should have been titled “Sugar Mama” but Soul Mama sounded better”.

Hard To Say Goodbye is next – what can you tell us about this track? “It’s a song about my brother Bill who died of cancer in 2018. A tribute of sorts I guess”.

When You Gonna Come Home – more info please! “It’s a song about a girl who believes her Facebook life is Real Life. Another not very flattering portrait”.

And what about Last Chance? “A love song about unrequited love, the protagonist tries to make it work over and over and as the songs says, always fucks it up!

Bruised and Battered – one of our absolute fave tracks of 2022 at Sentinel Daily, it has to be said! “Bruised and Battered is about me from my old drinking days— The Boozer, the Village Idiot. I was crazy but when I look back I sure did have a lot of fun”.

Wanna Be Somebody is the penultimate track. “It’s a song about girls who come to Hollywood to ‘make it’ only to go down the slippery slope to porn and worse”.

And the album ends with Lonely Days Are Gone… “This is a song about my relationship with my wife, the lyrics are about me and my little World and how we keep it all together. And there’s a good old fashioned Foghat-style finale at the end”.

Well, you can’t beat a bit o’ Foghat! How do you think 2022 has been overall for our kind of music? Or as a ‘total Jurassic’ do you not listen to too much new music these days? ”I really don’t listen to new music, I’m just not interested. Maybe because I’m older and like what I like@.

Nothing wrong with that! Hell, CA has a feral, raw quality to it that adds real heaviness to the melody – how do you manage to come up with ‘classic’ material yet give it such an edge? ”I’m not a skilled guitar player so maybe when I write the songs the chords end up sounding choppier and heavier—All my music comes from the stuff I grew up with, Sabbath, AC/DC, Zeppelin. Me trying to mimic the Greats”.

Anything else you’d like to tell the readers of Sentinel Daily about the album? Or the band in general? What are the band’s plans for 2023? “Thanks for liking the record—I hope people get to hear it because it rocks. That’s all, Thanks”.