Hedrons Interview from Manchester

R13 stepped into The Hedrons dressing room with the delightful Ms Chi and Ms Soup to get the latest on the tour, the new single and breaking bones.

R13: So you're in the middle of a tour at the minute, is it going well or are you all wishing you'd stayed at home with a good book?
S: No way! Plenty of reading gets done mind. The tour's really good, we're all having a brilliant time and we couldn't ask for better, playing every night, that's what all those rehearsals were in aid of. We put all that practice in and now we're doing it so it's all good.

R13: You've had a pretty hectic schedule this year, you're in the middle of a tour but you haven't stopped playing for most of the year have you?
C: At lot of folks have said that to us when they look at our tour dates but it doesn't really seem like that, I think there's more to come!
R13: So you're not sick of the sight of each other yet then?
S: Not yet!
C: I think we'd rather be out on the road and playing gigs instead of being back home and sitting in the house and wishing we were out on the road.
S: I think October we're back out on the road again
R13: So you get a couple of weeks off then!
S: Yeah about a fortnight haha

R13: Before the summer most of the gigs you'd done had been in Scotland so were you nervous about straying off your home patch for the first time and leaving that fan base behind?
S: No we were really looking forward to it because nobody really knows who we are south of the border and we'd been playing the same venues back home over and over again trying to get our sound right. So it was really good to get out and see what other people actually think of the songs and we seem to have been received really well.
C: Yeah it's quite satisfying to go to a place where you've never played before and get a good turn out.
R13: Were you worried that you might be playing to two men and a dog?
C: Well even if it was we've gone out to put on a show so we'll play and next time maybe there'll be two more you know? I think we have a lot to thank myspace and our website for because our music is out there so people can listen to it.
S: There's been quite a few myspacers at the gigs, whenever we dedicate a song to our myspacers there's always a show of hands so it's obviously working for us.

R13: Your new single, your first single, came out yesterday so how good is it to finally get something out that people can get hold of?
C: I think it's what we've been aiming for, it's like the fruition of all the hard work we've put in, it's surreal to walk into HMV and Virgin and there it is staring back at us. We're definitely really proud of it and we're just glad that it's out there for people to go and buy now, as you said we've put some tracks up on our website but having a track out to buy is just great.
S: We'd never have though a year ago when we got together that by this stage we'd have something to sell already. We thought possibly we'd be touring but we never thought for a minute that we'd have an album packaged up and ready to go, start of the new year for that one.
R13: Start of the New Year? So the date's gone back a bit then?
C: Yeah, it was originally pencilled in for October but that wasn't set in stone or anything.
S: We've got a couple of singles coming out before then but it's not that far away when you think about it.
R13: No I guess not, so what are the singles going to be? 'Heatseeker' is it?
S: Ooooohhhh (taps nose knowingly)
R13: Haha I must have read that somewhere!

R13: You were all in bands before you got together so had either of you released anything before?
S: No it was all just local bands really, more like a hobby. I was into 50s and 60s music and getting out and playing all the usual dirty dens around Glasgow every Friday and Saturday night.
R13: All good experience though?
S: I've been transported around in the back of many a transit van to all sorts of places!

R13: So how come there's no CD release of the single?
C: When you're just starting out like us there's quite a few bands that are just doing the vinyl thing, vinyl seem to sell better because it's a collectors thing. Downloads as well are a nod towards our myspace fans.
S: I'm not sure if the next one will be CD but if not the one after definitely will be so we're just building up gradually until we've got more of a fanbase.
C: We just don't want to overstretch ourselves either.

R13: You've touched on this already but can you believe how far you've come in a comparatively short space of time? You've played T in the Park, Download, Guilfest, got a single out, an album coming out, you might as well retire now there's nothing left to do right?
S: Haha yeah just hang the drum sticks up now.
C: That's what's been so exciting about the Hedrons is that it's just fallen into place so quickly, it's just been building up and the fact that all those things happened so quickly shows that we must be doing something right. Obviously we've still got a lot of hard work to put in but if it had taken longer it wouldn't really have mattered but things just seemed to keep going forward.
S: We've always worked really quickly, like when we did the album we were in the studio for a week and recorded it live. Even the writing was mainly done in a couple of days, some songs take a little bit longer but you can always tell when it's time to give up on it and try something new, so it's always been the same with the targets we set ourselves, just sort of quickfire and onto the next thing.

R13: Going back to T in the Park, you (Chi) nearly didn't play because you'd broken a bone in your neck? How close were you to not playing?
C: We cancelled a couple of gigs in the lead up to it but thankfully I put in all the physio and it wasn't as bad as we first thought.
R13: How did you do it?
C: I was in a really bad car accident, I was ok but all my gear was in the back and that nearly got wiped out as well. I was lucky to walk away from it but thankfully I managed to get right for the tour.
R13: So was it literally taking the brace of your neck to play at T in the Park?
S: Yeah as soon as she came off stage it was back on.
C: I was going to go up on Saturday but I thought it's not really worth it so as soon as I was off stage it was back on.
S: We had big party plans for that weekend, the rhythm section was going to head out and do T in the Park and it ended up just me!
C: You gave a good account of yourself though.
S: You were there in spirit.
C: You were there in high spirits! Haha

R13: Your album was recorded at the end of last year wasn't it?
S: October I think, yeah.
R13: Is it a bit frustrating that you have to wait so long for it to come out, it must be really exciting when you record it and you want other people to hear it?
S: Yeah but because it's been such a busy year it hasn't seemed like such a long time, when we actually think about when it was recorded it seems like a long time but it's not really and we've needed to mature our live performance.
R13: Well the other thing is that having written it in such a short space of time and having matured since then, a year on are you wishing you'd done parts of it differently?
S: Not really, there are a couple of things that we'd change, in the live set we'd increase the guitar break or the intro to songs but we played so much and rehearsed so much before that when we went into the studio that was the way it was always going to be. The songs were quite mature by that point and it was really our live performance that we were working on, we just wanted to put on a show because I'm sure you don't want to go and see a band who just stare at their feet all the time?
R13: Having seen you twice you certainly don't do that!

R13: I'm guessing that you've been too busy but have you had time to write any new songs? Maybe slip a couple into the set here and there?
S: Yeah there's one or two that aren't on the album but we're just being brave in picking when to play them. It's really nerve wracking but that's the only way to do it and it's a really good way to judge by the reaction whether people like it or not. A few songs have been knocked out that way but we're really looking forward to not having a rest but to being able to get on and write new stuff. We'll be lucky if we get a couple of days off.

R13: Are you getting to the stage yet where you're getting any star struck fans? That must be a bit weird when two years ago that could have been you!
C: I know! There are a couple of guys.
S: There are some that hang around outside the venue before the sound check, who are there from two or three in the afternoon. There was one gig we did where people were waiting for us with proper autograph books.
R13: Do you find that all a bit weird?
S: I find it all a bit serious! Haha. I just don't get it.

R13: To turn that around, with all the festivals you've been doing have you met any of your heroes yet?
S: Oh T in the Park was an eye opener wasn't it?
C: Definitely!
S: We were sat having dinner with Fightstar, on the next table was the Futureheads, we met Edith Bowman, Colin Murray, I put a Hedrons badge on Colin Murray!
C: Drew Barrymore was there, she's really short in real life.

R13: Have you managed to play abroad yet at all?
C: This is abroad for us! Haha
R13: Have you got anything lined up?
S: Wales!
laughter
S: If we sell enough singles then maybe.
C: On myspace we get a lot of messages asking us to go to places like Australia and Japan so if you want to pay for our plane tickets then we'll happily come over but at the moment we'll just see how the single gets on.
R13: What sort of release is the single getting? Is it just the UK, Europe or world-wide?
C: Just the UK but the download's available world-wide.
S: I've actually had a friend text me tonight who's in Cambodia and he's managed to download it onto his laptop so there you go!
R13: Well that's not bad is it? There can't be that many bands from over here that are known in Cambodia!
S: He's getting his pal to play it at some disco tonight called the Heart of Darkness in Cambodia and he said he'll film people dancing to it and send the film clip.

R13: So is the distribution for the album the same or don't you know yet?
S: There's every chance it will get picked up but we're not sure, we're just concentrating on the now and looking forward to our fortnight off!