{"id":5100,"date":"2012-02-29T02:16:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T09:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5100"},"modified":"2012-02-29T02:16:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T09:16:19","slug":"heartless-bastards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/02\/heartless-bastards\/","title":{"rendered":"HEARTLESS BASTARDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"HEARTLESS BASTARDS<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Erika Wennerstrom aims her latest songs directly at the pain of heartbreak<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the end of a nine-year\u00a0relationship, Heartless Bastards frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom went for a drive. As she made her way across the nation from West Texas to Ohio, she thought hard about what she wanted to express about her experience through music. Once she figured it out, she booked some studio time and got ready to spill her guts. \u201cThen there was no turning back,\u201d she says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t put off the album. In a sense, when you create something, you can always tell yourself something could be better. But at some point you have to let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that Wennerstrom requires either a monumental breakup or a thought-provoking road trip to write new songs for her band, which also includes guitarist Mark Nathan, bassist Jesse Ebaugh and drummer Dave Colvin. \u201cI have music in my head all the time,\u201d says Wennerstrom, who helped found the group eight years ago in Ohio. \u201cSometimes I have songs in my head for a decade. I never get anything done if I try to work on a bunch. I have to pick ideas, one at a time\u2014and start to focus, let the songs tell me when and where they want to go.\u201d That\u2019s how the 10 tracks on Arrow<\/em>, the Bastards\u2019 fourth and\u00a0latest album, came to fruition. \u201cI always get the melodies first,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I think about the lyrics. I had a lot of writer\u2019s block writing this album, thinking, \u2018Maybe that\u2019s not the right word.\u2019 I was really trying to say what was within me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spoon drummer and Arrow<\/em> producer Jim Eno also had a big influence on the new album\u2019s sound. \u201cWe ended up going with most of his suggestions,\u201d Wennerstrom says. \u201cJim also had the idea of our doing a tour with the new songs so that when we went into the studio we wouldn\u2019t be second-guessing ourselves.\u201d After spending a few months playing all the new tunes live, the band took two days off and promptly began recording. \u201cWe went right in and everything felt real natural,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Heavy touring also allowed the current lineup of the group\u2014of which Wennerstrom has been the only constant member\u2014to settle in. \u201cI feel like we have a chemistry going,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are all so comfortable with each other, I feel like things are coming together naturally and easily. Everything\u2019s meshing and it doesn\u2019t take a lot of effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Nancy Dunham<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\n<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEARTLESS BASTARDS Erika Wennerstrom aims her latest songs directly at the pain of heartbreak After the end of a nine-year\u00a0relationship, Heartless Bastards frontwoman Erika Wennerstrom went for a drive. As she made her way across the nation from West Texas to Ohio, she thought hard about what she wanted to express about her experience through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[3032,3161,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5102,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5100\/revisions\/5102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}