Shure Blog » Heartless Bastards

Valentines Day is for the Heartless

Richard Sandrok — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:51:46 +0000

The Heartless Bastards. On Valentine’s Day. That gave us this gem:

Oh, how I wished there was a comma there.

I went to visit Shure endorsers Heartless Bastards in the early evening before their show. It also happened to be the day they released their new album, Arrow. This latest release was the band’s fourth, but the first to be done with the current band line-up. Having been involved each step of the way, everyone was feeling really great about the material.

The band had been out already for a time. Mark Nathan (guitars) remarked that it had been a bit of a rough schedule, pointing out that they were often doing one or two press or in-store appearances and/or performances on show dates. Despite the rigorous schedule the band seemed in great spirits.

I would have suspected that it would be huge relief to have the album out, finally. But the vibe I got from talking with everyone was that they’ve been living this since going out on this run. There was no need to treat this as an exceptional working day. They’ve got their heads down and are charging forward. We’re glad to be along for the ride.

Check out this video interview we did with Erika and Mark in July of 2010.

Richard

Heartless Bastards::The Bottom Lounge::07/24/10

Richard Sandrok — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:39:56 +0000

I ran down to the Bottom Lounge here in Chicago on Saturday night to interview Akron’s own and relatively new Shure endorsers, Heartless Bastards. They first caught my ear when they tore it up at Lollapalooza in 2009. I was on the side of the stage and really dug what I was seeing and hearing. It was enough that I felt compelled to introduce myself after the set and let them know that they were on our radar.

Fast forward a few months and they were signed endorsers. On Saturday we chatted a bit on the virtues of bringing one’s own mic package on the road and the consistency that it brings. They’ve definitely done a little experimenting as was evident by the use of the venerable SM7B on one of the guitar cabinets. It seems that mic captures the low-end they like just so.

The room was pretty packed as they started their set in the late-night hour. If you’ve not seen or heard them, I can tell you this – it’s rare to find a woman like Erika Wennerstrom with so powerful a voice. Add to that some extremely solid song-writing ability and it’s a recipe for success. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more from those Bastards in the coming years.

Richard