You may recall the recent DittyTV Debut of “Waves of Ecstasy” by Hearty Har earlier this month on The Curve. If you missed it, you can check it out down below. Now we’re excited to give you a closer look at brothers Shane Fogerty and Tyler Fogerty, who are the sons of the legendary John Fogerty, and who make up the band Hearty Har. The two formalized the group in 2012, and DittyTV Senior Editor Tim W. Jackson has really gotten into their sound. So here’s a 5 Questions segment between Jackson and the brothers who are Hearty Har.
1) With a father as a musician, was there pressure to follow in his footsteps or was there perhaps a reluctance to pursue music professionally because you had seen the inside of the business?
Shane: There was never any pressure to follow in our dad’s footsteps or to pursue music as a career growing up. When we started discovering music on our own and wanting to learn guitar, he would show us little things here and there but I think he wanted us to develop our passion for music independently.
2) You are men of many creative talents and in addition to writing this album, you also created a lot of the accompanying art. Can you talk about that process a bit? How does one medium translate to another? And why was it important for you to a part of these different processes surrounding the album?
Tyler: To me, music and visual art come together in the same way, where you start with a simple idea and gradually piece it together. I like the appeal to be immediate, but if you pay closer attention, there’s a lot of layers beneath the surface. My process of making the artwork is similar to my process of recording music. Both feature a collage of sight/sound of many differing things all pointing to the pinnacle of the initial idea.
3) You’re often described as psychedelic rock, but your music has a certain creepy factor that I really love, which is reinforced by your videos for “Boogie Man” and “Scream and Shout.” How did you land on that particular sound?
Shane: We both love spooky sounding, mysterious ’50s and ’60s records, and we also really love sci-fi. Joe Meek is one of the big inspirations for that effected sound, a true DIY pioneer.
Tyler: The obvious answer would be to trace back my liking to late ’50s rock, a lot of it has dark subject matter. Just outside of the conservative 1950s society there was a group of people making music that had that sci-fi characteristic to the sound. I think a lot of modern music falls short in that there isn’t much mystery involved. When something is truly mysterious your mind doesn’t fully understand it, and I think there are times when a road you haven’t gone down before can be both frightening and fascinating. I would prefer to scare you than bore you.
4) Your album Radio Astro is just about to release. What can you tell us about recording this album during the course of a global pandemic?
Shane: I think a lot of people are leaning into music more during this pandemic. When there’s constant media chaos and confusion, you need an escape and music can definitely be the grounding. Hopefully our album speaks to that: the sounds and the messages are relevant as ever.
Tyler: I’ve never put out an album during a pandemic before, but having gone through a pandemic, I’m glad to deliver something with so much effort and emotion behind it. I hope that it will bring some hope and joy, a reminder that there are still good things to look forward to.
5) And finally, with the album being released with few opportunities for touring and live shows, where does Hearty Har go from here? What does the rest of 2021 look like for you guys?
Shane: There will be some live sessions filmed at our home studio being released soon. We are also in the studio working on the next album. Other than that, we hope to be playing real live shows again by the fall if everything goes well.
Tyler: We can’t control what’s going to happen with the state of the world, but we will control the music that we make and hope the best for that and everything else.
Thanks guys, and for those who may have missed the DittyTV Debut of your video recently, we’re offering “Waves of Ecstasy” again here!