What a special treat it was to have Heartless Bastards stop by Ardent Studios this afternoon to record some stripped down songs from their brand new record Arrow!
The Austin-based recorded with Spoon‘s drummer Jim Eno. Did you know he is not only a a record producer on the side but also a semiconductor chip designer? What?
Anyway, back to the band at hand! We had a great time spending the afternoon with them! We chatted about their recording process and who their influences were on the new record. And of course, they played us some tunes! So take a listen and if you are headed to SXSW, you’ll have plenty of chances to catch them play during one of their eleven sets during the conference!
Heartless Bastards are Erika Wennerstrom – Vocals, Guitar, Dave Colvin – Drums, Jesse Ebaugh – Bass, Mark Nathan – Guitar. Their story starts in Dayton, Ohio, where Wennerstrom found the name on a multiple choice video trivia game at a bar.
As a songwriting teenager during a time when GBV and Brainiac were packing local bars and three of the Breeders were still in town, Wennerstrom used to sneak into clubs to check out the scene. “I would just see those people—my music heroes—hanging out at the bar like everyone else,” she remembers. “I could see myself in them. It gave me inspiration to do my own thing.”
In true ascetic discipline, she moved to Austin, Texas in 2007 for a change of inspirational scenery and a new recording project. With the help of producer Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead), she assembled a group of musicians with whom she gave the songs life and uncovered yet another layer of Wennerstrom and the Heartless Bastards. Two of the new Bastards aren’t Texas ringers, but fellow Dayton brethren Dave Colvin on drums, and Jesse Ebaugh on bass, who actually played on the original demo that hooked Fat Possum, throw in one Austin native on guitar, Mark Nathan and you’ve got a new unstoppable force that “Take the stage and literally knock everybody down” – NY Times review of the Bastards SxSW record release performance.
Connect