Bournemouth’s Heart In Hand blew us away when they opened Hatfield’s Slam Dunk Festival 2013. A few hours after, we got to chat with vocalist Charlie Holmes and bassist Carl Martin about their earlier performance, their brilliant second album ‘Almost There‘ and their upcoming UK headline tour. They had this to say…
HTF: So guys, how are you?
Charlie: Really good, thank you.
Carl: Yeah, great.
HTF: You absolutely nailed it on the Monster Energy stage earlier. How was it for you?
Carl: Oh, really? Thank you. It was awesome for us, too.
Charlie: Yeah, the sound on stage was really good. The crowd were really good. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.
HTF: Even though you were on so early, the tent was packed. Did you expect that many people to come?
Charlie: No, not at all. Yesterday at Leeds we didn’t really know what to expect because we’ve never played Slam Dunk before. We were on first and we just felt lucky to play and it was rammed yesterday as well.
HTF: So it went just as well at Leeds then?
Carl: Definitely, pretty much just like today. The tent was packed.
Charlie: The tent was bigger yesterday, as well.
Carl: We really didn’t expect the reception we got, so we were really surprised.
Charlie: Everyone is really into it here as well. I tell them to clap their hands and they all do it, even though we’re just the opening band.
HTF: Being first on, did you have any nerves?
Carl: Oh God, loads haha.
Charlie: It’s such a huge festival and to be the first band to play is crazy.
Carl: We feel like the small fellas here.
HTF: Does that not take the pressure off?
Charlie: Haha, no, it makes it worse. But, on the plus side, we get to go on stage and get the nerves out the way early. So now we can sit back and enjoy the festival as fans.
Carl: It definitely makes it worse, as we feel like we have to warm people up for the other acts. But we think we warmed the crowd up nicely. They seemed to enjoy it, anyway.
HTF: Your second album ‘Almost There’ has just been released. Have you had chance to work out its reception?
Charlie: Yeah, everyone has been loving it.
Carl: We’ve not really heard any negative feedback at all. It’s all been positive.
Charlie: And everyone seems to like it even more than the first record. So that’s really pleasing because we put a lot of effort in to it, a lot more than we did on the first record.
Carl: Considering a lot of our fans are really in to our first record, we were a bit sceptical about how it was going to come out – how it was going to be received, but people seem to love it.
HTF: Did you feel as though your music had to stay similar to the first album then?
Charlie: The new album is a lot more mainstream in a way. The songs are structured more, they have memorable choruses…
Carl: Regardless of the fact we don’t have any singing. We tried to give every song a catchy hook to it. We rely on the melody to come through in the lead guitars instead.
Charlie: The whole album is a lot more technical than the first as well.
Carl: But, we have always wrote music that we feel passionate about, regardless of whether people are going to like it or not. You can’t really tell what people will think, but if we like it then it goes on the record.
HTF: So what is the title ‘Almost There’ about? Where are you almost?
Charlie: The title track is about us as a band. How we feel like we are actually getting somewhere. People are opening their eyes and taking us on board and giving us a chance at last. We have been working so hard for years and now we are getting some recognition for it.
Carl: Just to play a show and getting kids coming up to you saying they really like our music is such a great feeling, you can’t compare it to anything else.
HTF: After the album’s positive response, do you feel a step closer to “there”?
Carl: Errm, no…
Charlie: No, no.
Carl: You’ll never be “there”. The minute that you’re satisfied with what you’re doing and you’re happy… You always have to strive for more.
Charlie: Yeah, we’re always going to be “almost there”. We’ve started writing for the new record already and that’s us making another step in a different direction. Hopefully we will just keep growing and growing as a band.
HTF: What kind of direction are you taking now then?
Charlie: Haha, we’re not going to give anything away…
Carl: It’s the same sound that we’ve always had…
Charlie: We will always sound like Heart In Hand, obviously, but…
Carl: We always try to take inspiration from loads of bands we are currently listening to, to develop our own sound. But we’ll always stay true to our sound.
Charlie: I am changing my vocals up a little bit on the next record, yeah. Every record we’ve done I sound different…
Carl: Even on our EP, which until now, I’d forgotten we even have to be honest haha. We don’t play any songs off it now, but the sound from there to our current album is completely different – you wouldn’t even think it was the same band.
Charlie: It’s mainly just vocals that will be different, but we’re still writing it, so anything could happen.
HTF: The release of ‘Almost There’ was put back a few months to coincide with the merge of Siege of Amida and Century Media. That’s clearly a marketing strategy for the labels, but did that benefit you as well?
Charlie: Errrm, a lot of people were upset about it because they thought the record was coming out in February, but for us, it was a huge step.
Carl: Overall, it benefitted us, yeah.
Charlie: Being able to say we’re signed to Century Media is awesome. I never thought in a million years would we end up on a label like that.
Carl: To get our music distributed here, in America, Australia, all over the world, is… I can’t put it in to words what that means.
HTF: It was definitely worth the wait, but did you ever doubt it would be?
Carl: At the time, yeah…
Charlie: You always have ups and downs. Writing this record was really, really hard and we fell out a few times over it. There were times when we could have quit. It was blood, sweat and tears, basically. But we are really pleased about it now.
Carl: We just take every day as it comes, try not to think too far into the future because you don’t know what’s going to happen.
HTF: So was it quite an uncomfortable few months?
Charlie: We recorded it last summer, so we have been sat on it for just short of a year now.
Carl: And as soon as you have something there, you just want to let it out.
Charlie: But it did really build some hype as we waited…
Carl: Anything that will get more people to listen to it is a good thing, so we were happy with how it all turned out.
HTF: You start your UK headline tour next week. Excited for it?
Charlie: Yeah we are, we haven’t toured the UK as a headliner for nearly two years. Last time was really busy, but hopefully this time there will be double the amount of people. We’re a lot bigger now, a lot more people have heard us, so hopefully it will be smashing. To be honest, though, we have been so busy that we haven’t had any time to think about it. Since Christmas we have had about four band practices…
Carl: We are always doing something. One minute we are on tour and then the next thing we know, we’re on tour again so it all just merges in to one.
Charlie: But this time, we are touring with our good friends Demoraliser. It’s going to be dangerous.
HTF: So you say you’re writing a new album already. Do you have any other future plans?
Charlie: Just more tours, really. But we really want to push another record out as quickly as possible because this one took such a long time to come out…
Carl: We are a lot more organised as a band now, compared to a couple of years ago. We started writing as soon as we finished the other album because we constantly have fresh ideas, everything flows really well. We just want to get in to the studio, record the new record and get it out there.
Charlie: And because we have been sat on this record since last summer, it isn’t new to us. We’ve heard it so many times, we’ve played it over so many times, that we also want to write new music for ourselves as well haha. We need some fresh material, really.
Interviewer: Matt Borucki
