Music / Dan Taylor
The Heavy: Heavy Duty
With so much raw energy and so many different genres in their music it’s hard to feel bored listening to The Heavy, who play Somerset’s Shindig Weekender at the end of this month. During an enjoyable interview with guitarist and co-writer Dan Taylor, we talk about the excitement their music inspires. Though Dan met bandmate Kelvin 15 years ago, it was ten years before they released their first album, with the anthemic How’d You Like Me Now? catapulting them to stardom in 2009.
“Yeah, that was a big moment for us, our first global thing,” Dan recalls. “But that didn’t really blow up until a year later – it’s a weird thing. We released it on a small label and there wasn’t a huge marketing budget, so you’re not on the radio or in people’s faces all the time – it’s more of a natural progression in a way.”
How did fame feel, coming from a fairly quiet town? “It felt pretty natural. I guess we always really believed in what we were doing, so personally I couldn’t believe it had taken as long as it had! It was never overwhelming, because we’ve always had a plan. Writing albums, then touring – that was all part of it, just an amazing adventure. It took us out of Bath where nothing was really going on, but I guess that made us focus on what we were doing.”
is needed now More than ever
We touch on the ‘move to London’ progression a lot of artists tend to take and how the band avoided it, aware that the cost of living would detract from their creative process – refreshing to hear in a world where so many people seem to want fame.
“Without putting the work in!” Dan says with a laugh, “I know, it’s unbelievable, this shortcut to celebrity. If you want something to be truly great and to stand by itself it requires more determination and dedication that you could ever imagine. It really does take everything you’ve got in terms of your creative energy. You have to really be it.”
Did that time spent result in a steadfast knowledge of your sound? “Yeah, I think so. We weren’t particularly influenced by any scene, we were just doing our own thing and I think that’s what people have picked up on. We do it our own way. We record our own way, write our own way and have as much control as we can – it’s almost like our own little world. I think that’s what they like in America, these guys from England doing their own raucous kind of hip hop/rock thing that we do.”
Were there any challenges in creating the band’s last album Hurt & The Merciless? “We took a more live route, tried to record it in a more traditional fashion, actually getting in a room and playing. It was an opportunity to record in a more old-school way and not rely quite so much on technology.”
And which crowds have they found the most memorable during their worldwide tours? “Japan’s great, absolutely nuts. And I really like playing in England, I must admit – Bristol is one of my favourite places to play because it feels like home. I remember playing the Arc Bar in Bristol, do you remember that? Playing on the floor at the same level as everybody and it felt like a punk gig.”
The Heavy play Shindig Weekender, Gilcombe Farm, Somerset, May 26-28. For more info and to buy tickets, go to www.shindig-events.co.uk
Find all this month’s music listings at b247.staging.proword.press/whatson/music
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