Where did you get the name? does "The Heatscores" have any hidden meaning?

Actually, our first name was "The Dirty Lickins" and then "The Handsome Devils", but we had to change the latter name because of there being several other bands with the same name. The name "The Heatscores" doesn't really have any hidden meaning other than (at the risk of sounding egotistical) we like to think we are hot enough to "score" things. Also, it just sounded good and seemed to fit our "sound." i.e. Heavy instrumental surf-rock.

"The Dirty Lickins"? Where did you that get from?

The "Dirty Lickins" was, of course, in reference to the nasty spanking that your ears would get upon listening to our brand of reverb-drenched instrumental rock and roll.

What about that iron cross stuff? Does that mean anything to you except that it looks nice (which it does, in some ways)?

Any negative connotations attatched with the iron cross have nothing to do with what it means to us. Besides it looking cool, the iron cross was adopted by surfers in california during the 1950s as a sort-of symbol of rebellion for whatever the war stood for. The appropriation of that symbol gradually progressed to be solely associated with surfers and their music (i.e. garage-surf rock) as well as outlaw bikers. If anything, The Heatscores representation of the iron cross on our material is nothing more than a continuation of that spirit of rebellion, and an homage to the garage-surf musicians from the past who also wore the notorious symbol as "the surfers badge of honor."

So you would describe your sound as instrumental rock'n'roll? Why did you end up playing that stuff? I mean, instrumental bands are not really that common...

Yes, I would describe our music that way. We all have different influences but the four of us all like rock and roll and all began as little punk kids who grew up. That is not to say that we all don't still listen to punk, its just that none of us have mohawks anymore. I would say, then, that it is not so unusual that we would end up playing instrumental music since so many of our favourite punk bands as kids had a heavy surf/spy-guitar sound (descendents, dead kennedys, black flag, chemical people etc...). It was not a deliberate decision to play instrumental music, we just kind-of fell into it because we didn't have a p.a. Then we decided that it was so much fun and such a challenge that this is what we would like to do. We do, however, play the occasional vocal song live, and are trying to incorporate some more vocal songs into our repertoire.

What vocal songs do you play live?

Right now we do "it's so easy" by Link Wray and "surfin' bird" by the Trashmen (although our version is a mix of the Ramones' and Cramps' version).

Was there any reason to pick those two songs? I mean, playing a Link Wray song is normal, playing a Link Wray vocal song is not...

I could come back at you with a witty remark like: "We ourselves are not normal," but the main reason we chose a Link vocal song is because it is a damn good song!

What about "Surfin' Bird"? Any special reason for that one?

Not really other than it is easy and fun to bash it out from time to time. And it is quite the crowd-pleaser.

What other coversongs besides those two vocal songs do you play?

We do probably about a dozen Link Wray songs.
The Fly by the Mummies,
Torque Wrench by the Goldentones,
Nitrus by Dick Dale,
Pipeline and Walk don't Run,
Istanbul by They Might be Giants,
Durango 95 and Sheena Is a Punk Rocker by the Ramones and LOTS LOTS MORE.....

Quite a large repertoire you have... but is it not tiresome having to play certain songs over and over again? Is the crowd never content without hearing stuff like "Pipeline" or "Rumble"?

It doesn't get too tiresome to play certain songs over again; there are just some songs that some of us like playing more than others. We generally take the crowd AND ourselves into consideration when planning our set list. If more than one of us don't want to play a particular song that night - we ain't playing it.

Did that get you in trouble with crowds sometime?

Nope! If we get it requested we will play it, but the crowd usually doesn't care what we play, just as long as they can dance to it.

I have experienced that specially among surf bands, there are many who stick to playing all the old songs and seem to be content with it. What is your opinion about this?

Well, we are always trying to write new songs and stay interested, but sometimes it is hard with all of our other commitments. We usually like to play our newer stuff live and slip some old songs into the set as a point of reference, or to give the crowd something they recognize amongst the new material.

Do you feel it is possible to capture the crowd with an set solely depending on instrumental stuff?

Admitidly it is tough sometimes, but it really depends on the crowd. Also, it depends on who we are playing with. For example, when we have played with Man or Astro Man?, the Bomboras, or Huevos Rancheros, the crowd is there to see instrumental music so it works great. Sometimes it is tough to win over a crowd simply playing here in Saskatoon where there is not much of a garage/surf scene. Our band pretty much consists of the other garage bands in the city (the Death Wrays, Savage Henry and the Infamous One Pounders, The New Jacobin Club, and The Trainwreck Endings), but we have succeded in carving out somewhat of a niche for ourselves here and there are some die-hard fans. We just want to be able to play our music and eak out a meagre existence that allows us to put out the occassional cd.

How long is your average set then? Sounds like you have got a lot of material to choose from...

Our average set is about an hour long with 15-20 songs. We currently have in our repetoire about 70 songs if we count every single one. However, we currently have about 40 songs in our song rotation.

Speaking of CD's, there is one thing i noticed when reading your discography. it seems that you have a few songs that were put each put on several releases (not just compilations). do you re-arrange or re-record some of your songs that often?

Not really. What you are probably referring to is that the songs on the 10inch are off of both of our cds (which was Kamikaze's decision) and that the songs on the first cassette were re-recorded for the first cd. Other than that, songs that have been on compilations are occassionally recorded specifically for that compilation (the tribute to Shadowy Men), but mostly are taken from outtakes of our sessions for the cds. We are, however, doing a different version/arrangement of "new years evil" and "seasons beatings" off of the x-mas cassette for the new CD.

Speaking of Kamikaze...how was that contact established?

We sent out alot of promo packages when the last cd came out and one of them went to Kamikaze...then they contacted us because they liked the cd.

But how did you know about kamikaze? I mean, it still is (unfortunately) a rather small label and it is european, after all...

I am actually not quite sure. We probably found out about it in a magazine or website. We did, however, only send out promo packs to labels we thought looked cool!

What about touring? Do you tour? how often?

We haven't really toured yet. We have played out of town but not an oficial tour. We keep on planning them but it always falls through, or people we thought we could count on let us down...but we are going to keep trying! Also, we can't tour during the school year because I am too busy.

What do the members of the heatscores work as?

I, Gremmie, am a Law student and cook when I am not in school.
Dick works in a lumber yard.
Thee Exciter works in a warehouse.
Joe Vile is a percussion instructor.

Do you plan to continue to record solely instrumental stuff or will you include vocal songs on records as well? Many instrumental bands I know have done that...

We hope to have a couple vocal songs on the next album but we haven't decided which ones yet. One of our guitarists just had a motorcycle accident and broke his arm so we will have more time to choose songs better plan the next cd - but recording will be substantially postponed because of his injury. We wanted the new cd out next month, but it probably won't be until next summer now.

Since you are talking about CDs that often, I have to ask the question of ultimate wisdom: vinyl or CDs, what do you prefer as a band?

As a band, we wish we could do everything on vinyl as well as cd.
But, with limited resources and the cost of getting things pressed on vinyl we just haven't been able to do it. CDs are also much more convenient. All of us, however, have record collections and take pride in our vinyl. We were also VERY excited to do the 10" with Kamikaze and are happy that it worked out well.

Official Website:
http://www.heatscores.dynamiczone.com/

Discography:
2000 Light 'Em Up !! (Kamikaze Records 10inch Vinyl)
1999 Ruin X-Mas ! (Limited Edition Cassette EP)