They’ve supported bands such as, ‘Twenty One Pilots’ and released their album, ‘Our Own House’ earlier this year. It’s safe to say Misterwives have experienced a lot of success since they formed in 2012. We caught up with the bands bass player, Will Hehir to discuss what it was like performing at The O2 Academy in Islington and their pending American tour…
Hi Will!
Hi, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.
No problem, thank you for talking to us too! So, ‘Misterwives’… we love the name! Where does it come from?
Well, it’s actually a play off the mormon term, ‘sister wives.’ There’s a group of people where one marries multiple women and they all become friends, so the name, ‘Misterwives’ was created for Mandy and the rest of us guys.
There are six of you in the band all together, which is quite usual… how did you guys form?We kind of just formed through music. I met Mandy and then we started playing music together. We met Etienne, our drummer, because we worked at a cafe in New York City. Our neighbourhood bartender, Marc, then came in as our guitarist.
Where does your love of music come from? Have you always had it since you were younger?Yeah, everyone’s been doing it their whole lives. There’s a video of Mandy when she’s like three at her kinder garden talent show, so she’s always been doing it and I’ve always been doing it. Both my parents are from Ireland. My dad plays a lot of Irish music, so that was always in the house. I come from a very musical background. Jesse studied at Conservatory. He has been doing music like, his whole life. He used to go out of class at High School to go and play the trumpet. Marc always had a very natural love of music. His parents were always in to it and played guitars and what not and Etienne’s Dad was in a band called, ‘The Marbles.’
Cool! So you’ve all been brought up with music…
Yeah. As soon as we started playing with each other, during the first rehearsal where we all got together and started working with each other, we were like, ‘What?!’ Everyone was just so excited.
You’ve opened shows for bands such as, Twenty One Pilots, Half Moon Run, Bleachers, The Mowgli’s and American Authors. What was it like working with these groups and is there anyone you’d particularly like to work with in the future?
In the future I think we’re no doubt looking to go back on tour, we’d absolutely love to do that. ‘Walk The Moon’ had a recent show and we were actually talking about hoping that our schedules align, so we can go on tour with them, because they would be so much fun. They’re tremendous guys. We’ve kind of been spoilt. We’ve gone on tour with some of the best musicians we’ve ever met. They were all inspiring in different ways, so we’re looking to continue to sign with new little gems.
Your album, ‘Our Own House’ was released on 24th February this year. How long were you working on the album for?
A lot of the songs were songs Mandy had written, because she writes all of the music. She’ll basically come up with a chord structure and a melody and then we’ll play our little parts and fill out ideas. For the most part, the skeleton is done and we’ll work on it with a demo, or just channelling it all together depending on the schedule of our lives. A lot of the music is stuff that Mandy’s written years ago growing up. ‘Ocean’ for example, is a song she wrote when she was in High School. She went to a Performing Arts School, so she wrote that song and then submitted it as part of the entrance to the programme, so that one always hung around and is still one of my favourites.
Our schedule was pretty hectic throughout most of 2014 when we were really finishing up the album and song writing. We grabbed every chance we possibly could. It was kind of funny. We scheduled to go into the studio from like July to the end of the November, so we were like, ‘Perfect! That gives us plenty of time.’ A few weeks into it, we got told, ‘We have this opportunity for you guys to go on tour with Bleachers.’ It was only supposed to be two weeks, so it wouldn’t have been much of a problem. Two days before we went on tour with Bleachers, we got a call from our agent who’s like, ‘There’s also this band called Twenty One Pilots.’ We fell in love with their music and then gambled the live show, which took about two and a half months out of the four months that we had to write the album.
Your European tour was also called, ‘Our Own House.’ As part of your tour, you performed at The O2 Academy in Islington on 21st May. What was it like performing there and do you have any plans to return to the UK any time soon?
Oh, it was awesome! We were really excited to go back to London. I mean, we have nothing formalised, but we’re all very keen to go back. We have a really good time there, so we would like to go back as soon as our schedule permits.
You are beginning, ‘The Scrapbook Tour’ on 23rd September in Pittsburgh. How do you feel to be touring again?
Oh, it’s huge! I mean, I don’t like to be off tour! Tour is a lot of work and its early hours and late nights, but it’s still the most rewarding thing in the world. You go through all this stuff, like travelling, but it’s the most fun thing in the world. We’re all super excited. We actually just found out we sold out our home town show, which is pretty insane. It’ll be awesome to be back in New York with our friends and family. Their very supportive, so we’re just super excited.
Obviously you guys spend a lot of time together, especially when you’re on tour. Do you ever annoy one another?!
It’s actually kind of weird. I actually live with Mandy and Etienne, so even if we’re not on tour, we’re still together all the time. It’s really strange that six people can be in a band and spend literally every waking moment together and never get into a fight. Somehow, we’re probably all just insane enough to make it work. When we have days off, we’re calling each other like, ‘’Hey, what’re you doing?’’It’s just very family like. Actually, we probably get along better than a lot of other families, so it’s quite weird.
You’re clearly got a very hectic schedule this year with your album being released, performing at festivals and going on tour in September. Do you guys plan on having a break after the tours over in November?
I really hope not! Down times when I start to lose it, I’m like, ‘’No, what’re we doing today?’’ Going on tours much more fun.
Aw, it’s good that you love your job!
Oh yeah! I mean, we all consider ourselves the most fortunate people in the world. It’s better than winning the lottery. We get to do this awesome thing, with awesome people, but we get to do it with our five best friends
Sounds awesome! Well best of luck with the tour and thank you for talking to me Will!
Oh absolute pleasure! Thank you.
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