Heartless Bastards@@http://www.theheartlessbastards.com/@@ will perform at WOW Hall this Friday, bringing audiences their well-practiced live sound in support of their newest album, “Arrow.”@@http://www.theheartlessbastards.com/music/@@
“We’re a rock and roll band pretty much, with a lot of different influences and different directions — anywhere from country to punk to folk to R&B and soul. We’re all over the place, I guess,” said Erika Wennerstrom, singer-songwriter and guitar player for the band.@@http://consequenceofsound.net/2012/02/interview-erika-wennerstrom-of-heartless-bastards/@@
Creating a sound often described as bluesy garage rock and a vocal style that has been compared to Neil Young @@http://www.neilyoung.com/@@and Otis Redding@@http://www.otisredding.com/@@, Wennerstrom has fronted the group for nine years after dropping out of high school to begin her work as a musician.
“(I) just thought, ‘This is what I want to do with my life’ and tried to get the courage up and get out there and write songs and get in front of people,” Wennerstrom said. “There was just a moment when I was like, ‘If I’m going to do this, I better get started.’”
Today, Heartless Bastards is comprised of Wennerstrom, Dave Colvin@@http://www.dreamcymbals.com/david-colvin@@ on drums, Jesse Ebaugh on bass@@http://www.ardentstudios.com/musicblog/2012/03/07/the-warm-up-with-heartless-bastards/@@ — both played on the original demos of Heartless Bastards — and Mark Nathan on guitar.@@http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2012/Feb/Album_Review_Heartless_Bastards_Arrow.aspx@@
Formed in Cincinnati in 2003,@@http://www.amazon.com/Heartless-Bastards/e/B00197K4UY@@ the group was signed to Fat Possum Records@@http://www.fatpossum.com/artists/heartless-bastards@@ after an endorsement by Patrick Carney, drummer of The Black Keys@@http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2012-02-01/cdrev@@. With Fat Possum the band released three albums: 2005’s “Stairs and Elevators,” 2006’s “All This Time” and 2009’s “The Mountain.”@@http://www.amazon.com/The-Mountain-Heartless-Bastards/dp/B001O2ZVUC@@
Following “The Mountain,” Heartless Bastards signed with Partisan records in 2011 @@http://www.partisanrecords.com/news/welcome-heartless-bastards-to-the-partisan-family@@and released their fourth studio album in February of 2012, titled “Arrow.”@@http://www.theheartlessbastards.com/@@
“I really feel like on this album, what people hear is what the true sound of the band is live,” Wennerstrom said. “And if anything I’d like to think that we sound stronger live now because we’ve been playing the songs for quite a while on the road since the album was released.”
When the time came to start working on the album, Wennerstrom undertook a series of independent road trips in which she spent time visiting family and friends on the East Coast and on her own on a ranch in Texas. Although she said she already had ideas for some melodies and lyrics, Wennerstrom admitted that it wasn’t always easy to write songs.
“It’s a real challenge for me — I think maybe just because the songs are usually from a really personal perspective. Maybe it just takes awhile for me to feel comfortable putting myself out there,” Wennerstrom said.
In order to capture the live sound that the band and producer (Spoon’s Jim Eno)@@http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122572715@@ wanted for the album, the four-piece spent a month on tour in 2011 playing their new songs live to audiences before going into the studio to record.
“I think there’s an energy to the live sound of a band that isn’t always quite there if it’s not,” Wennerstrom said. “I guess I’ve always felt like in any incarnation of this band that we’ve always played live best, and to be able to capture that in the studio is sort of ideal for me.”
Up next, the band will embark on another tour and are set to play the Pickathon Music Festival in Happy Valley, Ore., this summer@@http://www.trazzler.com/trips/pickathon-music-festival-in-happy-valley-or-97086@@. They can also be heard on the soundtrack for “Winter in the Blood,” an independent film set to come out later this year.@@http://blogs.kcrw.com/musicnews/2012/01/new-music-by-heartless-bastards-only-for-you-mp3-premiere/@@
Tickets to see Heartless Bastards perform at WOW Hall can be purchased in advance for $15 on TicketWeb or at the EMU ticket office and will also be available for $18 at the door. The show begins at 9 p.m.
@@http://www.zvents.com/eugene_or/events/show/243109425-heartless-bastards@@