Muen Magazine

August 17, 2010

HEAVEN BELOW

Broken Halo

Patrick Kennison (Vocals, Guitar)

Jesse Billson (Guitar)

John Younger (Bass)

Chad Clark (Drums)

Los Angeles, California

Myspace.com/heavenbelowmusic

By: Shauna O’Donnell

HEY GUYS THIS IS SHAUNA O’DONNELL AND I HAVE PATRICK KENNISON OF HEAVEN BELOW ON THE PHONE.

MUEN: THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME.

Hell Yeah!

MUEN: LET’S TALK A LITTLE HISTORY FIRST. THIS IS ACTUALLY THE SECOND LINE-UP SINCE THE BANDS INCEPTION. MARTY OBRIEN AND DAVE COMER WERE ORIGINAL MEMBERS RIGHT?

Yes, they sure were, but like any band we go on to different members to get that right fit.

MUEN: HOW DID THE CURRENT LINE-UP COME TOGETHER?

Well it was easy because John had moved out here to Hollywood with me back in 2003. He, DJ Ashba and I had an apartment together and we played in different bands. My band Union Underground broke up and a couple years later by the time I put Heaven Below together it was obvious that John was the new bass player. Marty went on to play with Ben Moody in We Are the Fallen. John and I had grown up together so it was a real smooth transition. As far as Steve Comer, he was just on a different page than the rest of us. I don’t want to say anything bad, but he had different beliefs and he let some of his personal issues and beliefs affect what he did musically. That’s why he’s not in the band anymore, so we got Jesse after going through auditions like crazy of different guitar players. It was the same old story; if they could play good then they didn’t really fit in the band. If they had a good sense of humor then it seemed like they couldn’t play good. In walks Jesse who is just as immature as we are. It worked out perfect, it was like a blessing. We love him; this is definitely the definitive real line-up.

MUEN: IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE I WAS THINKING THAT WE ARE THE FALLEN WOULD BE A GOOD BAND FOR YOU TO GO OUT WITH.

Hell yeah, Ben produced one of our songs “When Daylight Dies,” so we are all buddies out here. I bet you we’ll be out with them sooner or later. It wouldn’t surprise anybody.

MUEN: YOUR BRAND NEW SELF TITLED EP CAME OUT YESTERDAY. CONGRATULATIONS ON THAT.

Thank you, hell yeah

MUEN: THE ENHANCED EP INCLUDES NOT ONLY 6 TRACKS, BUT THERE IS A BONUS OF FOUR TRACKS.  I READ THERE WERE ALSO FOUR VIDEOS, BUT ANOTHER PLACE SAID FIVE.

What happened was our management company said “Let’s put out an EP. You’re a new band and you haven’t been out that long. We just want to tease people and get more fans.” We weren’t really happy with that because we have so much material, so we tricked everybody and when you buy the EP, you actually get four bonus tracks. It does make a full length album when it’s all done.

MUEN: YEAH I WAS KIND OF CURIOUS ABOUT THAT, IT HAS TEN SONGS, SO WHY NOT CALL IT A FULL LENGTH?

I guess we’re dividing the true fans from the casual fans by pleasing both. It’s a funny day and age for music, so any little tricks or something that’s clever or memorable we are not opposed to trying.

MUEN: I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE NOTICED, BUT SOME OF THE BIGGER BANDS ARE PUTTING OUT BOXED SETS THAT INCLUDE A T-SHIRT, POSTERS, A CD AND EVERYTHING ELSE IN THERE.

Yeah, we would love to do something like that, but there is no way I would charge our fans $20-30 for a release. One day when we have a catalog and we’re older, maybe we will do something like that. Right now we just want to get even more fans and reach more people.

MUEN: BLABBERMOUTH SAID THAT THIS EP WAS YOUR DEBUT, BUT IN FACT YOU HAD PUT OUT A FULL LENGTH IN 2009 TITLED COUNTDOWN TO DEVIL. ARE YOU CONSIDERING THIS A DEBUT BECAUSE OF THE NEW LINE-UP?

I don’t know, you’re making me wonder also. Now that we’ve done a couple tours, it does feel fresh again, which is why we self titled it. For the billions of people who didn’t check out our first album it’s kind of like a new album or band. If people want to look at it like that because the band is less than two years old, then I guess I’m okay with that as long as they’re listening.

MUEN: ARE YOU THE SOLE SONGWRITER FOR HEAVEN BELOW?

Yeah I have been so far, besides the cover songs.

MUEN: WHAT DRIVES YOU TO CREATE THE MUSIC THAT YOU DO?

Oh boy! That’s a good question. The struggles of everything I’ve been through. I had a band, Union Underground that sold half a million albums, we did Ozzfest, opened for Manson and toured the world. It came to an abrupt end and I wasn’t ready for it to end. I have a lot of pent-up emotions and feelings about where I am and what I do. The easiest thing for me is to put them into a song. If I’m upset, I can write a song. If I’m happy, I can write a song. It’s the one area that I just immerse myself in. I think people who are painters, paint pictures. It’s some kind of release and writing songs does that for me. I love songs that are hard to write and ones that write themselves. I’m very happy and comfortable writing music.

MUEN: YOU’LL BE MAKING A VIDEO FOR THE SONG “WHEN DAYLIGHT DIES” LATER THIS YEAR. THAT WAY YOU’LL BE ABLE TO BRING THE SONG TO LIFE.

Absolutely, that’s a whole other animal. It’s funny, I pride myself on songwriting and doing well in the studio. As far as capturing the band visually, that is a whole other medium where somebody has to get behind the camera and tell us what to do, but we love doing that.

MUEN: DO YOU ALREADY HAVE THE CONCEPT IN MIND?

You know they give you what they call treatments, which are basically scripts. We have been going through them and seeing which ones we like. There is somebody that turned one in that’s really killer and I think that they actually got the lyrics. We don’t act out the lyrics in the video, but the lyrics should really illustrate what the song is and I think that is the person we will go with.

MUEN: ARE YOU PLANNING ON TAKING YOUR SINGLE TO THE AIR WAVES?

Yes, we’ve already been on a syndicated radio show called The Rock 30 that went on over forty radio stations across the U.S. last weekend. It got a great response. I think before October, we will be on a few other syndicated radio shows and it is starting to catch on. We are excited because we make the music for ourselves and we are pouring our own blood onto that paper, but it seems like it’s starting to catch at radio, so we are going to Active Rock in less than a month.

MUEN: I LISTENED TO THE ENTIRE EP AND YOU GUYS ARE BADASS. I THINK YOU ARE DEFINITELY READY TO GO TO RADIO, THEY ARE GREAT RADIO SONGS.

I hate the word “radio friendly” but if somebody finds a song catchy then that is fine with me as long as they feel the riffs and the lyrics or whatever they like. I grew up on a lot of music that was mainstream stuff. I find myself lately listening to 70’s and 80’s music. It’s stuff that my older brothers and sisters listened to, but I’m actually digging it. Great music is timeless. I’m listening to RUSH and Thin Lizzy lately and I used to think those we’re my big brothers’ bands, but now I think those bands are awesome.

MUEN: TELL ME ABOUT THE ARTWORK ON THE COVER.

We had a big Union Underground fan, she takes pictures of her daughter and posts them on Deviantart.com, which is a great place to get artwork ideas. We saw this picture of this little girl that was so cool and it looked like what I think Heaven Below is or means. It shows a little girl pointing down. We contacted the artist; she’s a huge Union Underground fan. She didn’t think it was us and that it was someone playing a joke on her. We said “No, it’s really us; we want to use your artwork.” She was beside herself and a few contractual agreements later we got it. That’s another example of people pouring themselves into their art. I love it and I can’t wait until we have it on shirts in less than a month. I think people will get it.

MUEN: THAT’S A GREAT STORY. YOU GUYS HAVE DONE SOME COVER SONGS IN THE PAST AND PRESENT. I KNOW YOU DID PAT BENATAR’S “HEARTBREAKER” AND IT WAS AWESOME, I LOVE YOUR SPIN ON IT. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU WILL CONTINUE TO DO IN THE FUTURE?

It’s funny I used to say that I didn’t want to be like Orgy and I didn’t want to be like Alien Ant Farm, but then I remember hearing Marilyn Manson doing “Sweet Dreams” and I didn’t know it was him. I thought that was the coolest cover song I had ever heard. I thought about Metallica and Judas Priest doing killer covers and I thought you know what doing covers is a great thing. There is nothing bad about it if you bring your sound to it, that’s all that matters. We didn’t consciously set out to do “Heartbreaker.” That song came out as a joke. We had been playing Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” out on tour and one day in the rehearsal room we were warming up and I started singing “Heartbreaker” over “Ace of Spades.” It was one of those goofy moments where we were all cracking up and then we said “Holy Shit! That’s sounds really cool. What if we really do it?” We ended up doing it; we call it “Heartbreaker” the Motorhead version.

MUEN: I DON’T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH DOING COVER SONGS.

Yeah, as long as the band brings their sound to those songs. It’s really cool when you do it like that. If the band is good, the cover can be great.

MUEN: WHAT IS BROKEN HALO? I SAW THAT LISTED ON YOUR PAGE AS AN INDIE LABEL.

We use that for business purposes, we are not signed yet, but we do use it to identify that it is our release or money behind it.

MUEN: ARE YOU PLANNING ON TOURING IN SUPPORT OF THE NEW RELEASE?

Absolutely, we leave here a month from now. We are kicking off in Texas and we are about to announce all the dates. We go over through the west coast and into Florida. We head up to New York and then I think we head down to the Midwest. We are really excited to get out there. I always tell people that there is no download in the world that can replace a live concert ever.

MUEN: DO YOU ENJOY HANGING OUT WITH THE FANS AFTER THE SHOW?

Absolutely, we pride ourselves on that. We are a Jagermeister band, we are endorsed by Jager and if they’re of age we will do Jager shots and give them shirts. I’ll be honest; I even love it if people don’t like the band. I think that’s great. I’m like a little kid; I’ve got to have the attention. If they hate it, well then I love that too.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES SOMEONE A TRUE FAN OF A BAND?

I would say someone who “get’s it.” The people who get it are the people who recognize a lyric that they like or a cool harmony. They feel what were doing in the same way that I like Metallica or W.A.SP. when I was a little kid. I liked W.A.S.P. when I was eight years old. It’s the same thing, I got it. My mom thought “Fuck Like a Beast” was disgusting and I thought it was great.

MUEN: ARE THERE ANY OTHER PROJECTS YOURE INVOLVED IN THAT YOU’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT?

I’m not really the type of guy who goes out and plays with a lot of different people. Heaven Below is my sanctuary of emotion and artistry.

MUEN: IT’S YOUR BABY.

It’s my baby, it’s what I do and I love playing with these guys. We get along really well. When we are on tour we don’t get four different hotel rooms, we will get one or two hotel rooms and party. We act like we’re sixteen years old still. The first thing people say is “God, you guys are immature!”

MUEN: THE LATEST TREND IS BAND MEMBERS STARTING TO PRODUCE OR MANAGE OTHER BANDS. ALL THEIR SPARE TIME BECOMES CONSUMED BY THAT.

Yeah, we’ve had John Moyer of Disturbed come in and help, plus Ben Moody produced a song. We love that stuff. I’m not ready to lend myself to anything but this band right now. Down the road I may be ready to lend myself to someone else. I played on a Rob Zombie album before John 5 got in the band. I love doing stuff like that.

MUEN: WELL YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING. THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW, BEFORE I LET YOU GO IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD OR SAY?

Thank you. We’d like everybody to hit Heavenbelow.com, it lets you know what we have going on. We are everywhere on the internet like on Facebook, Myspace and Reverbnation. We can’t wait to keep making new fans. We are a band that people can really get in touch with; it’s really us that answers the emails.