High Dive Heart – HDH VS. MTR (Part One)

By starrymag | June 30, 2016

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

Nelly: The new EP that will be coming out soon is called HDH vs MTR. It is going to be a lot more pop than the first one. The first EP was a little more organic acoustic pop and then we met Morgan [Taylor Reid]. He just kind of brings out this pop urban edge on the production side. So, the song writing is definitely similar to the first EP, but I think the production is definitely a growth.

Jason: Beyond the production, our main goal with our music and our songs is to be uplifting and vibrant. We have dark songs as well, but I think you could say that our new record sounds more pop or edgy. But at the heart of our sound, I want there to be color, love and just being inspired and inspiring. I just think that’s what is at the heart of our sound.

Q) Who are some of your musical inspirations?

Nelly: Coldplay

Jason: We could go down the list forever, but I would say for me personally Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and there are so many. Those are some of the main ones. I would say Led Zeppelin also has a pretty big influence in our sound subtly. We’re working on the second half of our record now and there are more elements in that.

Nelly: I would say, for me, I would say probably my biggest influence was The Beatles because that’s what my dad made me listen to the first ten years of my life. Now, it’s definitely like Coldplay, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and I love Taylor Swift.

Q) How did you get the name High Dive Heart?

Jason: That was created by me sitting down and writing about fifty to a hundred names down on a piece of paper. I was trying to get the feeling across in our name that our music kind of embodies the idea of not being afraid of love. Kind of our whole message is to not be afraid of love and embrace it and spread it. So, I wrote down all these crazy combinations of words because if you try to come up with a band name in this day and age and literally every logical combination of words in the human language has already been taken on every social media platform. It was actually disturbing because I was coming up with all these names that I was sure no one had taken and they were all unavailable. So, that led me to this process of combining the ideas that I was having and I wrote down High Dive Heart. I showed one of our good friends the piece of paper and she immediately chose that name. We took it as a sign and liked the name a lot. It was miraculously available online so we took it!

Q) What do you think it is that your fans are connecting with when it comes to your song “Misfit?”

Nelly: I think everyone at some point in their life has felt like a misfit. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’re just encouraging people to embrace being different and to love being different. We launched the single Misfit with Corey Maison who is a transgender activist and she is fourteen years old. She is just stunningly beautiful and sweet and shared her story through our song. That really helps connect the song and what we are trying to say through the song. We did this through the Bully Project because they help get this anti-bullying message to the world. It’s really taken root, on Facebook especially. There are three different versions of the video and each video has between one million to five million views. We are really blessed that people are sending it around. We just put out our second “Misfit” video, which is the Whittington family story. Jeff and Ryland share their story of how they felt bullied and like misfits. It’s also an incredibly empowering story that we’re putting out there in the world. We’re going to keep putting as many examples out there so people can find something to grab onto and relate to and we’ll eventually put out the official video.

Q) What is the songwriting process like for you? Do you need lyrics before you create the music?

Nelly: It’s different every time. I feel like we are such musicians at heart that it ends up being us jamming out with whatever producer is in the room. A lot of the times I feel like the music helps inspire the lyrics, but there have been times when we brought in a particular idea. There is a song called “Dirty Money” that will be coming out on our new EP and we’ve had that idea for a long time for that lyric/title. It inspired the music so it is a little bit backwards of how we do it. There is no right way or one way to write a song. There was even a time when we were 30,000 feet in the air and Jason wrote a song on a barf bag on a plane. The inspiration can come any time, any place and anywhere. You just try to catch it when it comes.

Q) What was it like working with Morgan Taylor Reid as a producer on the EP?

Jason: I describe the experience as infinite. I think what we have never really had before as this group is someone who can literally make any sound you can imagine happen. For that reason, working with Morgan is incredibly freeing and limitless. We kind of just throw paint at the imaginary wall and really he is an incredible songwriter as well. So, it is really fun working with him because a lot of the time we are producing and writing the song at the same time. It’s kind of all coming together simultaneously and that’s a really inspiring way to make music since you already hear the sonic landscape it is going to exist in. So, that really makes coming up with lyrics and melodies (in my opinion) a lot more natural.

Q) You worked with Nathan Chapman on “Camera Song” and “Stars Fall Down.” What is the balance like working with a songwriter?

Nelly: I think the cool thing about our situation is that Jason and I are married. We live together and work together. We complete each other’s sentences by accident on some occasions. So, there is definitely a given influence as to how we write together already. Nathan is kind of the third member who basically birthed our band so he knows us better than anyone in the entire world. With “Camera Song,” he brought in that idea and he just knows us so well that he knew it would be perfect for us. Throwing Morgan into the mix was really fun because he is the same age as us so he’s experiencing the same themes of life that we are. I feel like Nathan and Morgan really hit it off and ended up becoming great friends. They really have respect for each other, which is exciting and awesome for us because we love them both and consider them both a part of our team. I think the biggest thing they both have is humility because their talent…I can’t even describe how talented they are, but they don’t act like it or take credit for it so that’s why it works. Nobody is throwing their ego around. They are just really trying to find the best idea or the best song.

Q) You’ll be touring with Colbie Caillat. What can fans expect from a live High Dive Heart performance?

Jason: This tour is going to be really special because it is going to be an acoustic tour. So, not only will we be playing our songs acoustic, but we’ll be getting up for Colbie for her set so it will be like a family jam on stage. This will be the first time that we’ve ever done that so it will be unique. Before this tour, what we’ve done is either played our songs with two acoustic guitars and we’ve also run tracks. The last tour we did with Colbie and Christina Perri, we ran tracks and then played our guitars and sang to those. Those were much bigger fuller sounds than it is going to be this time. We’re really excited to do both. There is a purity and simplicity to playing a song acoustically that I really love. I think it will be a really unique experience for the crowd.

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song?

Jason: There are so many! I’d be pretty freaked out to work with Chris Martin.

Nelly: For me, Paul McCartney would freak me out.

Jason: Yeah, that would be ridiculous.

Nelly: I would really love to work with Eminem, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis or a rapper of some sort.

Jason: I think I’d like to work with Logic. He’s really good. Tom York would be freaky or Ben Gibbard. We both really love Postal Service.

Q) What do you hope people take away from listening to your upcoming EP?

Nelly: I hope they are inspired and hear love and truth. Some of the messages are more intense than others, but they all come from a real place. I hope we can inspire people to be the best version of themselves and remember they not alone no matter what they are going through and they are loved. I think a lot of songs on our EP have that message of being the underdog and not being loved. That’s how we have felt being on an off a label, negotiating new record deals that fell through and doing radio tours on our own. So, this EP comes from a place of not wanting to give up and hopefully inspiring others not to give up.

Jason: I think we live in a world now where nobody believes in you until you have already made it, which is pretty unfortunate for a lot of new artists. There is just no more taking chances. There is no finding Bob Dylan out of a little café out in the West Village. It just doesn’t happen and part of the theme with “Misfit “is wanting to encourage people that although they do not fit into the boxes being provided by the people in power, you still have a voice and people will still relate to that voice. Your message will still resonate with them. We want people to just be empowered by that idea.

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

Jason: We see social media as a way to connect with people, which is what we want our music to do. It’s just another tool to speak to people all over the world that you are nowhere near physically – that’s kind of magical. We just really appreciate our fans and anyone who listens to our music. So, we try to talk with them and share our lives with them as much as we can.

Nelly: For example, we’ve been doing a bi-weekly Periscope show. So, it’s kind of the future. That is cool about doing a Periscope show or a Facebook live show is that you can answer fan questions on the spot. People can ask us things and we can respond. They get such a backstage pass into your life beyond playing a show. We’re just trying to build a fanbase without our label because we know in the end, eventually, that’s something that will always be there. It’s been a wild year and a half, but it’s been really fun to get to know people. When we do live shows, what is really cool is getting to meet the people that we get to know online and putting a face with the name.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who are fans and supporters of you and your music?

Nelly: The biggest thing is telling them thank you for giving us time out of their lives because when you have to decide how to spend time and by listening to our music and tuning in online and getting to know us, I think that is a great honor. We don’t take it lightly.

Jason: I think we want everyone to know we’re in this together and listening to music and making music is a very codependent relationship. Both sides are necessary and we make this music not only to express our souls, but to make it to communicate with other people. We also make it for people who want to hear the message we have. In the end, we just really appreciate anybody who takes time out of their lives to listen to our music because it is such a beautiful thing to do. I really appreciate that.