Heathen Hearts is a new hardcoreband from Kotka
in Finland. I wanted to be one of the first who
interviewed them because I think they will be
really big in some years.
June-2022
Please tell me a little about the history of the
group and the members right now. Age, family,
bands before and on the side
-
We are a pretty new band,
actually started making music
and rehearsing together only
last autumn 2021.
Our ages vary from close to 30
to a bit over 40. Mentally we
are all still youngsters, and
that’s how it’s supposed to be.
We all have been playing in
different bands from teenagers,
and at the moment some of us
have more bands than just one,
and some of us don’t.
Have it been many lineup changes?
-
Thank god no, and hopefully
never will. We’ve been very fit
together, good on personal and
musical levels, even though
we’re all pretty different
personalities and coming from
different musical backgrounds.
Heathen Hearts, how did that name come up? What
does it mean? You were never afraid that another
band already was called so?
-
It was our vocalist Antti, who
came up with that name, and he
did a proper search that at
least there should not be any
other band named “Heathen
Hearts”. The name stands for
non-christian beliefs, which in
our minds could be transformed
into anything a person wants to
believe. Believing in yourself
for example.
Is it still important to release physical
records? Or can you feel that you have done a
record if you only release it digitally? Will
you do anything with this release with three
songs you did recently?
-
We decided to do this first
release only as digital, since
we paid ourselves for the
recording / mixing / mastering,
music videos and the promotion
in Finland and all over the
world. We are vinyl enthusiasts,
and making a physical release is
expensive, but we definitely are
eager to do that, hopefully on
our second release. If not
vinyl, hopefully at least a CD.
You have never been to Sweden and played or? If
you not have when do you come?
-
Not yet. We are hoping to start
conquering the Nordic countries
as soon as possible. We are
currently booking gigs in
Finland, and hopefully expanding
the borders soon. (Promoters
wink wink)
Which countries have had the pleasure to be
hearing the band live?
-
None so far, except our hometown
Kotka in Finland, in which we
just played our first show.
Which was pretty awesome and
insane show to be honest.
When you do songs, how do you do, are you
jamming together or do someone comes with a
lyric and some with the music or how do you do
your songs?
-
Well the first raw demos, riffs
and melodies are made at home
studio whenever riffs or rhythms
or ideas come to mind. Antti
writes most of the lyrics, and
all the final arrangements are
done at the rehearsal room by
all the members of the band.
It seems like your lyrics are important, is
there anything you not will write a song about?
Please tell me a little about the following
lyrics
Ichor
Loyal to sacrifice
-
Loosely based on the poem "Roll
the Dice" by Charles Bukowski.
If you're going to try, go all
the way.
World of ash
-
We are nothing but hollow shells
How is it to live in Finland nowadays, racists,
politics , Nato,covid etc?
-
It sure has been quite chaotic
everywhere these past few years.
Are you calling yourself a punkband,
hardcoreband, metalcoreband or just call you a
rockband? Is it important to mention punk in the
same time you talk about your band? What is your
thoughts about punk when you started and if you
compare with punk today?
-
We call ourselves northern
hardcore, since in our music
there are bits and pieces from
all of our favorite genres. Punk
and hardcore is as much an
attitude as a music genre, and
with us taking a lot of
influences from metal, we
definitely have the punk
attidute going strong.
Do you have any favorite football team(I support
Arsenal myself)?
-
FC St. Pauli and of course our
hometown team KTP which plays in
finnish first division. The home
of Teemu Pukki.
Beer is expensive in Sweden. I have a very big
interest in beer and brew myself? Your favourite
beerstyle ? You don´t have an own Heathen
Hearts-beer? Or maybe you are straightedge?
-
All of us enjoy beer of all
kind, sometimes even a bit too
much so no straight edges here,
even though huge respect to
those who are. But IPAs have
been a favorite for many.
Is there any thought on a LP/CD or something
like that?
-
We would love to release an LP
or 7” EP one day! Hopefully that
day will come soon.
What is your strength when you play live?
-
All of us have been playing gigs
since we were teenagers, and
everybody knows how big a deal
that is when you are playing
music. We are an honest,
aggressive band and that’s what
we wanna show to people on our
live shows and stage presence.
No need to act, just play and
let the music and attitude
speak.
Which type of people comes to your concerts?
Which type of people do you miss?
-
We are trying to figure this out
by booking more shows to play in
the near future.
Do you buy much records, or is it only Spotify
and those type of things to listen to music?
-
Yes we are buying vinyls, CD’s
and cassettes even though the
streaming platforms might be the
most common way of listening to
music these days. But it is
direct support to the artist
when you buy physical music or
merchandise, and we totally
support that, and of course
whenever you have time at home
to spin a record, it is the
first choice.
Are you selling any merch on your gigs, do
people buy it?
-
We don’t have any merchandise at
the moment to sell at gigs. We
just opened up a merchandise
store at
unomas.fi/heathenhearts
which has world wide shipping.
We are planning to make a small
storage with different print to
sell only at live shows in the
future.
Which is your own favoritesong among your own
songs? And which song is the people choice?
-
We are all happy about how the
first EP turned out to be, so
all in all, depends on the mood
which song we prefer. And of
course, the best songs are
already written but not yet
released. We have received very
nice reviews in finland for all
the media, and from the public,
the opinion of the best song
have varied between all three
songs from the EP. All the songs
have their own vibe to it.
What´s the biggest difference when you plays
live nowadays if you compare when
you first started to play in a band? Or is this
your first band maybe?
-
Of course as a youngster you try
to push yourself beyond your
skills and get excited about
everything, and maybe even think
about being better than you
actually are. Now we are
actually focusing on making
good, catchy and aggressive
music, which we can play live
without too much stress.
Do you care about reviews? Which is the most
peculiar you ever had, with this band or any
other band you have been to?
-
Of course it has been nice to
get good feedback, and
promotion, but we are making
music for ourselves and for
expressing ourselves. For this
EP, we’ve got some very good
reviews, which is a nice bonus,
but not affecting anything on
what we are going to do in the
future.
If you could choose five bands from the past and
the history and nowadays and both dead and
living bands to have a concert together with
your band. Which five have you been chosen?
-
Our favorites vary so much so
it's hard to answer just five.
Is music a good way to get out frustration and
become a nicer person outside the music?
-
For us, music is a way to
express ourselves in a way that
no other form of art can come
even close. Whether that has an
affect on us in everyday life,
that needs to be asked from our
friends and family.
What shall a young guy do today to shock their
parents as the way we did when we were young?
They have already seen everything
?
-
Getting a face tattoo as a young
person would be pretty shocking
for parents
Is it boring with interviews? Is it much
interviews? What do you prefer
Telephoneinterviews, face to face or as this one
via e-mail?
-
We don’t find it boring at all.
We have now done a couple of
interviews and they have all
been via email. It sure would be
nice to do some face to face
interviews one day!
Any Swedish bands you like
-
Since most of us grew up with
Swedish melodic death metal, we
need to mention the obvious; At
The Gates, In Flames, Dark
Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Amon
Amarth etc. From newer bands
some of us love Ghost and of
course closer to our genre,
Wolfbrigade and Disfear are
amazing. And obviously everyone
loves Abba.
Wisdomword?
-
Keep your feets tightly on the
ground, nobody has the right to
stand above others.
Something more to add?
-
Keep supporting music and bands,
go to live shows, buy records,
buy merch and make a noise if
you find something new and
interesting.
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