There are rare moments in music, maybe once every few years, where the listener hears something that resonates instantly. A track or album that sounds truly novel. Like stumbling across a world that you didn’t know existed.
It’s happened to us here, with the discovery of Heck.
The producer-cum-composer-cum-singer, raised in Aberdeen and now residing in London, is creating a thunderous experimental electronic genre-hopping sound that oozes menace, distortion, delicacy, rage and beauty all in one sonic cauldron.
Real name Jonny Woodley, Heck is fresh off the back of his debut EP, Heaven Metal. The 3-part release is both blistering and beautiful at once; for him, it’s an intended result:
“Under the title ‘Heaven Metal’, I did want to make something that was both aggressive and kind of angelic. I think it’s a marriage of two things I like and notice in music.“
This, coupled with an ironic benefit of sensory degradation:
“The blistering part could have something to do with my hearing being shot. I often find that what feels normal for me is offensive to someone with good hearing.”
Woodley spent much of his youth meandering the sweaty, dimly-lit club basement parties of Aberdeen. His track ‘Bonnie’ is a clear ode to this yesteryear, with a stunning tripped-up bagpipe sample that floats through the air above a digitally-tinged power-chord-rock instrumental.
“I was born and spent my youth in Scotland and until recently, hadn’t thought about referencing it musically.”
“A few tracks that came up had this kind of homing feel – so it felt like a good time to try the bagpipes sound.“
Scotland wasn’t the only geography worthy of credit for Heck, whose samples collected from Yorkshire complete the eclectic track:
“Most of the electronic / club elements of the music come from collecting samples up in Leeds, and then getting back into that for the fashion music I was doing recently, which felt like it needed a club sound.“
The spawning of Heaven Metal was a personal endeavour for Heck, who kept the creative process limited to a family affair:
Heaven Metal has been quite personal from the offset.“
“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else, so I worked on it mostly alone.“
“Although I remember my sister sitting next to me when I started the first track.”
It was also a process seasoned with simplicity, as the EP came to life in an Islington studio with minimal equipment:
“I made it between my studio and a spot at Tileyard that I took for a while. Between my Mexican strat and my Midi keyboard I think I was covered.”
Divulging further strings to his bow through the revelation that he’s composed scores for the likes of Fendi, Chanel & Vivienne Westwood, Heck details the dichotomy between scoring music for someone else and writing music for himself:
“For me it’s quite a different headspace. I wonder if people would agree, but it feels easier to work with picture and towards a brief.
“When it’s your own project, there’s nothing to subvert and anything is possible. Which is the problem.“
Heck is onto something here. For those who find themselves swimming in the electronic whirlpools of Jai Paul and Sam Gellaitry, this is most definitely your bag.
To close the interview, we asked Heck to come on a road tip with us to Aberdeen. These are the 5 records he’s bringing with him:
Noise Narrative 