Art wears many faces and not all of them are beautiful or handsome. Not all its moods are bright, joyful or peaceful. Good art is always introspective and some muses are dark, raw, hurt, sad and angry. Hearts Fail is the external expression of this alternative music ‘verse.
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dward Wagner and his currently solo project, are the products of those muses. Added to that darkness is a deep passion to create. Wagner’s art is just an integral part of his being that he must create so as not to meltdown or explode. Even with the comings and goings of various band members over the past ten years, most recently Michael Lampe and Suessie Asmodeus, Edward truly needs to write and compose to vent the post-punk muses that live inside him. In our conversation, Wagner explained that he is working from experiences gleaned over the past ten years. This thirty-four year old from San Antonio, didn’t really tap into his musical talents until college. Initially he started with instrumental creation. Being a poet, he then followed the next obvious step of setting his words with his musical pieces. Eventually he reached a point where he felt that his work needed more so he put together the band which would become Hearts Fail. Originally the group consisted of Wagner (vocals & guitar), Michael Lampe (bass), Ruben Verdin (drums), Roberto Medina (guitar) and Clint Kingsbery (keyboards). They began playing out and developed a following in the Texas scene. This was not an easy task when working in the darker genre of post-punk. Over the years, Hearts Fail audiences have ebbed and flowed. Texas has a small electronic and industrial music scene but not much in the way of post punk. In San Antonio there was a Joy Division cover band so Wagner’s band was able to share some of their base. Around the state most larger cities had some type of post-punk, goth style group so they all worked together booking shows. However, this didn’t necessarily carry over to Texas’ largest festival South by Southwest or spin off events specifically targeted at the darker sides of alternative rock, some of which
resulted in artists performing to almost empty houses. Hearts Fail did play Big Spill festival which included some bigger names such as The Sounds. Along with the lack of popularity of the genre, the other problem (as noted by many artists) is having labels and/or management that help artists get bookings. But none of this has swayed Wagner’s passion. Hearts Fail has had support from local college stations. San Antonio College has not only spun recordings of Hearts Fail live performances they also had them in the studio to perform a Joy Division cover. Members of the band have spent time with sound tech students helping them with honing their recording skills. Wagner has previously and continues to maintain social media presences. Some he has better luck with than others and he does understand their importance. As far as previous albums and EPs, Wagner says that their U.S. sales are high in New York and California, along with being popular in Europe. Wagner says it is nice to see sales of his music but it’s not the most important thing to him. In noting that he’s not a “hardsell” kind of guy he says that most of his co-workers don’t even know he’s a musician. Today, Edward is in the studio working hard on Hearts Fail’s new album, The Tower. Although it will include some 3.5 minute songs, most will be longer, more dense listens. Wagner descibes the record as dramatically heavy which will follow a theme. Hearts Fail has had one other definitive concept album entitled Dying Season — twelve tracks that tell the story of that version of the band, a difficult journey. They lost the lead guitarist, a founding member and a drummer and there were many rewrites and rerecordings before the album was completed. Since then the group has released mostly singles and EPs. Wagner is very happy to be doing a full length record this time. Presently he says the album is about 60% complete. and he is really enjoying writing and recording on his own like
he had at his beginning. Starting with “The Devil” he immersed himself into that creative process again. Experience and maturity has helped both in writing and recording. Wagner says his vocals are much better and his instrumental skills have improved. He says when he was younger he had a whole lot to say about a whole lot of things, but for The Tower he is able to focus on one theme and use all his words and sounds on it. He spoke about his wife and the fact that she comments on the joy he is experiencing with this record. He attributes that to being able to lay down a guitar line, add in some drums and play around with the keyboard lines. There’s no arguments or lack of compromise because it is him doing all of it. He also now has the creative space to take singles already done, go back and rework them again. Wagner would like to release the album July/August but feels it will probably see a September drop date based on his progress at the moment. Fourculture will be there for the next chapter.
http://www.heartsfail.com/fr_home.cfm ISSUE SEVEN
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