The Heavy - Dirtying The Funk

One of the most exciting acts on the current British dance music scene, The Heavy have just released their debut album, Great Vengeance And Furious Fire, to major critical acclaim and much appreciation from Britain's dancefloor inhabitants. The disc positively pulsates with excitement and trepidation as the band mix and match styles such as club, electro and trip-hop in their quest to define their own particular sound.

With a little trepidation and much interest as to what the answer might reveal, The Skinny asks firstly what the band's views on Great Vengeance are on the brink of its release. Swaby's response is eager, to say the least: "It's an amazing offering. It kind of feels like we've laid our hearts on the line a little bit."

How big a role does emotion play in music-making for The Heavy? Swaby is very candid: "Every single one of those tracks is heartfelt. Over this period in our lives [the album was some two years in the making], a lot of things kinda happened, like going in and out of relationships and I think it kind of tells on that, you know?"

Great Vengeance is striking primarily for its brevity. Tracks rarely stray over the four-minute mark and the whole album clocks in at just 33 minutes. With so much of the album being so closely tied in with affairs of the heart, the question of favourite tracks seems a slightly unfair one to pose, but Swaby wastes no time in answering. "I think Doin' Fine, just because it reminds me of the point in my life when that was written [Swaby was going through the break-up of a relationship]. It's just about having to call it quits. It's about how it might hurt like hell, but you still gotta get through it. I love tracks like Coleen as well, because of the whole kind of 'work' culture that you've got in the UK, which is kind of unnecessary, so I like that because you can laugh at it."

The very dirty, funky sound of the album lends it an organic quality, something Swaby is only too keen to expand upon. "We love rough, we love dirty. We live by this rule that, if it sounds right, that's it. I'm a huge fan of things like Memphis soul. I love huge horn breaks. What we did with the album was to try and find horn breaks and then have them replayed. We just dirtied them up a little bit more."

Swaby's equally keen to state how well rehearsals for the upcoming tour are going, which will be the first time The Heavy have attempted to translate the album's rough and ready funk into the live arena, although much of the material gives the impression of having been well and truly road-tested before it was committed to tape. "It sounds amazing! It's a different kettle of fish live but the same kind of vibe. It's dirtier, it's heavier, it's unnecessary!" he laughingly enthuses. "It's like five wolves howling at the moon. There's a lot of howling going on!"

As the interview draws to a close, The Skinny wonders if Swaby will be drawn on what the main reference points, musical or otherwise, were on this album? "We are just basically into dirty music. The title comes from us having to have worked so hard and having people come along and say 'we can help you,' 'we can do this,' 'we can do that,' but they were kind of hindering the progress of what we were doing. It was only when we became kind of self-sufficient that we realised, we can do this, we don't have to compromise."