With a throwback to the days of Warped sound, Asheville, NC’s Kerosene Heights is prepping for the 19 May release of Southeast Of Somewhere album on No Sleep Records. To prepare for the release, TGEFM had the chance to sit down with the band and discuss their sound, revisiting the music they loved years ago and who they’ve been listening to lately.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats in advance on the release of Southeast of Somewhere. What can you tell us about Kerosene Heights for readers just discovering the band?
Kerosene Heights is an emo punk band from North Carolina, although the four of us are from all over the country. We’re all quite tall.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?
My dad has always supplied me with great music and has taken me to shows for as long as i can remember. The Clash, to Gorilla Biscuits, to bands like His Hero is Gone are all bands that my dad showed me. From a very young age I wanted to sing in a punk band, but i’d say the moment for me that made it feel real was going to my first hardcore show at 14 and seeing Capitalist Casualties and Verbal Abuse. I was so scared, it was sick. I started my first band very shortly after.
The world has been going through some shit over the last few years. One phenomena I recently discovered is the idea of pandemic nostalgia, whereas while we were unable to live in the present thanks to lockdowns, we revisited our past loves. This led many people to the music they loved as teens. As self-proclaimed emo revival revivalists, have you found pandemic nostalgia to work in your favor, and what are your thoughts on the premise?
Ya know, Ive never really thought of that, but it’s certainly why this band exists. I got out of rehab and moved to Asheville on March 18th 2020 (first day of lockdown) All of my feelings were coming back hard after years of numbing out and i started revisiting things I loved as a kid. I spent the majority of that year learning guitar and recording pop punk songs on my phone in the garage of my sober living and that’s where all of this started. Pandemic nostalgia is a new concept for me so I don’t really have a statement on whether or not it’s helpful to us, but it does play a huge part in the band regardless.
What’s the state of the scene from your point of view? We are living in a “just deal with COVID” world and everything about this timeline is some level of completely fucked. Beyond the lyrics, what impact, if any, does the current cultural and political landscape have on the band?
Everything is certainly fucked. I feel like that is something that affects us individually on a more personal level than it effects the band directly. I want the band to be somewhat removed from that. I want to create something people can relate to on a super personal level and not have to think about what’s going on in the world for a moment. I think that’s especially important from time to time when we’re constantly overloaded with information about how shitty everything is.
What is it about music that you are most passionate about? What motivates you to keep writing?
I know what it’s like to connect to something at some point in your life and being able to take yourself back there by putting on a certain record. My biggest goal is to give that to people. My writing style is very straight forward, and I’d like to think you can mostly always tell what i’m talking about. As personal and specific as it feels to me, I know that a lot of it is just part of the human experience. I want our music to grieve or celebrate with people for whatever they’re experiencing at the time. I’m not the most social person, but I will never stop trying to connect with people through music.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
Swiss Army Wife, Cataracts, Gollylagging, Elephant Jake, Farseek, Sign Language, Smoke Detector, Glazed, Everything on Really Rad Records, Crime Light, Equal Creatures, Roman Candle, Snack’d Out, EMWAY and honestly so many more. The DIY scene is thriving right now.
Now that the world almost has its hands on the new record, what’s next for Kerosene Heights?
We’re going to spend most of the rest of 2023 on the road. I don’t have the details on that yet but we’ll be posting them as they come. There may be a split in the works for beginning of next year possibly? I’m pretty much along for the ride. Wherever this band takes me, I will go.
What do you wish I asked about or that you had more of an opportunity to speak about during this interview?
Nothing that I really wish you’d asked but If you’re reading this, thank you for supporting us and caring about what we’re doing. That means so much to everyone in the band.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
