Holy Coves singer-songwriter Scott Marsden sits down with Kenny Stuart from The Heavy North to talk about how they got started, the new single and the independent music scene.

Kenny – Hi Scott, I’m Kenny, the lead singer from The Heavy North.

Scott – Hi Kenny, I hear you have a new single out.

Kenny – Yeah, ‘Where Are You Now’ is available now on all streaming platforms.

Scott – Are you planning a new record, is this single to lead on to a new record?

Kenny – This is the first single from our second album that we’re looking to release later this year and it’s accompanied by a music video.

Scott – The single is great, the music video too.

Kenny – We’re hoping to release the album later on in the year, around December time.

Scott – Cool, it sounds like a new direction.

Kenny – It’s a bit different from the album to be honest. the way I describe the song is it’s the Cream of the Stoneage Because it’s got elements of Eric Clapton’s The Cream Of Clapton and Queens Of The Stoneage kind of vibe.

Scott – That’s a good explanation. I’m a huge Queens Of The Stoneage fan. You can’t go wrong with everything he’s done from Kyuss to everything he’s ever done hooking up with other artists.

Kenny – Well I particularly like the stuff he did with Iggy Pop. The album before last, he had the drummer from the Arctic Monkeys, a bit of a super group, really good.

Scott – I was following him from his Kyuss days and onto Queens Of The Stoneage and everything he’s done with all these other artists. He does a lot of producing as well, produced a lot of records. Yeah you can’t go wrong, Queens Of The Stoneage are great. I’m trying to think now….The Heavy North, I was aware of you guys just before you released your record. I came back to music and I was checking out the independent scene, I was connecting and reconnecting with people and your record jumped out to me straight away, as soon as I heard your music I thought I really dig these. I was trying to work out what era your from, I’ve just turned forty, I think your a few years younger than me, am I right?

Kenny – yeah, your right.

Scott – I was playing a lot in Liverpool from 2005 onwards. Were you in any other bands before The Heavy North?

Kenny – Yeah we played with you.

Scott – I was thinking the same.

Kenny – I had a group called Jacobi

Scott – You know what? We have played gigs with you.

Kenny – In the Liverpool Uni or somewhere like that?

Scott – We played in the Carling Academy, it was called at the time, Liverpool Uni and the Olympia, we played most of the places in Liverpool and I remember your band. Was there any other members from The Heavy North in Jacobi or was it just you?

Kenny – Yeah Jose and Jack.

Scott – Oh wow, Do you still have music online from Jacobi?

Kenny – Yeah if you go on Youtube you’ll probably find a couple of bits. You’ll find an earlier version of ‘To The Wind I Go’ and I’ve got short hair!

Scott – I was saying this in another interview, when I’ve reconnected with the music scene I found that I usually know them or I’ve played gigs with them before. And when I’ve seen you in your videos and what your doing with The Heavy North I recognised you. So Jacobi has moved on to The Heavy North. How did The Heavy North come about?

Kenny – The thing is you probably know yourself from being in a band a long time, musicians are a funny bunch, you get a lot of people letting you down and it’s really hard when your in a band you become best friends with everyone and you expect everyone to be as committed as you are and when people take the piss or can’t commit as much as you want them to you just get a bit fed up, and I think with Jacobi it was like a revolving doorway we’d had that many members come and go, always fucking bass players.

Scott – Ha! Yes, bass players and drummers we always found that with.

Kenny – Yeah so we had that many people coming and going we thought lets just have a fresh start, me and Jose we just knew we had each others backs, we always knew we could rely on each other to get a new project started and especially with Jose being a producer, he’s got his own studio, we always were able to do something musically. I bumped into Steve the keys player, I was in my first ever band when I was like 18 and I was always trying to get him back in the fold because he was reliable, that’s the kind of people you want around you. Literally every couple of months when we lost a member it would be ‘Ste, what are you upto? Any chance you want to come for a jam’ I was probably like a horrible ex bird! ‘Ste, where are you? I miss you!’ So I was at my friends wedding at the time I knew Ste had been in a band called The Wicked Whispers and they were doing really well they’d been on tour with The Lightening Seeds and maybe even Space, you know been all over the place, had quite a good reputation. I got talking to him at my friends wedding and it was around three in the morning and everyone was pretty drunk and I was like ‘I’ve been trying to get you to have a jam with me for ages, where have you been?’ Kind of thing and he was like ‘Well you know what I’m actually up for it because I’ve just left my band.’

Scott – Timing! Timing is everything.

Kenny – So I was explaining to him about the studio with Jose and stuff and he said it was sound and to just text him in a couple of days, so I sent him a message and got him down. Jose knew Mark from session working in the studio which was great. If you spoke to Mark he’s quite unassuming, he is the funniest person you will ever meet, he just says stuff quietly and subtly, hes absolutely hilarious.

Scott – Sometimes that’s what you need, not someone full on and in your face, someone subtle and clever especially when your on tour.

Kenny – Definitely. When we were on tour I found myself tearing up with anything he would be coming back with.

Scott – So there’s six members in your band.

Kenny – Yeah there is now, Jack joined last January so basically we knew Jack from our Jacobi days and what happened with Jack was he had kids, he had a family and he started going back to college or uni so it was difficult for him to be able to commit, so we had a chat and what come about was when your in a position to play again there will always be a spot here with us. It was great that we could have those chats because it was a bit of a wrench for him to go from Jacobi but it wasn’t fair on him and it wasn’t fair on us either, so yeah it’s great that he’s with us now. There’s the bass player Andy, so me and Andy used to work together and he had been in a couple of previous bands and he was a fan of Jacobi, he was a good lad, a guitarist and seemed up for it. So we give him a crack and he took it and ran with it, so yeah we couldn’t be happier.

Scott – I can relate to that, it’s a difficult situation to put someone in sometimes if your asking a guitarist to come in and play bass, they might feel like fuck you i’m a lead guitarist or a frontman so it’s good you could do that. I do remember Jacobi. I’m definitely sure we’ve played together, I was in a band called The Lizzies and then Holy Coves after that and I do remember playing something in the Uni but I also remember playing something in the 02 or it might have even been The Carling Academy at the time. Even a festival in the Emporium.

Kenny – There was lots of gigs!

Scott – There was, but I vaguely remember half of it because it was a bit of a mad time for me then. Must be difficult to be in a band with six members for time commitments, it’s hard enough having four, working everything around eachother.

Kenny – Well we’re really lucky because Ste our keys player as well as being our keys player he’s really organised and he’s one of the main reasons why we’re doing so well because he’s the person behind all our social media and always making sure we’ve got content, he organises us really well. We’ve got a band calendar, if one of us can’t make it we all know well in advance. Were also at the point now where we all know what were doing, it’s not like if we miss a rehearsal it’s the end of the world. For example this album we’re working on at the minute, we’re only in the studio one day a week and we’ve been recording for about three or four months and that’s without actually being in the live room jamming, that’s just from us bouncing ideas off eachother, so we’re very efficient. When songs are done we get in the studio and blast them out. Prior to our January gig we had four months off and maybe two rehearsals and we were just back on it.

Scott – It’s all about being professional, your obviously all professional musicians and that helps. When people leave your band it’s like when a relationship ends, it’s like your missus has left you, it hurts that much and there’s only so much you can take of that so it’s good when your all professional. I loved your last record Electric Soul Machine, but did you do an EP aswell before that? Was that released or was it just as an EP to sell?

Kenny – We released that aswell. It’s probably got my favourite Heavy North song on it, Lying To Yourself. As a writer I feel that it’s pretty accomplished, one of those where you just wouldn’t change anything about it. You probably know yourself when you’ve written a song and its been out for a while and you hear it over and over again you can think I’d probably do that a bit different. But Lying To Yourself has never made me think twice about anything.

Scott – Yeah I know exactly what you mean. So your all from Liverpool? Except Jose, He’s from Granada isn’t he?

Kenny – To be fair he’s practically a Scouser, he’s lived here for such a long time. He calls himself a Spouser, half Spanish, half Scouse!

Scott – And Jose has got the studio you all record at, so he produces all your music?

Kenny – Yeah, between us all we work through everything, he also does mixes. He’s really good, well that’s his job aswell, he’s a Pharmacist and a Record Producer!

Scott – Bit of a Breaking Bad element there with blues and rock and roll, that’s great!

Kenny – He’s far too straight for any of that!

Scott – Brilliant! So what’s the name of the studio?

Kenny – Third Planet.

Scott – And this is where you make all your music?

Kenny – Yeah it’s on the Liverpool Dock road, it’s where we do all our recording. It’s great, couldn’t be luckier really.

Scott – I wouldn’t mind checking that studio out. Because it’s a part of his job does he record other bands?

Kenny – Yeah he does.

Scott – So what you been upto with gigs recently? You’ve played a few gigs this year already.

Kenny – Yeah we’ve done London, Shoreditch, Blackpool and Liverpool. We got back out there for Independent Venue Week. It was really good.

Scott – It’s a good time to get out and support it aswell. There’s not many people with money to spare these days, it’s a difficult time.

Kenny – I find it really humbling especially when you’ve got that many people spending the money to come see you, especially buying t-shirts and CDs. The fact that they’re even taking the time to listen to you, I still find it baffling.

Scott – It’s amazing when you think about it, you record some music and you want people to listen to your music and then they’re buying your records and buying your merch, buying tickets to watch your gigs, it’s a really nice position to be in, really humbling like you said. Makes you feel proud of how well the records done.

Kenny – So much, it’s strange, I still try to get my head around it at times. having played in bands for such a long time this has by far been the most successful. It seems like we’ve got a little community of people who are really into us and it’s so great because you see them then at your gigs and go have a bevvy with them and a chat. Alot of them are like our friends now.

Scott – I think that’s important, I remember touring years ago I would never really get to speak to anyone, would speak to the other bands, have a laugh with them, few beers and that. But the interaction thing now with social media, you’ve got to interact with your fans these days, I think there’s no excuse for bands especially in independent music, get to know your fans especially when they’ve spent money and made the effort to come and see you. Things have changed, I feel like independent music is thriving at the moment.

Kenny – Definitely, it’s just about having manners as far as I’m concerned. They’re spending their money and making time to come see you, the least you can do is say hello. Anyone can come and approach me.

Scott – Years ago I never did the social media thing I used to stay away from all that, but when I came back to music a few years ago I thought I’d do things on my terms, my way, I’m going to start my own label, I’m going to get a decent team around us, people who believe in the music but also I’m going to interact and do social media, get to know people, things that I didn’t do before. The tools are there to be used. There’s a huge underground independent scene especially on Twitter there is so much going there. Your manager Dan, he does alot for independent music. You guys pretty much do everything on your own terms aswell, that’s what I like about you, I could tell just by listening to your music. Real music for real people.

Kenny – That’s what we try to do, it’s nice to be able to put what you want on and luckily for us we’ve never fallen short in terms of songs. The way we work it’s a constant stream.

Scott – You can see your consistent with your writing.

Kenny – It’s got to the point where we’ve got to this second album and we will have to work out what were going to put on it because we’ve got too many tunes. There’s going to be some absolute stormers on the new album. Really good ones.

Scott – That’s good, you should believe in that. You guys have been doing it for a long time so you get to the point where you get some success, you’ve had decent radio, alot of these bands don’t get even the BBC, You’ve had some decent radio. Massive support from the independent scene. Massive tour success. Your killing it in Liverpool.

Kenny – Played the main room in the Barfly, the Theatre room.

Scott – That was an important venue. It’s closed now. Venues are struggling. The Councils coming up and closing them for noise pollution.

Kenny – I don’t understand it, even in Liverpool alot of the venues are being closed to build student accommodation, well what are students going to do when there is no night life to enjoy?! Students are a massive part of the music scene.

Scott – My brother was a student in Liverpool and that’s where he was put onto some of the music he’s into, watching gigs almost every single night at all different venues. It’s such an important place for music.

Kenny – We’re really lucky being from here, there’s so much talent. It’s such a vibrant city with loads going on.

Scott – Venues closing left, right and centre, it’s bullshit. Councils closing venues down, always a hidden agenda.
Camp and Furnace, You’ve put that on for the end of the year, that’s a hell of a jump up from the last gig.

Kenny – I think it’s doubled the capacity. This ones a 1200 cap. Fingers crossed, see how it goes!

Scott – You’ve got great support, it’ll be one of those gigs where it won’t just be fans from Liverpool, it’ll be fans from all over because it will be momentus, its a massive occasion. And if your a Heavy North fan then you need to be there.

Kenny – It’s going to be great, we’re going to have the orchestra with us again and the brass section and these amazing backing singers. It’s a huge live production. It doesn’t half bring alot to it. Last time I was completely blown away by it, it was like every song was a Bond theme!

Scott – Ha That’s great. It must be one hell of an experience to get to do that, not many people get to play the venues your playing. When you talk about these huge productions and the extras in it, it’s special. I’m hoping me and my wife can come to that one. Liverpool isn’t too far from us at all. Was it Swansea you played last in Wales?

Kenny – Newport, Le Pub. One of our favourite places to play. They really look after us. They even gave us trolleys to load our gear in. We were just blown away.

Scott – We’re doing all over Wales with Holy Coves. I think we’re going to Le Pub but later on in the year. I noticed you did a music video in Portmeirion, one of my favourtie places. have you got a connection to North Wales?

Kenny – We were looking for somewhere to record our music video for a week and I came up with the idea. It’s about being a prisoner so I was trying to tie it to the fact that that’s where The Prisoner was filmed, in Portmeirion. We were still in Lockdown, the back end of it, I’d go to a caravan park on the Peninsula. I said to the lads let’s go camp in Nefyn and we will do the music video. I think it was in April and the April before had been glorious. We had been on the ale, and the campsite is right on the coast so it’s even colder, we we’re sitting there round this fire, drinking all night until about 3am and everybody just started sloping off to their tents and I was sitting there with the fire literally in between my legs leaning over it, it was that cold. Basically none of us had any sleep it was about two degrees. Absolutley freezing! So I think we were all awake around 5.30am and then had to go do that music video, thank God for the sunglasses!

Scott – Sunglasses work everytime!

Kenny – Also the toilets were closed, some people had to have a shit in a box!

Scott – Ha yes! that’s brilliant! Portmeirion is such a beautiful location, amazing place to film a video. Nicer in the height of summer. It’s like a little Italian village in some parts.

Kenny – I had been there a couple of times. We were really lucky with the weather the next day when we were shooting the video. It was quite nice the next day. And you could get a pint there at that point aswell.

Scott – My wife and I go there, it’s a beautiful location. So what gigs have you got coming up?

Kenny – We have got the Water Rats in London in May.

Scott – We’re playing Water Rats too in May, think it’s after you.

Kenny – I’ll leave you a little doodle on the wall where you can write a message! We’re in Glasgow, Sheffield and Live Rooms in Chester.

Scott – I was going to ask, any plans for a North Wales gig? Maybe a Wrexham gig? There’s lots of things happening with North Wales with Wrexham and the football. Chesters not too far from there, neither is Liverpool. It’s a good location. Definitely worth considering playing a gig in Wrexham.

Kenny – Well we’re open to most things, if there’s a calling for it then we will be there.

Scott – I know more than a few people who would want to come and watch you. There’s loads of great venues and loads of great things happening in Wrexham. So Dan Potters your Manager, so how did you guys meet?

Kenny – He checked us out, he was a big fan of the Lying to Yourself track and it just stemmed from there . I’m sure you know yourself he is a top bloke. He was doing a lot for us, just being a sound guy because he was really into our tunes and then he started doing some bookings for us.

Scott – I’m happy for you, a manager is an important piece in the jigsaw if you get the right person for that, it makes things alot easier and I’m sure there is plenty more to come from you guys. Have you got a title for your new album?

Kenny – Ooh I’m probably not allowed to tell you that!

Scott – Of course, it has to be campaigned properly. Well I appreciate your time today Kenny, thank you.

Kenny – Thanks Scott.

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com