Polyphia has come a long way as a band – from their start as a more shred-oriented band to making truly awe-inspiring guitar music good enough that Steve Vai took notice. They've also come a long way from their super edgy personas of talking insane amounts of shit about everyone else and making comments about them being their own favorite band. Which now sucks because even though Polyphia were kids when they were making those comments, they haven't quite gone away.
In an interview with Dragonforce guitarist Herman Li, Henson discussed how the band has grown since those early days and why they chose that avenue as their marketing tactic.
"As we were starting out and even with the last record… The last record particularly — we were going for just saying anything and everything to bring attention to the record. The first press release that we did, we insulted [Ronnie Radke] and call [him] a dildo.
"It was similar to when Tyler, the Creator before he was like a huge artist tweeted at Chris Brown just talking shit to him, to the point where Chris Brown actually responded. And then it became a thing that people know who Tyler, the Creator is now because he was talking shit to Chris Brown.
"And just taking inspiration from a lot of things that were going on at that time of like 2017-2018. That was like, right when Lil Pump came out and just like a bunch of super ignorant… Just kind of being a dumbass online. And that was the shtick that we were going for.
"What you were saying — you say something, and then they [the public] just hold on to it forever. We're still dealing with the consequences of that, mostly me. And hence some of these getting done dirty jobs that are happening currently.
"But, you know, I guess it's to be expected. It's also like a learning process and it's gonna take 10 or so years of doing press to get past it, I guess."
