Heavy Birds to kickoff HBR CMJ Madness! (interview + video)

Happy weekend, dear readers. We're lucky to have Heavy Birds, kicking off Hearts Bleed Radio CMJ Showcase #1 at Legion Bar on 10/17/13. Heavy Birds are a slow, spacey, pretty-but-ragged, rock band from Brooklyn (by way of Boston). I had a brief chat with vocalist/guitarist Ryan Drag (with multi-instrumentalist Lia Mooney somewhere off in the ether, yet nearby). Here's the transcript:


Hearts Bleed Radio: So for starters, give me a brief history of the band.

Ryan: Lia and I met in Boston and I asked her to be in my not so punk band, and she refused. I then moved in with her, and we decided to find our "own sound" together. We both love playing, so it was a natural progression. Plus, we both are into the same style of music. New York City also changed our ears, and we feel that Heavy Birds, as it is now, is finally what we originally wanted.

HBR: What are you guys into? Without name dropping, how would you describe you influences and the resulting sound?

Ryan: Rawness, minimalism, drones. We are listening to Spacemen 3, the Stooges, Velvets, Miles Davis- on the corner. We call ourselves space punk. Our drummer is into Tony Conrad & Faust.

HBR: Ryan's parts seem to be more song-form, while Lia's are textural. How important is the texture of your sound, compared to more traditional aspects of music, like melody/harmony/etc?

Ryan: Both aspects are equally as important. There is a lot of melody happening within Lias playing, and I lay a movement to form a base (sometimes) for my words. We prefer speaking vocals with what we do. The layers make us different, we think the "traditional" song-form is not for us at the moment. Plus, we started as a two piece and had to thicken the sound...

HBR: How did NYC "change your ears?"

Ryan: The city has a constant noise/drone. Also hip-hop. We love beats now, and love mixing the two. With our new material, one can simply listen and/or dance.

HBR: Are you working on a new recording? Is there a new album on the way?

Ryan: Yes. We have just finished an LP titled "Drag", and are working on another. We're looking for a label now before we release it.

HBR: Other than the show on 10/17, is there anything else you want to plug?

Ryan: We are also playing Trash Bar the night before, and will do some different songs for both shows.

HBR: Nice. Double Live Album perhaps?

Ryan: Haha, we actually might record them. Oh, lets plug our "Mary" video, because we're hoping the fabulous Queen Jacky Knife(star of the vid) will be our security for the shows. (check it out below)




Listen to Heavy Birds on Soundcloud ---> here.

Like Heavy Birds on Facebook ---> here.

Like Hearts Bleed Radio on Facebook ---> here.

RSVP to Showcase #1 AND Showcase #2!