STR Chatz: Young and Heartless discuss band's overall success
STR also had the opportunity to meet up with Young and Heartless, four dudes hailing from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The guys discuss the band's growth, some favorite holiday family traditions, and the coming together of their latest release, The Pull of Gravity.
Discuss the growth your band has experienced before and after the release of The Pull of Gravity.
Jeremy: We’ve just been continually been doing a lot more, getting a lot better shows, getting used to playing the songs live. This release was definitely the most mature one we have had so far. I feel like we are really gaining momentum.
Brian: I think with the first one, it was just him[Jeremy] and he wrote a majority of the songs. It was Jeremy, I and two other guys that we are not going to talk about. They ended up leaving and Jake and Britain came in. With Death In Color we started doing our own thing, feeling each other out. With The Pull of Gravity we found our niche.
What do you feel the biggest struggle you endure with being in a band?
Jeremy: Touring and playing really bad shows is really the hardest thing to endure. You’ll play one then you will be like “Oh, I gotta play this again tomorrow.” Britain and I have been in bands for a long time before this one and we got used to the punk-grind of touring. We were okay with not making any money. It’s more about morale, keeping positive about where you are going. On a normal tour you will play really great shows, but sometimes in between those shows it’s hard to keep your morale high.
Jake: You can be in a really good mood then instantly turn everyone in a bad mood. I’m usually the one that does that.
How do you draw in new listeners who have not heard of your band?
Jeremy: Here’s the thing, we are not a really fun band. We write pretty emotional songs as far as dealing with harder issues than my girlfriend just broke up with me. Generally as band in our genre, we play a lot more of down tempo songs.
Britain: Our songs are sort of specific when it comes to the situation so whenever someone can relate to that, they are more drawn to it. It’s more of a connection.
Aside from playing GK Fest, what are some other things you are wrapping up with 2014?
Britain: We are playing a couple more of local shows. We are not doing much, we started writing.
Brian: I’m getting a left handed guitar; I am pretty stoked about that.
What are the many elements that came with writing songs like “Desk Rot?”
Jeremy: The whole thing is a concept from front to back. The first song is about a boy who saves this girl from overdosing on drugs and takes her back to his house and takes care of her. He ends up growing close to her and they go to school together. He finds that he is getting more popular because of her. It’s this fight that he likes the girl but he is starting to use her. The whole album she experiences mental issues such as anorexia and cutting, that’s what he sees starting to happen there because he is starting to use her more and it’s starting to take a toll on her.
Britain: It’s more on his heartbreak throughout their relationship.
Christmas is less than two weeks away, any favorite holiday celebrations?
Brian: I go to Festivus every year.
Jeremy: It’s a lot of family stuff. One of my favorite things is my mom always burns sticky buns in the morning, like accidently burns them every single year, but now since everyone is 21, my mom starts making mimosas in the morning. It helps smooth the holidays a little bit.
Who would you like to see as album of the year?
Jeremy: Interpol’s new release was pretty good. The Hotelier put out a really good album.
STR Chatz: Light Years to end 2014 with two more shows
STR met up with Kent natives, Light Years, this past weekend at the Glamour Kills Holiday Festival. The guys talk about their ending plans for 2014, some of their favorite tour memories, and what's in stores for 2015.
Pat: Tommy and I played in high school in bands together and they were very bad. After high school we started Light Years in 2009. We had different members, different guitarist, [and] different drummer. We were going to school at Kent State. I finally wanted to make a band. Tommy and I have liked the same music for a long time. I was never in a band that I liked until now. We started that, did an E.P. and met people who said we should do a tour. We met this band Pentimento. Our roommate, Jason Parent, booked a tour for us across the country. We stopped going to school because we just wanted to tour. And now Jason Parent is a very successful booking agent. He works for APA [Agency] and books bands like Real Friends and Modern Baseball. But he was just a moron that we used to live with so it’s pretty crazy. We just toured a lot and kept going.
Discussing your U.S./European Tour with Pentimento from 2012, can you recall any favorite moments?
Tommy: Lance, the guitar player, meant to throw an apple at the drummer, and threw it at my face. I saw Lance about a month ago and he still apologizes every time I see him.
Pat: Literally in Europe they treat you like you are KISS. There were about 10 people at the shows and they bought us a hotel room in Austria where we ran around naked and a lady yelled at us. Europe the first time was insane, no expectations, just having fun. Even with the U.S. one, it was my first time going to California, I was freaking out.
What are some other countries you would like to see as a band?
Tommy: Australia, I really want to go there.
Pat: We just announced a tour in Japan with Fireworks which is one of the bucket list checks to go to Japan.
In just the last year with your release of I Won’t Hold This Against You to your recent release of Temporary, where do you see the biggest growth in your music between the two releases?
Pat: When we released Temporary, we have been told that it’s our best stuff by many people. I really like it, it’s something I would listen to. We just write songs that we like. We don’t really think, “Oh will kids be into this, can we sound like Real Friends?”
Going off your previous statement, did you think about that when you were writing Temporary, or did you just go with what your gut said?
Pat: It was very natural; we didn’t force anything such as we didn’t need to have a part that kids can sing along to or a part that’s sad. This is what we feel right now, these are the songs, this sounds great.
Closing 2014, aside from the Glamour Kills Holiday Fest, how else will you be ending the year?
Pat: Next weekend we are playing the Man Overboard holiday show. The last show we will play this year is December 27 in Chicago with Real Friends at The Metro. Every year for the past three years we’ve played with Real Friends after Christmas so it’s kind of a tradition. It’s very fun, they are great guys.
Christmas season is just around the corner, do you guys have any favorite traditions?
Pat: I just remember old memories of putting up our Christmas tree with my family and it always ended in a fight. Literally, my step mom would just cry and put it up herself. Now I am on my own.
Tommy: I’ve only did it one year and it was when I lived with Pat a couple of years ago. We put up a Christmas tree and spent a lot on decorations. Then we had a party and I got to smash the Christmas tree. It was a lot of fun.
If you could nominate one band for album of the year, who would it be?
Tommy: I would say Fireworks, No Common Life was probably the thing I listened to the most this year.
STR Chatz: Highlives Comes Out Strong With Final Lineup
This week, STR caught up with Bristol pop-punk natives, Highlives and had a chance to talk about the many change-ups the band has saw in the last year. As the year comes to a close, the band has been preparing for the next step in 2015.
To provide new listeners with some background about your band, when did you guys first meet and how long have you been playing together?
Liam: It’s been since 2012, I think. I met Mark first, he introduced me to Jordan, our guitarist. Him and Jordan were in a metal band called Hayley is a Hitman. I joined on bass and we played one gig together at The Croft in Bristol. We left that band to start Highlives. It started with three members, and then we added another member which was Jack. It was the beginning of this year really when we got Steve, our new drummer and everything changed around; that was the lineup we settled on. There have been a lot of changes before that. We had different music that we played [but] we ended up scrapping everything.
In time since your formation, what types of shows have you had the opportunity to play?
Liam: We played with As It Is and that was in London. We had Jack in, we had three guitarists at the time and that wasn’t working out. That was part of the reason why when we re-recorded with Steve because we were all over the place. As far as our lineup, we didn’t know who was playing what. It was all unorganized. We've more recently played with a few bands [such as] Kids Can’t Fly. We played with Neck Deep which was really fun and that was in Wrexham which is where they are from. We played with A World Defined in London. That’s where we recorded our music video for “Through Vacant Eyes.” They were a really cool band.
Mark: Empty Hands
What has fan reception been like for “Through Vacant Eyes?”
Liam: It’s been really good actually. We did an acoustic song as well, “Cold Feet,” I’m really happy with that but other than that this was the first recording that we were really happy with. Our friends were in the music video as well.
Mark: They make us look good in it.
You put out an E.P. back in 2013 and then you put out another one this year, how has your style transformed between the two?
Mark: We listened to the first one the other day [and] Liam sounds really high pitched. It’s so different from the new stuff.
Liam: I think that we didn’t know what we were doing. The quality of it wasn’t great and most of the vocals weren’t timed. It was very early days; it’s not what we want people to listen to.
Going off that, what do you want people to hear when they first listen to you?
Liam: We want a good reaction. We didn’t feel like we would get that from our original stuff. I think I even remember when we recorded we were not super happy with it. We were very new to it and we didn’t know what we were doing. I think now we got a much better grip on what we need to do.
You have an upcoming split with Nothing Gold Can Stay coming out December 16, what can fans expect from that?
Mark: It’s quite easy core and pop-punk, they’re two very different songs.
Any upcoming tour[s] in the works?
Liam: I’ve been talking to a band about doing a weekend tour. We’ve talked about a longer tour, nothing is confirmed yet. We want to go to new places because we keep playing where we live in Bristol, we just want to branch out more. We got a gig in Shefield which is really random. That’s the only one that is confirmed, but that’s not a proper tour, that’s just a one-off gig. If we gig, we are going to go to Manchester for a weekend tour and play in Bristol as well.
Who would you nominate for Album of the Year?
Mark: Trophy Eyes
Liam: I’m really not sure what my choice would be. I would say Knuckle Puck
Head North have officially signed to Bad Timing Records and will release a new EP in Spring 2015. The band is giving away their song “In The Water” here for a free download for new fans to get acquainted.
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Last Monday, STR met up with Albany natives, Concrete, and discussed the nature of touring, production and their recent experience with playing Oneonta Punk.
You can pick up their latest split with Hammerfirst, out November 18th via Irish Voodoo Records.
For more on Concrete, check out: Bandcamp, Facebook, Irish Voodoo Records
The Sidekicks Sign To Epitaph And Release “Deer” From ‘Runners In The Nerved World’
The Sidekicks are releasing Runners In The Nerved World on January 20th via Epitaph Records. Stream a brand new song from the album called “Deer” here via Noisey or below.
U.K. pop-punkers, Roam, have recently signed to Hopeless Records. Their latest E.P. Viewpoint is set to release January 27, 2015. You can check out their newest single "Warning Sign" off the upcoming release.
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