New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
So I am milling around on Facebook the other day, trying to seek refuge from my daily tasks that seem to have no end, when I stumbled upon this new band. They call themselves Half Hearted Hero, it turns out that I am good friends with one of the band members mothers, Dori Legge. If that name sounds familiar, its because you probably know her from her success with her own band, McCarthy, Richards & Legge (also known as the MRL Trio).
I immediately shot Dori an email and asked for her son’s information so I could do this interview and find out more about Half Hearted Hero.
I’m pretty in touch with the New Bedford music scene, but I know absolutely nothing about Half Hearted Hero (HHH). Tell me, who are you and where are you from?
Ian Legge: We are Half Hearted Hero, and we play a lot of strategy-based board games. We hail from the beautiful/dirty realm of New Bedford.
Haha. Okay, so what genre do you fit into?
Whatever fits onto an LP.
Sounds to me like you’re a punk band . Where do you normally perform?
In our practice space.
Well hopefully we will be able to get you guys some gigs around here because I’ll be honest, you sound pretty good. Maybe it’s time to open the garage door and let the music out. How long has HHH been performing?
A quarter score and one year.
Damn, I knew I should have paid better attention in history class (a quarter score = 5 years + 1 year= 6 years). How did the band come together?
Right now, over me. No, but seriously, we all met on a Craigslist antique motorcycle discussion forum.
Wow, that’s amazing. Who knew that five 20-year-olds were so into antique motorcycles (at this point in the interview the hairs on the back of my neck start to stand up, telling me “Hey, I thinks he’s screwing with you.”)
Is this the only band for you and your other band mates? Speaking of, who else is in the band?
Half Hearted Hero is:
Ian Legge – Drummer (former drummer of U2)
Anthony Savino – Lead vocals and 1st Chair Woodblockist of the Law and Order House band.
Clinton Lisboa – Yngwie Malmsteen’s apprentice, 2009-2011.
A.J. Mills – Accomplished sitar player who studied with your boy Ravi Shankar.
Meyer Brown – Bach with a Fender jazz, who is Limp Bizkit’s former DJ.
(I know by this point that he is definitely screwing around with me, but hell, let’s go with it.)
Do you guys have jobs outside HHH?
We all work as shift managers at Cinco Dairy, Inc.
Ya, I figured you were in college. Have you gone on tour?
Touring has been mostly a D.I.Y. project. We’ve put together a couple of two-week tours, one in Eastern and Central Europe, and one down the East Coast of the U.S. We’ve also done week-long tours between New England, New York, New Jersey, and out to the Lakes Region.
Tell us a bit about your newrecord, Running Water, which is being released on April 5th?
We’re stoked to be releasing an album on Animal Style Records, who’s put out some very important albums that have influenced our writing greatly. Also, this album is our most focused work to date, and we’re really excited for people to finally hear a year’s worth of hard work put onto a CD.
Where do you get your material from?
We do have a team of comedy writers.
Yeah, I can tell. Do you perform around the Southcoast area at all?
If our practice space is the Southcoast, then yes.
Is there anything else that you want to add in here?
We want to give special thanks to Settlers Of Catan, and all of those who play who most likely include: Animal Style Records, Kids Icarus, Tanya and Ben (who did the artwork for Running Water), Derek from Set Sail Records, Jayman and Caleb Lionheart, Shared Arms, Tim, Manux Poutet, Stan Star and everyone in Europe, and last but not least, Gorb.
For more information and times when you can see Half Hearted Hero perform, check them out on the Local Oracle Musician Page. To listen to some of their music, check them out on Facebook and Myspace.
