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Helmet 2010. Page Hamilton, far right, with (left to right) Kyle Stevens (drums), Dave Case (bass) and Dan Beemer (guitar). Photo credit: Shiloh Strong

Helmet guitarist, singer and songwriter Page Hamilton has seen the highs and lows of the music industry. "What's that song by Judy Collins?" he says. "Both Sides Now? Yeah, I've been through it all, and everything in the middle. The funny thing is, as long as you're in music for the right reasons, and that's to actually make music, it's all OK in the end.

"The danger is when you're looking for something other than that," he stresses. "If you just want to get on TV and get your face in magazines, that's when the problems begin. At that point, I don't know what to tell you."

Oddly enough, back in 1992, Page and co were seen as just that, the group du jour, the hot commodity in the wake of the Nirvana/grunge explosion. "It was so weird," Hamilton says of the major label feeding frenzy that attended Helmet during that era. "We were just this cool little rock band from New York signed to Amphetamine Reptile Records, and suddenly we were taking calls from people who were throwing around ridiculous sums of money. It was unbelievable."

Helmet did sign one of those 'ridiculous' deals, however, and Hamilton is unapologetic for it. "It was the right deal for the right band at the right label at the right time," he says of his agreement with Interscope, an alliance which yielded the gold-selling Meantime (1993) and a handful of other enthusiastically received works. "It's the kind of thing that would never happen now."

After disbanding Helmet in early 1998, Hamilton, who cut his teeth in the noise rock ensemble Band Of Susans and went on to play with David Bowie, formed the band Gandhi. In 2004, he reformed Helmet - the lineup has gone through several permutations since but the current band consists of Page, Kyle Stevens (drums), Dave Case (bass) and Dan Beeman (guitar). "It's a solid group," Hamilton says. "Everybody's focused, and if I say to somebody, 'Hey, go fetch me a beer or move that amp,' they're right there," he says, laughing.

In the following interview with MusicRadar, Page Hamilton discusses the mega-bucks record deal that Helmet signed back in the day. In addition, the sonic shape-shifter talks about the wonders of distortion and how he goes about achieving the ultimate guitar tone on Helmet's brilliant new album, Seeing Eye Dog.

Let's talk about the label feeding frenzy scene back in the early '90s. Helmet signed a deal with Interscope for $1 million.

"That's right."

Looking back, was that a blessing or a curse? Did signing such a huge deal ultimately benefit the band and your career?

"Oh, it was great. No regrets at all, man. It afforded Helmet the opportunity to get our music out to people. Interscope was amazing, a great group of people. I still have tremendous respect for the principles that were at the company and signed us. We were really, really lucky to sign with that label. It's funny, though. A lot of my friends back in New York then were going, 'Don't sign! Don't sign!'" [laughs]

Because they thought you were 'selling out'?

"Selling out to the big bad evil empire, sure. You have to remember that this was all happening right on the heels of Nirvana exploding, and all the labels were looking for that 'next Nirvana.' My attitude was, there's only one Nirvana, and we sound nothing like them. Comparing Nirvana to Helmet is like comparing Mozart to Charlie Parker. They're both cool but completely different. So I thought, If a label is really passionate about what we do, wants to help us get our music out to the people, and aren't going to try to change us -

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