Interview with H.E.A.T.

But were you ever afraid that the fans would grow tired because nothing ever was released from the band?

Crash: Sure we were. We tried to do some stuff to keep them updated. We released some acoustic videos and stuff like that. But WE ALSO saw the value of releasing a good album.

Jona: Yeah, but it wasn’t just the fans that got frustrated. We also became frustrated, but we were told that we should bide our time until we had something great.

Erik G: True, but I think the fans have had more patience than us.

Jimmy: It’s also the case of how long you dare to wait, because when you finally release something, the more impact it is going to have.

Tell me a little bit about the new album, what can the fans expect to hear? Is there, for instance, any new collaboration like you guys did with Tobias Sammet (from Edguy) on the last album Freedom Rock?

Jimmy: In terms of collaborations, this is actually the first album that we have experimented with some different co-writers, where we have written the songs together with other people, like Adde and Martin from the band Hardcore Superstar, Fredrik Tomander, who writes a lot for Treat, and Per Aldeheim, who writes at CHEIRON (a famous Swedish recording studio).

All: OH CHEIRON! Love the gang there.

Jimmy: Yeah, so we have been working with them to broaden the image of what H.E.A.T. is. Because sometimes when you ask people what their image of H.E.A.T. is, many times their image is completely different from the one you have yourself. And that’s why we try to broaden ourselves.

Jona: But what’s new for the album is that it has a more powerful sound, which we wanted to have, but were not able to get because of bad producers and such. So now we have been working with Tobias Lindell. He is a very professional producer and he is a really cool guy. We had good chemistry in the studio with him, and the sound was perfect. So now we have found the sound we really were looking for.

So I guess that you are looking forward to promoting this album and playing it on tour?

All: Oh yes, very much so!

What do you guys think of this year then? Will it be crazy?

Jona: You don’t wanna jinx anything, but it looks good.

I just saw that you were booked for Sweden Rock Festival this year. But you guys have played there before and every year you get a bigger stage. Do you think you are going to get an even bigger one this year?

Jona: We don’t know. All that we know is that we play on Wednesday, and never the less, it is going to be a fat gig.

Erik G: Definitely, it is one of the gigs I’m really looking forward to do.

Jimmy: Yeah, last time we had the so-called Sweden stage and that holds 8000 people, but we had 13000 people there when we played so that was kind of cool.

Wow, that’s a lot. Do you have any other big gigs planned already?

Jona and Erik G: Hm, no really big gigs are planned already, but we hope to play some big gigs in Stockholm.

Dave: Yeah, but we have a lot of gigs planned at different city festivals in Sweden.

Jimmy: It feels like a big gig in Stockholm really needs the right timing. It’s at home and everyone and everything should be 100% perfect. We do have a gig in Väsby the second of June at a newly started city festival, and that is really at home! And it is also kind of Stockholm-ish.

Any international gigs planned?

Erik G: Not yet. But still, the album is released the 28th of March (today being the 20th of March), and in relation to that, a lot of booking agents trying to plan the summer. This is just in the beginning of the release, so it is too soon to know where we are going to play this summer.

Jimmy: A dream scenario for an international tour would be to follow an even bigger band on their tour to enhance the fan base even more. Because even if we would do a headline tour, we would travel to small places and play for smaller crowds.