Ones to watch in 2011 – The Heartbreaks

Download, Introducing..., Listen — By Andrew Evans on 01/02/11

‘In a town as small as this one, there’s no escaping you’. So sings wiry lead singer of The Heartbreaks Matt Whitehouse. The tune is their second single I Didn’t Think It Would Hurt To Think of You. The town in question is Morecambe, the seaside town tucked away in the North East of England that many will tell you has past it’s Best Before date.

The historical elegance of the town has clearly seeped into the band, completed by Ryan Wallace (guitar), Chris Deakin (bass) and Joseph Kondras (drums). Their very Engligh ‘Suede meets Smiths‘ shtick is, whilst not pushing the boundaries of modern music, utterly enthralling. We recently caught up with them to talk Carl Barat and er…pretzels.

What were your highlights of 2010?

The Carl Barat tour is an obvious one, it being always nice to get out of the house for a couple of weeks, especially with one as embedded in musical history as he. We had no money so we used to pinch his pretzels while he was on stage just so as not to die of malnutrition. Don’t tell him that.

What are you looking forward to in 2011?

I hope that at some point in 2011, we arrive at a stage in our careers where we too get pretzels on our rider.

How is the album coming along?

Nicely… It’s going to be all you need.

They say: “I’m afraid we’re exceedingly boring! Getting a bit too drunk before playing led to a bit of anger and frustration, so I’ve reined it in now; fun doesn’t happen to us!”

We say: A band intent on pumping out slabs of perfectly delivered English indie.

Download: The Heartbreaks – I Didn’t Think It Would Hurt To Think Of You (right click)