Interview with The Heights

Posted on Jul 5, 2007 by DevotedToMusic

The Heights are a Welsh indie band, new on the scene with belting rock ‘n’ roll tunes, Lyrics and a killer image.

With musical influences such as Led Zeppelin they are sure to be a big hit in no time.

Fresh from playing The Glastonbury festival and a festival in Cardiff, Wales. I Alex McLoughlin, was lucky enough to meet up with The Heights just after their sound check on the 4th July on the day of their gig at the Brighton Engine Room to find out a bit more about touring, their experiences on festivals, their new videos and new album.

Who named the band?

Owain- The lad who left us last week he came up with the name.

What’s his name?

Owain- His name is Chris

So Chris came up with the name ‘The Heights’ why did he name it that?

Owain- It was his local pub in his village.

Did you think that was a really good name for a band or did you guys have other ideas for it? How did you end up at “The Heights”?

Owain- Dunno. We were scratching our heads for 2 weeks trying to come up with a decent name and we ended up with “The Heights” We don’t really like the name to be honest with you.

Why not change the name of the band if you don’t like “The Heights”?

Owain- Cause I don’t know.

Pearse- We got a hundred t-shirts in the van with ‘The Heights’ on.

(Laughs)

Owain- We need to sell them cause we’re pretty skint at the moment.

How does it feel to have just played Glastonbury?

Owain- Doesn’t actually feel like we have played it ya’know? Cause we were in and out from there. We were on stage for half an hour.

How many songs did you play?

Pearse- Erm I think we played 8 songs. It was good though….a really good show.

Owain- Yeah the crowd really got into it.

How big was your crowd?

Owain- Err however big the tent was. Maybe there was 1…2 thousand people.

Was there any crowd surfing?

Owain- Me!

Pearse- No. There was mud surfing though outside!

Owain- Yeah there was mud surfing.

Do you want to play Glastonbury again next year? Do you think you will?

Owain- Errr we play the pyramid stage next year. We haven’t been confirmed for that.

You’ve just played was it a couple of festivals in Wales? How many?

Owain- Err we just played 1 in a place called Clanethley in Wales and it was err good.

How did it compare to the Glastonbury performance?

Owain- (Laughs) The performance was good. (More Laughs)

Pearse- (Interrupts) The performance was the same as Glastonbury just ….

Owain- There was a different…err…there was a lot of druggies there basically and less people so it was more noticeable (Laughs).

Now I know that you are quite big in Japan at the moment and I think it was quite recent that you went there. I’m just curious as to what the craziest thing a fan there has done to you.

Pearse- Somebody gave me some pyjamas as a present like Japanese pyjamas..quite expensive.

What did they look like?

Pearse- What are they…Kimonos? Whatever those things are called.

Owain- Yeah Kimonos.

Pearse- Yeah like a men’s Kimono sort of thing.

What like the ones in ‘The Killers’ video for Read my mind?

Pearse- I haven’t seen that video.

Owain- yeah it’s like one of them….nah nah it’s on the same line as that but…

Pearse- They are night robes basically.

Owain- Err I went with a girl...took her back to her room and she stole my mobile phone so I mean if you could do a search for my phone.

Have you tried speaking Welsh to one of those Japanese people?

Owain- Oh they actually speak Welsh to us they know a few words like ‘hello, How you doing? How’s your mum, your dad?’

Do you think that’s quite weird…going to Japan thinking they can’t speak Welsh and that happens?

Owain- No...Not really. They do a lot of research on the bands so they find out a lot of their history before they go out there. There’s a little Welsh community in Tokyo itself…got about 50 or 40 speakers there.

I know that there is a lot of very, very good Welsh bands out there, to name a few; Manic Street Preachers, Bullet for my Valentine, Lostprophets. Do you get any support from any of those people?

Owain- Noooo not really no.

Do you know any of them?

Owain- Nahh (Laughs)

Do they inspire you in any way?

Pearse- We’re playing with the Manics…

Owain- (Interrupts) we’re playing with the Manics yeah.

Pearse- In err I dunno where it is….

Owain- It’s in Swansea on the 15th July in a festival called Fflam

Would you say you are like any of them?

Owain- Yeah the Manics have done some amazing stuff in the past yeah and there is Supergrass as well they’re playing at the festival…one of the best bands ever….my second best band.

What’s your first best band?

Owain- Manics (Laughs)

Did you say you toured with the Manics?

Pearse- No we’re playing with them.

Owain- (Interrupts) No we’re playing with them at the festival.

Are you nervous yet for the festival?

Owain- Aww man he’s soiled his pants about 10 times already

Have you ever met the Manic Street Preachers?

Pearse- If I saw that Nicky Wire I’d tell him to f**k off…

(Continuous Laughter)[size=7]

Pearse- No we’ve never met him no.

So tell me a bit about your new album. What are your favourite tracks on it?

Owain- Errrrrr f**king hell we’ve done an album? (Laugh’s) Let me think… “Bad News” is a good one to play live. It’s a good one and that’s about it the rest are f**king s**t.

Pearse- “Sweet Isabelle”.

Owain- Yeah “Sweet Isabelle”

Now speaking about really cool songs…you have a brilliant video for “Jamaica Beer Eyes”… It’s very, very funny. Who came up with the idea for the video?

Owain- The guy that was filming it and he asked us when we were hung over if we wanted to do this and we said yeah go on man.

]Did you not have any input in as to what to put in the video?

Owain- Well…not really no. We were just happy to go along with it.

So you being topless…was that not struck by any of the girls knowing us girls would like that?

Owain- Well the fact I was sleeping with a transvestite sort of put them off a bit I think.

Was it fun to film it?

Owain- Yeah it was a good laugh.

Where did you film it?

Owain- In some squat in London and some of the Squatters would walk in, off their heads. (Impersonates a Squatter)

Are you friends with any of the people in the video? Because I know that some bands use their friends in their videos.

Owain- yeah…I mean we brought about 10 or 15 of our mates down but err there wasn’t enough time to get them into the shots. There were few of our mates, one of them had to glass me with a stupid bottle.

Finally….What’s next for The Heights?

Owain- (Pause) A tour with Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap? When is that?

Owain- Next year I think.

Are you a big fan of Spinal Tap?

Owain- Yeah

So I guess you you’re pretty excited to seen them live and everything and tour with them?

Owain- Yeah definitely

Thank you for letting me to interview you.

Owain and Pearse- Thank you.

Interview Information

Taken At:

The Brighton Engine Room

Taken On:

July 4th, 2007

Interviewees:

Owain Ginsberg (Vocals, Guitar),
Pearse Macintyre (Guitar, vocals).

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