Heaven’s Basement may be one
of the hardest working bands around. Their relentless touring has gained them a
hefty reputation for putting on one hell of a live show. Their much anticipated debut album “Filthy
Empire” came out earlier this year and the band has been riding the crest of a
wave ever since. Est.1987 headed down to the sold out Manchester Sound Control
show to catch up with the guys and chat about their live show, recording the
debut and how they’re “fundamentally all too idiotic to get real jobs”…
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| Heaven's Basement at their sold out Manchester show |
Heya guys. How’s the UK
CHRIS [Rivers, drums]- Yeah, it’s been amazing.
AARON [Buchanan, vocals]- Yeah, the best headline tour we’ve ever done. The reaction
from the audience has been mental. We’ve always had this thing of trying to
make the shows as exciting as possible, and it’s finally paying off because
they’re going insane. We’ve had a couple of people who’ve broken their arms. We
don’t want to encourage that but it’s an awesome example of how excited people
are getting.
You’ve toured pretty much none stop;
whether it’s festivals, support slots or sell out headline shows, all before
the album was even released which I guess is a credit to the songs and the live
performance. Is it nice to finally have the album out there now?
AARON- Yeah, definitely. The album has basically opened up
so many more doors. It took a long time to get it because we wanted to do it
right. Now that it’s out there it allows us to promote the band on a bigger
scale.
CHRIS- We’re already looking ahead next year for an even
bigger headline tour and at what we’ll be aiming to do then.
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| Aaron Buchanan on stage in Manchester |
CHRIS- Oh wow, that’s a really good question. It depends;
there’s certain club venues that are amazing, I always enjoy the Camden
Underworld, Manchester
Academy
AARON- We always have a good go at Nottingham Rock
City Newcastle-
British rock in general is really
strong at the minute; is it nice being a part of that scene?
CHRIS- Yeah, it is. I mean we’ve always done our own thing
and find it difficult to find other bands to tour with because there aren’t
that many bands like us. I think a lot of bands who’ve stood the test of time
through history have done that; AC/DC, Metallica and The Rolling Stones. Obviously
they’re massive examples, but they’ve been going a long time and have gone
through ten different scenes that have been and gone and survived. We, on a
much smaller scale, have that same mentality.
You touched on it earlier that you’ve been
together since 2008, but you waited to release your debut album earlier this
year. You’ve had line-up changes and I guess you’re where you want to be
musically. You only get one chance for a debut album; is this the strongest that
and you felt it was the right time?
AARON- Yeah, I mean there were opportunities in the past to
release a debut album, but we didn’t do it because we didn’t feel in the right
place; whether that was the line-up or the songs or enough experience on the
road. When we finally pulled the trigger last summer that’s when it felt right
as a band to do it. Over the first few years we toured Europe
off our own back, released a couple of EPs and built up a fanbase and got a
deal. There’s no point in rushing it because, like you said, you only get one
chance at a debut album.
You worked on it with Goldfinger’s John Feldman;
were you fans of the band?
AARON- Literally never heard of him, until he was put into
the pot and we were like “Ah Feldman”, and then did our research [laughing].
CHRIS- It all came about really quickly and we went to meet
him at his house in LA and instantly hit it off. He comes from a totally
different place musically but it just worked and we decided right there and
then to go with him and got it done in about a week.
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| Heaven's Basement front-man Aaron Buchanan |
We interviewed Blitz Kids [HERE] who recorded
their album with him and they said he works quickly, in the moment and knows
his direction. Did you enjoy working with him?
AARON- There was definitely a bit of push and pull. I think
there’s quite a lot of strong personalities, but I think that it wouldn’t have
come out the way it is without that friction.
CHRIS- We’re a strong minded band and don’t let anyone push
us around and there were points when we had to stick to our guns and Feldman
started understanding. He’s a great producer.
You have an incredible reputation for
putting on an amazing live show- and it comes across on the album. How easy or
hard was it to transfer raw power on to the record?
CHRIS- I think the best way to get that energy onto the
record is to literally not give a f**k about mistakes. So many bands and producers
these days can over think everything; we just knocked everything out in a
couple of takes and it’s rough around the edges, but we wanted that.
AARON- The most important thing to remember about an album,
at least for us, is that it’s just a souvenir to take away at the end of a
show. I like to think that we play better live than we do on the album. We’ve
had time to learn the songs and craft them and make them interesting for an
audience.
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| Heaven's Basement rock Sound Control |
CHRIS- Yeah, I love it. The country’s so big; touring the
middle is so different from LA, and New
York
And I guess the English accent goes
down well?
CHRIS- Oh yeah, that’s all we have going for us [laughing].
AARON- America is an important factor on this album, but
it’s a pretty daunting place when you’re touring it. We’re going to be back and
forth for the next eighteen months.
CHRIS- We’re all about putting far too much on our plate,
unfortunately [laughing]. We want to go to Japan ,
Australia and South America .
Do you think you’ll ever get sick of
touring?
CHRIS- Nah, playing music every night and the fact that we
get to do it in all these amazing places, we’re very privileged. That’s a
combination of us working hard and a little bit of luck in there as well, and
persistence.
Guessing you haven’t started thinking
about the next album, but you’re not wanting to wait as long to release the
second?
AARON- Bloody hope not [laughing]. If it did take that long
then it would be because we’re not going to release something that’s not up to
standard. But at the moment we’re going to spend the next year and half on the
road, it’s where the band belongs. We’re not really the sort of people that
like being locked away in a room. I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of touring,
maybe physically tired. I went home three or four months ago and it’s not often
that my house is empty, but my dog was away, my nan was on holiday and I had
half an hour to myself without my mates and I was like “Errrr…”.
CHRIS- It’s a bit of a jail sentence lifestyle [laughing].
AARON- Fundamentally we’re all too idiotic to get real jobs.
And here's what happened when Heaven's Basement took to the stage...
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| Aaron rocking the Manchester crowd |
It’s little surprise that
tonight’s Heaven’s Basement show here at Manchester
From beginning to end Heaven’s Basement’s set is unstoppable; water
bounces from Chris Rivers’ drums whilst front man Aaron Buchanan bounds
energetically up and down the stage and is already out in the crowd and we’re
only on first song, the soaring “Welcome Home”. The long awaited and much anticipated debut album
allows the live show to kick up yet another notch and the quartet blast through
the set, including ferocious hit single “Fire, Fire” and album tracks including
old school fans’ favourite “Nothing Left To Lose”.
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| Guitarist Sid Glover in Manchester |
Vintage style riffs brought together with Aaron’s distinctive pure rock vocals the set is dynamic and the boys have earned every bit of their impressive reputation. The slower, melodic and heartfelt opening of “The Price We Pay” offers another side to Heaven’s Basement, with Aaron showing off his impressive vocal range; and it allows the crowd a respite from the heat in the room before the song bursts into its own with a full sounding finale.
Heaven’s
Basement is a band that is in demand and quite rightly so. The crowd tonight
hang on their every word as Aaron encourages shoulder mounting whilst guitarist Sid completes an impressive
guitar solo during “Jump Back”. The electrically charged live show ends with an
almighty encore of “Executioner’s Day” culminating in a circle pit and Aaron
walking out on top of the sold out crowd. A gutsy and fearless
performance tonight proves that the hard work is paying off; Heaven’s Basement are
far from the basement. 9/10
