Interviews: Heads Above

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Melodic Hardcore band Heads Above from England. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name? Did you plan it or came out just like that?

We spent a lot of time choosing our first name, False Thoughts, over time we realised there were a lot of bands in our immediate scene with the "False" name, so we floated the idea of changing the name for a few months. Eventually, we came up with "Heads Above" as a callback to lyrics in the first song we wrote together, "Tall". We felt it was a good opportunity to begin a new era for the band and exist in our own space a bit more.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

We have all grown up on heavy music, so we knew we wanted to be a "heavy" band, but the interesting thing with us is the variety of other influences that everyone has and how they shine through in what we do. As time moves along, we find ourselves getting more and more "out of the box" with ideas, which will be very apparent on our upcoming record compared to the first one. At the end of the day, we are just five homies making music that excites us, in whatever form that may take, as long as the odd breakdown is thrown in there.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

This band forming was such a lightning in a bottle scenario, Mike (Vocals) and Ben (Guitar) have been friends since 2020 and lived together for a couple of years, brought together by music, jamming and writing in all kinds of genres regularly. Mike met Cal (Guitar) working in Chester around 2023/2024, and they began talking about music, which sparked the idea in Mike's brain to form some kind of heavy music project, messaging Ben to see if he'd be interested. Cal was in another project with Stan (Drums) and invited him to join for a jam, and by pure chance, we ran into Joe (Bass) at a bouldering session. Mike and Joe went to High School together, and by pure coincidence, the band he was in had recently ended. We all met for a pint around Feb 24 and soon after began jamming. About 3/4 months later, we had written our entire first EP, "You Speak To Me As Though I Wasn't Living," and started performing live.

4. Each band member's favourite band?

So hard to pick one all-time favourite, but everyone has a top band they are vibing at the moment:

Ben: Opeth

Mike: Twenty One Pilots

Cal: Love Rarely

Stan: Enter Shikari

Joe: Amenra

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

I think the coolest thing about music, and art in general, is that inspiration can come from anywhere. As a unit, we inspire each other, people don't talk about it a lot but being in a band is hard sometimes, five dudes can't always be at 100% simultaneously, there are times when one or two, or even all of us feel like don't have the juice to put in the graft, but we all lean on each other and remind ourselves why we do it. I think the main ethos and inspiration for our songs is catharsis. Most of our songs cover themes close to us and are inspired by things/ situations/ people in our past and present that require shouting and 7 strings to process.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our last show was at EBGBs in Liverpool, supporting the homies from Ireland, Archives. (Check them out!)

7. Whom would you like to feature with?

We love being part of a scene, there are so many amazing bands in the North West of England right now, we have had some of these amazing people feature on our songs, like Izabel Lavin from Rozemary/ Demeanour and Nat Owens from Arcadia Ego / Monroe (Absolutely go listen to all four of those bands). Our first port of call would always be to feature with bands in the scene; Knives is definitely on the wish list. Dream scenario for the big leagues would have to be Enter Shikari.

8. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that

Absolutely, presenting your art to people in any scenario can be nerve-racking. Some shows it's as easy as breathing, other times it's incredibly anxiety-inducing. My personal tip would be to practice a lot and make sure you have all your parts down. The more confident and prepared you feel, the less you will have to worry about. Plus, when you get on stage and start playing, the adrenaline always kicks in, and then you just gotta enjoy the ride. And if you make a mistake, you have to remember that most people won't even notice, so just vibe it!

9. What do you think of your fans?

A. First and foremost, this band exists as catharsis and friendship between the five of us; it's all we ever wanted to do and being able to work together and alongside amazing people like our producer, Dan Cain (Cain Audio), to create wonderful music is all we could ask for. The scene and community are a huge part of what we do, and we all support each other. The maddest thing about putting art out into the world is that you can reach places and people you would never even think it would, for example, we had someone reach out to us from Canada to tell us he and his son loved "Hope" from our first EP, and the lyrics really resonated with them. To us, that makes it all worthwhile. We create for personal catharsis; however, if that resonates with anyone else in their own way, then that is an awesome bonus. Any band would struggle to exist without people supporting them, and to anyone and everyone who has supported us over the last couple of years, we love you, and we appreciate you more than you know.

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