5 Questions With Rick from Heartless

Recently, on a whim, I purchased Hell Is Other People, the full-length debut by Pennsylvania noisemakers Heartless. Immediately, I was pretty taken aback by this band. Their songs are short, sweet bursts of vitriol and hatred custom built for street riots and the kind of parties where dudes with long hair wear bullet belts. True to Southern Lord Record's history of releasing top quality metal, Heartless have proven to be yet another addition to the label's illustrious catalog. Recently, the band ran into some vehicle troubles and are trying to raise some dough to get back on the road. Check them out on Facebook, pick up a copy of Hell Is Other People, and if you feel so inclined, help them out by picking up some swag at heartlesspgh.bigcartel.com. Thanks Rick!

1.)Please state your name, role in the band, and give us a brief history of Heartless.

My name is Rick, and I play guitar. Heartless formed in Pittsburgh in 2008 but wasn't really active until 2009. I joined the band at the end of 2009, a couple weeks before recording the self titled 7". Since then, we've released a split 7", the self titled 7," and an LP Hell Is Other People. We just completed our fourth, and longest, tour this past December.

2.)Heartless has a super aggressive sound. What is a band or album that people might be surprised to find on your iPod after hearing your band?

Everyone in the band likes a wide variety of music. I have a ton of The Beatles on my iPod, which I catch some shit for, and I've been digging Joanna Newsom lately.

3.) Southern Lord recently released your debut full length Hell is Other People. Can you explain a little bit about the title of the record and the lyrical content behind it? 

The title comes from the Jean Paul Sarte play No Exit, in which the characters are eternally trapped together in the afterlife. They are each others' torturers, hence the line "Hell is other people." The songs were all written before we had a title, and we thought that famous line "Hell is other people" sums up the message of the songs on the album, and of our band in general. A lot of Cory's lyrics have themes of disgust with himself and others, hopelessness, and other negative feelings associated with the human condition. Most of these feelings can be traced back to "other people," whether directly or indirectly.  Sometimes people have a misconception that they must adhere to certain standards set forth by others, and when they do not live up to these expectations, they are conditioned to feel guilty or worthless. Other times, we have certain expectations for society, and when society constantly lets us down it can be very discouraging.

4.) How did the deal with Southern Lord come about? There are so many great bands on that label, it must be crazy to think of who your labelmates are these days.

The whole Southern Lord thing came about through our bassist, Adam's, connection with Masakari. Southern Lord put out The Prophet Feeds, and somehow through dealing with them, found out about Heartless. Greg from Southern Lord asked how he could get a Heartless record so we mailed him a copy of our self titled 7". He told us he was into it, but we didn't hear anything beyond that, and we weren't really expecting to. A few months later we were deeper into the writing of Hell Is Other People, and were about to start recording.  We sent Greg an email asking if he would be interested in releasing the record. We sent a demo with 6 of the songs, and he liked it and agreed to release the album. It was kind of different from how people normally expect the label/band interaction to go, but we couldn't be happier. The Southern Lord roster is amazing, and it really is an honor to be associated with all of those bands.

5.) What does Heartless have planned in 2012? Will you be touring, or are the day jobs putting a damper on that?

We have a lot planned for 2012. We're going out for about 10 days in March to go down to South by Southwest. We are waiting on some pretty awesome things to get confirmed for the rest of spring. Other than that, we are working on a new record.  We're all really stoked on what we've been writing, and I feel like we're really pushing our playing and songwriting capabilities. Other than that, we have started booking our first European tour. We'll be gone for pretty much the whole month ofOctober, which we are all incredibly excited about.