terça-feira, 4 de julho de 2017

Keepsake with Heavy Heart - An Interview


"Keepsake" é o debute do quinteto britânico Heavy Heart, e assim, ele foi lançado em Fevereiro deste ano, mas parece ser uma preciosidade esquecida dos 90´s, remetendo diretamente a delicias sonoras como Velocity Girl, Madder Rose e outras queridinhas desde sempre.

Guitar pop bubblegum, absolutamente viciante, com ares ensolarados e exalando amor em suas doze pérolas.

Se lhe falta felicidade, alegria, energia positiva e vibrações para seguir vivendo alegremente, faça um favor a si mesmo, medique-se diariamente com o Heavy Heart e seus problemas vão desaparecer.

Delicioso.

***** Interview with Heavy Heart *****


Q. When did Heavy Heart start? Tell us about the history...
Heavy Heart started as a name before it was really a band. After my previous band broke up, I was sitting in creative limbo, waiting for the next wave to pick me up. I had written a few songs and was just playing them by myself at parties and low-key things, and the name seemed to embody the way I felt and the sound of the music I was making. I’d put a few demos out and wanted to be able to play them as a full band, so I got together with the guys and we put out those songs as our first tape, ‘This Season’. Last year, we embarked upon a project to write, record and release a new song every month. It was much more of a challenge than we’d anticipated when we casually said we’d do it, but we stuck to it and I think it helped us grow as writers, and gave us a real focus and discipline. In March this year, we released the entire collection of twelve songs through I Can & I Will Records as a limited-edition vinyl LP called 'Keepsake' (http://www.icanandiwill.bigcartel.com/product/heavy-heart-keepsake-lp-pre-order).

Q: Who are your influences?
The artists who have particularly inspired me are things like Pixies, Jeff Buckley, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, REM, Queens Of The Stone Age, Joni Mitchell... I mean, I love Nine Inch Nails too, but maybe that’ll be more evident in the next lot of songs!

Q. Make a list of 5 albums of all time…
Impossible to choose... but if I had to pick five, I think it'd be...
Joni Mitchell - Hejira
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Pixies - Doolittle
Jeff Buckley - Grace

Q. How do you feel playing live?
Excited, elated, nervous, in love, angry, beautiful, ugly... all the important stuff! You work away at these songs, both in the studio and the practice room, and then you take them to a live setting and it’s really exciting, suddenly they come to life in a new way. You never quite know if it will work, or how it will come across, but I think the best live performances always teetering on the fine line between triumph and disaster.

Q. How do you describe Heavy Heart sounds?
I think of our music as a melancholy thing, a heart which has surrounded itself with barbed wire, thorns, thunder and loud guitars. I think there is a kind of fragility in our songs - they’re bitter-sweet, pretty-ugly - I always imagine the calm point at the centre of a storm. Craig’s motorik beats are very much at the heart of every track - he gives us a skeletal structure and we flesh it out with fuzz, and wash and noise.


Q: Tell us about the process of recording the songs ?
Well, for the whole of last year, we were very regimented and strict with ourselves because we were having to crush the entire songwriting, recording and release process into a single month. So normally I would come up with the bones of an idea by myself, with basic guitar chords, melody and rough lyrics, and then I’d take that as a demo to the rest of the band and we’d build it from there. Patrick, who plays guitar in the band, also produced all the music, so he had a big role in shaping the sound you hear on the record. Once we had the idea formed, we’d then do these overnight sessions in a studio to record drums, guitars etc, and finish off by recording vocals, and I’d often be writing the final lyrics at the same time. Then it would be a case of mixing and mastering, and designing some artwork, and getting it all up online. We did everything ourselves, so sometimes we were working right up until the last moment before the end of the month. It was quite a challenging process and, although I’m happy with the results, I’m also looking forward to taking a different approach to the next songs we write.

Q. Which new bands do you recommend?
There are so many great new bands around right now, but check out LIINES and Showboy (formerly Jovis and the Bedwetters). Both intensely brilliant bands live and on record.

Q: Which band would you love to made a cover version of?
We did a cover of ‘Sweetness Follows’ by REM a while back, and that was a very interesting song to unpick. You can learn a lot about songwriting from other artists by examining and covering their music, so it’s a useful process. But it can also just be fun to play a song you really love, so I guess if I were to choose another cover, it would be ‘Fell On Black Days’ by Soundgarden, in tribute to the great Chris Cornell.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
We’re writing some new songs at the moment, just working out what to do with them. Other than that, a few more shows to be announced and a few more adventures to be had.

Q: Any parting words?
How about… "The owls are not what they seem."
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Thanks

http://www.heavyheart.co.uk
http://www.soundcloud.com/heavyheartmusic
http://weareheavyheart.bandcamp.com
http://www.twitter.com/heavyheartmusic
http://www.facebook.com/heavyheartmusic