Huntington Beach’s Hatespeech dropped their debut full-length “Orange County” with a specific target in mind: the idyllic suburban community masking a darker reality fueled by hatred and fear.
Vocalist Jesse Kalamian, who wrote all the lyrics, frames it clearly—the album follows the increasing political divide in America and what that means for the future, but the focus stays local. Orange County, with its sunny southern California facade, becomes the lens for watching the world spiral into civil war and political violence through a screen, “inching closer to home by the day.”
The band formed in November 2021 when David met Jesse on the Long Beach State campus after Jesse flagged him down while skating, drawn by his shirt and the idea of starting a hardcore band.
They released demos in 2023, played their first show in March 2024, and have since clocked roughly 45 shows including their first out-of-state runs and a gig in Tijuana, Mexico.
Going against the current demo-and-EP approach, Hatespeech committed to a full album. “The vision for this album and this collection of songs came together very organically and it felt like the right move to develop them into a cohesive and full album,” David explains. “With the growing state of disarray in our current political climate both at home and abroad, we felt empowered to attempt to write an album with substance, one that people could relate to, that allowed for our stylistic development to mature to what its become, which includes influences from all genres of heavy music.”
The album zeroes in on what Kalamian describes as naive fencewalkers and white collar types claiming to be “apolitical” to stay insulated from the results of their vote. Many refuse to see the writing on the wall, while others wake up in this paradise watching everything deteriorate. That dichotomy drives the record. “Although we didn’t set out to write this album with any cohesive theme in mind, it developed over the course of the recording process to create a snapshot of our current moment—a traditional Americana community plagued with the ego of American Exceptionalism, finally forced to reckon with the turmoil and violence their beliefs have caused.”
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Operating out of Huntington Beach—historically notorious for white supremacists and boneheads with distorted values—Hatespeech navigates a local scene lacking sufficient all-ages venues or places where bands can book themselves.
South Bay Hardcore has been running all-ages shows in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County for the past year, while Vigilant Booking handles DIY shows in San Diego. Both have supported Hatespeech with opportunities to play alongside solid bands and give kids space to enjoy live music and meet people. Quarantine Productions in Long Beach, active for several years, helped the band organize a benefit show and donation drive for the LA fires last year.
The nine-track album—featuring guest spots from Tormenta, Full Clip, Daryl Davon, Nunya, and Jackknife LA—runs twenty minutes straight through. David acknowledges most people can’t sit through that length in this climate, but the band doesn’t particularly care. “This album is meant to be an experience,” he says. The hope is to inspire kids getting into hardcore to write music about topics they’re passionate about, to empower themselves in what the band sees as a failing society “to do something of meaning and worth to them, and to utilize these spaces to create networks for people to feel supported as they transverse our degrading reality in this world.”
Their mission centers on bringing like-minded people together and supporting up-and-coming bands. They want people to run the album front to back, and if they don’t enjoy it, to create something better themselves and share it with the world.
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Captain Falc Studios, with album cover by Bza Blue, lyric art by Ndr0124, “Orange County” hits as non-stop, action-packed hardcore striking from the very first chord—a twenty-minute stretch where boredom doesn’t factor in.
