If you like your rock and roll with a rough garage rock edge, then The Savage Hearts may be for you! Their track, Gang Way was released as part of a double single with another amazing tune, titled Speed Kills. They’re a band that combine both heaviness and melody in a cool way, showing that big things are surely on the horizon – check out both tracks at the end of this interview!
By Jane Howkins
You recently released a new single titled Gang War. What can you tell us about the song?
Yes! So this track has been knocking around since the last days of the Covid era (around the time the band was coming to fruition as a project) – it was something that I had the riffs and disparate elements down for on a few demos that I then combined together, before co-writing with another Irish musician called Ste Kelly. Ste’s an incredible lyricist/melodist and musician in general both, with his own band Raglans and his solo efforts – I was mad keen to co-write with him for a long time and it just worked out that we had ideas that gelled together so well. Basically, I did the music and he did the lyrics but at the same time we collaborated on both fronts as one set of ideas had to work around the other. Then when it got to the stage of me and the other Savage Hearts lads choosing a debut single, this one seemed like a no brainer in terms of hooks and strength as a track!
How has the reception to Gang War been so far, and where can it be purchased?
The reception we’ve gotten for Gang War since the release has been incredible – way beyond what we’d anticipated for a brand new band making its first release! The track went to No 1 on the Irish Downloads Chart on the first day of release and stayed there for a couple of days afterwards, which was mind blowing, then the reviews came in and we were blown away once again by how well critics and bloggers were responding to it – the top Irish music mag Hot Press gave us a great review and we really can’t put into words how important things like York Calling and other music outlets are that champion independent/alternative/underground bands. Giving reviews and coverage that means so much to new acts especially is sometimes shamefully lacking in the mainstream media!
Aside from the usual Spotify/Apple Music release we were privileged to work with an Irish indie label called Blowtorch Records (another top notch and invaluable outfit for championing new and independent music!) who have released a limited 7′ vinyl run of Gang War/Speed Kills. There’s still a very small number of copies available so I urge anyone to BUY BUY BUY should the fancy take them!
You also released another song alongside Gang War titled Speed Kills. What can you tell is about that track?
Sure thing! Speed Kills is also a combination of various ideas both musically and lyrically that have been knocking around for a good few years – even going back to my previous band The Strypes. We released three albums and as always with these things, each time we recorded there was a stockpile of demos and ideas that either never got finished or were surplus to requirement. I still think there’s some little gems of ideas in there that I’d like to dust off and give an airing – and Speed Kills is one of them! It had different lyrics originally that were changed as we developed it for the Savage Hearts along with the arrangement, plus my dad is also a musician so he threw his two cents in and before we knew it, it was a father/son co-write, which is always nice if you can keep it in the family haha!
Do you have any more singles planned for release soon? Do you have any plans to release an album or EP in the near future?
Oh yes we definitely do! The second single is already in production and fingers crossed we’ll get that release happening over the summer, just as soon as we’re happy with it basically! We very big fans of that ethos that old 60s or 70s bands had where singles and EPs came thick and fast every couple of months and there wasn’t a big gap between albums – I’ve had that in the past where for circumstances beyond my control, there’s been a couple of years between releases and it’s just a drag! That’s something that I think is very exciting and healthy about the indie/alternative music scene these days – new releases are so frequent and you even have bands putting out multiple albums in the one year which is very old school – so keep your eyes peeled as we’ll definitely have loads more on the way!!
Your music has an alt-rock/indie-rock sound. What/who are you most influenced by? What have you been listening to recently?
As far as influences go our main ones would really be bands like The Who, Dr. Feelgood, The Move, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Cream, Meatbodies, Billy Childish, Ty Segall, Dave Edmunds & Nick Lowe, Kilburn & The High Roads, The Specials, Dexys, The Undertones, The Damned, King Kurt, Bo Diddley, Fuzz, Little Richard, Hound Dog Taylor, Small Faces, Yardbirds, The Kinks, Spencer Davis Group, Paul Butterfield et al!
As far as contemporary bands go there’s so much amazing stuff out there at the minute that we’re almost spoiled. The latest album by the Lemon Twigs is the newest thing we’ve had on repeat and it’s absolutely mind-bendingly genius, but Ty Segall, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Thee Oh Sees, The Murlocs, Nude Party, Billy Childish, Wand, Bad Nerves, Kid Kapichi are all pretty brill!
Do you have anything else exciting coming up over the next few months?
Happy to say we’ve got loads of exciting things coming up over the next while, mostly in Ireland as we’re based there and still getting a head of steam up as a live band. We’ll be supporting our heroes The Undertones for two shows in Limerick and our home town of Cavan, as well as lots of festival appearances like Sea Sessions and doing our own club shows around the place which is gonna be a great buzz. We do actually have tentative plans afoot to make our debut over in the UK but it’s too early to say yet, we may make it as far as London though before the summer’s out!
Any last words for the fans?
Keep a clean nose, watch the plain clothes – you don’t need a weather man to know which may the wind blows!