Making Babies, Music, and Action Figures: An Interview with Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards

image from band facebook

Heartless Bastards probably have one of the most peculiar, yet serendipitous, tales of formation. Going from bar-tending to buddying up with members of the Black Keys on Fat Possum Records, the possibilities would seem (and continue to be) endless for this Cincinnati-based group. Reviving the crass-band-name trend, these guys have been trekking the globe since their genesis in 2004, astounding crowds with raw garage rock songs, lead by the fierce, but earnest vocals of Erika Wennerstrom. Sporting a tamer demeanor, however, the charming frontwoman took a few minutes to talk with the Austinist about exciting upcoming plans for the band, including a tentative name and release date for their upcoming album, as well as an interesting tale of an encounter with a fan-made Morrissey figurine.

Aside from a lot of the touring that you guys have been doing, I haven't really heard a whole lot about what's going on with you. Do you guys have a new album coming out? Recording? What's up?

Yeah, we have an album coming out February 14, 2012.

Exciting, you have a date! Do you have a name?

Yeah, I think we're gonna call it Arrow, A-r-r-o-w, not like aerospace, but yeah, like a bow and arrow.

Oh, all right, I'm glad you spelled that out for me otherwise I wouldn't have known…

Well, it's like I have a friend that named her dog Aero and for the longest time I thought it was like a bow and arrow, but then it was like Aerospace, so I thought I'd clarify that in case you didn't know. But yeah, it comes out on Valentine's Day. We've been doing some acoustic touring. Dave Colvin, our drummer, is now the proud father of a healthy baby girl. So we're just, you know--the album has been done for a little while, but we've just been taking some time. He's kind of adapting to being a father and it just gives us more time to set up the album. And also, we're working on a film soundtrack right now.

Oh, great, for what movie?

It's called Winter in the Blood, which the filming has been wrapped up and we're working on the soundtrack for it. The filmmakers are two twin brothers, Alex and Andrew Smith. And Alex Smith is local to Austin right now, but him and his brother are from Montana where the story takes place.

Oh, neat, how did you all wrangle that?

They've been fans of the band for quite a while and they didn't realize--Andrew was in Montana in Missoula working on the script, and Alex was here in Austin working on the script, and one day they asked each other what they were listening to and neither of them knew each other were fans, but they were actually writing the script simultaneously [while] listening to Heartless Bastards. So they thought well, maybe we should get them to do the soundtrack.

Oh, wow! That's flattering. Two people in two different states listening to Heartless Bastards at the same time, who would've thought?

Well, they're twin brothers and they're working on the film, so it just happened you know. I don't even know what I'm saying. I hope I don't sound like I'm over-flattering myself.

Of course not. You can never over-flatter yourself. All right, so, I guess you were doing some acoustic tours over the summer. When was the last show you guys played as a band?

We did a little run in the southeast in Louisiana, like New Orleans and stuff I guess back at the end of June I think. Actually, though, we just played in Ohio on Friday as a full band. We played Ohio film and music festival up there, so.

How’s it like touring with a bunch of guys versus touring by yourself?

Well, I didn't do the acoustic tour by myself. It was three out of four members of the band, it was just minus drums. And it wasn't completely acoustic. We were just kind of approaching the songs differently, but most of the group is actually on that tour. I guess I've never done a tour fully acoustic by myself, but I mean, I don't know, we're just all really into each other. I don't really think about them being guys or anything. When you work with somebody for a long time, it's like you're just coworkers.

I guess you transcend the gender barrier.

Yeah. We're just kind of like family after a while. It's like touring with your brothers or something.

I've heard your voice described in a variety of ways. How did your voice sound when you just first started to sing?

Well, I think it has probably morphed. I mean I think as you start to get older your voice gets a little bit deeper…I don't quite belt as much constantly, like when I first started singing and [was] trying to get every bit of energy to everything. But I've kind of laid back a little bit, which I think has been a positive thing. And I think I had a lot of trouble touring on that first album because I was always belting and I was losing my voice singing every night in a club. Because you know, when you first write songs you don't think okay, can I sing this every night live? You know?

So I think that first album was really hard on my voice to sing. So now when I write songs I try to approach them on how can I sing these well every night live. But it's been...I've laid back my vocals more, but I definitely think that's been a good thing. I don't feel like I'm giving any less to people. It's just a different approach.

Listening to The Mountain--it's a big step for you guys as a band because you all were experimenting a lot. On your album that's coming out in February, have you continued to experiment with new recording elements and instrumentation, or did you stay within the style that The Mountain projected?

Oh, yeah. I definitely think there's been continued experimentation. I think this new album definitely sounds, in a sense, like Heartless Bastards, but it's definitely going in a lot of new directions. And I feel like it's the most solid album to date that I've done. I'm really proud of it and I can't wait to release it.

Another random question I have is, what is the strangest display of affection a fan has ever shown you?

Well, this one might be kind of a long story, but on the first album, I have a song called "Onions". And one of the lines in it is "you've got me wrapped up in this mess again." And a fan thought that I said "you've got me wrapped up in The Smiths again," and he's a really big Morrissey fan, so he created a bust of Morrissey, a miniature, kind of the size of an action figure, like a miniature wax bust of Morrissey, and brought it to me. And then he told me, we shared a mutual love of The Smiths and I'm like "what are you--what are you talking about?" And then he explained that to me and I was like, "I'm sorry, but that's not the line I'm actually saying". But then the next time we went--he lived in L.A., and the next time we played there he brought me the chef's hat, you know, like to start assembling, and coming to each show and bringing me another piece of Morrissey until I've finally completed a Morrissey action figure.

So that's pretty strange.