INTERVIEW: Here's To You chat first releases since 2015

Photo: Gina Scarpino

​How does it feel to release new music after a few years? 

Mike: This is my first official release with the band, and I couldn’t be more excited to put all of our hard work out for the world to hear!

Stephan: Honestly, it’s been so exciting and invigorating. In the few days leading up to the release, I was so insanely giddy, it was insane!

Charlie: It’s so exciting! We worked so hard on all of this music and so far the feedback has been incredible. 

Greg: Kind of weird cause people thought we were dead, I kept telling them we’re working on stuff, haha.

Why was “Burning Alive” chosen as the first single to release off of your upcoming LP? 

Stephan: Not only was it the first song completed for this LP, but to us, it was the perfect way to show the world that HTY was back, but way different this time around. It’s the perfect pop/rock/indie BOP.

Charlie: I think Burning Alive encompases all the elements that comprise our “new sound”. We have songs that are more electronic, more rock, more indie, but this was like the perfect balance. Plus, Ii think it lead the direction for the rest of the album since it was the first one that we wrote for the upcoming LP.

Mike: Since this is the first song that we had completed for Wonder/Wander, it not only serves as a great lead single, but it also served as a great checkpoint for us as we wrote a lot of the songs on the album. We circled back to Burning Alive along the way to make sure we were still keeping with a consistent sound that started with this song. 

What made you guys decide to split the album into ‘phases’? 

Stephan: We’ve been saying this a lot, but it still holds true: People just don’t listen to albums the same way they used to. A collection of all of humanity’s music is almost all entirely available at our fingertips these days. Because of this, we opted to give people steady doses of the new album instead of dropping too much at once, which could easily get lost. We hope that this method will lead to more appreciation of some individual songs that some could normally miss out on, if that makes any sense. We want to keep people interested and wanting more.

Charlie: Pretty much exactly what Stephan said. It helps to keep momentum going as we continually have something being released throughout the year. And it makes the whole album a lot more easily digestible to our listeners!

Mike: We recorded (and are still finishing up) the album in phases, which allowed us to be really intentional with each song and pay a greater attention to detail as we went along the writing and recording process. We hope that releasing the album in phases like this will help our listeners to catch a lot of the details, rather than missing details because there’s just so much music to absorb in one shot.

How has Here’s To You changed since your last release in 2015? 

Stephan: In just about every way you can say we’ve changed. We’ve matured, we’ve gone through college, we’ve gotten better at our instruments, honed in on our craft - the list just goes on and on. You’ll find that our songs sound very different when written in our mid-20’s compared to the first LP, which we wrote as teenagers haha.

Mike: I joined the band shortly after the last release, so that's one change for sure haha. But since day 1 of being in the band, we’ve definitely grown up as songwriters. We’ve been through some big life changes together and that’s played a huge role in the songwriting for Wonder/Wander.

Charlie: We’ve all improved as musicians / writers, and i think we all have a better understanding of the world and how things work now that we’re no longer in college. That maturity aspect comes through in Wonder / Wander, and I think that will continue to shine as we grow and continue writing.

Greg: Yeah the change in maturity and just us growing up, you can hear it clear as day through the music.

What does 2019 look like for the band, besides the release of your LP? 

Greg: Some shows!

Stephan: The LP release will be taking up most of the year for us as we roll it out, along with more video content. On top of this, we just really hope to finally get out and start playing again - it’s been far too long since our last show!

Charlie: We plan on continuing to make music videos, and maybe some live session videos for YouTube and Facebook. We’re all super eager to step on stage as well which we’ll probably be sometime in the Spring or Summer!

Mike: Like the rest of the guys, I’m dying to get on the stage and play some crazy shows. 

Stream, watch, & listen to “Burning Alive” here:
http://smarturl.it/burningalive

Follow our socials here:
https://www.facebook.com/HeresToYouBand
https://www.instagram.com/herestoyouband
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@HeresToYouBand
https://www.youtube.com/herestoyouband

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