ZapTown

This band spotlight is part of a special ZapTown series in correlation with the 2009 Broad Ripple Music Fest: http://www.broadripplemusicfest.com/

WHO: Heavy Hometown
WHERE: Casba, sponsored by A Squared Industries
LINKS: http://heavyhometown.com/

SAMPLE MP3:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB)

Heavy Hometown may still be young for a band, forming in early 2008, but immediately jumping into the Indianapolis’ live music scene, while recording and releasing their impressive debut Action Figures, the three piece acts like they have always belonged. Maybe its their diverse, sometimes noisy, sometimes soothing, and arrayed sound fits right in to the Midwestern palette of indie music that gives them that sense of “here” and “now.” You can purchase  Action Figures through their website.

Eric Parks (bass and synths) talks about Action Figures and their role in the Fest.

With “Action Figures” out, what do you think are the best elements as to how that turned out?

First and foremost, we got the record we wanted.  I don’t know if we knew exactly what we wanted when we started recording, but “action figures” was quite intentional.  We were less than a year old as a band when we started recording it and experienced some intense interpersonal growth while trying to articulate what we wanted to each other.  What came out was a solid chunk of mood.  We’re definitely pleased with the overall sound, performances and arrangements.

How has creating an album like this expanded way of thinking as a band and how does it relate to your environment being that you don’t stick to geographic or conceptual boundaries?

While all of us have recorded outside of Heavy Hometown, this was our first record together.  We had, at the time, about 40 songs to choose from, with several of those having been written within days of our first tracking session.  We went through two nights of euphoria trying to figure out what the hell we were going to record.  We went from a double disc debut to a 23 song LP, and whittled that down to 17 songs. We recorded those in a couple of weeks and then decided to eliminate five more songs to make the record that is now “action figures”.  But the final set of songs struck us as a balance between motivic diversity and thematic unity.  That was the biggest challenge for us, or expanding our way of thinking.  Before “action figures” it was, “Let’s play everything we have.” So in a way it more like creating boundaries than expanding beyond them.

For a band still young yet constantly filling up your schedules with live gigs and the completed studio work, how has that philosophy of immediacy helped pave the way for the future of the band? What are your plans now?

I don’t know if it’s a sense of immediacy that drives our schedule as much as it is a self-gratifying desire to play.  And by that, it’s not so much playing for audiences as it is being able to play in a different room, with a different PA, with different bands on the bill, and a different setlist.  Plus, we like to calendar.  Calendaring is where it’s at, man. We’ve got a few shows lined up to close out 2009, but we’re most excited to start recording an EP next month.

What importance do you feel something like the Broad Ripple Music Fest is to you as a band and to the local community?

BRMF is going to be a blast.  It’s vital to the community of Indianapolis to have events like BRMF and Oranje and MOKB sponsored performances and first Fridays at Big Car and the Harrison Center.  Cultures are formed by expression and action and participation.  That’s what these phenomena are.  That’s what proves to future anthropologists that our community was somewhat advanced.