HEAVY//HITTER are proving they’re more than just another name in the heavy scene. Since their 2019 formation, they've toured relentlessly across the US, UK, and Europe, spreading brutality far and wide. Their most ambitious EP yet, "Coming To Terms," was released on October 10th and focuses on themes of survival, strength, and self-acceptance.
Of the first single, "Coming To Terms" (which features Zayna Youssef of Sweet Pill), vocalist Austin Hays shared:
You've defeated the demons you had in your closet, and you've survived backstabbing, bad relationships, and all of life's troubles. You're older now, and you come out on the other side much stronger as a better person. You're confident and can face whatever is coming at you. Zayna added another dynamic, which is pretty powerful.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Austin to chat about the EP, the themes behind it, and their growth over the years, both as musicians and as people.
MSM: The EP title, Coming To Terms, feels reflective. Is there a personal meaning behind the title for you?
AUSTIN: Yeah, the whole EP, every song, is about personal growth through different struggles in life. The previous EP was Moments of Misery and almost those same type of struggles that make you spiral when you are going through a dark time, but this one is more of a lighter side, coming out of those struggles on the other side — older, better, wiser, and just a better person. So you come into terms with who you've become in life.
You said that it's a silver lining to the storm cloud. How do you go about bringing a sense of hope to such a heavy and aggressive genre?
AUSTIN: Well, one, it has to sound good. It has to be hard. Two, I think this EP in general, while it has a lot of deathcore elements, I think the overall vibe of the EP is leaning more what a hardcore band would necessarily write about. In my experience growing up, hardcore bands have written a lot about brotherhood, positivity, overcoming obstacles, and strength, so that's kind of like the vibe I wanted to do for this one. We're a deathcore band, but I wanted to add more of a hardcore element into the theme rather than it just being a dark, dark, gritty theme like we normally do.
The title track features Zayna Youssef of Sweet Pill. Was there anything about her in particular that drew you to that collaboration?
AUSTIN: We were trying to get a different feature before that and it just didn't work out, and then we hit the drawing board with the record label. Our owner, David, knows that band very well. He's personal friends with the whole band and they're on Hopeless Records. They had a meeting at Blue Grape and then pitched it to me and I thought it was a great idea. She's never done a metal song or metal vocals or anything like that before, and I thought it was such a cool crossover. They're an indie rock band mixing with a deathcore band. I don't think it's really ever been done that much in the last few years.
So, you've shared stages with a lot of different bands and you've played all over. What's the wildest moment you've experienced at one of your shows?
AUSTIN: There's so many so cool moments. We got to hang out with Jinjer in Milan after the show, and we just hung out with 'em, had a couple of drinks, ate kebab, and talked about life. I think that was one of the coolest moments. I think one of the wildest moments, though, was playing the Meadows in Brooklyn and this guy jumped on stage and head-walked to the middle of the pit, on top of everybody's heads, during our set. I've never seen that one before so I think that was probably the wildest, despite all the fights that happen at the shows all the time, but that's kind of like a given.
The Florida heavy music scene has produced a lot of good names. Would you say that environment has kind of helped shape who you are as a band?
AUSTIN: Absolutely. We started farther down south, closer to the West Palm Beach scene, and then as we grew as a local band, we branched out all over Florida. I think playing in the South Florida scene, the central Florida scene, the Tampa scene ,and the Jacksonville one for many years before we were a national touring band or anything like that, really did shape HEAVY//HITTER into a larger sound. I think we take a little bit of everything from each city and each scene and each of the other bands that influenced us in Florida. So, a great one example would be Bodysnatcher in the early years, and now more so we're influenced more by deathcore bands, and still Knocked Loose to this day. But so many bands are like us in Florida, so we're not the only one, we're just the one that everyone knows as of right now.
Definitely. So you signed to Blue Grape Music last year and things seem to have been moving pretty quick from there. Would you say that being part of their roster has changed your opportunities or mindset as a band in any way?
AUSTIN: Definitely. It's changed a lot of things because before we were signed, we were still a very DIY band, and when David met us, we had just started to explode online and get a bunch of monthly listeners, social media, all that stuff, and it was all so new to us. We were very green still on how the industry worked, so Blue Grape, I feel like was an awesome label for that. They're not predatory and they're not rude. They really care about their artists and David and Susie have very personal relationships with all of the bands, and I think that's very special and beautiful. I've met a lot of people on the road that have never even met the person who owns the record label, and they only know so-and-so who works for that person, and I get it, it's an industry. But Blue Grape was the perfect starting point and a great home for us. They taught me so much about the industry, and the ins and outs. We've grown so much since then where now it's crazy to be talking about something and I'm like, damn, we really did that. I can't believe that. That's insane.
What would you say is maybe the biggest moment for you so far, where you felt like you've "made it"?
AUSTIN: We played with Signs of the Swarm on top of a mountain at a festival in Czech Republic, and that was probably it. That was probably right there, where I was standing out over the crowd and there were thousands of people, and we're just on top of a mountain playing deathcore in a country that's thousands of miles away. I don't even know how far away it is from America but it's very far, and people knew the words. So, I think that moment right there, that was it for me personally.
And then where do you hope that Coming To Terms will take you in the next year?
AUSTIN: Right now, the EP is doing very well on streaming and I'm very thankful for it. I appreciate all the fans checking us out and staying with us, but hopefully, bigger festivals, bigger tours, and more publicity. I mean, that's all an artist could ever really want when they're doing it further like this. I want to be able to do touring and just HEAVY//HITTER. I work a part-time job when I go back home in between touring and it's great, but I want to really phase that out of my life and just only do music until I retire.
And then I have a couple of fun questions for you — what was your first concert that you attended?
AUSTIN: The first concert I attended, I remember, it wasn't even really a concert, but like a show. I had just turned 15, and it was inside this tiny coffee shop in this town called Port St. Lucie, Florida. It's right above West Palm Beach, maybe 35-40 minutes away. The coffee shop was called Exodus and my friend's old band (this was like 2008 or 2007, I think) had played. The first five minutes into that show, my friend's band, Vanna White, was playing and they were an OG deathcore band from back then. I got thrown into a group of girls on the side and I had never moshed before so I didn't even know what was going on. I got thrown into a group of girls and I spilled their beer by accident, and the girl turned around and punched me square in the face and broke my nose. So that was crazy. I didn't leave the show, I just went outside for a bit. I don't think she broke it all the way, it was just bleeding really bad. But anyway, I loved it, just something about the whole night was so memorable. I haven't forgot it to this day, and then the next weekend I was back at another show, loving it, and then a year later, I'd started a band and it was kind of just history from then on out. That whole night was kind of where I was like, "I think I like this. I think I want to go back."
And if you were an animal, what would you be and why?
AUSTIN: I think I'd be a bird. I thought about this before, and I think just a bird so I could fly. I think that'd be cool. Or maybe like a dolphin, to explore the ocean, but definitely nothing crazy like a bear or anything like that. It seems like a crazy existence. I think a bird would be the ideal existence if I was an animal.
And then we'll end on — how do you want people to feel after they listen to the EP? What was one takeaway you'd want them to have?
AUSTIN: That they like it, that it really connected with them mostly, and that they just realize what this is all about. The whole EP is about realizing who you've become. You're not who you were in the past, but you are who you are now in the present and future going forward, and only you can really control that. That's what that whole EP is about. You go through heartbreak, you lose a really good job, you used to maybe have an addiction to something, and you've come out of that on the other side as a better person. I think everybody has struggled with something in their lives, and that's really just what it's about. And the message is: it's going to be all right. You're going to be stronger, but you've got to have the will to do it. You can't just succumb to the depression, the drama, and whatever is holding you down in your life. It's going to be all right, but you've got to fight through it.
