What is Hater?
Hater was a side project put together by Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd. Formed in 1993 during the ‘post-tour syndrome’ which followed Soundgarden’s place on the Lollapalooza bill, the band included former Monster Magnet guitarist John McBain, singer Brain Wood and bassist John Waterman. Hater’s self-titled and self produced album of late 1993 was written mostly at Ben’s house and took the better part of five days to complete. Ben explains: “It wasn’t an industry thing, but actually a backlash from so much touring, playing the same songs over and over” (Guitar Player, April 1994). Interestingly, the first Hater seed was sown when Stuart Hallerman asked Ben to record a solo single for A&M, Ben noting that “I wanted to do it for the fun of it, to escape the whole industry…Well, it took on a life of its own.” (Guitar World, July 1997) In 1996 Matt was asked what the status of Hater was, to which he responded “We’ve got a new record kind of waiting around. Ben wants to remix stuff but it’
