“Kris Davis puts a shitload of effort into running it” Nottingham duo HeavyHeads are, of course, talking about Macmillan Fest, the annual charity festival which is organised by Kris and his IKE Productions team and which hits the Rescue Rooms this Saturday, they then remind us what the event is all about “it’s all for a good cause, which makes the day even better.”
HeavyHeads will play the NottinghamLIVE.co.uk stage – aka the Red Rooms – this Saturday, we’re sponsoring the stage for the third year in a row, and, having played the stage last year, they are unsurprisingly glad to be asked back, though they admit they were not overly surprised.
“(laughing) As it happens Kris is our booking agent so it was sort of on the cards, but yeah we’re proper looking forward to playing it again, last year had a really good vibe to it.”
This year is set to be a fantastic year with a stellar lineup including the likes of Tesseract, JettBlack, Atticus Anthem, Long Dead signal and all, HeavyHeads however won’t be sticking around as they will be shooting off to perform at another great Nottingham festival taking place this weekend.
“We have to leave soon after our set to go do another one at Amazement Festival, so we’re going to end up missing out on some of the acts” they do however have plenty of suggestions for those that will be sticking around for the whole day, “we would definitely recommend checking out The Gorgeous Chans and Josh Kemp, as well As Violet and Virtues, proper tight bands those two.”
HeavyHeads started as duo Joe Worker and Chris Miller, forming from the ashes of a previous project in which the two were involved.
“Me and Miller used to play in a metal band together, and after a while we grew out of that scene, but didn’t really want to stop playing music together, so we just started jamming things like Bob Marley in his bedroom, and from then it was only a natural progression into writing our own stuff and of course by then we’d been sucked into the wonderful acoustic scene that Notts has, so it all sort of came out with the acoustic vibe. We started gigging about, and then took ourselves on a busking trip round Europe… and now we’re pretty much back where we started. Fuck.”
The duo soon made a name for themselves, with WAITT Unsigned describing them as “something special” following their set at last years Macmillan Fest, since then the band have expanded, adding The Afterdark Movement’s Matt Mason to proceedings, and they are set to grow even more with the addition of a session bassist in the near future.
The duo have been performing for almost two years and over that time have had some pretty memorable gigs, in Nottingham and beyond, “There have been a few really good shows, getting to headline acoustic gathering was sick, probably the most fun we’ve had on stage…” however when it comes to their most memorable gig they refer to one rather different, and rather further afield.
“The most memorable gig, if it counts that is, was at Montmartre in Paris, which is basically this huge cathedral high up on a hill that looks over the rest of the city. We went up there with a couple of local people we’d met the day before, it was about half one in the morning. This place was buzzing, a proper buskers paradise, anyway, we sat on the steps and started jamming and this other group came over and asked to go play with them, in the end there was about 20+ of us taking up random instruments and all jamming out classics to about 150 onlookers, in the most surreal place. There was even a fire artist.”
Though the gig ended in a way that will probably be memorable for less cheerful reasons, “we did that for a couple of hours, then two people got stabbed and we thought it best to leave.”
Not bad going for two guys that admit that when they performed their first gigs they were “shitting it”.
Macmillan Fest, as well as featuring some great acts from across the UK, will be packed full of great Nottingham performers, further emphasising the excitement surrounding the city’s music scene at the moment, something the band are glad to be a part of.
“The scenes really close at the moment, and everyone pretty much knows each other, it’s like being part of a big musical family, you can pretty much turn up at any show throughout the week and guarantee you’ll either know some of the acts, promoters, or just people in the crowd, I think it always makes shows more enjoyable that way.“
When it comes to the secret behind the current buzz surrounding the Nottingham scene the HeavyHeads have a simple answer.
“There’s just a lot of talent In Notts, it’s pretty much as simple as that.” this of course has led to the lens being shone on Nottingham, “with people like Saint Raymond, Jake Bugg and Indiana getting nationwide attention its put the city on the map, and spurred everyone else on. I heard we got voted the 2nd best music scene in the UK, just behind London, which is fucking awesome. “
With such a huge array of talent in Nottingham it is hardly surprising that the band find it a bit difficult picking out their favourites when we ask them.
“Literally so many people to mention, but our mates in The Afterdark Movement always smash the shows, well good band to watch… Love seeing Motormouf tearing up a set, and Georgie Rose kills it everytime!”
With Macmillan Fest and Amazement Festival this promises to be a busy weekend for the HeavyHeads boys and they have no plans to slow down afterwards either, at least not for the next few months.
“Well we’re off travelling in about ten months, so hopefully we just get to carry on playing shows before then, going to be dropping an EP as well, and maybe even a little tour if we can squeeze one in.”
It seems like there is plenty still to come from HeavyHeads – until they go off exploring the world.
In the meantime, in the bands words themselves, “keep supporting the scene”.
HeavyHeads perform on the NottinghamLIVE.co.uk stage at Macmillan Fest this Saturday – for more information click here
For more on HeavyHeads check them out on Facebook
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