This week, I had the awesome opportunity to learn more about an up and coming, Ohio alternative band called Heart Means More and the killer show they’ll be playing tomorrow night (Friday, August 25th) at Oddbody’s in Dayton!
My brain stays pretty filled up most days with Dayton area bands, so I only just found out about Heart Means More (HMM) when music promoter, Terry Baumgardner, contacted me via Music Connection Dayton looking for input on bands that might fit well on a show he was throwing. As Terry told me more about the show and I surfed through HMM’s music, I knew instantly that I wanted both to promo this show and be on the bill with my band, Far From Eden. So, full disclosure here: I am excited about tomorrow’s show for more than one reason, but the biggest reason is definitely HMM and all the other cool bands on the lineup (Seven Circle Sunrise, Crosley Court, and Novagold)!
It was a cool Tuesday evening this week when I sat down to chat by phone with members of the band. I’ve only met one of them previously, drummer Kevin Best, and he wasn’t available this evening to chat. Neither was rhthym guitarist, Justin Paris, but singer-songwriter and founding member, John Scott, along with lead guitarist, Alex Hale, and bassist, Ricky Coyle, were definitely excited as we made introductions by speaker phone and settled in for a chill Q & A session.
Here’s the heads up details from our chat:
- Founding: The band has been together and making music for about 6 months, though the initial songs were in the works starting almost a year ago.
- Hometown: Hillsboro, OH
- Name Origin: Sitting around discussing how hard it was to find like-minded musicians, John said “I guess heart means more”, and the band’s name was spoken into existence.
- Attitude: A cool combo of excitement, passion, and drive to create and express themselves through music.
- History: All the members have been playing music in bands for at least 8 years or more. Some of them have gone on tour and they have played a lot of different types of music between them. This lineup has never played in Dayton, but they’re all ready to rock out at Oddbody’s!
- Music: Heart Means More has already released a full length, self-titled album which is available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and Spotify. They also have several video singles that have been released, and their most recent video for their song “Ghost” has now reached more than 9,000 views! With a full length already on the books and several new songs making their way into their set, cool music is sure to be on the way soon!
- Favorite Food: FREE PIZZA! We’re not sure if we really got the whole story here, but a recent show involving free pizza and food and an intimate audience atmosphere seemed to generate a lot of pleasant memories for the guys.
- On Friday Night: The whole crew is excited and ready to be surrounded by cool music lovers in Dayton and rock out a suweeet venue!
Catch the complete interview with all the juicy details and behind-the-scenes look below!
Music Connection Dayton 