On Wednesday, March 28, 2018, this week’s Indie Band of the Week, heyohwell played to a packed house at Mahall’s in Lakewood, Ohio. Setting the tone for the night with catchy pop-punk riffs and solid beats, heyohwell proved why they’re one of the hottest bands on the local Cleveland scene. The trio, formed out of Cleveland, OH, has previously opened for bands such as Set It Off and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus; this time, they shared the stage with California band, Forever Came Calling. Heyohwell consists of three members; frontwoman and guitarist Hallie Hertrick, guitarist Daniel Pavilonis and drummer Matthew Heckman. Opening for an enthusiastic crowd, heyohwell nailed their set; not a single note sounded out of place, and every lyric was spot on. We had the opportunity to sit down with Hallie to get the latest details on what they were up to.
So you guys just finished your set, how are you feeling? I especially appreciated your cover of “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World.
I’m good! It was fun!
Glad to hear it! You guys played well. Talking about Heyohwell as a band for a bit, how did you guys get your start?
Well, so basically I was in this high school band. That ended, and I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself. So I started playing acoustic, and then for a few months things just kind of fell together for me to put together another band. So, I did that and met my guitar player Danny [Pavilonis]…
Good name.
Haha yeah! And then we met our drummer Matt [Heckman], and the rest just fell into place and is history!
Awesome! As a band, what would you guys cite as some of your influences when you started out to now?
Well, you’ve gotta get the obvious one out there which is Paramore. They’re female fronted of course, love them. All Time Low, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, The 1975, Waterparks, yeah list goes on and on.
Touching on the female fronted topic for just a moment, what have your experiences, either positive or negative, with it been? If any at all.
Being a female in a band, it feels exactly the same as being a guy obviously. No, but I think there’s a stigma attached to it definitely; there have been some comments made such as “you’re sleeping with the band” which is NOT HOW THIS GOES. We’re just playing music. But yeah some nasty comments have been made, but you learn to let go, ya know?
I’m really sorry to hear that.
All good.
Do you guys have a particular show or moment that really stands out as memorable?
Yeah, a couple of months ago we opened for Set It Off, and it was a sold out show at The Foundry. It was just AMAZING. It felt amazing, and the energy was great; it was wild. Even though, you know, Set It Off brought those people, they weren’t really there for us, but it was awesome going outside before our set and seeing the line of people down the street waiting to get in. That was a super cool moment, and people were really receptive to us.
Word is you guys have a new EP coming out. Give me details. What’s it called?
Alright, we don’t have a name yet. We’ve been working on this guy for a long time, and basically when I was still playing acoustic, to give a little backstory, I opened for this band called The Wrecks, It was actually here at Mahall’s in the basement. I opened for them, and a couple days later their producer and sound guy [Andrew] messaged me. He was like, “hey I heard you. Your songs are great, and I want to produce a song for you for free.” So I’m like wow that would be amazing.
So, that happened, and he produced our song that’s called ‘Small Town Syndrome’ that’s out right now. So, then some things happened and months went by, and we tried to record at some other places and things were not in our favor. I actually ran into Andrew from The Wrecks again a couple months ago… maybe just a month ago… I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter. I ran into him when The Wrecks were playing at The House of Blues and he’s like, “Hey I’d like to produce your EP if you want to.” I’m like… yeah!
And we thought about it more, and we were like HELLLLLL YEAH! So, he’s doing it. The cool thing about that is we were sending him songs, and he’s sending us these awesome mixes back because he rocks. He showed it to the lead singer of The Wrecks, and now the lead singer’s like, “Hey, I’m gonna co-produce this, too.” So, it’s a big deal for us because we’ve got these great minds working on our little pop-punk songs. It’s really exciting.
Oh holy hell thats awesome!
Yeah! Long story, though, thanks for bearing with me!
Absolutely haha. Do you find that this upcoming EP is going to deviate from your signature sound or are you hitting us with more awesome pop-punk?
We branched out a little bit on a couple songs. If you’ve seen us live before it’s kind of straight up pop-punk, but when we went to record this we added a lot of electronic elements. There’s also an acoustic song on there that ends up being really poppy, which is totally different from us, but it’s really awesome. I’m really excited.
Where do you guys as a band see yourself going? Do you want to be a local group or are you going for sold out arenas or anything in between?
We would love to go as far as people will let us, you know? Would love to play our music for as many people that will listen. The sky’s the limit haha.
Excellent! Talking about you personally for a second, are you from the Cleveland area?
I am! I grew up in Geneva. That’s about 45 minutes somewhere away from Cleveland.
Do you have any personal influences? I know we touched on influences as a band, but are there any individuals that stand out as inspiration for you? I’m guessing Hayley Williams of Paramore is top of that list.
Absolutely, Hayley for sure. They did a performance on American Idol a couple years ago and that’s what got me into Paramore. I was like, “Oh my god that girl is rad!” That’s what kind of pushed me. Also Maddie Finn from The Whiskey Hollow. She’s amazing; she was a huge influence to me starting off. She actually helped work on our record, too. That was a really full circle moment, really cool. And finally, my mom! She’s awesome, awesome vocalist.
Where will fans be able to see you guys next? Whats next for you?
Alright kids, are you ready? 4/20 #blazeit we are back here at Mahall’s with The Whiskey Hollow, Marina City, An Ongoing Story, and I’m forgetting the other band [THE WLDLFE and PHANGS], but they’re awesome. It’ll be a great show. And it’s 420, everyone’s gotta come get litty.
Any final remarks? Anything you want to say to your fans? Or shout out to your mom?
Hey mom! Love you! If you’ve ever come to a show before, thanks so much. Thanks for listening to our stuff on Spotify or watching, rather, the Waterparks cover that we just put out on YouTube. Thanks for being awesome. To any new fans, check us out. We’re cool cats!
Where can new fans find you on social media? Shameless plug time.
We’re on Spotify, just Heyohwell, and the rest of our links will be displayed below for folks who want to click over and check us out!
Awesome! Well, thank you so much!
Thank you!
