The CMW Questionnaire: The Honest Heart Collective
As Canadian Music Week (CMW) takes over Toronto this week, we catch up with a number of the festival performers. Here is, Kevin Heerema of indie rock band, The Honest Heart Collective, participating in the Riffyou.com CMW questionnaire. Click here to find out when the band is playing.
RY: An event like Canadian Music Week for my band is all about…
“The perfect mix of work and play. Since we live so far away from the music industry hotspot that is Toronto, we don’t take our time at Canadian Music Week for granted. We go to the panels and seminars during the day, and try to meet with industry professionals and artists we haven’t met before, while at the same time, we try to promote our own music and upcoming shows. So we work pretty hard during the week, but we also treat it as a bit of a vacation and go to Sneaky Dee’s pretty much every night to eat and drink with friends till 4am. Then we get up and get to work all over again.”
RY: When someone in the audience sees your band for the first time, what do you hope their reaction will be?
“I hope that people in the audience want to see us live again. We all take a lot of pride in our live show, and we all giver’ on stage because that’s what we admired when we were younger watching hardcore bands in Thunder Bay, so I feel like we all value our live show about as much as the music itself. Its always amazing when people say they loved the music and they buy CD’s, but when people think ‘Wow, I need to see this band again.’”
RY: What, when and where was the best show you’ve ever played? What made it so awesome?
“Hands down, our album release show for Liar’s Club last April at Black Pirate’s Pub in Thunder Bay is still my favourite show we’ve played. The turnout blew me away and the crowd was having a blast. Since then we’ve performed in front of a few bigger audiences, but seeing the support we had at home felt amazing. There was even a point in the show where everyone was screaming so loud that we had to actually stop, soak it all in and let it happen. You can’t top that.”
RY: What, when and where was the worst/weirdest show you’ve ever played? What made it terrible?
“In September ’14 we made our way out to New Brunswick and picked up a last minute show after one we had booked fell through. The venue had pretty much everything on the list of ‘things that make a venue bad.’ There was no stage, the bar was in the middle of nowhere, the PA system was set up terribly, there was no good beer, and no crowd except for a couple older people playing slots in the corner who left as soon as the music was going to start. There was also one very drunk guy, who turned out to be the owner of the venue, who started screwing around with the bass amp while the last band was playing, which lead to the bass player kicking the dude in the nuts, turning off his amp and saying ‘fuck this I’m done.’ It was all just really awkward, but we ended up making some good pals in a Toronto hardcore act called Partycat, so at least there was still some positivity.”
RY: What is the coolest thing fans will be able to find on your merch table?
“It’s a little basic, but I’d have to say our t-shirts. Our guitarist Keenan is a killer graphic designer and he created all of our t-shirt designs. He’s done a really good job of capturing the image we want to go for. Our back patches are pretty cool too. They look sick stitched to the back of a denim jacket.”
RY: When on tour, which do you crave the most? (And why?) Your own bed, your own shower, or a homemade meal?
“A homemade meal. I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere just fine, and sometimes I actually prefer a floor to a bed so I never miss my bed too much. As for showering, I kind of like being dirty, smelly and gross because it makes me feel like I’m living the tour life properly, so that’s not a big deal to me either.”
RY: What is your worst on-tour habit?
“I’ll wear the same pair of socks for way too long and my feet get smelly. I don’t even think it’s that bad, but the guys all yell at me for it because apparently whenever I take my shoes off in the van the whole thing turns into ‘a flying pop can of rancid death.’”
RY: What is the nerdiest thing about your band that you usually try to keep secret?
“Nic loves his fantasy novels, Ryan’s been reading the same book about Bruce Springsteen for I think a year now and I’ve recently picked up the hobby myself because I figured it might make me smarter (I don’t think it has.)
RY: Which song would you love to cover on-stage, but don’t think you’d be able to pull off?
“I have been begging the rest of the guys to try to cover ‘La La La’ by Sam Smith ever since I got to see him at WayHome 2015. I personally think a raw, kind of punky version of the song would sound awesome and be tons of fun, but nobody else shares my vision with that one at all. That, and A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, because I would love to hear Conner rip that song on piano, but yet again, I stand alone.”
RY: What makes you most proud of your band?
“I am proud not only of the progress we’ve made as a band and the fan base we’ve gained, but I’m also proud of how hard we’ve been grinding behind the scenes to pursue this project. We’ve all made sacrifices for this band, we’ve done A LOT of driving and slumming around on tour, and we practice and write like crazy while we’re at home. Despite all the grueling hard work and situations we’ve had to endure, we all still love the band life and I’m proud that we’re not showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.”
