Heartkiller celebrates their debut single, Hajsza közben, a powerful cover of the Hungarian classic by Prognózis. We discuss the band’s reimagining process, upcoming album themes, and collaborations with Hungarian rock legends.
1.
Congratulations on the release of your debut single “Hajsza közben”! How has
the response been from fans and the Hungarian metal community so far?
Thank you
very much. The reactions and feedback are so positive so far. People are
surprised, why a cover song is the first track from our debut album that we
published.
2. This
single is a cover of the 1982 classic by Prognózis. Can you tell us why this
song is so meaningful to Heartkiller and what inspired you to reimagine it?
The first
idea to reimagine this song came from our bass player and engineer , Gulybán
Márton. He is the person who is always thinking , what kind of older songs can
we make in new form. The original version of this classic hit is a famous and
popular track in the hungarian rock scene, nowadays rock radios often plays it,
many times per a day. One day, when Márton was at work, he heard this song
on the radio and thought, we could reimagine this, but with a little bit harder
and stronger style. It would be melodic but heavy with screams and great
choruses just like a summer metal festival hit. After we made a demo, I thought
we could invite guests. This was the first time we were inviting more well
known and popular musician guests, and they accepted our invitation. Especially
the original composer, Vörös István who is a rock legend in our country and
Arany Máté who is a very talented young titan. That's why this song is so
meaningful for us.
3. You
mentioned the involvement of the original composer, István Vörös, and Akela's
guitarist Máté Arany. How did these collaborations come about, and what was it
like working with them?
We have
known Arany Máté for a while. Few years earlier we had concerts with Akela and
were keeping up the friendship, talking to each other almost every day. It
was easy and obvious to collaborate. We invited him for a weekend, recorded his
singing and guitar parts, after that we went to dinner and got drunk and
partied. It was a pleasure hanging out with him. We didn't meet Vörös
István personally, simply we sent an email to him, we would like to make a
cover from his song and want him too to sing in our version. He was recording
his parts in his own studio and sent us vocal tracks. He was very kind and
positive, he liked our version. Hopefully everyone is satisfied with the
outcome. :)
4. Your
debut album Üdv A Világomban (Welcome to My World) is set to
release in 2025. Can you give us an overview of the album’s themes and what
listeners can expect?
Yes, of
course. Lot of themes and emotions will appear in the songs, like struggle, the
fight with life and with ourselves, disappointment, depression, suicide
tendency, passing away, love, the relationship between man and God, and social
criticism. We fought with these things in our lives in the last 13 years.
The time has come to pour into art these experiences and show the world how our
life evolved throughout the years, of course combined with heavy and melodic
music.
5. The
tracklist hints at some dark and heavy themes, with titles like “Haldokló
belső, halott szív” and “Félelmeiddel (F.E.A.R.)”. What stories or emotions do
you explore in these songs?
As I
mentioned, these were a hard and difficult period of our lives with true shit
and struggles, which I talked about in the songs. For instance
"Félelmeiddel (F.E.A.R.)" was written in 2016, when one of my longest
relationships ended up, my girlfriend cheated on me and lied. After that I fell
into depression, started to drink more and more often, I always felt lonely,
lost control a little bit in my life, I could't find myself, my happiness and
realized, no one can help me, just myself. I had to face all of my fears, stand
up from the floor and build myself again step by step. It was more than two
years.
"Haldokló belső, halott szív" is the next chapter of this story.
After a hard and full of a struggle year I was looking for a new relationship,
I desired love, care but I felt my soul and one of my parts was dead, however
this made me stronger. There was a girl who charmed and captivated me, but it
was very hard to believe and honestly, without doubt, trust in
her. After successfully defeating myself and my doubt, I fell in love with
her. After a short period, we broke up and I was sitting in my bedroom in the
dark again, thinkin my life again, where did I go wrong.
6.
Heartkiller is based in Debrecen, Hungary. How would you say the Hungarian
metal scene has influenced your music and identity as a band?
When we
were children and started to listen to metal music, we all had our favourite
Hungarian rock and metal bands. For instance: Tankcsapda, Depresszió, Replika,
Ossian, Pokolgép etc. They astonished us with their music and their energy in
live performances. But in parallel we listened to more foreign, especially
finnish and swedish metal bands (In flames, Arch enemy, HIM, Nightwish,
Children Of Bodom, Moonsorrow, Hypocrisy, Eternal Tears Of Sorrow, To Die For,
For My pai, Amorphis etc.) and their music influenced us musically mostly.
7. The
single and album visuals are quite striking. Can you tell us more about the
artwork and your collaboration with Szabó Gergely for the single cover and
Mihályfi-Tóth Alex for the album cover?
Thank you.
I think both of these covers are simple and killer. The single cover is a
simple screenshot from the "Hajsza közben" video. Szabó Gergely is a
talented photographer and video man, he catched the perfect moment from the
studio record to make a cover from. Catched the microphone, the shelf and the
mixing desk. The most necessary devices to make an awesome record.
The album
cover is amazing, very beautiful. It perfectly expresses our music and
emotions. When I looked for Alex and asked him to make album artwork, I told we
need a simple cover, it would be colourful but dark too at the same
time. The girl on the cover is showing an average, normal face out to the
world, but inside she's suffering and struggling with her misery, pain, life
and demons. This is just like how our past tribulations and experiences
appear in the songs and lyrics.
8. You
describe Üdv A Világomban as a “melodic, sometimes melancholic
monster.” What kinds of sounds, instruments, or techniques did you use to
create this atmosphere?
Yes. This
album is hard, heavy but melodic at the same time. Motivating, story telling
but depressed and melancholic. We used the classic metal band instruments, in
our opinion with killer sound and we are really proud of, that the whole album,
all recordings, took part in our own little home studio. This is the merit of
our bassist, Gulybán Márton. He supervised, edited and mixed the album. He was
the producer.
9. Nagy
Gábor “Kenny,” as the band’s vocalist, your vocal style adds a unique edge to
the music. How did you approach the vocal arrangements, especially on a classic
cover like “Hajsza közben”?
Thank you,
but I think my voice and my vocal style is not special or unique at all. It is
just an average metal voice, just like what is needed in this style. Every
time, when we make a new record, we separate hard and soft vocal parts. First
of all, we lay down the growls and screams, after that we make the main melodic
singing parts and choruses. In "Hajsza közben" we used the same
method, but I needed to figure out the solo parts of our guests. It is always
an awesome and amazing process to make a new record, creating new music,
building something from nothing.
10. The
Hungarian metal scene is known for its passionate fanbase. What has been one of
the most memorable experiences you’ve had performing or interacting with fans?
Yes, that's
true. We are not in the mainstream wave in Hungary, that's why we are not
widely known just in the underground. Probably the most memorable thing is,
when people wrote messages and they said, they are struggling with some kind of
anomaly, depression, suicide tendencies or cancer and music of Heartkiller gave
them strength to start their day or defeat their demons every day. These things
were very touching.
11.
Heartkiller is signed with Finnish Inverse Records. What has it been like
working with an international label, and how has it impacted your goals for
this release?
I had a
long time dream to work with a northern label and hopefully, one day we can
collaborate too with Finnish or Swedish bands and make concerts in Scandinavia.
Last year we started to work with Inverse records about our "EKMO"
ep, they spread our music wider than we could earlier. Our first full
length album "Üdv a világomban" is the next level in our career and I
believe, the finns can give us a harder and stronger push to make people know
with our music and start touring more seriously, make festival performances in
Europe. I hope it will be a long productive collaboration and friendship! :)
12.
Finally, with the debut album release just around the corner, what are your
plans for 2025? Can fans expect live performances, tours, or more new material
soon?
As I said
we would like to make festival gigs, tour in Hungary and Europe. In the last
few days we've started to organize club concerts for fall of 2025 and currently
we are making new music videos for the album. We want to make more people
Heartkiller Fans. Besides, we are writing new music, new songs, and doing
demos. You will hear about Heartkiller, Stay tuned!
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