hrtz.wav talks ‘The Second Wave : MOMENTUM,’ finding their sound, musical journey

Let's start. 2, 3! Hello, we are Heartwave! Hi, this is Rieun. I'm the vocal of the Heartwave. Hello, I'm Kaden, the guitarist. Hi, I'm Dana. I'm the bassist of Heartwave. Hi, I'm Hagira. Hello! Hi, I'm J-Rab. I'm the keyboardist. Amazing! Well, I am really excited to talk to all of you about your music and how your band came together. But I wanted to start off with your name because it's Heartwave but it's spelled a little like differently if you will so can you take me back to where it came from and why it felt right for the band um i think i'll go with this one because i was the one who came up with the name but when i first thought of the name hearts wave the hearts represents two things um first our actual hearts and also the frequency of sound so there's two meanings for that and for the wave part i had two meanings for that as well it's about creating a new wave in band music in the world um and also there's this um if you know dot mp3 it's kind of like that it's that way it's kind of like a little cute little thing but those two um meanings combined it's more about really expressing our hearts through our music and really creating a new wave with all You guys have been together for a matter of months. I imagine your sound is still evolving. What have you discovered about the kind of music that you wanted to make for Heartwave? It doesn't matter what genre it is. We have a journey to find our own sound, but I don't think we need to talk about what genre it is. So we're not on the way for making our own sound, we're not trying to stop on certain particular genres, but we could just say we're on the way of making our sounds, but not in a certain one point of the sound. So maybe we could just classify ourselves as some kind of memories, I think. So like one day, when whoever listened to Heartwave music, they could just remind about their memories about us or themselves. So like quite nostalgic and like something more about the youth at the same time. I can feel the wave connection between all of you. The wave went through all of you guys. But you guys, I do wanna mention that you guys came together during a survival show. Steel Hearts Club and um just a few months after it ended you debuted uh what has that transition been like going from individual musicians to now making music together as a band i think um as you said we all came from different backgrounds different languages different places from the world different ages and we all met at this program called the Steel Heart Club and then we became a team at the very end of the final and obviously because we have so many differences at first instead of one team it feels like a team of five people and it was this kind of everyone is so talented in their own way but we really wanted to make sure that all that talent is really shown well and i think for that to be really shown we really need to be one team and at the very beginning obviously there's differences and the chemistry was not there yet but after all the preparation that we've done for the first wave and the second wave um we've gotten to know each other so well and despite our differences i just really think it's more about love and understanding and it's not about who's right or wrong but it's just about how much love there is for that person And I think that's what we really have. And so I'm just so glad that we have this great chemistry now. You mentioned your first EP was the first wave. Now you're, that was like your introduction, right? Now you're on the second wave, Momentum. What did you want to show people around this time around? As you said, the first one was the beginning of the album. Secondly, we've tried a lot of things in terms of sound and genre while continuing with the first album and taking the story to a certain extent. So even now, of course, we're still trying to figure out what suits us best, but we're trying new things one by one, trying to figure out what fits us best. I think it's an album that shows that kind of side of us. Urien and Dane, you guys both did the composed part of it and then Dane you did the arrangement. Do you remember the first idea for that song? Like did it change from the thought that you had into what we hear now? Behind Sword of the Mind is like the primal goal for us to do for us to deal with the song Mind is like let's try to um not really force but we uh we really wanted to encourage Yang Jun to show himself more on stage or to perform more what he's got so we try to we try to lock into the sound of the synth keyboard sound and so which he could like use a different kind of instruments more than the keyboard it's like just like rather than just staying one single point you could just wear a keyboard guitar so he could roam around or the festival festivals or whatever it is so that was the first goal that we try to aim for and the second one is like all we wanted to we wanted to match our sounds to the season as well because on every single album or songs must be like matched like it will be it'll be like pretty perfect if the song quite matches with the season so that was the second thought that we keep from from the first place and the third one is like the um it's like uh lyrics uh that we uh when we try to uh focus on the lyrics like whatever the song is like we could we could like notice or we could just like find out what's the message from the artist or what's the message from the team so um we we uh really wanted to talk about the like um like you know like a build-up or somehow like stories coming up from the first wave so i think that was pretty that was pretty good for us to start with the first wave and now now with the mind as well and um yeah and i'm so i'm so glad that our team loves that song and also glad to um perform it in front of the audience and maybe we could move on to like more better stories or music next time on the third third or fourth whatever it is so yeah uh we're We're all looking forward to it, I know. Then there's your title track, Alive, featuring Sungchan from RIIZE. I read that you guys reached out to him because you felt that his voice fit the song. What was it about it that made you think he should be on our track? So what we needed was, what we needed the most was about the youth and the characteristics that we got and he had at the same time. So we tried to match his, well, not really match his song, but we noticed that his vocal and our taste of the music could easily get bonded. So I don't really think that was a big problem with those kind of collaborations. So that was quite easy for us to reach out to Sungchan Sungbin-nim. So yeah, and the most important thing was youth, I could say, the youth and the characteristics about his vocals kidding when we perform Alive obviously Sungchan's not on stage you take part in that rapping part um what did you want to bring alive when you perform it since we got two rappers in our team so let us try to hear some of them's opinions i think for me this rap part was really a challenge for me because i've never um ever rapped ever and also it's my first time singing on stage at this these big places these big festivals so for me i just want to try everything and anything that i can learn from and that i can improve and like because we already have um Sungchan from RIIZE on the title track it was really nice to kind of try to copy his techniques and try to get better and try to learn um and he really um uh inspired me a lot to trying to learn better and get better at rapping and you know, rapping is just so fun so I'm just so glad I got to do it. I think I did my best so that it wouldn't feel awkward. And I think I was able to do better when I had another chance to do something like that on stage. Yes, that's it. And why did you choose that song? sorry that's all in us and the second album i think this might be surprising but i think i think mine yeah like i think mine really lets all of us shine like really nicely and it's not just about the most amount of movement on stage but it's more about you know your expressions and your emotions i feel like mine is also a song that these two guys wrote so it's more easier to express our emotions as well. So I think mine and also mine are two songs that are kind of different from the record and mine. After spending so much time together making and listening to music, has there been another member that has introduced you to another artist or genre or sound that you actually ended up adding to your own playlist? For me, since I started from the singer-songwriter, I was a solo artist, which started from the pop R&B, but now who's located in the band. So I got a lot of inspirations from Adua. He taught me a lot of good J-pop bands, good rock sounds for me. So he showed me that there's a lot of different kind of vocals in the world. at the same time like he he taught me like how they interact with the fans and the way how they how they um fill up the emotions to the songs and the way how they um treat the treat the songs to the fans at the same time so uh that really that really touched me a lot so i started to um find a couple of clips on youtube i and i was so into those kind of like japanese band sounds like that so yeah that that that was a good time for me to um to learn about more about the band like yeah something more than just just like a band sound that was quite great and you guys have covered a lot of different artists as well in the past has there been a song that you've covered that made you think like this could be the sound of heart's wave like can we try this in our music has there been um a song that has caught your attention for me like when when we finished the baby ah i never expected that was that much good though actually the sound was that's true the sound was real good so i never expected that kind of qualities from from those guys i mean like that song was pretty great i know that you guys were so good but i didn't expect it that baby could be like that much good in the band version because like there's so many good version of like a band sound uh like band live as a baby right but we brought something something different from what what they've got already that's true there's something new right yeah like something really new the tempo was different like a yeah i think it was nice because everyone really had some spots shining yeah yeah yeah we got the guitar yeah we We got the drums over there, so the whole section was pretty nice. That's so true. It was like a real good moment for me. Oh, he agreed. I totally agree. Another one from Baby. Okay, so what else? I've been playing IVE for 11 years. The intro started with a high-pitched voice and it became more and more bass, main bass, keyboard, electric guitar, and vocal. The order of the build-up was good because it looked better than usual. That's why I feel good. Yeah, well, he's still a shy guy. But um, so he's like, he's like a real old. He's like an elder bro. So I really feel kind of like, I kind of feel protected by him. Because he's like a big bro on our team. Yeah. So what a first time when I saw him, he was like, I thought he was younger than me. I thought he was like, at least a high schooler. Or like same age with Kaden. Okay, but I noticed like it was like quite Not quite though, but it was like oh, than me and I noticed he's like he's a strong guy. So yeah I'm so glad to be with him in the same team. Well, I know that you guys all play and More than one instruments I wanted to put your skills to the test if you had to play a show last minute like right now you have to get an instrument, but you guys are like scrambling No one can play their own normal instrument. Which one would you guys play? Would be the vocalist would be the bass keyboard Okay, yeah or bass, okay, or keep or guitar everything I can do everything. Then you play bass. Really? Yeah. Really? Okay. I just... Yeah, I play bass. He also takes the empty space. Empty space. Only the empty space. He's gonna fill the instrument. No, baby. Okay, so... How you doing? How you doing? How you doing? Bass. I want to play bass. How you doing? Really good at bass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honestly... Vocal. Vocal, yeah. I want to do everything. Everything? Oh, really? Everything. Vocal. Vocal. Vocal. Vocal. Vocal. I'm expecting this on record. On the record. On the record. He said that. How are you here? You got drums? Or a keyboard? I have a new idea. I'll just be the rapper. No, no, no. Rapping is not an instrument. No, rapping is an instrument bro. like like that so like you got to go yeah bro yeah but we do vocals to empty space okay okay but you so like you're gonna drop your guitar I guess I have to I guess I have to now I'm gonna just go with the guitar okay then you go with keyboard then actually he's he he's like a keyboard master though thank you Fox Talk so late, this has been Heart Suede!