Hedrons - Interview

by Sarah Rowland

published: 12 / 2 / 2007

All girl Glaswegian group describe their sound as the modern love child of the Foo Fighters and Joan Jett, godfathered by Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Guitarist Rosie and new bassist Gill talk to Sarah Johnson about their debut album '1 More Won't Kill Us' and their punishing tour schedule

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When Pennyblackmusic met two of the Hedrons line up, guitarist Rosie and new bassist Gill, before the London gig on their latest tour, the London Luminaire was full of the disjointed sounds of a sound check. A song starts up, guitars roaring, then it’s cut short to adjust levels before flaring up again. People buzzed around preparing for that night's gig as we were ushered into a stair well, where the sound check could be heard rumbling on and every so often some one squeezed past to take the rubbish out. It is hard to know where to start with the Hedrons. As a relatively new band they are surrounded by a buzz of excitement. Talking about music and past gigs they are animated and full of energy. But they have done an awful lot since forming in 2005; relentlessly playing gigs and reaching number 5 in the indie charts twice with their singles. “We’ve done 127 gigs, I think that averages at about a gig every three days. It’s mental when you think about it really. I can't remember all of them. It is all just a blur,” said Rosie. “We worked really hard last year. But you’ve got your adrenaline, that keeps you going and when you’re on stage you just forget everything and focus on what you are doing.” The mentality to play music constantly is one thing the girls all have in common, so much so that when original bassist, Chi, was in a car accident breaking a bone in her neck it wasn’t long before she was back on stage. Unfortunately this led to her having to drop out of the band. Rosie said: “It was a few months ago when Chi was in a car accident. She broke a bone in her neck, so she took a couple of weeks off. Then afterwards we were gigging pretty much constantly but she found towards the end of the year it was giving her a lot of pain. It was right where her bass strap fell and she had been jumping around. She went to the doctor and he told her that instead of the bone coming back together it was going further apart so she’s going to have to get an operation this year and she’ll probably be out for eight to twelve months. It was a real shame for her because she worked really hard. Your health is the most important thing though. You can’t put your health on the line for a band.” New member Gill joined Rosie, Tippi and Soup only weeks before they started playing live shows again. She said: “ I joined the band about two weeks ago, and have fast track learned all the songs in three rehearsal sessions. It has been a bit mad but good at the same time. I’ve done three gigs with the band now, just on this tour. This is the fourth tonight in London so I’m really looking forward to it.” Gill met the band through mutual friends as all the girls are from Glasgow. The have recently released their debut album, '1 More Won't Kill Us', and watched it go straight into the top 40 UK indie charts. Rosie said: “We recorded the album over the space of a week, up in Glasgow. We did it all live pretty much in the studio, because we wanted to capture the live gig sound. Sometimes you find that you go to a gig and it's amazing but then you buy the album and it's not got the same energy on it so we wanted to get that energy across. That’s why we did it live. It was stressful but it was great fun.” With so many gigs to practice and hone their sound it is not surprising the band were able to pull off recording it live, only needing to dub over the odd piece of music here and there. This further emphasises their fast paced attitude, doing everything in the here and now. “We are really proud of the album, and we all know the work that we put in to it. People are going to like it or not like it. That’s just a fact of life. That’s just how it goes. You try not to take any notice of bad reviews. Otherwise you would just get really depressed.” The girls describe their sound as the modern love child of the Foo Fighters and Joan Jett, godfathered by Iggy Pop and the Stooges. “Tippi is the main song writer. She’ll come in with an idea and we’ll all expand on it with our different ideas so we all have input in to it,” said Rosie. They are not afraid, however, to try different sounds and have done several acoustic sets for various radio shows. Rosie said: “It is really different to play an acoustic set. We’ve done a few for different radio shows and we enjoy it but its not really what we are about. Although the basis of the song is still there it is not the same as being plugged in and turned right up. We love doing the acoustic sessions for something different but it doesn’t really present what we do.” All of the girls were in different bands when they met and got to know each other through rehearsing with their own bands at the same studio. Rosie said: “We were always in the same studio so we’d bump into each other and eventually we all started talking and just realised it would be fun to all form a band together. We just went into the rehearsal room to see what would happen one night and it was great so we just decided to drop everything else and carry on with this.” The girls now regularly sell out shows in Scotland and can proudly say they were asked to support Alice In Chains after the band heard their album. “That was mad. We had finished the album and Gerry Cantrel managed to get hold of it. He and the band listened to it and then they asked us to support them which was amazing! It’s just something that you wouldn’t expect to happen. It was a real privilege to do and it was completely sold out as well." “We didn’t know how the fans would react to us, especially being all girls supporting quite a heavy band. We were quite worried how we would go down but they loved it.” On stage with Alice In Chains was a far cry from their first gig at the Glasgow Barfly, but this was another unforgettable experience for the girls. “Our first gig was great. But it’s weird when I think back to how far we’ve come since then. It was a great gig but we’ve come on in leaps and bounds. We didn’t tell anyone about the first gig, just in case it was crap, but it went really well. The place was pretty much packed out.” Next for the band will be an oversees tour with festivals in Texas and Canada. For Gill everything is still to come as she settles in to her new band. She said: “It’s daunting in a way but I feel so lucky. It’s such a great opportunity for me. This is what I want to do so I’m just really excited about the whole prospect. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”