Interview with The Heavy North: ‘You can see in their eyes when you’ve got them – and that’s when you know you have a tune’

Liverpool-based band The Heavy North released their latest belter of a single ‘Bring Me Love’ last Friday (4 September), taken from the band’s upcoming debut 4-track EP, Dive Bar Blues, which will come out in November.

The band comprises Kenny Stuart (vocals), José Ibanez (guitar), Andy Horrocks (bass), Ste Penn (keys) and Mark Rice (drums).

Speaking about the song, Stuart said: ‘I pull bits from my own experience and build around it. ‘Bring Me Love’ is actually a reference to the night I met my girlfriend in a bar in Liverpool’:

“Out on a Sunday with my friends in Heebie Jeebie’s,
I saw you around town around town around town
And then we spoke and I just knew I had to have you
And from that twinkle in your eye, you felt the same way, too.’

‘Lying To Yourself’, ‘As Long As You’re Here With Me’ and ‘Some Good Lovin’ will all feature on the next EP. An album is also on the cards: ‘We’ve got snippets of 30 odd songs to work on, so we’d like to do an album,’ Stuart said. ‘I was more inspired on lockdown, with my family and two kids. I’ve never struggled with writing but I don’t particularly class them as my songs because the others come up with plenty of parts, musically. When you bring ideas to them, you can see in their eyes when you’ve got them – and that’s when you know you have a tune.’

‘As Long As You’re Here With Me’ is, in Stuart’s words, ‘a throwback track inspired by Sam Cooke and Otis Reading’: ‘It’s my favourite genre. It’s such a lovely track about the world falling apart but as long as you’re here with me, everything is good.’ ‘Some Good Lovin’ is a bit of a misnomer, Stuart said, laughing, as ‘it’s more about somebody not getting the good lovin’ they want!’

‘It’s about having a friend going through a hard time’

‘Lying to Yourself’, which came out in May, is altogether bleaker: ‘Another call, another chance, it’s up to you to make a choice, try speaking for yourself, you’re acting like you got no voice, you’re no stranger to me, so be who you are, you’re lying to yourself, boy what for-oorrr? You dish out line after line after line, that I’ve heard, time after time after time, I see you smiling, but your eyes are crying.’

‘The line after line’ is both a neat reference to the lies and the drug taking, according to Stuart: ‘It’s about having a friend going through a hard time and partying too much, taking too many drugs. The song is saying, I keep giving you a chance but don’t lie to me, you don’t have to be anyone else. It’s based on a good friend of mine but it wasn’t intended to be malicious. He’s sorted his act out now.’

Like many other musicians, The Heavy North have been forced to postpone live performances including UK tour dates, festival appearances and most recently their hometown headline gig. However, they did put on a livestream gig at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool two weeks ago. Prior to that, their last live gig was in March when the band supported psych rockers Temples and Birmingham duo Cut Glass Kings. One of Stuart’s favourite songs to sing live is ‘Don’t You Wait For Me’ (2018), a slower, blues-infused number that becomes distinctly rocky around halfway through. ‘Sometimes, your newer ones are your favourites but this one is great to play at the end of the set when people want to drunkenly put their arms round each other,’ he said laughing.

‘We’ve always had a decent music scene but there are so many different sounds now’

He acknowledges that Liverpool’s music scene is particularly good at the moment. ‘There are so many genres coming out of it,’ he said. ‘We’ve always had a decent music scene but there are so many different sounds now. One of my favourite all time bands is The Cubicle, they’re a bit like Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits. They’re also my mates. He (Dan Wilson, frontman) has a husky voice with a good swing to it! We played together in the Handyman last December.’

Stuart is a massive fan of The Rolling Stones: ‘I could listen to Exile On Main Street (their album from 1972) on repeat,’ he said. He’s also a huge fan of Peter Green, the founder of Fleetwood Mac, as well as Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, Paul Weller and Iggy Pop. If he could collaborate with anyone, he plumps for Queens of the Stone Age frontman, Josh Homme. ‘When he collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, he took them to a new level. He also produced Iggy Pop’s Post Pop Depression album, which is one of his best albums so far, not that he has a bad one. It would have been interesting to collaborate with John Lennon to see how sharp he was and whether he’d like me! I’m in the Stones camp (Stones vs. The Beatles), one of my first gigs was The Stones. It was one of these deals where you got the tickets, flights and hotel as one package. We arrived and kept walking further and further forward – we were in the gold circle! Then Keith Richards walked out in a fur coat, even though it was boiling hot!’

(Photo from left to right: José, Mark, Kenny, Ste and Andy)