The Heartless Bastards will perform Friday at Warehouse Live with special guests Jeff Boortz Band and Runaway Sun. | Courtesy of Heartless Bastards
Heartless Bastards are coming to Warehouse Live this Friday. With the powerful voice of lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Erika Wennerstrom as the driving force behind the group, this is a great chance to see live music in Houston.
“I just feel like we play our hearts out,” Wennerstrom said in a recent interview about writing and playing music.
Heartless Bastards has amassed critical admiration in Rolling Stone magazine since its debut album, Stairs and Elevators, hit stores in 2005.
Since then, they have undergone some pretty substantial changes. The new lineup moved to Austin, Texas from Dayton, Ohio, and released a second album, All This Time, and now a third, The Mountain.
In the past year, they’ve played on The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Austin City Limits.
But Wennerstrom remains humble about her music. When talking about the band’s performance on Austin City Limits, she said, “I love that show, and it was a complete honor to be on it … I grew up watching it.”
Despite the success of Stairs and Elevators and the notoriety of such a catchy name, Wennerstrom is still quite unassuming, adding that she’s not good at “selling herself.”
“The first album I was really worried about,” Wennerstrom said.
One of the most impressive characteristics about the Heartless Bastards is the personal nature of its songs.
“I get a melody in my head and then I figure the rest out,” Wennerstrom said, explaining how she writes her music. “Sometimes I have an idea of what the song is about with a few words in place.”
The power of Wennerstrom’s voice is backed by her strong guitar skills.
“I taught myself to play the guitar with some people showing me chords along the way … but I mainly play bar chords,” Wennerstrom said.
To truly understand Heartless Bastards, one of the best things to watch is its performance on Austin City Limits. The show is still available in full length at http://video.pbs.org.
The band’s recent performances on late-night talk shows are also strong, but it only had enough time to play one song on Letterman and almost two on Kimmel’s show.
On Kimmel’s show, the second song was essentially cut off because of the rolling credits. The only song Heartless Bastards played in full length was “Out At Sea” from their album The Mountain.
Wennerstrom said she doesn’t want to ruin what other people get out of the band’s music by discussing the meanings behind its songs.
“We all get different things from songs,” Wennerstrom said. “It is essential to have creativity in life.”
