Born from a love of The Kinks, the Stones, The Who and The Jam, this British 4-piece wear their influences on their sleeves; Mod, Motown, Northern Soul, Rhythm & Blues, Punk attitude. The Heys have everything that a great guitar-pop band should have, three minutes of fuzzy major chords, full, rich bass, shouty, ominpresent backing vocals and an impossibly addictive chorus.
Tom, the singer songwriter in The Heys feeds off the tradition and passion of British 60’s beat music and combines it with incisive comment on modern life. Their debut album Young, Bored & Broke screams the frustrations and the simple joys of living day-to-day, hand to mouth. Bad jobs-good friends. A working-class band through and through.
The self-produced album was recorded underground in their basement studio in the UK. “This way it’s all about the music” says Tom. “We wanted an honest direct sound and we wanted to be in control so we did it ourselves”.
The first Radio 1 play by Alan McGee came after he received the demo from a guy in Reading. Winning XFM unsigned led to a headline appearance at the Budrising festival at The Waterats in London. June 07 saw the white label promo release of Pressure, through promotions company Upshot on 7″ green vinyl to massive DJ acclaim. Comparisons have been made with Elvis Costello, Ray Davis, The Who and The Enemy.
Following the myspace explosion, The Heys have had over 84,000 hits and have a dedicated fanbase. This has led to contact from Vinyl Junkie in Tokyo and the first vinyl limited edition singles sold in Japan. Numberonemusic.com/theheys was launched in March 06 and since then has received over 206,000 plays.
Whilst creating a buzz on independent North American radio shows such as KEXP 90.3fm in Seattle and X-103.3fm in Indianapolis, their killer tune “Pressure” has also featured on Record of the Day in the UK and the soundtrack for the Gumball Rally 3000.
Meanwhile in the UK pulserated.com (Sky) has picked up on Pressure and Friday Night with plays on The Session, The Mix and Hottrax. The Heys also received a feature On Steve Lamacq’s BBC6 Music radio show.
”I know absolutely nothing about this band, other than the fact they are very, very good.” Creation Records Guru Alan McGee on BBC Radio 1.
