Get to know Nine Volt Heart and fall in love with their aggressive pop punk!

I have a great band to tell you about for some energetic aggressive pop punk that will get you pumped up and ready to start your day off right. I am talking about Nine Volt Heart from the UK. Nine Volt Heart is Mikey Lord on vocals/guitar, Paul Norfolk on guitar, Ed Truby on bass and Alex Sheldon on drums. These four bring together a fresh new take on punk infused with some melodic pop rock styles. The perfect combo to get you moving. We had the opportunity to interview Nine Volt Heart and are pleased to bring that interview to you here:

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Music Junkie Press: We are excited about the release of your album The Miracle Kids. This album brings a lot of great energy out and a great dose of pop and punk! What was the inspiration behind this album?

Mikey: Cheers! The album is built around a lot of stories I had, all set in this world where a nuclear apocalypse had taken place and people that had survived were trying to rebuild some sort of life. The songs on this album all come from different points in stories or different characters individually.

Music Junkie Press: Tell us about the band name Nine Volt Heart and how you all formed?

Mikey: The band name is something we’ve always had as a sort of ‘damn this has to be a song title’ thing, but it got to the point where we were sick of having crappy band names and picked that. It fits our style and our sound and we really dig it. We’ve been a band in various versions since about 2011, but Paul joined last year and that’s the line up we’ve been with since.

Music Junkie Press: You have a great punk feel to your music which I love, who were some bands that inspired you the most? Mikey – Thanks! Well there’s the usuals that people say, like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, and Black Flag and Misfits were important for us. We’re teenagers, so Green Day’s totally in there. My Chemical Romance would definitely be the biggest one.

Ed: We’ve definitely been inspired by countless bands spanning just as many genres! Ranging from bands like Blink-182 to heavier bands, and I think this is shown throughout the album!

Paul: I think there are tons of bands out there that have inspired us, but some of the most inspiring would be bands such as my chemical romance, 30 seconds to mars and blink 182.

Music Junkie Press: All of you being so young and talented musicians, what advice can you give to other young musicians who struggle with the pressure of trying to fit into a music genre checkbox and pressured to play a more “popular” style of music?

Paul: I think they should just play the music they enjoy playing instead being pressured into any more popular genres. If they enjoy listening to and playing the music they do, so will other people out there.

Mikey: I don’t really agree that there is that pressure for young musicians, there’s a culture now of creativity and being original and doing your own thing which is really cool. My advice though, would be to just play what comes naturally and don’t give a shit what anyone says about it. If you like playing what you’re playing then keep playing it, cause if you don’t enjoy it then what’s the point?

Ed: I’d say play the types of music that you enjoy playing! If you don’t enjoy the music that you’re playing then you can’t put any proper passion into it! But then again don’t be afraid to compromise!

Alex: Don’t bow to pressure, just play what you want to play and enjoy yourself, ‘popularity’ isn’t everything!

Music Junkie Press: A Waste of Dreaming is an awesome track, can you tell us more about that song?

Mikey: Thank you! A lot of the lyrics for that song were inspired by George Orwell’s ‘1984’, and the film ‘The Road’. I’m making headway into the book for 1984, but I saw a stage production of it that hit me like a train and I walked out of it with all these ideas, and they turned into A Waste Of Dreaming. It’s the last song that got written for the record – we announced the album release with all the tracklistings etc before we even finished recording that song. The story in it just seemed to fit perfectly with all the other stuff that was going on on the record, and it added another dose of aggression which was cool.

Ed: That was actually the last song that we put on the album. The album was practically finished then A Waste of Dreaming got written and we all loved it!

Music Junkie Press: Do you currently have any upcoming shows you can tell us about and will you be making it out to the US soon?

Mikey: This Friday we’re playing at the Leeds Wardrobe as part of the Futuresound Competition 2014 to win slots at Leeds + Reading! After that we’re on a bit of a down low period, due to people going away over summer and stuff. We’ll be keeping active and doing acoustic stuff where we can, check our website for show announcements here: http://www.ninevoltheart.co.uk/shows I don’t know about the US, we’re barely big enough for our own shoes in West Yorkshire. Let alone the rest of England. We’d love to get over there someday though.

Music Junkie Press: If someone was going to be seeing you in concert for the first time, what could you tell them they could expect at Nine Volt Heart show?

Alex: Lots and lots of energy! And noise.

Paul: I think at our shows you can expect alot of energy and catchy songs varying from pop punk to heavier punk rock. I think our shows have something everyone can enjoy and have a good time

Ed: A lot of energy, a heck of a lot of jumping and the occasional mosh pit!

Mikey: Energy’s a running theme here, so yeah that.

Music Junkie Press: Another song from the EP that really shines is breathe?, it has such emotionally driven lyrics. Can you tell us more about that song?

Mikey: That song is a sort of drop in on the story that runs from A Waste Of Dreaming. It’s written from the point of view of someone trying to force himself to believe and appreciate a government and leadership that he can’t help but know is corrupt and lying to him. He’s trying to make the choice between living comfortably and believing in this false leadership, or attempting to live the life that he wants to live and learning as much as he can about the world.

Music Junkie Press: If Nine Volt Heart could be a comic book, what would each of your superhero names and super powers be?

Mikey: I just finished my Gold DofE expedition and came back all sunburnt, so I think my superpower would be to be able to sweat suncream (sunscreen). I’d be Factor 50 Man.

Ed: I’d be procrastination man and my power would just be to pause time so I could chill and do important stuff later.

Alex: Gingerman, I’d give everyone Ginger hair. Sounds more like a villain to be fair though.

Music Junkie Press: We saw the great video for The 45_Slow, love it! Will you be working on any music videos and if so, can you tell us for which song?

Mikey: I think we wanna make something for The Miracle Kids, and there’s loads of ideas getting thrown about at the moment for it – hopefully that’ll happen this summer.

Music Junkie Press: If you could take a song from a completely different genre and turn it into a Nine Volt Heart style what might that be?

Ed: I’d love to do duality by slipknot! It was the first properly heavy song I learnt on bass and I fell in love with the speed and the technicality of the bass line, so I reckon we could do that!

Paul: I’d love to play a James Taylor song, i’m a big fan. I’d probably choose to do Carolina in my mind, I love that song.

Mikey: Fairytale Of New York would be insane. We’d probably absolutely kill the song but it would be fun.

Alex: I think ‘Trouble’ by Taylor Swift would be a laugh to do.

Music Junkie Press: If we could peak into your Ipod, what artist or song might we be most surprised at finding in there?

Ed: For me that would probably be Eminem! I love Eminem, his lyrics are so powerful yet still relatable, and I always feel Eminem isn’t your standard rapper, there just seems to be something that sets him above other rappers in my opinion.

Paul: I have the latest album, same trailer different park, by the Texan country singer Kacey Musgraves, and it’s a fantastic album

Mikey: I have a lot of Brian Eno on my phone. I really dig him.

Alex: Probably the large amount of classical stuff on there, it’s calming stuff y’know.

Music Junkie Press: Lastly, what would you like to share with your fans and audience?

Make sure you check out all our online stuff here: http://www.ninevoltheart.co.uk http://www.ninevoltheart.bandcamp.com http://www.facebook.com/ninevoltheart http://www.twitter.com/ninevoltheart_

And thanks so much for interviewing us!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Nine Volt Heart currently has their new album, The Miracle Kids out now. You can pick up the 12 track album on their bandcamp page here. You will love it since it features a variety of tracks from the amped up pop punk anthem of the title track, The Miracle Kids to the emotionally driven song of breathe? to the kick ass track of Teenage Fantasy and everything in between. They really remind me of another young pop punk band that I fell in love with many,many years ago; Material Issue. Check out a cool video for one of my favorite songs from Nine Volt Heart, The 45_Slow here:

Make sure to check them out on their social media sites and stay up to date on their latest news.

~ Marisol

Information & Links: