Last month, Brighton band The Heavy Heavy released their debut album, One of a Kind. A full-length follow-up to their 2023 EP, Life and Life Only, their new material departs from their previous folk-rock sound, and explores new avenues centred around the band’s British roots, drawing on the iconic retro styles from the likes of The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Following a series of six in-store UK dates to celebrate the album’s release, we caught up with The Heavy Heavy co-founder Will Turner for an insight into the album, before the band head out on the road with their new material in the US.
(Rowan Driver): Hey! How are you doing?
(Will Turner): I’m doing very well thank you, I just got back from a UK record store tour and now we’re literally packing to fly to America tomorrow for 6 weeks. It’s a little bit frantic but we’re all good.
(RD): Good! I’m looking forward to hearing about the record store tour and I do have a few questions for you about that, but firstly, could you take us back to the beginning and talk a little bit about where the project began? How did you guys get into making music together as The Heavy Heavy?
(WT): Yeah, sure thing. Georgie [Fuller – co-founder of The Heavy Heavy] and I met years and years ago on another project for somebody else that I was recording, and Georgie was doing some vocals on. I knew of her from that point and, as the years rolled on, I was in another band that was very 60s retro again and all of a sudden, I was recording Georgie’s vocals on another project. I just tried Georgie’s vocals on one of my demos for my old band and it really worked, so we instantly thought, oh this is a thing. We put the vocals on top of that, but nothing really happened for a few years. Then I moved to London and me and Georgie just made loads of demos which leaked into lockdown, but that sort of became the first EP. So, it’s a ten-year beginning really, from just sort of knowing each other from other projects – The Heavy Heavy was born sort of into lockdown and during lockdown we made all these songs, then these Americans rang us up and off we went really!
(RD): So, you’ve just dropped an album! Tell me about that – what were your main inspirations? Did you have any specific influences?
(WT): We wanted to build on the sounds from our EP and make it slightly more bombastic and bolder – big in its nature – so we took big influences from the Rolling Stones really. We listened to a lot of Goats Head Soup during lockdown. With that period, we’re really into the heavier, groovier, grittier side of the sounds, as opposed to the slightly more beautiful folky sound of Laurel Canyon which was the sound of the first EP. So, we just wanted to make it a bit more like Led Zeppelin and Small Faces, or even things like Oasis and the Britpop sound – we just wanted to make it louder and prouder. That sort of seeped into how we did the songs, so they’re a bit more in your face and I like to say we brought a lot of the live music sound into it, much like The Who, who would be a lot louder and more bombastic live than they were in records. So, we thought we should have a bit more of that in our record.
(RD): The album demonstrates a shift in sound from some of your previous releases and is notably different from the EP, how would you categorise your style with this album?
(WT): This one I very much more rock, than folk, I would say. There are lots of names that people use to describe it and I’m not sure we know what the best words are. It’s obviously retro in its nature – it’s bombastic soul rock, I would say.
(RD): Is this a choice you made consciously, or simply a natural evolution as you continue to grow artistically?
(WT): It was a bit of both, we wanted to kick the door down with it being our debut album. We wanted to sound very loud and proud about it and sure of what we are. But also, the sound of our live music was naturally a lot heavier – rawer and bolder – so we thought this is what people like and if we can capture a bit of it the record then this is good.
(RD): Is there a particular song you feel sums up the album perfectly? As in, if someone was going to hear just one song as an introduction to this album, are there any you think it should be?
(WT): That’s a good question. The title track is very much like “kick the door down, here we are”. There’s the song ‘Dirt’, which is a good one because it has a very soft verse. I call it hot and cold – the verse is cool and breezy, and it hits you in the chorus with the heavier power chords. It is sort of a nod to ramble on by Led Zeppelin, so that’s a good one.
(RD): So, as you mentioned, you’ve just finished a series of UK dates – how was it taking the album on tour for the first time?
(WT): It was cool, it was different in a lot of ways because we’ve been playing a lot of these songs on the road in America and getting used to them. They were played before we recorded the album a lot, so we’re used to them, but some we’ve never played live before so that was great. Having them in the real world, it was quite different. We toured with a pared down line up – we don’t have our drummer with us so for most of the shows we’ve just done we had a reduced line up, which made the songs sound different anyway. That was cool. It was all good, a very positive new dawning for us.
(RD): Do you find there’s any difference playing the songs you’re used to playing already from before they were released with the album compared to after? Do you enjoy them as much? Do you enjoy playing them more?
(WT): It’s good because we know now people will have listened to them before playing them. Before, every time anyone’s heard us play one of the new songs, they’ve never heard it before. So, going out this past week, the album had been out a couple of days and the sort of people who are going to come see us at the record stores are the sort that will have bought and listened to the album before getting there. So, we know when we’re playing the new songs, the chances are that people have heard them at home and potentially know the words. We did hear some people singing the new lyrics to songs that we’ve never played live, within 3 days of it being out.
(RD): That must be pretty cool, hearing people sin your own lyrics back to you. What has been your favourite song to play from the album? Is there anything audiences have particularly taken to straight off the bat?
(WT): ‘Wild Emotion’, we’ve had a lot of messages saying that people love that one, and it’s one we haven’t played live so it’s brand new to people. Also, the last song, ‘Salina’. It is a big epic production and lots of people have been messaging about that one. We haven’t played it live yet as we’re not sure how were going to do it, but I believe that’s something we’re going to work out.
(RD): So, you’re playing some shows in America?
(WT): Yep, we fly out to America – we have 6 weeks of shows, starting, with a show in New York. It’s [at] the music hall at Williamsburg, which will be our biggest New York show.
(RD): And you’re heading to Europe in February – is that right? Is there anywhere you’re particularly excited to play, either from a musical perspective or just as tourists?
(WT): Yeah, we have one date in London, and we also go to Ireland, Switzerland, The Netherlands and a few more places for a couple of weeks. We love playing in America, but we’ve nearly been everywhere there. Europe is a new frontier for us. We have never been to Switzerland – anywhere in Europe is fascinating for us, but Switzerland is going to be very cool, I have never been.
(RD): What about yourselves generally? What are you listening to a lot of at the moment?
(WT): We get asked this a lot. We are surrounded by playing all the time, so personally I find it hard to listen to music when we are not on stage. I listen to a lot of what I guess you’d call “meditation music”. There’s one album in particular by John Hopkins – who’s obviously a well-known producer – called Music for Psychedelic Therapy, and I listen to that nearly every day. It’s like the antidote to all of the noise that comes with rock music. Jalen Ngonda is someone I’ve been listening to a lot, and we listen to a lot of idols, but mostly it’s the meditation music. There’s just so much noise so we like to take any escape we can get.
(RD): Before we wrap, is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t covered?
(WT): No, just listen to the album, take it in. We’re at the beginning of our journey, even if we’ve been round the block a few times now, but we are very much at the start of the journey and if you like cool music and things that sound like gold, have a listen.
The Heavy Heavy are due to return to the UK in February to play London’s Scala on 19 February. Their debut album, One of a Kind, is out now.
