Izakaya Heartbeat - There’s always new ideas and goals to be reached, but mainly we just want to keep doing what we love to do

Het Noorse collectief Izakaya Heartbeat is weer terug met meer psychedelisch rockgeweld. Na ‘Ancient Asobi /In Arcadia’ (2010) en ‘Enter/Rainbow Lake’ (2013) verschijnt nu hun derde album ‘Subterranean Sunset’. De band werd de laatste jaren nog veelvuldig in het Europese livecircuit gesignaleerd met hun ‘extravagant, loud and noisy hypno-rock’, en ook de nieuwe LP toont na zes jaar weer deze ‘sonic wall power’ met een ‘mellow dreamy tone at times’.
Als grote fans van Sonic Youth en My Bloody Valentine, maar ook van Can, Trumans Water, Unwound, Om, Mogwai, The Black Angels, Earthless, Melvins, Boris en Mudhoney, hoor je een lekkere mix van ‘drony stoner/sludge-rock with indie shoegaze rock and alternative post-rock, with dark psychedelic electronics to make it all sound even more dirty and creepy’. Met 'Subterranean Sunset' zet de band in 2019 een nieuwe mijlpaal in hun geschiedenis neer, de recensie kunt u hier nog eens nalezen. http://www.musiczine.net/nl/cd-reviews/item/76885-subterranean-sunset.html  
We vonden het echter tijd worden om deze band eens aan de tand te voelen, vooral dan over hun tour en andere plannen voor het nieuwe jaar.

I have reviewed your album 'Subterranean sunset' and what I noticed is that you do not continue topin down to a music style, I personally like that the most. Where does that inspiration come from?
Thanks! We listen to and are inspired by a lot of different styles of music, and try not to repeat ourselves. Variation is gold! We want our music to express the things we are into, what we experience in life and what we feel, and that’s a lot of different things so the variation within our albums reflect this. Within the band it is important with freedom of expression, and that expression varies and gets manifested in whatever we want to do at any given time.

One of the descriptions of your music is: '' drony stoner/sludge-rock with indie shoegaze rock and alternative post-rock, with dark psychedelic electronics to make it all sound even more dirty and creepy’ How do you feel about that description?
Sounds good! Guess we’re into all those categories in one way or the other.

With regard to the new album, it is especially recommended for every little fan of shoegaze to psychedelic rock. On this condition. That you like bands that color outside the lines in a quirkyway. What is your opinion about this?
That’s nice, thanks! Yeah, we like a lot of bands that are quirky, stand out from the crowd and do their own thing, and we draw inspiration from shoegaze and see ourselves as a psychedelic rock band, so all good there!

How were the reactions to that new album by the way?
The reactions and reviews have been very good both in Norway and in the rest of Europe, so we are very happy about that.

Are you going in a different direction on a possible new album? or there are no concrete plans yet
We are just in the starting process of planning a new album so not sure what direction it will take us . Hopefully we have evolved to some place that can bring something new to our musical palette. We generally enjoy the process of experimenting and making new songs, trying to find sounds that excite us. Hopefully the new stuff will excite the listeners as well.

A lot has changed compared to the early years. What is the biggest change you have made?
I’m not sure. We never sat down to deliberately pinpoint a new specific direction. We try to play with every idea that excites us regardless of genre or our own history I think. Every day is different though so naturally our music will mirror some changes over time. While we work on our music, play shows, make albums, the changes are also sometimes very subtle to us. Our band has had many members in and out through the years though, 11 people all in all, and every one that has played in the band has contributed in one way or another.

What were and are the highs and lows so far?
Hmm.. They’re both in there for sure..repeatedly. It all levels out in the equation somehow I guess.

You have been touring a lot in Europe lately. I don't remember if you performed in Belgium? How did you like Europe?
In September, on our latest tour, we went to Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, and Poland, which was great. Always a blast playing in cities and venues we haven’t played before and meeting a lot of nice and interesting people on the way. We are planning a tour for Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg this year, and maybe other countries in the EU also, we’ll see.

From which country does the best audience come to act, who are more difficult to relent?
We haven’t really mapped out those differences, but individually everyone has their own way of enjoying shows. It’s not necessarily a bad crowd if they are more introverted. Generally I remember a lot more of those moshpits from the 90ies. Those were good fun tho! And we of course love our audience however they choose to get into it.

Where do you prefer to perform, small locations or large festival meadows?
We enjoy both! With the smaller venues it’s a different intimate energy I guess, which is thrilling. And often, the audience has come there to check out your band, so they are somewhat aware of what they are in for. Playing festivals is a good, but different thrill, and with bigger crowds, people there who haven’t heard our music before might be tempted to check out our band further. It’s a great way to get exposed to a bigger audience.

About Norway. a lot is brewing in the Scandinavian countries, especially when it comes to metal. Isthere also something like a shoegaze scene? Feel free to give some tips to check out
There are a few bands that come to mind that could be referred to as Shoegaze. Here in Oslo Serena Maneesh, Porto Gees, and maybe Curvs. In Bergen Megaphonic Thrift.

Many shoegaze acts do not last long, but you keep going. What is the key to your success?
Well, we’re not shoegaze, haha!

True that :) . Anyway. What are the future plans for 2020? Going back on tour?
Yeah! Planning to tour Be-Ne-Lux this year, maybe some other countries within the EU as well. And gigs in Norway of course. Hopefully also record some new material for our next album.

In the distant future, are there still things that you absolutely want to achieve? A kind of 'end goal'?
There’s always new ideas and goals to be reached, but mainly we just want to keep doing what we love to do. To create and play more music, put out more albums and play more shows. Would be fun to score music for a film sometime maybe.

My last question is one that i ask every artist, believe me the reactions are different. How do you view streaming sites such as Spotify personally? Is it a bless or a curse?
Well, we have always been attracted to the LP format. Growing up, we all spent our allowances in obscure record stores in Oslo. You’d really have to thoughtfully choose, and then back home we’d sit for hours listening to that new record over and over. Without any distractions of the world popping into your phone or computer by the second. I consider it a privilege to have been able to discover a lot of music that way. To give it some time to sink in and really listen to it. Maybe some of that is lost today with everything readily available at any moment. We love the idea of potentially interacting with everyone directly from your home computer tho, and myspace in its hay day was a very useful tool for us. But I’d say if you really love an album, go buy it to support the artist. That way they eventually can afford to make another one :)

Thanks for answer this interview, good luck in 2020 and hope to see u guys in my country this year …