Heyrocco make music fun. Their angsty, grunge pop makes for the perfect soundtrack to a lazy Sunday or a wild night out. The band’s debut album ‘Teenage Movie Soundtrack’ came out earlier this year and has since seen them picking up plaudits from the NME and Clash.
The band are heading back to UK shores in October (for a full list of dates, see below) so we caught up with them to discuss the tour, the album and much more.
Firstly, congrats on the release of your debut album earlier this year. How does it feel to finally have it out there in the world?
Gracias! Feels gooood. Having anything for sale in stores is a big step. Many people tell us ‘hey guys love the new record just bought it!’ Which is A. a nice compliment and B. means ‘Boys, we’re eating out tonight! Daddy’s gettin his cookie!’
Can you sum up ‘Teenage Movie Soundtrack’ in less than 10 words?
Everyone I knew back in high school.
Have you started writing for the next record yet?
We’ve got around 10! 10 demos we’re rotating into the live set. Some have blossomed into the angsty-yet-feel-good tunes they were meant to be, whilst the others are still little baby eggs. This next record is very day-to-day though, I can say that.
You label your sound as ‘Disney grunge’. Which Disney characters best emulate each member of Heyrocco?
Creative question. Chris Cool kinda looks like Simba, I, Nate, feel James Woods as Hades is a decent match, and Tanner is more the old school – old yeller type. Weird gang, huh?
You’re coming back to the UK in October to play some shows. Do you enjoy playing in the UK? What’s the best thing about your UK fans?
The accents and stories keep us very entertained. The UK is always a lot of fun, I like playing the areas where many of the greats came out of. Seeing historic venues, posters, art on the walls. Stuff like that. People always share tales of shows no one in America really talks about. Like Pulp! We may have never gotten the chance to meet so many righteous people without this band and for that we are grateful.
Do you ever get a chance to be tourists when you are out on tour?
All the time, being a tourist can be expensive though. We mostly hit free parks, zoos, always taking the good vibes express. Zoos are a bit depressing. Public transportation is the shit though, if I could I’d ride around all day with me notebook taking in the many mysteries both heard and seen.
I’m sure you get asked this quite a lot but what is your favourite 90s teen movie?
Recently Juice wears the crown. Tupac is a big inspiration of mine, he’s so real. His character just portrays his own life. I think that kind of mad steezy be-yourself style really helped me define who I wanted to be. Apart from the whole killing your friends thing. For that scene we’d probably flip to Half Baked.
In ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Heath Ledger serenades Julia Styles with a rendition of ‘I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You’. If Heyrocco were to serenade a girl, what would be the song of choice?
I’ve attempted to play My Cherie Amour lately. We even jammed a lazy jazz slacker version the other day in the garage. It sounded groovy. On a more casual note Celine Dion.
What’s one thing that we would be surprised to find out about Heyrocco?
Maybe our cars or lack there of. I drive a ford focus, it really murders my vibe. Taco and Cool pass Amber (Alert) (our van) back and forth while we’re home. Chicks dig Amber. Everyone loves her, she’s the best. People might be thrown off to hear that we didn’t really believe in ourselves or have a real band practice until last Thursday too but now we’re getting pretty alright.
What has been the biggest challenge and success of your career so far?
I’m not kidding, believing in yourself. There is something really weird about hearing your own voice recorded. It can get to you sharing it with everyone else. Getting asked a bunch of questions about what you made and people taking it more seriously than you intended. After a while it gets to be like ‘fuck you man what am I even doing? I miss playing in my room’ but then *Success: I realized music is for everyone. You can’t hold on to it forever. A song may be new to you today that’s decades old to someone else. It makes me so happy seeing people sing the words at shows that you can just tell are exactly where I was and that’s when it really clicked. That’s the success. Getting to dance around and play guitar while uniting strangers.
What’s the plan after you finish the UK tour? Any downtime at all?
Flying back to NYC for CMJ the night of our last UK show, soon followed by another tour kicking off in Toronto that goes yada yada yada through the east coast, up, down, all around to Chicago. Tell my wife I love her very much.. she knows!
Quick Fire Round
Best road-trip memory?
Going to California with the daddy issues girls last summer! Went through Colorado, stayed in this huge empty mansion, played a gig in San Fran, just hung around southern California for a week. It was a dream.
A song lyric that means a lot to me is…
“I’m like a stepping razor don’t watch my size i’m dangerous” – Peter Tosh
The first instrument I learned to play was…
Not the vagina.
First musical memory?
My mother sang me Edelweiss as a child, my brother and I would exchange the words for ‘two little guys’.
Favourite moment of 2015?
Whilst sitting under a tree at a music festival in Amsterdam I discovered this..
if every song I sing is sad, where can I go with thoughts this bad?
if I don’t die, where do I stand? nowhere man.. i’m nowhere man
Heyrocco will be touring the UK throughout September and October, the full list of tour dates is below. Tickets are on sale now here and here.
