Get to Know: Heavy on the Magic

Feature by The Skinny North | 19 Jan 2017

We talk to Heavy on the Magic's Chris Haddon ahead of the band's appearance at Stay Fresh Fest 2

Riffs, noise and melody, all wrapped up in thoroughly discombobulating clouds of neo-psych: Manchester five-piece Heavy on the Magic certainly have their ear pointed towards the zeitgeist, but they're unafraid to plough their own furrow. A band for whom the visual aspect is almost as important as the sonic side of things, they're as likely to produce a video of themselves reinventing obscure Christmas classics as a horrifying melange of insect imagery and voice-manipulated Trumpisms. Who knows what they'll have in store for us at the Deaf Institute – only one way to find out though...

Usually joined by bandmates Ron McIntyre (keys/vocals), Josh Stewart (guitar), Steven Stuttard (bass) and Kenny Leather (drums), here singer/guitarist Chris Haddon tells us a little more about the Heavy on the Magic story...

When and how (and why!) did Heavy on the Magic begin?

HOTM started as just me and Ron recording tunes, we didn't have a name or a band to begin with. We both played in a band together previously which split after five years, and this was just something fresh to get all the ideas out of my head.

We got a solid 15 tracks demoed and thought we better get a band together so we could play it live, so we roped in Chucky, Kenny and Josh and it all just worked really well. Josh had never actually played guitar in a band before, he was a bass player. But we already had one of them and we thought he was cool so he went out and bought himself a guitar.

Tell us something people would be surprised to learn about you.

We're not magicians.

Heavy on the Magick was, of course, an Aleister Crowley-influenced ZX Spectrum game of the 1980s – what are your favourite examples of the occult finding its way into popular culture, and what would Tipper Gore have made of it all?

It was a bit mad, that game, wasn't it? There was a Dutch dude called Mirin Dajo back in 1912 who used to stick swords through his body multiply times and never get organ damage. He was taught it by some Indian mystics and performed it in public. He looked just like me – very much so, in fact, check it out! It killed him eventually though.

Tipper Gore? I'd love to give her a Reiki treatment, she'd buzz off that. Maybe I should give Trump one while I'm at it; might save the planet, chill him out a bit.

What does Manchester mean to you?

Well, it's home. I buzz off Manchester's multi-culturism, it's colourful. Saddened to see the amount of homeless people on the streets lately though, we should sort that out. There's a cool thing, Musicians Against Homelessness, that's just raised 40k to help. I'd like to do something for them when the time's right.

Which of the other acts at Stay Fresh Fest 2 are you most looking forward to watching?

Looking forward to catching Henge. I did some of my first gigs when I was 14, supporting a band called The Whisky Cats who were fronted by Matthew Whittaker. Henge is his new band; nice to be back sharing the bill with him.

What does the rest of the year have in store for you?

We've just finished our first single in the studio and it's sounding really good, so that'll be coming out soon, followed by something else, and something else after that.

And finally: What do you like to do outside of Heavy on the Magic? Any projects we should know about?

Me personally? I'm a holistic therapist so that keeps me busy when I'm not doing band stuff. Chucky is a black belt in origami and Ron has a habit of asking the cosmos to sort him a free coffee.


Heavy on the Magic play Stay Fresh Fest with HengeThe Orielles, Mums, Strobes, Luxury Death, Seize the Chair and Patty Hearst @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 28 Jan

Buy tickets here

facebook.com/heavyonthemagic