Hayden McGoogan – Black Heart Breakers – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Dom Daley
Sunday, 18 May 2014 03:40
To be honest 2014 started off quite slowly, unlike 2013 which had album after album being released, the quality of those albums just getting better as the year got going. So far we’ve been basking in the glory of only a handful of top ten bothering releases, and not from the hotbed of Glunk or power pop you might think. Black Heart Breakers were promising to release a great album and finally when it dropped we sat back and revelled in the glory that is the debut album and the boys from down under certainly have a record to be proud of so we decided to send over the Glunk pigeon with a few questions for the boys to mull over from their base in Sydney, Australia. Ladies and germs gather round and enjoy the wise words of Black Heart Breakers. 1-2-3-4, take it away boys….
Firstly tell us the background to the band? When did you get together? Where?
The initial foundations of the band started when Sean Anderson (lead guitarist) and myself discovered the Exploding Hearts. Instantly their music felt like ‘home’, they just felt right. From there Sean and I started writing a bunch of songs that were different to what we normally came up with. At the time we were listening to a lot of classic ’70s punk, like the Ramones, Dead Boys, The Undertones, Slaughter and the Dogs, the Boys, those kinda bands. Also on the stereo was ’50s/’60s pop like Beach Boys, Beatles, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran. We were also drawing influence from ’70s power pop like Big Star and Cheap Trick. Before we knew it we had an album’s worth of songs.
We needed a drummer, so straight away we sent Steve Woodward some rough demos of the album. He really liked the songs so he was on board. Sean and I were at a party in the inner-city with Ronnie Simmons (bass). We played him some rough demos, and he loved the songs and jumped on board. From there we went straight into rehearsals and in a few weeks, we started tracking the album.
How easy is it getting gigs and building up a following for your style of music in Australia? Is there any kind of scene we don’t know about on the other side of this globe we live on?
It can be quite tough. A lot of venues in Sydney, and around Australia in general, are dying out. I wouldn’t really call it a scene, but there are quite a few bands. There’s not a ‘punk scene’, or a ‘glam scene’, or a ‘soul scene’. There’s just a bunch of bands trying to play.
Who influenced the band in the way you guys look and play?
The music comes from all the aforementioned bands. The look comes from the same place really. We’ve all looked the way we do for quite some time now.
What are the plans for the band for the rest of the year? Any chance of touring in the US of A or Europe? And what about physical copies of the record where can people get hold of it?
The plan is to get this record out and people talking about it. Touring the USA and Europe would rule and is something we one day hope to do. In the long term I’m sure you’ll see us overseas. There’s not much here in Australia. Physical copies will be sold in Australia, with digital copies being sold around the world. But if someone’s willing to pay the shipping rate for a physical CD, we’ll definitely send one over.
Was it easy getting a band together in Sydney/Melbourne? If you don’t mind me saying it’s not the first place you’d associate with an album coming out from a bunch of guys with great taste in music looking like you guys do. Was it a challenge or is my preconception way off?
For us it was easy as we’ve all been great mates for a few years now, so when it came to putting a band together, we knew who we should ask. Yeah, Australia’s not really the sort of place you would associate the power pop punk style music that Black Heart Breakers play. Australian hard rock/pub rock though is amazing. Can’t beat Rose Tattoo and the Angels.
Was it easy then finding a studio to give the record the respect it deserved? You produced it yourselves – was that difficult or was one of you mainly in charge?
Finding a studio was easy. I’ve known Daniel Antix at the Lockup for a few years now. I knew he was great engineer who could deliver the results. We tracked drums and bass at the Lockup, and did the remaining tracks in my own home studio. Producing it ourselves was great! Sean and I knew exactly what sounds we were going after. When you have too many people offering their opinion on one thing, it can all become white noise. Also the fact that we did it in my own place made it that much more comfortable. Sean and I would spend weeks just sitting at mine listening to the tracks deciding what everything should sound like. I’m glad we produced it ourselves. Then when it came to mixing it, there was an obvious choice of who we wanted. So we just sent Pat Kearns an email asking if he’d be interested. So he mixed it, and ended up really liking the album. It was a really great, calm and relaxed process. No stress.
You’ve had some some very positive feedback: I know I loved the record and along with The Cry you have the two best records so far this year, no doubt about it. You both share similarities yet live on opposite sides of the earth – have you heard that record yet? It seems there are more and more bands coming out recently who are digging through the history books of ’60s and ’70s rock and roll and twisting it into something fresh: are you seeing that locally?
Thanks! We’re HUGE fans of The Cry. Their first album was on heavy rotation around the time we started getting together. There is definitely some sort of a global revival going on, I reckon. It’s not happening down here that much. There’s a couple of bands doing the ’80s glam/sleaze thing. But as far as the ’60s and ’70s sound? Not that common. But all around the world that seems to be more and more bands of that style popping up. It’s great.
You decided to record an album before even playing a show, is this true? If so that’s a brave step without building up a following live. you must have tested the songs out on people live? It’s great to have a confident young band writing such a strong album straight from the off. How prolific are you guys? Is there a bunch of other tunes written?
Yeah, the whole album was recorded before anyone really knew what we were doing. It just comes back to making the record for fun really. In the start it was more of a project than a band. We were confident in the songs.
We’re very strict on ourselves when we write. Going into the album, Sean and I had about 16 songs we were working on. If a song wasn’t cutting it, we got rid of it. We sent a bench mark that every song had to adhere to. We write as much as we can, we have about another album’s worth of material.
On the subject of writing, how is the songwriting broken down? Do you write the lyrics and melodies or what?
It’s always changing. Sean and I write the songs. The way we wrote the album was one of us would come up with an idea. That idea could be a lyric, a melody, some chords, a riff, anything. We would then meet up with acoustic guitars and flesh the song out. Then one of us would write some lyrics and the other would fix it up. Each song was generally one person’s ‘song’, with the other of one us making it better, adding ideas, etc. Almost all the songs on the album had the music first, then the melody, then the lyrics.
Any stories you can tell us about any of the tracks on the album: how they were written, about anyone / anything specific?
Oh man, I could give you a story about every song. Every song is in some way about, or inspired by something that’s happened. For example, ‘What Hurts The Most’ and ‘I Wanna Be Wanted’ are very specific songs about a certain someone I know.
What can people expect from a live show by you guys? Do you get to see many bands pass through town and is the opportunity there for you guys to tour at home and overseas? Would be great to see you guys over here.
A live show from is just that, a show. We play with the crowd, not for them. They’re apart of it. We like to try and engage and interact with every single person in the audience.
Plenty of great bands pass through us! There’s always a chance to see someone great. There are also a lot of great underground bands. Touring Australia is a bitch, because all the cities are so far away from each other, which makes it expensive. We would definitely love to come overseas! One day…
Just quickly what are you guys listening to at the moment? Other than the debut Black Heart Breakers album? Any local tips you can give us to go check out? You guys must be influencing other folks?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Elliott Smith at the moment. Really been digging his albums, such a great songwriter. Also been listening to a lot of Slaughter and the Dogs and Eddie and the Hot Rods.
As far as Sydney bands, definitely check out Fox Company, The Spirit and Steve Smyth.
Last question: is this the one and only line up there has been of the band?
So far. Sean and I have been playing together for 4 – 5 years and Ronnie and Steve have been playing together for around the same time. As Black Heart Breakers, we’ve been together for about a year.
So there you have it early days and after being together for just a year and making a record as good as the self titled debut I expect big things for these focussed rock and rollers. Check ’em out on face book and tell them the Ubers sent ya!!
https://www.facebook.com/blackheartbreakers
Buy the album here:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/black-heart-breakers/id859436632
[Photo kudos to Emmy Etié]