James caught up with Heavens Basement in Wolverhampton on their co-headline tour with Jettblack to talk about their time away from the scene, their new lineup and much more.

You guys have been away from the music scene for a little while now, what have you been doing behind the scenes?
Chris Rivers (Bass) - We started about 3 years ago as Heavens Basement. Did about 2 years solid touring, had a few line-up changes in the last year but now that’s all resolved and we’re back on the road. We’ve got a new EP out and we’re looking to get an album done as soon as possible, our debut album. We’ll be touring until then.

You obviously have a slight new line-up, how well have you gelled together and how have the fans responded to the new line-up?
Rob Ellershaw: Yeah it’s going really well. When we played Sonisphere last year we made sure we took some time to get the right guy to front out band. We went behind the scenes and wrote some songs with Aaron; we recorded, did some secret gigs and we were really happy with it so at the begging of this year we re-launched with some new songs and got this tour up and going. We were in Newcastle last night and we haven’t played there since December 2009 so to go back there and still have people come out to see us; this is gig number 7 and every show has been quality so far and it’s great to be back out playing again.

You are currently on a co-headline tour with Jettblack, how did this come about and how have the shows been so far?
Chris: The shows have been amazing so far. All of them have been well attended and all the fans coming down have got a lot of energy between them, obviously both our fans and Jettblack’s fans together making a good crowd and lots of noise. We got the tour through being on the same agency as Jettblack so it came about through that but we’ve played a few shows with them before so we thought let’s get together and go out as a co-headline tour.

You are back playing Wolverhampton after 15 months, what can we expect from your show tonight?
Chris: Last time we played here it was one of the best shows on the tour with Theory of a Deadman so if it’s anything like last time it’ll be mint.

Rob: It’s a nice venue this too; it’s got a nice sound. So hopefully there will be quite a lot of people there so we can get quite a nice atmosphere going and smash it up!

Chris: That’s the goal.

You have been announced to be playing this year’s Download Festival on the Jagermeister stage, how excited are you to be going back out playing festivals?
Rob: This will be the first time Heaven’s Basement has played Download Festival. We didn’t expect to do it anyway as we will be working for the album so when we were told we were playing it we were like “Nice one!” there’s a few bands we know playing there so it should be good. We’ll finish this tour and because it’s an acoustic set we’ll start rehearsing and working the songs making them as good as they can be because we want to make an impact there.

Are you looking forward to checking out any of the bands at the festival?
Chris: Yeah we’ve got a load of friends’ bands playing there. We’re playing the first day aren’t we?

Rob: No we’re playing Sunday I think.

Chris: Well we like to think we’re playing the first day so we can just come off stage and crack on to see everybody.

Rob: I’m looking forward to seeing Rob Zombie because I haven’t seen him yet and that should be a good show.

You have toured and shared the stage with so many high profile bands so far but what has been your best touring experience so far?
Chris: I think I speak for all of us when I say the Papa Roach UK tour was pretty epic. Amazing crowds every single night, loads of energy, Papa Roach are great people and we get on really well. The whole thing was brilliant and it was really well organised, we were really well looked after and it went down really well.

Rob: Yeah great tour.

Chris: Each tour has its own story though.

Rob: They’ve all got their own vibe; we always get on well with the other bands, we’ve been lucky to tour with some nice people and we’ve not had any massive fights yet, but there’s still some time for that ha ha!

You have been working on a new EP, what can you tell us about this?
Chris: There are 7 songs on it, 3 new ones that nobody has heard before this tour and there’s some that people might recognise from us playing live over the past year. We only just released it on the first night of the tour.

Rob: A week today.

Aaron: We recorded that as live as we possibly could. We were all in a room together and instead of going through this process that a lot of bands are doing at the moment, where they record their instruments piece by piece like drums, then bass, then guitars, we did as much together as possible. I tracked as much of my vocals live as I could, obviously there’s a few overdubs but we tried to get as much live energy into it as we could, it’s just something we enjoy doing.

I also understand that you have been busy working on your debut full length studio album, how far have you got with this? And what are your plans for it?
Chris: Just writing stages, anytime we’re not on the road we’re constantly writing. Just trying to get as many idea’s as possible recorded and then when the time comes to get into the studio we’ll have a big selection to go through and work on.

How do you go about writing songs and what inspires you when it comes to the lyrics?
Rob: There’s no set writing plan we all kind of write together. We’ll have a riff or whatever and go into a room and sometimes we’ll have to graft but other times we can smash the bones of the song out in an hour or so.

Aaron: I’m really enjoying the way we write at the moment, when we put our minds to it we seem to knock out quite a lot of songs so that’s a very promising thing.

What’s your take on the digital revelation killing off the music business?
Rob: It’s just there it’s what it is. We’ve got to adapt to the way the industry is nowadays.

Aaron: The way I see it is that if we’re a good enough band people will buy our music and if they want to go and download it any other way go for it.

Sid Glover (Guitar): It’s different for us because we never grew up in an age where people bought CD’s anyway so it’s not like we’ve got beef all of a sudden that’s the way it’s always been.

Chris: When we first started we made all of our songs available for free before our first EP out. We were spreading the music making more fans that will then come to the show which is the ultimate thing.

Rob: That’s the thing the chances are if they dig it then they’re going to come to a live show anyway so you’re winning fans. It’s good for people in other countries that want our music on their computer in the form of iTunes so it’s getting us out there.

Aaron: What a lot of people don’t take into account is that if their downloading things that it’s not half the quality you get on the CD. That’s a full master it’s a lot higher quality sound.

Chris: We’re all about the live side of things and nobody can download a live show yet.

Sid: Yeah that’s next Bill Gates!

Rob: Maybe apple are already onto it.

Social network sites seem to be a big tool in the music industry these days, with artists communicating with their fans over it and some even ditching their own website and having just a social network page, what are your opinions on social networks as tools in the music industry?
Sid: We Dabble.

Rob: Yeah we use the band profile quite. The EP has 7 tracks on it I think 6 are on the facebook, so yeah we use facebook quite a bit especially when we’re on tour just to say how good a gig was and whatever. It’s good because it’s a way of keeping a good buzz about you on the internet.

Aaron: And a good way of staying in touch with people, it’s not like we’re on BBC news everyday ha ha!

Where do you hope to see Heavens Basement in a year’s time?
Rob: I hope we have a debut album out by then or it’s about to come out, I’d like that to happen. This year for us is mostly about stability because we’ve had such a rollercoaster; its took us this long to get members that are all on the same page who really want to move forward, this is the first tour of that. We just want to build on that and get some good hype going on, release our debut album and start increasing the fan base. As long as we know we’re still on the same path and none of us die its all good.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Aaron: I’ve been short all my life so I’d be a giraffe.

Sid: Zebra’s are gay horses.

Rob: Yeah that sucks I’d be a giraffe.

Sid: Their like KISS if they were horses.

Chris: I’d be a giraffe

Sid: If you farted you wouldn’t be able to smell it.

Chris: Zebra’s get destroyed as well.
Sid: And giraffes don’t?

Chris: Nah they’re a little bit tougher.

Sid: Their knee’s are backwards! I can’t get onboard with that I’d be a zebra, a gay horse.

Rob: I’d be a giraffe.

Chris: I’d be a giraffe, be a massive pervert too.

Aaron: You couldn’t really be subtle though could you? Just this head poking out of the trees.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Sid: Keep watching Jeremy Kyle.

Rob: Sorry for our grammar.

Chris: We’re working on it I’m trying my best ha ha!

Interview By James Webb