Fragile Things - Richie Hevanz

Interviewing the Heaven's Basement, Roadstar, and now Fragile Things' front man, we find out the best bits of Richie Hevanz's musical career - and what will happen next?

Fragile Things

Alright then, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I’ve been practising ‘good morning’ but its not now *laughs*.

I was thinking that too but no, it’s not now is it *laughs*. I’m drinking so it’s the afternoon now.

Well, earlier you said that you could start drinking at half 7 [am].

Yeah that’s just for rugby. And Wednesdays.

*Laughs* okay, so, you’ve got a lot of experience with different bands who took different paths. Which band would you say you enjoyed working with the most?

It would probably be Heaven’s Basement to be honest. The first bands I were in [Hurricane Party and Roadstar], I sort of joined those bands. A lot of the songs had already been written and they had their own writing processes that I wasn’t massively involved in. We then evolved into Roadstar but we had quite a dominating manager who liked to make sure he was in control of every aspect, which subsequently led to us breaking away from him; unfortunately he owned all the rights to all the songs. So Heaven’s Basement was basically the same band with the same members but without any of the old songs we essentially started again. In doing that I kind of found my voice, my place, my writing process.

Should fans expect to see anything new coming out of Fragile Things?

Yeah definitely, we’re working on something at the moment. We had a bit of a funny year this year, with certain members deciding they wanted to move on and do something new, which is fine. And other members, including myself, wanting to stick with what we’d already built. So we’re in a sort of metamorphosis at the moment with rebuilding things, writing new stuff, and putting the final touches on an EP which I’ll be doing after this. Hopefully within the next month or so we’ll have something coming out.

Richie Hevanz

Will it be a new sound?

It probably will be because it’s got new members. I think it’ll still be very much Fragile Things because it's still my voice, if it’s the same voice it normally sounds like the same band if that makes sense. Since it’s written by different people it’ll probably have a bit of different sound but I’m hoping it’s maintaining what it had in the past.

You’ve played at Download Festival, Monsters of Rock Festival, and Sonisphere, which would you say was your most enjoyable experience?

Sonisphere was a sort of moment where after touring for 6 months solidly, the crowd we saw there, we realised that this had all paid off. The bands that we had been touring with weren’t small bands so we’d gone from playing 200 seater venues to during Sonisphere seeing the crowd just growing and growing. I remember turning to my drummer and he was like “is this for us?”. I think by the end it was around 3 or 4 thousand people that had all come down to see us play. So that was a big moment for us. When we went on our headline tour after that, we went from playing 200 seaters to playing thousand seater, so we could see that the work had paid off. So for that reason, the Sonisphere festival was a signpost in that we were going the right way. Definitely Sonisphere. Ah but I liked Monsters of Rock as well because it was one of the biggest crowds I’d ever played and I got to watch Alice Cooper and Thunder and hanging out backstage with them. My favourite memory of that was seeing Journey play Don’t Stop Believing as the sun was going down. I was just sitting on one of their amps just watching them and whenever I hear Don’t Stop Believing now I always think of that moment where the guitarist turned to me and went *sticks tongue out* “BLEHH”.

"My favourite memory was seeing Journey play 'Don't Stop Believing' as the sun was going down"

Who would you say are your main influences, in both your singing style and the sound of your bands?

I think singing style wise, I grew up listening to loads of people. Rock-wise I listened to Robert Plant [Led Zeppelin] to Coverdale from Whitesnake but I’ve got a much rougher voice than them and I haven’t got quite the range as them either. But people like Steven Tyler [Aerosmith] and Jon Bon Jovi, I attach to him quite a lot in my vocal sound. Band wise, I think in any rock band, you’ll always have the core bands that everyone listens to like Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Deep Purple, all these kind of people. I’ve always been a big fan of singer/songwriters, folk music, that sort of thing. My lyrics are always quite personal whereas other people may like listening to more socio-political things. But I think it all adds to the sort of collage that your band ends up being.

You finished studying at BIMM Brighton in 2013 meaning this is after some of the bands you’ve been in, including two of your most well-known, Heaven’s Basement and Roadstar. How come you decided to study a professional musicianship in vocals when you already experience and success?

In all honesty, I’d been in bands since I was young. When I was in Heaven’s Basement, it wasn’t as glamorous as people think it is. I think that in the last year that I was in Heaven’s Basement I think we did something close to 260 shows, which equated to a show almost every other day for nearly a year. And like I said, we were often going from one tour to the next tour and it gets to the point where you’re like “I don’t know who I’m on tour with or where I am”. By 2009 I was just too burnt out and decided I needed a break, but me being me and doing everything to the extreme I was like “nope I need a break, I quit” and then I left. I didn’t know what to do with myself afterwards, I’d been on tour for nearly 3 years, and I just decided you know, I could study.

Richie Hevanz

Do you think that that helped?

I think I’ve become a much better singer for it, definitely. I think it gave me a much better understanding of music. Everything that I had learnt before was through sitting down and chatting with the guitarist, whereas now with music theory I have a much better understanding. It’s quite nice now when I’m with my band and I sound like I kind of know what I’m talking about *laughs*. I’m not just your typical singer going “why don’t you make it more bang bang” *laughs*. At least now I can put a name to what I’m saying.

What’s your opinion on the current state of the music industry?

It’s a big like ‘caught between the devil and the deep blue sea’ these days. I think artists these days are so in control of their own fate that they’ve got nobody else to blame if they don’t make it. But it’s so hard to make it because there are so many people trying to do it. These days you can just post a video. It’s really difficult for anyone to break out of the quicksand and get noticed. I can’t make any sense of it [the state of the industry]. I sometimes wonder if Heaven’s Basement had the competition that bands do today, if we would ever have made it as far as we did. It’s a weird sort of seesaw of good and bad. It’s a great time to be an artist, but not so much if you want to be a rockstar.

Who are you actively listening to at the moment?

One of my idols is Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue. I’ve rediscovered Motley Crue with ‘The Dirt’, so I’ve just sort of gone back into Motley Crue mode. Specifically, actually, Sixx:AM which is Nikki’s break-off band, and to be honest I think I kind of prefer them in a sense because lyrically I relate to them more.

"It’s a great time to be an artist, but not so much if you want to be a rockstar."

Do you think that Sixx:AM is currently influencing any of your projects?

Oh yeah. Definitely. The Sixx:AM project came about from his book, The Heroin Diaries, which is about his addiction to heroin. Each song is based on a journal entry that he wrote at that time, so they’re very much open wounds that he is putting on display and I think that the courage of him doing that inspires me to do the same. People can see through bullshit quite quickly. I like the point in a song where I’m like “Do I want to say this?” I know that certain people in my life are going to know what this is about, so I have to think about whether I want that out. It’s at that point that I know I should.

You had a fair amount of indisputable success through some of your projects, are there any secrets behind getting ahead quickly?

Bullshit. Lie your asses off and believe your own lies.

Any examples?

It’s the simple things; I get changed before I go onto stage. Even if it’s just my t-shirt, I’ll still get changed. It’s about that shedding of the skin, turning into a different person for the stage. Like if I came into this pub waltzing in like I do on there someone would probably punch me but on stage people just love it. You’ve got to put on a show and just bullshit.

Richie Hevanz by Geert Lippens

Is there anything that you would say is difficult for all bands and artists within the industry?

Maintaining the friendships on tour. No matter how much you love each other, a long time in the same room with anyone is gonna drive you nuts. I think there was a philosopher that said “hell is being locked inside a room forever with your friends”. So maintaining that friendship is hardest.

Is there any remedy for that do you think?

Yeah I was the sort of person who, when we go to a new city, I’d go off for a walk and disappear for 2 hours. Talking about what’s pissing you off will help. Maybe even hanging around with someone new is good, even if its a roadie or a sound guy or something. Just get some space.

If you could sum up your life and experience in 5 words what words would you choose?

It’s. Been. Fucking. Emotional. Thanks. *Laughs*.

*Laughs* care to elaborate?

Nope *laughs*. I think life has been interesting so far and we’re only halfway through.

"I like the point in songwriting where I'm like 'Do I want to say this?', it's at this point that I know I should."

Do you have an end goal for your music career?

No I don’t actually. I think, how can you? You know, if get a No. 1 somewhere in the world, you’re gonna wonder “oh can I get 2? Or 3?”. Success brings its own pressure of can you do it again. There’s always something new you can do too, I’d like to try a rap album at some point, you know, bust my rhymes *laughs*.

Out of everything you’ve done, what’s 1 thing you would do again, and what’s 1 thing you wouldn’t?

I’d definitely pursue the same life path that I’ve chosen, I think that it was the right one. It’s yielded to me things that other people never get to do. My grandmother used to say to me “what I love about you Rich is that you’ve always got to do things your bloody way”. What I wouldn’t do is be so rash in my actions. I can jump to anger very quickly and then make a decision and that’s done. I’ve done that a few times in my life to my own detriment. I think I would think it through more.

Well, thats all of them.

That’s all of them?

Yeah it’s done now *laughs*, thank you so much.

No worries at all.

Thank you so much for talking with me Richie, it was great to meet you.

Catch the future of Richie's band Fragile Things on Facebook.