Rockers THE SAVAGE HEARTS have been a band for a short time, but that has not stopped them from playing shows, releasing music, and planning out so much more for themselves ahead of the future! Bassist Evan Walsh talks of the band's beginning's, middle's and no plans on ending anytime at all!
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Well the history of The Savage Hearts is pretty short at the moment but I’ve been in the music industry for a longtime - since I was 15 actually! From 2012-2019 I was in a band called The Strypes, we toured the world several times over from the UK to USA, Japan and South America as well as appearing on TV shows like David Letterman and Later with Jools Holland and released 3 Top 10 albums. Since the band wound down just before Covid in 2019 I’d spent a long time putting together ideas for songs and sounds that I’d like to pursue with my own band project which led to the development of The Savage Hearts. The first band member I met was Darragh Muldoon (lead guitar/vocals) and we immediately gelled both as musicians and pals, we were on such a similar page I knew I was on the right track immediately! After that it took the majority of the next year or so for the right lineup to fall into place with Luke Cassidy (who I met when I guested on his That Sound podcast with Gavin Malone) landing in on drums (what a player he is too!) and Eugenio Collinassi on sax/trombone (he can also read and write music as well as being prodigiously talented on more instruments than I could name!) Along with our old pal Terry Brady who occasion played blues harmonica and keyboards with us it’s an incredibly exciting line-up to be a part of us musically and honestly couldn’t have put together a better bunch of lads to collaborate with!
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?'
The origin of the band’s name is fairly straightforward since I was basically looking around for something that had a kinda mean, moody vibe that would evoke a sort of 50s/60s pop culture kitsch, like a motorcycle gang in a teenage B-movie about drag racing or general rock ’n’ roll-obsessed hooligans, which also led to the creation of the band’s avatar, mascot, spiritual guide and talisman Eddie Cruizer. There’s also a band from the 2010s who the band is very influenced by called The Jim Jones Revue, a really incredible band that combined the raunchy mayhem of Little Richard and Chuck Berry with the buzz saw ruthless aggression of punk and garage rock - they’re a band whose work I’ve worshiped for a hell of a long time by now and their swansong album in 2012 with called Savage Heart - I think you can put two and two together from there!
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We’re based out of Cavan which is a small rural town in Ireland. It’s where I’ve lived my whole life and even though we’re all slightly scattered around different towns and villages of the surrounding areas Cavan is generally the place where we congregate to rehearse and formulate our plans of action.
Obviously since it is a small, rural area there’s a bit of a shortage of venues and facilities to create a massive scene there’s still a very healthy thriving community of people working as musicians or in the arts in general which means there’s always something creative or interesting happening locally, particularly the Town Hall arts centre and a pub called Blessings where the music heads tend to jam, rehearse and congregate!
4. How would you describe your style?
I generally think our style of music suits the category ‘garage rock’ as it’s the central spine from which all the other genres we touch on can veer of from or is a musical cousin of! We combine contemporary fuzzy garage rock with punk, pub rock, 50s rock ’n’ roll, 70s glam, cow punk, psychobilly and even a bit 60s psychedelia for good measure!
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
So far we’ve released two singles ‘Gang War’ and ‘Speeding Bullets’ on a great Irish indie label called Blowtorch Records - both tracks shot to No. 1 on the Irish downloads chart which was a great buzz and really well received by critics and followers of the band which is very rewarding. We’re always working hard in the studio stockpiling new songs so we’re hoping to get a third single out in the next couple of months to round off the year!
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
See above!
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We’ve had a really busy year gigging already which has been great, we made our London debut back in July at Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues and the Dublin Castle Camden, which are both legendary venues and really delivered as great shows! We’ve also hit all the major Irish festivals like Electric Picnic, Sea Sessions supported legendary bands like The Boomtown Rats and The Undertones - we actually have a second support slot coming up with The Undertones in December as well as playing Sligo Live in October and a
couple of nice shows in Dublin in the diary. We’re also got a bit of plan we’re currently hatching to the UK before Christmas for some shows which is high on our list of priorities!
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Lots of gigs and lots of new music so keep your eyes, ears and bananas peeled!
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
All our stuff is on Spotify so would recommend you check it all out there but you can also buy some vinyl from Blowtorch Records as well as ourselves if you drop us a message social media.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Have a lotta fun!
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