INTERVIEW: Relic Hearts

We recently spoke with Jonnie Baker, lead vocalist of Relic Hearts, an alternative rock band from State College, PA. The band first started out making YouTube covers and sharing original tracks to build an audience, until their “Royals” cover blew up with over 150K views. Prior to Relic Hearts, each member had adequate experience touring whether it was on the Vans Warped Tour, or any other tour around. This is going to come in handy, as their album Volatile is due July 11th, see what Jonnie had to say on touring, behind-the-scenes thoughts of the album, as well as any future endeavors the band is expecting.

From making covers on YouTube, to the upcoming release of your debut album, Volatile, how does it feel and what themes do you hope fans will relate to on the album?

We live in a society where people really value story of an underdog, and we hope that all the underdogs of the world hear this record and find something on it that sticks with them. There’s a lot of hope on this record, mixed in with a lot of struggle. We hope that anyone struggling can hear this record and have it help them.

How did Jesse Lawson (former Sleeping with Sirens member) and Stetson Whitworth (Chelsea Grin, Get Scared) approach the band to work with you in producing the album?.

Well, I (Jonnie) actually knew both of them separately for a few years — Jesse is an amazing songwriter, and was a key songwriting element in Sirens, so when we set out to do this record, we really wanted to have him there because he’s not just a producer/songwriter — he’s a good friend and a solid ear to have in the studio with you when you’re working on writing, and fleshing out the themes and details for a particular song, or moment in a song. Stetson complements him completely, as he’s also a truly amazing engineer with excellent producer/songwriter skills. It was just a powerhouse team to put together, and we hope to do it again with them as a form of ritual on future records! We had an absolutely awesome time together.

How did you react when you found out that your “Am I Wrong?” cover was the #mostrequestedlive, along with the band being iHeartRadio’s Web Celeb of the Week?.

It’s always an honor. We put a lot of hard work and creativity into our music, so it’s always super humbling to have stuff like that happen.

With previous Warped experience at hand, do you think that could help you in your running of the Ernie-Ball Warped Play 2016?.

Well, the competition just recently ended, and we didn’t win. That notwithstanding though, we did grace the top 2% of over 11,100 bands that entered into the competition, so while I’m not sure our previous Warped experience necessarily helped us in the running, the fact that we had a genuine fanbase supporting us and watching our videos/sharing links/posting about it — was truly awesome. We’ll try again, next year!

With your work ethic, DIY enthusiasm, and self-filmed/produced music videos, what advice can you give to upcoming bands hoping to get a start in the industry?.

Get ready to do some learning. It’s not an easy road, but every step of the way can be rewarding if you learn from your mistakes, work with your peers to foster greater creativity, and make sure you set the bar high for yourself. Even if you fall short, you’re way further ahead than if you only set the bar for something reasonable for yourself.

What genre(s) would you consider your band to fall under? Who could you easily compare your music to (for fans of…), and who have you looked up to for inspiration when writing music and forming the band?.

We say Active Rock/Alternative? This is a weird question because this record runs the gambit, and it could honestly go a bunch of different ways. But we’ve looked up to everyone from The Beatles, to the Rolling Stones, to blink 182, to 30 Seconds to Mars, Taking Back Sunday, Thrice, The Used, New Found Glory, and literally a million other artists and bands.

As for last August, you chose IndieGoGO as your means to obtain money for the band to continue the upcoming album, as well as restore the van that was destroyed, how is that process going?.

Officially as of today, we are purchasing our new van, and we actually head out on a northeastern tour this Friday. We’ll be in NY, MA, CT, PA, OH, and all over — so now we’re on the aspect of record cycle where we need to keep that up and continue touring and meeting new people, making more fans, and just generally staying active and getting our record out there.

Directed to Jonnie, how do you feel about the LGBT community in the as a whole, as well as in the music industry? Do you believe music is helping to make an impact on how it’s viewed by society today?.

I think music does what it can in every way to help society because it’s borne from people that actually live in it (at least in theory it should be). I don’t look at the LGBT community as if it’s an affliction. It’s not a disease, or an abnormality. It’s the same as any other way of life — just different from the next. Some people play baseball, some people work at a computer software company, some people are bartenders, some people are gay. Why does it matter? We’re all just different — I think it’s nice to feel as though we’re collectively as a society headed in the direction of celebrating our differences, instead of discriminating based upon them. The Orlando shooting this month is a tragic act of violence that is systemic no matter what way you slice it, but it’s not going to stop people from being gay, so really, what is the fucking point? I’ve never been so blinded by hatred of ANYTHING to want to take its life, or remove it from existence. I don’t care if you call it an isolated incident, or call it an act of terror, or mental illness — it’s unacceptable. We owe it to ourselves to do better than that, and to raise up better than that.

Besides the album release, does Relic Hearts have exciting news in store for the future that they could hint on?.

Hahaha, I would absolutely love to drop hints, but we have a fear of jinxing opportunities by talking about them before they come to fruition. So for now, just keep your eyes on us — you’ll want to, one way or another.

Why do you think people should check out Relic Hearts? What makes RH different from other bands?.

Our perseverance. We have a long road ahead of us, and by putting a lot of control in our hands, we’ll be able to keep putting new music, new videos, new covers, and all kinds of stuff out. So stay tuned!

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Interview by Savannah Lee, RockRevolt Contributor