INTERVIEW: Kaan Tasan & Carl Ayers – Heart Of A Coward

Fresh from the release of their new single Collapse and a hugely successful sold-out UK tour, we caught up with new vocalist Kaan Tasan and guitarist Carl Ayers at their Manchester show (read our review of that show here) to find out how things are ticking over in the world of HEART OF A COWARD, how they’re settling in to being a touring band again, and their plans heading into the future.

So, HEART OF A COWARD are back, so to speak. How does it feel to be back together and back on the road?

Carl: It’s amazing, man. I think we worked out that it’s been about 16 months since our last show together, so it’s great to be back with the guys, playing shows, hanging out, meeting people on the road, all that kinda thing. It’s one of those things – you kinda forget how addictive it is, then you get back on it and it’s so much fun.

[To Kaan] You’re in the band now, and you used to sing for a band called NO CONSEQUENCE, so you have plenty of experience already.

Kaan: For sure, yeah, but I don’t think that gave me any edge when it came to the auditions.

There was a formal audition for the new vocalist position, then?

Carl: Sort of, yeah. The way we worked it, we did open auditions when we announced we were looking for a new vocalist. From that we had about two-hundred odd submissions, we worked through what we liked and didn’t like, and whittled it down more and more and more, until we started working with Kaan back and forth for like two months, trying different things. We made the decision in about November last year, so it’s quite a drawn out process. I feel bad we put him through it, to be honest.

Kaan: To be honest, it had to be right. I wouldn’t have been happy if things weren’t perfect and definite either, do you know what I mean? Having that time to throw ideas around and make sure it worked was really important, for me as well.

Do you feel like you’re fitting in, then? There’s no mistaking that Collapse does sound slightly different from HEART OF A COWARD’s older material, do you still feel like the same band?

Kaan: Well, it is a new era. Like, it has to be. I wouldn’t have joined the band if it was gonna be just the same thing as before. I bring a certain vibe, I have strengths, Jamie had strengths, it’s about playing to that. From these live shows, we can prove that the old stuff still is as ripping and heavy as it was before, but we’re just gonna take it somewhere else, and that’s the important thing. I don’t wanna try and copy the band before, it needs to be different.

Carl: That was important to us, too, none of us wanted a carbon copy. No matter what we did, human beings don’t like change – whenever you introduce something new, especially a vocalist, it’s gonna be difficult for people to adjust to that change. For us, we wanted to bring something fresh.

Are you guys excited to be in Manchester?

Carl: Every time we’re here, it always fucking kicks off, man. It’s so, so good. We love the city as well, I think a few of us have gone out finding different bars and stuff today, yeah, we love it.

The supports you’ve brought with you on this run – were they your choice?

Kaan: Totally our decision. I’ve known FROM SORROW TO SERENITY and the LOTUS EATER guys for a long time now, and it was just a matter of like, who’s huge right now, who would we want to be on a tour with us, and who we know we’re gonna have a good time with.

Awesome. Since you announced your comeback, have you been nervous about the reception of the new material or were you always confident that it would go well?

Kaan: I mean, the last two shows have been absolutely unreal. The crowd response and just general comments and stuff have been amazing, the sold out shows are way past anything I expected. We’ve been working our bollocks off though, so I’d say we’ve earned. It. I was crapping myself before London, to be honest, then as soon as we went on, it just gets you started and it’s just it.

Carl: Yeah, coming back after 16 months it’s great to see that everyone is still on it, and that no one left. Everyone is super supportive, and the people who were a bit sceptical about the change have come to the shows and been completely turned around which is sick.

When you’re touring and chilling out what do you guys like to listen to?

Kaan: Well, we were just listening to JUDAS PRIEST on the way up here, Steve [Haycock, guitars] loves them and everyone else is just laughing. I value what they did for heavy metal, but it’s still hilarious.

Carl: We’ve had the new TESSERACT record on, MASSIVE ATTACK, the new ROLO TOMASSI, the new GHOST. We’re big prog fans, really.

So, in terms of shaping the sound of HEART OF A COWARD, you don’t take many external influences?

Carl: Usually, me and Steve will write the chord and start with a sound and build it from there. I don’t really have a particular band that I want us to sound like, it just kinda comes from us, which is the only way other things might have influenced us.

Kaan: Yeah, my input is that we’re not really making music or to try and fit into what’s popular, we make music that we wanna hear, or that we like, and that’s what’s authentic for us.

On that subject, what can you tell us about the next HEART OF A COWARD album?

Carl: So, we’re still working on it. Our approach was that we wanted to release Collapse before we did anything on the album, really, so we could get the whole ‘new vocalist’ thing out of the way. So that, when we come to release the album, there’s more focus on the band again rather than just people speculating on the new vocalist. We’ve been writing quite a lot, we’re about five or six songs into the new record. Our plan is to, off the back of this run, go into the studio, polish everything up and hopefully have it recorded by the end of the year. We haven’t got a label for it yet, so we’re gonna get it done, see what people think of it, and go from there.

Are there any ideas or concepts lyrically behind HEART OF A COWARD?

Carl: The way we’ve always worked is that we’ll write the music first, and then add the lyrics and vocals afterwards, but it’s been a bit different with Kaan. It’s a lot more collaborative, we’ll work ideas around with each other.

Kaan: Lyrically, I can be changeable. Sometimes a song inspires me to create certain lyrics with its sound, but then a lot of the time I’m just on my phone writing little things down independently. For Collapse, I had the idea in my head of what I wanted to write about, long before the track was finished. I had the hook for the chorus and then the rest of it almost wrote itself.

Would you say you’re done with djent?

Kaan: Yep, we’re a post-beatdown vegan-core slam band now.

Carl: [Laughs] Yeah, we’re just a metal band. That’s what we tried to do with Deliverance, was to cultivate more of a ‘metal’ vibe in our music to try and get some distance from the whole ‘djent’ fiasco. It’s too one-dimensional.

So, to round up – new album…next year? Sold-out headline tour, summer festivals, recording, it’s all coming up for you guys.

Kaan: New album should be out around Spring next year.

Carl: Next year should be really busy. Enjoy the show!

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