Released at the beginning of 2022, Satisfy You made sure this year got off to a band. We chatted to the band about the new single and all other things music
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Where are you all from and how did you meet?
We’re The Heavy North, a five piece garage-blues rock band from Liverpool and we’ve just released our latest single ‘Satisfy You’ on New Year’s Day 2022, taken from our upcoming debut album Electric Soul Machine.
The band is made up of Kenny Stuart (singer/songwriter & guitarist), Jose Ibanez (guitarist and producer), Andrew Horrocks (bass player), Ste Penn (keys player) and Mark Rice (drums).
The Heavy North started out in Summer 2018 when Kenny and Jose invited Ste, Andy and Mark to visit Jose’s 3rd Planet Recording Studios in Liverpool. A few of us had played in bands together before and some of us were mates who knew each other could play.
Where did the band name, The Heavy North, come from?
The band name was one of the few suggestions we came up with in the early days that none of us laughed at! As our sound developed and things started to come together, we felt ‘The Heavy North’ suited our style of music.
We were originally thinking of themes around “loud”, “soul” and “northern”, and we
stumbled across The Heavy North and it sounded ok! There’s also a bit of a vague Liverpool connection too because the word ‘heavy’ can be used to describe all sorts of things – good and bad! Like “a heavy one” and “heavy salad”.
If you had to sum each band member up in one word, what would you say?
Kenny: Soul
Jose: El Jefe
Andy: Cycling
Ste: Dog
Mark: Goth
You recently released your new single Satisfy You. What does this song mean to you, as a band?
Satisfy You was a bit of a surprise release for us that we put out on New Year’s Day without any previews or teasers or anything like that. It also means a lot to us as it’s the fourth single taken from our debut album Electric Soul Machine.
To mark the year that our first album is released, we thought what better way to kick it off than by releasing an unannounced single at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve!
Who produced it? Have you worked with them before? What was it like working with
them?
We’re really fortunate that not only is Jose the band’s guitarist and songwriter, he’s also our producer and runs 3rd Planet Recording Studio in Liverpool. Jose has recorded everything for the band and plays a massive part in creating ‘The Heavy North’ sound.
Are there plans to play any live shows soon?
We’ve just announced our first live show of 2022 will be a free gig at the legendary Cavern Club on Wednesday 26th January in conjunction with BBC Introducing in Merseyside. This will be a great opportunity to play a handful of tracks from the upcoming album as well as our new single Satisfy You.
We hope to be playing a handful of UK shows at the end of February, followed by a run of
our own headline gigs in April to support the release of the Electric Soul Machine LP.
2020 and 2021 were difficult years for the music industry. What did you learn from
lockdown?
We were quite lucky as a band to remain active during the pandemic, and when it all kicked off we were just preparing to release our first EP back in 2020 and we’d just finished filming some music videos and playing some live shows.
We also took the opportunity to write and record new tracks between lockdowns well as
getting involved with some of the live streaming events and online gigs – including a live-
streamed set from the M&S Bank Arena during the pandemic for the Liverpool Digital Music Festival in August 2020.
What advice would you give to those looking to make their own music?
All we can say is stick to your guns and be respectful of your fans and followers as well as other artists. Whether someone has 10 followers or 10,000 followers, if they’re willing to support you and your music make a point of thanking them and keeping in touch. As a band we’re really thankful for the support from our fans and followers, especially over the past two years during the pandemic!
Where can we find out more about you?
All of our releases, videos, merchandise, gigs and more can be found at theheavynorth.com, and we’re also across most of the socials @theheavynorth
Anything else you would like to tell us, or even ask us?
We’d just like to thank TrueStyleMusic for giving us the opportunity to talk about our new
single and upcoming album. We hope 2022 will be a big year for us with the release of Electric Soul Machine and look forward to catching up soon.
TrueStyleMusic 