INTERVIEW: KELVIN SWABY OF THE HEAVY

Hailing from the Southwest town of Bath in England the Heavy have put out five albums since forming in 2007. Consisting of Kelvin Swaby (vocals), Daniel Taylor (guitar), Spencer Page (bass) and Chris Ellul (drums) they have been featured in countless movies, television shows and commercials highlighted by their ultra hit “How You Like Me Now?”. RockRevolt Magazine had the opportunity to speak with Swaby on the cusp of their latest release Sons .

Many people out there might not know who The Heavy are but there’s a good chance that they’ve heard your music. It’s been featured in quite a few movies such as The Hateful Eight and Dallas Buyers Club as well as many TV Shows including a couple of my favorites, Strike Back and Entourage and even Super bowl commercials. How is it that The Heavy ended up on so many soundtracks and is that by you guys being proactive or do they come to you? In the end, has it been profitable or more advertising for the band?

It’s definitely allowed us to — it’s given us the luxury of time a little to kind of concentrate on producing great sounding music you know. So I think that’s a luxury you know for any band. It’s like, you know how the music business is now. There’s so much illegal downloading going on so it’s really hard to change the industry somewhat. So for us to kind of be involved with TV and ADs and films is pretty cool for us. And how it happens is people seem to kind of gravitate towards our sounds. I hope it continues. 

So it’s been more them coming to you.

Yeah absolutely. We just make the music that we make you know. I think right from the off, myself and Daniel when we kind of set up the band, we kind of started the band, we were so influenced by film soundtrack and our vision for the band. So it wasn’t just going to be about being just like music. Music say for just the songs. We always think about how — we always kind of have like a vision for an album. Like our album The Glorious Dead we kind of thought was like a voodoo zombie that was kind of set in the south. So we always kind of have a vision for our songs. So we try — we go all out and we try and make them cinematic. We don’t just kind of get our base guitar down, we kind of process this stuff a little further you know. 

Well it’s certainly paid off. I don’t think I can recall a band that I talked to that has had so much of their music in so many different outlets. Obviously that formula seems to work really well for you. 

Thank you. 

Let’s go back in time and give us a brief overview of the band, how it came together and how you all arrived at this point. 

Well myself and Daniel became really good friends when we were working for the Gap. He was in a band, I was pretty much just kind of writing the songs for the band and I was never kind of a — I wasn’t the frontman you know. I was always kind of in the back. I was writing the melodies and I was singing the guide lyrics so that the girls could sing the songs. Then he was in another band as well and just like the whole thing just started cooking up. I started chopping up like ol Bo Didley brakes and Chuck Berry and ol kind of Muddy Waters and I was just like oh, then I would go out to Daniel’s or Danny would come around to mine and bring his guitar. Then we’d kind of start to work on a track and it was like wow this music sounds pretty ridiculous and not like anything that’s out there at the moment so let’s see what we can do. So it just kind of started that way and then before we knew it, we were building some songs and then we started playing out just the two of us. We started playing out at open mic nights and we became pretty popular at the open mic night. So what we started doing then was started advertising that we were actually going to be playing at the mic nights. So then the open mic nights became crazy. It was just like the two of us. It was Daniel on his acoustic guitar. We had Yamaha, tiny little kind of sampler. So it was the sampler, acoustic guitar and both of us singing and yeah we seemed to kind of develop a following. As it was getting bigger and bigger, it was like we need a band. Spencer had met Daniel independently of me because I was DJing in the club and Spence used to be running the bar and we became really good friends. And I knew that he was in a band. And then Daniel met Spencer like independently and we both loved him and it was kind of like yo. And he was the star yeah, you know, he played on a few recordings and then we just kind of started taking it out. Trying to find a drummer at that time was absolutely crazy. Because if you hear our music, we keep it super simple. It’s not flamboyant. We don’t have fills all over the place. We don’t have tons and tons of guitar. So as much as there are few guitar solos on this last record, but we keep it pretty straight. That was always what we wanted to do is that we were going to take the 7 minute solos from our favorite bands that we love. We were just going to take those or concentrate on those four bars of groove and see what we could work with from there. When we actually got signed it was crazy. We kind of turned like a room of 20 people into like 500 people and it just so happens that Peter Quick was there from Ninja Tune and the rest is history pretty much because we absolutely killed it in London. We are from the South-west and we were like you know, London is kind of tempting and then people from the southwest are just like farmers you know. So when you got like three guys come into a room and absolutely smash it up in London, that definitely changed for us that night.

So we’ll fast forward to your fifth album that was just released - Sons. What are you most excited about with the new record and what can listeners expect from it? 

You know just such songs. I believe as we kind of grow older and we become more socially aware and we become and we try to become better fathers. It’s like myself, Daniel and Chris, we have children and it’s kind of like a way that — Sons represents us becoming families. We got signed in 2007 and we have been on the road and the studio for these past 12 years. And the last record was about turning poison into medicine because we had all been kind of going through tough times. And this album was the acknowledgement that we are family. This beast called The Heavy has created these Sons you know that are always there for each other you know what I mean. So I think there’s a maturity in this where we’ve kind of just acknowledged where we’re at right now and its in a really good place. As tough as it gets, we’ve always got each other. 

Is there a track or two for you that might stand out on the new record? 

There are a few tracks that I absolutely love. Obviously I love — I kind of pen because I’m super proud of them. I love “Heavy For You,” I love “Better as One.” I love The Thief that Daniel pens and I think that’s a brilliant record of having your heart stolen and you don’t necessarily want it to be stolen. So I love “The Thief.” I love “Put the Hurt On Me.” I love “Simple Things” because I wrote that with my daughter which was so much fun kind of doing that. Where you kind of have your kids around you in the studio and you’re like (Kevlin humming). There are a few kind of high points. As a body of work, we’re super proud of it. We’re super proud of it. There are curve balls in there but nothing that kind of defers from the sound. I think if anything it’s gotten bigger and better.

Absolutely. Well that’s great. I mean that’s asking you questions like hey who’s your favorite child.

Yeah exactly. 

I know it’s a tough one. But sometimes maybe something stands out. What are the plans for touring and what can fans expect from The Heavy’s live show? 

We’re always known for having quite an energetic show. We’ve kind of just elevated it somewhat now. Because the new songs kind of seamlessly — we just played Europe and we did pretty well every single venue that we went to. And the crowds were just crazy. On tour we start in New York next week and then we go on to Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and then finish in LA and they’re all sold out. I think there’s a couple of tickets left for Vancouver so what they can expect is these new productions, they’re like family. They just like seamlessly work themselves into the set. I’m suggesting anybody that’s coming to see the show to take the next couple of days off work because you won’t be able to talk. Your voice is going to be gone. You’re going to be of no use to anybody so take a few days off work. 

Some words of advice; take a few days off. That’s great. Well over the years, you guys have obviously played a number of festivals, is there a show that really kind of sticks out? Can you give me one that you like, it was just an amazing moment? I’m sure you have plenty of them but is there one that sticks out? 

I mean we’ve played some incredible shows between America and Europe and Canada, they’ve been some insane festival shows. I’m going to take the show that really stands out for me was, I remember we had “Same Ol,” from the Glorious Dead. It was used for an ad in Japan and so when we were asked to play, it was our first time in Japan and we were playing at a festival at 1 O’clock in the afternoon. And generally that time, that’s like when people are still coming into the festival. You never know what’s going to happen. I don’t even know if people are actually going to like go for what we’re doing you know. And they were so energetic. They were so incredibly energetic and then we kind of realized that with our set, we always finish with “How You Like Me Now?” anyway. And we decided to put “Same Ol” for “How You Like Me?” Now on that particular show and by the time we got to “Same Ol,” it would have been probably like 11 songs in or something and everyone is super hyped. They were so responsive to what we were asking them to do. Then as soon as I started singing “Same Ol,” it was rapturous. It was 60,000 people singing “Same Ol” word for word. I was just like, what is going on you know. It was insane. So “How you Like Me Now?” was eclipsed that day by “Same Ol.” So when you have that many people singing word for word and it’s not their native tongue — it was pretty ridiculous. 

That’s great. And I’m going to go the other direction here real quick. What’s the worst experience you had live? Ever had anything you just like oh man?

Man, I remember we were playing this show. It’s so funny, as you were kind of saying that, I was taken back to our early years, probably like about two or three years into touring. Where we would tour everywhere around France, everywhere around Germany, everywhere in England because you have to do this. In a tiny little van, you do it. And I remember we were playing in France. And we were kind of thinking, why are we playing in this tiny little place like a social club. There were tons of pretty old people that didn’t really kind of get what we were doing. So the thing is with The Heavy, regardless of whether they’re five people there or five thousand people there, we still kick it out. So we were kicking it out and you have to bear in mind, this stage could just about get us on. And this is before we were taking girls with us. It was a tiny stage. We all were on top of each other. And Spencer had eaten something. He’d eaten something that day and it was rotten. Like he let it go while we were playing and it was so bad I had to stop. And even Daniel stopped and Chris stopped because that smell was so bad. I would love to have had a photo of that. I’m sure someone must have taken a photo where you’ve got me Dan and Chris, we all ended up at one side of the stage until that smell was gone. And Spencer was on one side of the stage as if looking to say what. It’s like dude your ass-hole dude is out of order. You’re having that kind of gig and it’s like you can get away with doing that. You probably wouldn’t do that on Letterman or something. 

I would say, that’s got to be the first time I’ve heard that.

Oh yeah literally, his fart stopped the show.

Oh that’s funny. Is there a musician around today that you would really love to meet and why? 

Is there a musician around today? There are tons of great musicians around today. I got to meet Dan Auerbach actually and he was absolutely lovely. We’ve actually met Dan like two or three times but the one time that we played in Kamona and we were playing and his other band, The Arcs were playing. We kind of discussed how cool this could be at some point in the future to actually try and do something. So I don’t know, watch that space, that could be quite cool. I think Dan is a wicked dude. A super down to earth and yeah to kind of work with him at some point could be quite cool. 

Excellent. Did you ever come across an experience where you met someone and kind of went jeez, I wish I didn’t meet that person. I love their music but the person themselves, not so much.

Not really. I remember we went on tour with some dude and it’s so funny when you’re playing all of the gigs that you can play because you want the exposure for the band because you want the work you know. I remember we played with Mayer Hawthorne. He turned out to be somebody that I really would not like to ever tour with again. You know when people kind of have egos for no reason. Kind of like we’re super humble in our band. You can have that where you kind of like I don’t know why you’re actually being this way. It’s like everyone is trying to get somewhere. So on one hand, you can have that and on the other hand, when we were playing with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, all of those guys were great. And even at one of the Sharon Jones shows, Tom Waits turned up with Cathleen and his son because his son was like a big fan of ours and I met Tom, a guy who should have an ego and didn’t at all. I was like Tom, dude, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. And he just pointed at the stage, Sharon was playing at the time. He pointed at the stage and he just said you, you know, and I’m just like yeah dude I’ll take that. So it’s like dudes that should have egos and don’t have egos are incredible. Dudes that shouldn’t have egos but have them are like a 100 times bigger than you could ever imagine. I kind of don’t understand it.

Exactly. There’s no use for it either way right?

No exactly. Just get on and do what you’ve got to do. 

Absolutely. Well I’ll try to fire off a couple of quick more questions, I’m sure you’ve got a busy day. 

I’m just in my studio. We’re going to go to Secret Life of Pets with my little 2 year old later. 

Oh fantastic, a little family time, that’s always nice. 

Yeah a little family time. 

If you could pick a song that you wish you wrote what would it be? 

I wish I wrote “Simply Beautiful” by Al Green. Because it is simply beautiful, it is super simple and yeah I wish I’d written that because I sing it pretty well. Al if you could just you know, you want to give that to me? 

Is there a song that you’ve put out during your career that you wish you didn’t? 

That’s a fun one. I know that the guys, when we were doing “Just My Luck” and they were kind of like okay but we should go half speed. We’re going to drop from that speed to this speed. I was just like no dude it can’t be that. It has to be what feels right so let’s not be typical and go half speed. So for the recording, we managed to work it out but live, it was a nightmare trying to do it. It was always such a nightmare. In retrospect, I should have just listened to the rest of the guys and gone half speed. 

Sounds like a tough one live. Do you happen to have — I don’t know if you can fire off your top five records?

Ann Peebles - I Can’t Stand The Rain album. I absolutely love that and pretty much base all of our records on how that record feels you know because it’s short, it’s concise, it’s 10 tracks, you get to the end of the record and you just want to play it again. So I love Ann Peebles I Can’t Stand The Rain. I also love I’m Still in Love With You by Al Green. I was playing that the other day. That’s a fucking ridiculous record. Boom by the Sonics because my son absolutely loves that song as well. We have like a little record player and we have like a stack of 45s and he just loves to kind of go through and just play and he always plays “Shot Down” by the Sonics. Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones. If I have to put one more in, I would put 36 Chambers - Wu-Tang Clan as well. That’s what I’d put. 

That’s a nice little mix you got going there I like it. 

Cool dude. 

Tell you what, let me finish up real quick here and I’m going to kind of go off topic here a little bit but it seems to be a very big topic nowadays. Of course you’re over in the UK. Any feelings on the whole Brexit thing? 

I mean I live in the States now. I live in Florida. I go back to England like every four to six weeks and we all kind of get together and do — but my thoughts towards it is the country is super divided at the moment. But the majority of the country obviously don’t want to go through with the Brexit thing because they would have had it sorted by now. So I don’t think it’s going to change everything too much. They just need to work out a deal that kind of works and how the visas are going to work. But nothing actually seems to be set in stone at the moment. At the moment, it kind of seems that everything is up in the air and you’re depended on this government who are idiots at the moment and you’re depended on them to get a job done. For the sake of the country, they need to get it done, be concise and work it out and make it so it’s like seamless change basically. 

I guess you’re here in the United States where everything political is just kind of nice and smooth right.

Yeah everything is super smooth here isn’t it. 

Oh that could take us another hour to discuss. I won’t even go there.

Yeah let’s not go there. Not right now please. 

We’ll revisit it sometime in the future. 

I am with you. 

I appreciate the time Kelvin and any final words for the fans or anything? 

Kelvin: The bystands enjoy Sons part of the family. 

Well best of the luck with the new record, the tour and hopefully you’ll get back in the States and maybe get a little closer to where I’m at in the Boston area, I’d love to see you guys. 

Well hopefully. I’ve seen dates kind of penciled in for early fall. So let’s hope that we can get that soon. 

Fantastic. I’ll keep an eye out and we’ll get to catch you on the road. Good luck with everything Kelvin, pleasure talking to you. Enjoy the movie today.

Yeah that’s been a lot of fun. Thank you for that interview, it’s amazing. 

Absolutely, thank you.

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