Anchors Joins Heartsounds West Coast Tour, Interview: Ben Murray Of Heartsounds

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Punk band Heartsounds' is all set for their West Coast Tour and as the band announced earlier this week, they will be doing a few shows with ANCHORS.

The male and female co-fronted punk band has gained their fan base with their melodies and lyrical trade-offs that work harmoniously to produce a sound that takes fans back to the golden days of punk.

"Heartsounds combine the precision of their metal roots with the melody and speed of punk rock to offer their take on the '80s and '90s bands they grew up listening to," according to Chrysta Cherrie, Rovi of MTV.com.

"Founding members and guitarist/singers Laura Nichol and Ben Murray formed Heartsounds in San Francisco in 2009 after the breakup of their previous project, death metal band Light This City, feeling burned out from the intensity of playing such heavy music and wanting to return to their roots."

Upon the announcement, as fans get excited for the West Coast tour, Ben Murray gives Empty Lighthouse the scoop on the bands beginnings. Murray also let's EL know that they will be heading to Europe for 15 shows in January.

Let's look to the origins of Heartsounds, How did the band get started?

"Laura and I started the band in 2009, wrote 'Until We Surrender' just us two in my apartment, put it out ourselves on my label, Creator-Destructor. We played some shows, and then Epitaph signed us and re-released that album. Trey then joined the band and we all wrote 'Drifter', which Epitaph also released.

We did a bunch of touring on that, went to Europe/Japan and a lot of other cool places, and then released our 3rd LP, 'Internal Eyes' on Creator-Destructor again, in October of 2013.

The band started because Laura and I wanted to start a punk band, and we had been touring in our old death metal band, Light This City, for about 7 years.

We were ready for a change, and have always loved fast melodic punk music."

What makes this band stand out from others and why is the individual contributions musically so important to what the band does as a whole?

"I don't know that we stand out a ton, but the male/female trade-off vocals make us a bit different, and I guess not a TON of bands are playing the 90's style fast, technical, melodic punk anymore.

We just write what we feel like writing and what comes naturally, and hopefully that has allowed us to stand out a bit! We also have a bit more metal-influenced riffs at times, which not a lot of melodic fast punk bands are doing, I guess."

What is one of the craziest shows the ban has played so far in your career?

"Mexico City this year was pretty amazing, as was Tokyo, Japan! Opening for Bad Religion when we first started in 2010 was amazing as well- Lots of great memories so far!!"

What was the biggest musical influence when creating this band?

"Bad Religion, Strung Out, Propagandhi, A Wilhelm Scream, and lots more."

How did you find the process of creating the music video for "A Total Separation of Self?" Was it fun?

"It was exhausting, but fun! We actually played the song each time we filmed, and Laura and I were both singing, and everyone was playing- We wanted it to look real, so we did that.

It took 6 hours though, so that was a bit tiring, worth it though!"

We know the band will be touring throughout the West Coast, how excited is the band to play the slew of live shows?

"We always love playing live! The West Coast is our home and it gets better each time we play cities out here, so we're really excited! We're mostly excited though to be able to see our friends in ANCHORS again, and to party with those guys for a week straight!"

What are the plans for the future? Any new music on the way?

"We are slowly writing some new stuff, and have some really cool ideas planned, but can't announce anything yet! We are going to Europe in January for 15 shows, which will be awesome. More on that soon...."

Any last words for fans?

"Please check out our newest LP, 'Internal Eyes' if you haven't yet, as well as all the awesome bands on Creator-Destructor Records! You can do both of those things at creator-destructor.com. Also, smoke weed and hail satan!"

Heartsounds "A Total Separation of Self" (Official Video)