“Although the project may not be painted in the typical sound palette, 22Hertz manages to combine abrasive underground sonics, pop elements, and hooks into their music, which in turn offers and accesible approach to a wide mainstram audience.”
And this is TOTALLY true! There is no doubt about it. 22Hertz will weasel its way into your brain and just won’t let go. With a passion and a drive so tried and true, we are even surprised that you haven’t heard of 22Hertz already! He definitely has that sound that appeals to a wide variety of listeners. You don’t have to be a metalhead, or a pop connoisour to enjoy this band, which is why we are more than ecstatic to present 22Hertz as this week’s INDIE BAND OF THE WEEK!
I hate to ask the most cliché question, but tell me about the name 22Hertz. Where did name come from?
Well, first I liked the way it rolled off of my tongue. The concept is 22 hertz is at the edge of our hearing perception. There are frequencies lower than 22 hertz and higher than 22,000 hertz but most people cannot detect them even though they exist.
One can hear a lot of Nine Inch Nails and New Wave influences, among others in your music. What got you into these genres in the first place?
The 22HERTZ idea came out of my fatigue of ‘heavy metal’. I was made aware after a NIN concert (my first one) in 2008 that you can sound heavy with synths and without it sounding like heavy metal. I also felt like heavy metal was very restrictive, you have to follow a lot of rules to sound that way. 22HERTZ gave me much more freedom to express myself
Was music always your passion? At what point did you say, “I’m a musician. THIS is what I do!”?
Writing music was always a passion but wasn’t paying the bills. After a successful venture in online marketing I amassed enough resources to fund myself for a good while. I never gave up performing in a band. It was just sort of on the back burner for a while in my life but that NIN concert really woke me up and that’s when I made my final decision.
How would you describe your music to a novice listener?
Cool. Heavy. Emotional.
As an independent artist, what do you feel is the greatest pro, and inversely, the greatest con?
The greatest pro is you can do what you want. The greatest con is you can do what you want.
Tell me about Detonate. What is it about this record that you feel will resound with listeners?
I find that there are many Industrial type bands, indie and signed, that lack a certain quality in the production. I feel that the Detonate record gives industrial lovers what they want without sacrificing on key elements. In other words to me it’s like modern Industrial.
I read in another interview that during the process in getting this album made, you were suffering from depression. Looking back at the process and seeing the end product, how do feel your depression affected the outcome?
It just made it more difficult to get through and finish it. I’m not sure if it affected the content much because that was decided before I started and I stuck to my guns.
Being that 22Hertz is a solo project (or was at the time you were working on Detonate it was), tell me about you shows? I know you’ve been playing live shows lately.
Yes we did a couple of shows, it was only me and the guitarist. I had to played bass, guitar and some synth. The missing band members were played through Larry (a custom PC). I really don’t like doing that but I needed some justification of all the hard work I put in. I want to perform as much live material as possible and not rely on backing tracks but with music like this you have no choice. Ultimately to perform with a guitarist, bassist, drummer and someone on synth would be the best.
What vector do you feel has been the most successful in marketing your music to the masses? (Live sales? iTunes? CD Baby? Amazon.com? Tunecore? Through traditional distributors/stores?)
Ha! I’m still trying to figure that out but I know it’s not Facebook that’s fer sure… I’m every right now so I need some time to look at all the data.
At the end of the day, how does music affect you and the world around you?
It’s an escape that no other medium can offer. Positive comments from social media about my work is always interesting and uplifting. If I can give some magic back from all the magic I received in my life then that’s amazing.
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