Over the last few years, emerging outfit The Savage Hearts have looked to establish themselves as one of the more infectious names arriving out of Ireland right now. And after what has been an incredibly prolific run of releases recently, they are now back once again to deliver their ferocious double A-side single ‘Speeding Bullets / Only Lovers Left Alive’.
And with those two new outings proving incredibly impactful, we caught up with the band’s Evan Walsh to find out more about their background as well as their plans for the future.
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Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you got started in music?
Well that’s a bit of a long story in my case haha! I’ve been playing music from a very early age and from 2012-19 was in band called The Strypes – we signed a big record deal when we were 16 and toured the world a couple of times over, from the UK, US and EU to Japan, South America and Australia as well as appeared on TV shows like David Letterman, Jools Holland and Conan and festival like Glastonbury before calling it a day in 2019. Still being a relatively fresh-faced youngster I immediately wanted to move on to new musical pastures but the whole COVID situation obviously delayed things til around early 2022 when I set about in earnest recruiting new chums and bandmates to form a new garage rock-centred musical project. I met Darragh the guitarist and lead singer first and we just clicked straight away, we had so many common interests and musical overlap I knew straight away he was the man to kickstart this band with! We then had the classic chopping and changing of various potential line-ups before the rest of the lads fell into place (Luke on drums, Eugenio on sax and Terry on harmonica/keys) and safe to say I couldn’t have fallen in with a better bunch of musicians to collaborate and gig with, extremely talented and brave men all!
Who are your biggest musical influences and how have they shaped your sound?
As I mentioned above the band’s sound is heavily based in the ‘garage rock’ area of things – I’ve always been drawn to that style and think it’s a great term because it covers a hell of a lot of subgenres that basically evoke the essence of wild, fuzzy, tough rock ’n’ roll but also carries an air of experimentation and can include psychedelia, pub rock, punk, freakbeat, rhythm ’n’ blues, psychobilly, soul all of which we manage to touch on over the course of proceedings – which roughly translates as bands like The Who, Dr. Feelgood, Ty Segall, The Move, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Kilburn & The High Roads, The Nude Party, Lemon Twigs, Small Faces, Madness, King Kurt, Rockpile, MC5, The Long Ryders, Hoodoo Gurus, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Meatbodies, Captain Beefheart, The Yardbirds, Johnny Thunders, The Animals, The Specials, The Murlocs, The Damned…I can keep going all day!!
Was there a specific moment or experience that made you decide to pursue music seriously?
Can’t remember a specific one as such since it was so deeply ingrained in me from day one to love and enjoy playing music but I would say in the case of most members of the band it was probably hearing our seminal influences for the first time, in my case The Who, Dr. Feelgood et al – you can’t beat that feeling when you’re just coming into your teens around 13/14 and starting to ‘take music seriously’ and appreciate it on a slightly more cognitively advanced level (relatively that is!) and have that love of those special bands come crashing down on you like a tonne of bricks!
Can you walk us through your typical songwriting process?
The only thing typical about our songwriting process it that it varies significantly from one track to the next! Well not quite but almost, pretty much all the band’s songs thus far have originated from myself but the arranging, collaborating and sometimes co-writing that goes on it absolutely crucial to the finished work and when everybody does their bit whether that’s adding a guitar part or brass line or whatever, it all makes the finished product that bit unique! I’ve also co-written some songs for the band with longtime musician friends which is a big change from the way my old band The Strypes operated – our first single ‘Gang War’ and both tracks on the new single were co-written with Ste Kelly of the Dublin band Raglans who is an absolutely incredible melodist/lyricist/all round fab guy and I’ve also done some collaborating with Stefan Murphy, another stunningly top class songwriter from The Mighty Stef/Athletes Of Soul and currently The Sleeveens – brave and stout men all!
How do you find inspiration for your music and lyrics?
Well again like the whole songwriting process in general that can vary significantly, also the input of another songwriter like Ste Kelly who I mentioned early will contribute significantly to the themes of the lyric, where its going and lyrical or melodic hooks. On the tracks where I’ve written solo the lyric tends to evolve around my own personal outlook on a situation, observing other people or just commenting on some state of affairs I might be aware of in the world at large – I really don’t like being too on the nose with what a song is directly about though, unless you’re one of the great lyrical brains of your generation like a Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen or something lyrics that spell things out too literally can tend to induce feelings of stomach-turning cringe coupled with a dry cough, fatigue and loss of taste and smell – so I like to shroud things in metaphor or allude to the topic in question but give people a bit of room to apply their own meaning or work out the meaning themselves.
What themes or messages do you hope listeners take away from your music?
As I mentioned above I think it’s good to give people the space to use what they hear to take their own meaning and themes out of things that they wish to make out in something – I think a lot of good music/pop culture/general creative stuff (doing everything in my power not to use the loathsome term ‘art’) contains an element of that or certainly has a multi-layered aspect to what you can see in it. But I think more importantly than stuff the take away from the kind of music we make is fun – we make music for fun, we have fun jamming, recording and gigging so the best possible outcome for a hip-swivelling rock ’n’ roll outfit like ourselves is to see that what you do can bring other people pleasure, happiness and a little bit of escapism which is absolutely crucial in what is a pretty horrendous world 90% of the time!
What challenges have you faced as an emerging artist in the music industry?
Well in the case of this band, ‘emerging’ is very interesting since I’ve already been in a band that was signed to a major label, had a big hype around us and all that so I got to see the downsides, frustrations and pitfalls of that side of the curtain for all their worth (while still having some fun times I hasten to add!) So when it came to doing things second time around I knew for definitely I wanted things to be more indie, DIY and have a rough-and-ready vibe that I felt was missing in the past – it’s certainly challenging though since you find yourself taking on a lot of responsibilities for your trajectory which used to be doled out to lots of different people in different jobs and also the increasingly fragmented way in which people consume music via playlists or social media or whatever you’re having yourself – which on the other hand can be a good way to find your own niche but it’s a bit of a struggle to work that out at the beginning!
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your musical journey so far?
Releasing music that you’ve loved writing/recording/playing and worked hard on, then finding out that other people are getting enjoyment from listening is about as good as it gets – twas the whole point of the exercise in the first place!
How do you stay true to yourself and your artistry in a constantly evolving industry?
Well as I’ve mentioned before my previous experiences with The Strypes was a massive help in forming my view on all that stuff and how I’d like to operate going forward – it taught me I detest the majority of the mainstream music industry haha and how it works which is anathema to how I see a properly rewarding creative project unfold, so as long as you know what your principals are which we thankfully do, keep a clear head and always carry a light bulb all is right with the world.
What can fans expect from you in the near future? Any upcoming projects or tours?
Two things we’re very keen to do is keep releasing new music at a healthy continuous rate (we have plenty of tracks in the pipeline for future singles and beyond so keep your eyes peeled on our social media if you’re interested) and get out there and gig to as many people in as many places as we can which is the MO is most young, thrusting rockers at this early stage – we have lots of shows coming up at home in Ireland but had a really successful debut in London during the summer so we’re hoping get back over to the UK asap and have some exciting things coming up like supporting The Undertones (one of our all-time favourite bands) so you can’t say fairer than that, otherwise keep an ear to the ground for further updates!
Where do you see yourself and your music career in the next five years?
If we’re still getting our kicks and giving people theirs in 5 years then that sounds like a plan to me.
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Listen to The Savage Hearts’ new singles ‘Speeding Bullets / Only Lovers Left Alive’ below.
