JB-  You've done film, television, I understand you do music…

Hal-  Yup.

JB-  And martial arts.  What's your first love?

Hal-  I don't really have one.  I think it's a slippery slope to start talking about specialization.  I think if you want to do it, you can do it.  Each one serves a different psychological and spiritual and emotional and artistic need so you can't even compare them.  I would say that my aggression comes out through my standup and my music.  And through acting it's more of a service industry job, you know.  You really try to do good work for the director and the producers and everyone and hope the audience likes it.  You honour your character and you do good work for the people who are hiring you.  They each have a power to them.  I would never choose one, it's a matter of prioritizing my time.

JB- You have a few projects on the go right now.

Hal-  Yeah.

JB-  Music is one of them.

Hal-  My band is going to the studio on Monday [this interview was conducted February 16, 2006] so that's kind of really in our face.  And the album will be out mid-March, it looks like, so as fast as we can get it out after it's finished.  The prospect of actually having it done finally is very exciting.  And then I'll be on the road doing standup right after that.  Then the band will do some touring and I'm basically going to hopefully spread out my year doing standup, music and movies.  That's my goal.  And then I'm going to go to China and do a couple of martial arts features this year.

JB- A busy guy.

Hal-  Yeah.

JB-  So what kind of sound can we expect to hear on the new album?

Hal-  Well we're a metal three-piece.  It's not new metal, it's like old fashioned late 70s rock.  But there's certainly a modern flavour to it.  It's hard to describe your own music, I guess a lot of times.  But I'm a big KISS fan and a big Ozzy (Osbourne) fan and so you can hear those influences in there, I'm certain.  It's funny how over the last year my voice has really become my own and it's really getting very distinct.  I think every singer starts off imitating people they like and trying to sound like them and then over the course of it I've just dropped all that and found my own voice and it's really been a great moment - a great growth period.

JB-  You host a reality show but if you were to be a contestant on a reality show which one would it be?

Hal-  Probably American Idol.

JB- And how would you do on that?

Hal-  I would… I would win!  I'm kidding.  There's no way I would win.  I'm a metal singer and as close as Bo Bice got he was kind of almost country.  Basically country and R&B will own that show forever.  Nobody who is my musical hero ever would have succeeded on that show so you're not going to see Ozzy ever make it passed the first round.  Even John Lennon, you know.  Think of all the people that are your musical idols, think of how few of them would have made it passed Simon "Scowl".  The concept is kind of ludicrous.  In the U.K. they call it Pop (Idol) for a good reason because that's what these people are.  "Idol" is a big leap, I think.

JB-  It's funny to see that you don't even have to win the show to make it big. 

Hal-  Actually, it's better if you come in second.

JB-  Yeah, that seems to be how you become more successful - with the exception of Kelly Clarkson. 

Hal-  Exactly, she was the first one.  Ever since then you want to come in second.  Or get kicked off and have an underground career.

JB-  Or have it determined that you have a criminal record or slept with one of the judges or something!  That's the way to make it big!

Hal-  Absolutely.  There is no… well, you can't ruin your career anymore.  Martha Stewart is proof of that.

JB-  Yeah.  It almost makes you wonder now if people are doing things on purpose to launch (their career).

Hal-  Of course.  And the hard part is me try to plan some sort of scandal because I really don't have anything scandalous going on.  It's really kind of depressing.  Like there's no way I'm going to get addicted to pain killers, it's just not going to happen.

JB-  Well maybe.  If you hang out with Paris a bit more…

Hal-  Nope.  I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I don't smoke, I don't eat red meat - I'm never going to, end of story.  You can pretty much just put that in the bank.  How do you drum up something?  I mean, I gotta really be caught with a dead hooker at this point and I don't see that happening anyway because I know CPR.

JB-  (laughing)

Hal-  So what the hell?