The Heavy Heavy play songs from 'One Of A Kind' in The Current studio
by Jill Riley
November 21, 2024
With a deliberate focus on honing their craft, The Heavy Heavy have followed a steady rise from recording demos at home to playing the local pub to getting signed to a record deal to selling out shows in their native U.K. and across North America. The key ingredient to the band’s success so far is really no secret; it’s simply a commitment to hard work, to quality, and to maintaining their stated mission of “making music that sounds like our favorite records ever.”
The Heavy Heavy’s touring visits to Minneapolis provide a microcosm of the band’s trajectory: Their first Twin Cities show was at the Seventh Street Entry, often seen as a testing ground for emerging acts; their second booking moved up the street to the Fine Line; and this autumn, they played the First Avenue Mainroom.
During their stop in the Twin Cities, The Heavy Heavy visited The Current to play songs from their highly anticipated debut full-length album, One Of A Kind. Afterwards, William Turner and Georgie Fuller chatted with host Jill Riley about their approach to music-making. Watch the performances above, and watch the interview below. Beneath the interview video, you can find a full interview transcript.
Interview Transcript
Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current, I'm Jill Riley with a special treat in the studio: an in-studio performance with the kind of music that, in my experience, has been able to uplift my mood, and the kind of music that I'm drawn to, because I'm very much drawn to the sounds of, like, 1960s California pop. And I wasn't around for it, you know, the first go around, but I've always been drawn to that sound, whether it be L.A. or San Francisco or even that like, just like when country was mixing with rock and getting a little weird in the '60s. There are sounds that I just love, love, love in this music. And I am with The Heavy Heavy. Georgie Fuller is here. William Turner is here. Welcome back to Minneapolis.
Georgie Fuller: Thank you so much. We're so happy to be here.
Jill Riley: Yeah, we're glad to have you. You know, Minneapolis is a good live music town. I think music fans are just enthusiastic, especially for the kind of music that you guys are making. So First Avenue, this time around, I know you've played the Fine Line and the Seventh Street Entry. So it's been, it's been kind of fun to watch your rise.
Georgie Fuller: It's been fun to rise in Minneapolis. We really love Minneapolis. This was, we had no idea coming over for the first tour in the fall of 2022 what to expect in every city. And to be honest, a lot of the cities we'd only ever heard like once or twice in our lives, and it seemed like this distant, faraway place that we'd never get to visit. And Minneapolis was one of those places that just kind of punched a hole in the kind of card of touring for us where we were like, "Whoa! This is a live music city. This is great." And it was actually our very first sold-out show was here at the Seventh Street Entry. So it's a really special city to us.
Jill Riley: Oh, that's awesome. So we are the Twin Cities. We are part of Heavy Heavy history.
Georgie Fuller: Yeah!
Jill Riley: Which, I love that! Well, with that history, we got to know your music with the EP Life and Life Only: "Miles and Miles," "Go Down River." I mean, those have been favorites of ours to play on the radio. And now the debut full length record, One Of A Kind, with "Happiness" and "Feel." You know, I was listening to ... just kind of going all over the map with your songs, just last night, I was listening, and I felt, I just felt this mood shift, and I wonder, I mean, is that really, when the two of you started making music, was that kind of your intention? Was that your mission? Like, "We just want to make music that makes people feel good," or maybe that just makes you guys feel good, I don't know.
Will Turner: Yeah, that was definitely the the mission statement, you know, to feel good and to make people feel good and inspired and kind of let their hair down and just go for life, really, and not worry too much about all the crap that surrounds most things that people think that you've got to do. Just go and do what you want to do. So we have our favorite records in the world, and we want to make more of them. So it's that's basically what we do.
Jill Riley: What was it like to — you know, you put out an EP, which is always kind of like, it's like that little taste of either what's to come, or almost that really kind of first, if you will, like mission statement, not that we're trying to talk about it in a corporate way or anything, but you have that goal. What was it like to then, you know, be able to kind of explore that space more with a full-length record?
Will Turner: Yeah, sort of different, obviously having much more material to sort of have to put into it. And we chose not to make anything narrative or conceptual. But we just wanted to make more songs that were adding to the pile, but have its own sort of thing going on. We didn't want it to be, because the EP was an eclectic mix of different things, but this one, we were conscious that there had to be one thing, it had to exist on one album as one body of work. And it had its own challenges, but really, we're just making as many songs as we can that we love and then trying to compile them into it, into a thing, and make sure they work together. Really, it wasn't as difficult, as difficult as we maybe thought it might be, but it was just the process of compiling all of this music to make it make sense was a bit of a challenge, but it was good. I enjoyed it, but really, we're trying to fit it in between all the touring we do. So that was the challenge for me, because I like to spend a long time crafting these things and finding all the different worlds. But we had to tour nine months of the year and then try and make an album, as well as catch up with reality and try and sleep a bit. So it was fun. It was very, sort of packed in, but it's good. It was concentrated.
Jill Riley: Would you say that that amount of touring, did it inform the direction of the record? Do you feel like that was kind of one thing leading to another?
Georgie Fuller: Yeah, very much so. We didn't know what The Heavy Heavy sounded like live ahead of being signed and touring, because we'd only ever played six shows with a band, so we didn't have enough time to explore it. It was always a studio project. And having cut our teeth on touring so much in the States, we realized that the live sound is more bombastic than what the EP was, which was very flowery and Laurel Canyon-esque. So we wanted to pull more of that into the debut album.
Jill Riley: Sure. So at the core, at the core, The Heavy Heavy is really the two of you, and then you've really filled out that sound with a band. When did you kind of get to the point where it's like, "OK, is this going to be a duo? Is are we going to really, kind of like add on to the sound to hit the road? And then do we make a record that reflects what that's going to sound like on the road?" I guess if you could kind of take us back, I know you've been at The Current studio before, but if you could kind of take us back to the beginning, and really the the core of creating this group.
Georgie Fuller: Creating the group?
Jill Riley: Yeah, the group, yeah.
Georgie Fuller: Yeah. So, well, we played two acoustic shows ahead of the pandemic. And that was when we just had, like, "Miles and Miles," and "Go Down River" and maybe "Man of the Hills," I think, and that was it. And and then, and then the pandemic hit. And so we went away and hid in our houses like everybody did. And we thought, "Well, OK, let's use this time to put together an EP and put it out online." That was November 2020, and then when the world sort of started to open back up again, sort of beginning to mid of 2021, that's when we thought, "Well, we really need to get a band together, because we want to get these on their feet." And sort of fortuitously, or it was very serendipitous, the fact that Tom Holder and Frank Fogden both sort of popped up on our Instagrams, and they were geographically very close, and, you know, have amazing voices, are multi-instrumentalists, and so they allowed us to really start forming the live band. And we had Chris, who played on the the EP, with us in the U.K., and then we played those six shows in some pubs around the U.K. — well, really, in the South of England. And then this American management and label came along in January of 2022, so we didn't have long to form the band, or what it felt like, but that was kind of how it happened. And it happened very fast, and we didn't really, we were just doing the next step and the next step, and then suddenly, you know, we're sitting in The Current studio, 2022, like, "How did that happen?"
The Heavy Heavy perform in The Current studio (2022)Jill Riley: Right! And now you're back in 2024! You know, listening to your music, and then kind of getting to know a little more about your story and your process, you know, making the music. I mean, this has really been, I'd say, the true definition of DIY. I mean, from the creation to the production to the recording, you're really, kind of, you're doing it on your own. William, what is it like to be in that position of not only creating the songs, but also you really like engineering, producing, kind of doing the whole thing?
Will Turner: Yeah, it's a ... It becomes very personal. And I, you know, maybe I'm a bit of a control freak, but as soon as you have to sort of let that go to somebody else, it's very difficult, because I spent 10 years honing what I do, and then I know that, I know the points where it can fall apart and lose, because it's always the sum of all parts, right? So, like, if anything is taken out of that equation that then changes things, I feel like the whole thing gets loosened. So it's difficult, you know? I find it's taxing mentally, but also I love it, and I know exactly what I want, and I've been able to.
Jill Riley: There has to be an incredible amount of self awareness going on, too.
Will Turner: Yeah, it's crippling.
Jill Riley: Yeah, I bet!
Will Turner: It's good, you know, it's a labor of love. It really is, you know, this is, you know, all I've ever wanted to do, and this is what I'm doing. And I think that I've got to point that I feel sort of vindicated in what I've been trying to do, and I'm sticking to my guns. And I've learned each time I've tried to compromise on a few of these things, I go into different studios and engineers that want to do drums in the way that they think is great for retro, and me being like, "Yeah, yeah, OK, we'll go, I'll take your advice. I don't know; you know more than me. Let's go for it." And each time I've been like, "Godammit, I should not have let that out of my grasp." And now I'm like, "I have to play that role of maybe being the psycho in the room and just being like, 'All right, it needs to be what I want." Because it's not about me, it's the end result. It's what comes out through the speakers, and that's all I care about. So I'll do what I can to make sure what comes out of the speakers sounds right.
Jill Riley: Yeah, do what you can to get there.
Will Turner: Yeah. And I've, you know, collected all this gear, and I have my own methods, which I've honed down from years of trial and error, really. You know, I don't, you know, we were talking about the bass earlier and there being a certain way, it's not because I don't want it to be a cert — like, I don't want the individualism of someone playing to come out and shine. It's because I've tried that particular style on a song, and I know it doesn't work. So I'm like, "It's beautiful, but I know that this works for the sum of all parts," so I have to sort of take on that role and be a bit of a leader. But it's cool. You know, I do enjoy the process, because when it actually works, and it, you know, you get a No. 1 single like "Happiness," so you think, "Well, I'm, you know, I'm doing OK at what I'm doing."
Jill Riley: Yeah, I would say, so. I would say so. When I was, you know, I was in the control room listening to you record the songs that you recorded for the in-studio. Georgie, you did something before you started that I really appreciated, because I don't see it all the time here. I heard you doing proper vocal warmups, and so that told me that you have had some training, either years ago, or that that's how you came up as a singer. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Georgie Fuller: Absolutely. Yeah, I started getting singing lessons when I was 14, but I'd always loved singing, but my real like serious singing journey where I just went, "This is everything that makes me feel amazing, and I love it, and I'm fascinated by it," was when I was 14 at secondary school. And I'm still great friends with my singing teacher. She taught me classical training, which I still use now. You know, she messaged me the other day and she said, "Oh my God, that note sounds so good." And I said, "Well, I learned from the best." Her passion for singing and technique, she passed on to me. And then during lockdown and my years in London, I was teaching singing. And so my obsession is the voice. It really is. And so, yeah, I just think it's, you know, it's like a guitarist who's obsessed with playing guitar. I'm obsessed.
Jill Riley: This is your instrument.
Georgie Fuller: This is my instrument. And also I can't replace it. You can get the strings restrung. You can, you know, get a new bass drum or whatever. You can't replace this. So you have to look after it. And all of my biggest vocal inspirations, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Susan Tedeschi, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, they all had these phenomenal, soulful voices, but there wasn't what — other than Susan Tedeschi, who's modern — there wasn't really the technique then. And I always wonder, if Janis Joplin was still alive, would she still have a voice? I would hope so. But I know that Stevie Nicks, in the '90s, was talking about how she started getting vocal help because of the way that they were playing in the '60s and the '70s, there were no in-ears [i.e. in-ear monitors]; you know, you couldn't hear your voice as she was competing with the amps on stage, which were ferociously loud. And her, I believe, from what I've read, her vocal tutor said, "If you keep singing this way, you will not have a voice in five to 10 years," and with the type of singing that I do, inspired by those rock singers, I don't want to end up like that. So I was lucky that I, that I had it drilled into me from a young age, and I'm passionate about it. But yeah, that's my love.
Jill Riley: Well, that's good, because you don't want to have that wake-up call one day, that's like, "Oh, the wear and tear is here, and now I don't know what to do."
Georgie Fuller: Exactly.
Jill Riley: I'm talking with The Heavy Heavy, Georgie Fuller, William Turner. So your sound, I'm very drawn to; again, growing up, you know, listening to like so-called oldies radio. I mean, I was so drawn to like sunshine pop music, for sure, but also soul music and psychedelic — as I got older, you know, exploring the sounds of, you know, Janis Joplin and psychedelic sounds. And then how that sound carried into following decades, but there were always these, like singers and bands that made it sound fresh. And there is another way that you guys got to my heart when I found your cover of Father John, Misty, "Real Love Baby." I'm such a big fan of what he does. I think he is intelligent. His sense of humor is dark. I love that, but he has a craft for songwriting and "Real Love Baby," I don't know what how you guys stumbled upon that song, or like, I don't know how many songs you've covered, but I just think you guys did such a beautiful job with it.
Will Turner: Thank you.
Jill Riley: Can you tell me what led you to cover that song?
Will Turner: We love that song. That's one of my favorite songs ever. And I always heard it and thought this has the makeup of the ingredients of classic '60s songs. You know, because, like, what we're talking about, you know, realizing the ingredients that make these old records sound the way they do, there's a common factor between all of them, which is what I've tried to tap into. But so hearing that, I think, "Well, this is the way that the melody works, the drums and how the chorus lands. This is basically classic '60s music." So I thought, you know, we can just update it, and I felt it was always a bit slow, Father John Misty's version, so I'll just speed it up a bit and add the harmonies in. And, yeah, I think it was just, it was just made to be, really. It didn't take long to make or anything. It was just very easy, very straightforward to make, actually. Yeah, just great, you know, like the song sets it up for that kind of feel good, sort of golden atmosphere, which is what we try and do. So, yeah, it was perfect, really. And we're actually on the search for something else that's quite as straightforward to do as that.
Jill Riley: Has he heard it? Have you heard?
Will Turner: Yes, I believe he has.
Jill Riley: OK, OK. I mean, do you you believe it? Or you know it?
Will Turner: I know that his managers have heard it.
Jill Riley: Oh, OK, OK. Very good. Like you wanted to believe in your heart that he's heard it.
Will Turner: Yeah, I'm sure he may have heard it for a second!
Jill Riley: That's funny. Hey, it's been a lot of fun chatting with you. I know that we could sit, I don't know about you, but I could sit here and chat with you guys all day. Just thank you for the music. I mean, coming out of a pandemic, there was a lot of sad music, and to hear music that has that joy, and like, that's what we want to be in life, isn't it? Like, we want to be happy, we want to be joyful. And I know that, like, audiences are really, really responding to that. As we wrap up, is there an interaction with a fan, or even somebody at a show where you could see, like, "Wow, like, this particular song is really like connecting with this person," or our fans, right?
Will Turner: Yeah.
Georgie Fuller: We've had some amazing moments on on this tour, especially, where we start playing "Go Down River," and all the partners just pair off, and they all start putting their arms around each other. And Will said he got, like, a bit choked up the other day, because they basically all just, and you're like, "Oh my God, there's so many lovers, and this song means something to them!" There was also this woman who got — so our lyrics, from "Sleeping On Grassy Ground," was it "Let the dream go on"? She's a writer, and those lyrics meant a lot to her, so she had them tattooed. But a lot of people get the lyrics tattooed. There's a guy who has "You know that your heart beats as fast as the band" on his tattoo, sorry, on his arm, from "Miles and Miles." I mean, there are ... there are a lot of, yeah, amazing interactions, particularly at the merch table. I've choked up more times than I can count when I meet people who you know, say our music helped them, or pulled them out of a dark, depressive hole, or whatever, you can't help but feel immensely grateful and overwhelmed for that.
Jill Riley: Well, I'm going to get "Happiness" tattooed across my forehead. I mean, it really is one of my favorite songs of the year, so I better not say that, there's a camera and there are microphones, we're being recorded! But thank you for coming into the studio. It was great talking to you. And I know that the tour is coming to a close, so best wishes. Get some rest and then, and then it'll be time to do it all over again.
Will Turner: Yes. We're back next year.
Georgie Fuller: The train never stops. It was so lovely to chat with you. Thank you, Jill.
Will Turner: Thank you for having us.
Jill Riley: Georgie Fuller and William Turner of The Heavy Heavy on The Current.
Songs Performed
00:00:00 One of a Kind
00:03:03 Feel
00:06:39 Happiness
All songs from The Heavy Heavy's 2024 album, One Of A Kind, available on ATO Records.
Musicians
Will Turner – vocals, guitar
Georgie Fuller – vocals, keyboards
Frank Fogden – guitar, keyboards
Thomas Holder – bass
Joe Bordenaro – drums
Credits
Guests – The Heavy Heavy
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video – Eric Xu Romani
Audio – Evan Clark
Camera Operators – Eric Xu Romani, D'Vir Rudin, Nikhil Kumaran
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor
External Link
The Heavy Heavy – official site