interview with Hedra
Have any of you played in other bands?
Jim: I have, i’ve been in quite a few bands starting around 1990 ish, first one was a band called ‘Livid Mayhem , that’s still the best name of all of them, I will try to remember them all. Incendiary, Grey, Barking Spiders, Subvert, If Fire Would Fall, SuperNoiseGod, Pure Negative, Black Swan & then HEDRA as the latest.
Kamil. I have. The band from Cambridge called "Encryption".
That was just before I move to Norwich and start Hedra.
How is it that you started playing music?
Jim: I was always interested in playing guitar, my Grandparents had one in their shoe cupboard under the stairs, it belonged to my Uncle, I was never allowed to look at it (much like Spinal Tap) one day my Dad had restored it and gave it to me for Christmas, I wanted to learn how to play it so badly, i’d already discovered Heavy Music via my sister who was dating ruffians (as I called them back then) into Metallica and stuff like that so I got to hear some really good stuff and stole her tapes and started playing along.
KAMIL: same was with me. I borrow guitar from my neighbour and in few weeks I already play. After few years I was watching MTV.Band Rage Agaist the Machine change everything.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Jim: Well my name is Jim Marten, i’m 42 now and that’s pretty old to be in a band that’ just starting out (well 3 Years old starting out), I do the Vocals, although I play Guitar I like to keep the 2 entities separate in bands, mostly because I can’t play as technical if i’m doing vocals, I feel it’s only going to give 50% of each on stage if I do both!
Kamil: my name is Kamil. I'm guitarist in hedra. I doing also backing vocals.
Rest of the band are :Tomas - drums
Chris-guitar and Bo-bass
Have you had other previous members?
Jim: We have but we’d rather not talk about them, unfortunately we have no reason to remove any member of the band other than them not trying to make it happen, most of them have gone from the band owing at least £200, the others left because they can’t be arsed to help the band to move forward and only thought of themselves, that’s the sad thing about bands, you have to rely on each other so much you hope they will become your friend but often it’s clear to see who has the ego and who actually wants a Career in it, it’s a sore subject that upsets me greatly really because many of these past members wanted to play the big stages but always complained about playing small gigs for free but none of them attempted to build the bands status, I don’t want people like that in my life personally, i’m glad they’re gone!
Kamil: Lol. no comment
Did you make music even when you were young? Jim: I did, I got a Keyboard for my 12th Birthday but it wasn’t really what I wanted so I was glad when i got the Guitar on my 14th, that’s where I sank my teeth in!
Where are you from?
Jim: I am from the fine City of Norwich
Kamil: I am from Poland. Over 10 years in UK
What year did the band form? Jim: we don’t know the exact date but we just say April 2014, it’s been a long tough ride so far!
What's your style of genre?
Jim: Heavy Metal, if you call it anything else then fine but I feel it’ll limit any bands progression to categorise it too much!
Kamil: I'm metal boy in general.
What inspires you?
Jim: Naturally other peoples music is going to inspire me, the surroundings i’m in can inspire me to write lyrics, or if i’m feeling theatrical often it’s horror movies, a good Artist often inspires a vision to make new things too!
Kamil: I getting my inspiration from everything. I trying avoid music influence. That help me keep my mind clear.
How often and where do you rehearse? Jim: Up until this Year we had been rehearsing weekly, we’ve lost rhythm there a bit but i’m sure we’ll get back into it when the new material is going to be coming along but yeah generally it’s weekly, we rehearse in either Bury St Edmunds or Norwich at a cost of £30 per week so we must have spent a few thousand over the years! !
How have you developed since you started with the music? Jim: Since I started music I have been through pretty much all shifts in the Metal era, the one thing I learnt is that it’s not important to have great equipment, decent enough equipment will do, i’ve also learnt that although it’s great to be technically proficient in all you do it’ll never win anyone over until you’r eon stage performing. I still see people staring at their feet playing guitar or biting their bottom lip whilst playing drums and think to myself ‘if only you knew’ it’s never just about the music ever, so that’s where I developed, it the overall picture of things no-one has to be perfect at all!
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Jim: Not really, I don’t really have time for other interests if i’m honest, I wish I did, sometimes i’ll get to the playstation though!, the fact is that if you want to be in a serious band there simply is no time for anything else no matter what you might think!
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Jim: I would love a booking agency, it’d take some weight off the band for sure, I have no problem with that, it’s one of those things though, it costs money, no point in it if no-one can play the gigs being offered either so it’s not an avenue we’ve gone down yet!
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Jim: We have our own Label, our Label can offer us more than any major Label, it’s given us more and very much less in debt so far, there’s no urgency for a Label other than (again) taking the weight off of our shoulders so that we can write music a bit more!
What made you decide to make this music? Jim: I got the demo from Kamil in 2014 after noticing an ad online looking for a vocalist, it was unique to me, very complicated to think of ideas for it, that was a challenge and I wanted that so thats why I went for it.
What are your songs about? Jim: The songs are based on a concept about a guy that falls in love with the nurse who’s looking after him in a mental home, you can check that out here https://issuu.com/jimbrettmarten/docs/war_of_mind
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Jim: The band do al the composing, we’ll get together in the rehearsal room and try out the ideas that come and i’ll generally interject but really they write al the music and i’ll put the vocals on the top, I cal lit the cherry, the cherry doesn’t go on until the icing is on the bakewell!
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Jim: always got to be the Music, this music is so odd that I have to just hum a few lines to get the melody and patterns, then I add the vocals after, sometimes I will come up with a phrase that sticks but if it’s not there the next week i’ll start a new one until it comes!
Do you compose in a certain environment? Jim: nah we can do it anywhere, if the lights are too bright maybe dim those down a bit but nah it’s one of them things where it’s possible to do anywhere as long as you can make noise, if you can’t then it won’t work!
What language do you sing in? English
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Jim: Do you mean in this band, probably 120 at the most and 3 at the least, i’ve no idea why that is though!
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Jim: At the moment until we get the Album done we’ll be sticking to these songs we’ve got, we will be throwing in covers once the Albums done too though!
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Jim: B2 Norwich is the Regular place locally to play, we like to play all over the UK though so we decided we only play Norwich when we are invited to do so, it’s harder to get gigs these days with so many places shutting but if i had my way i’d play every day!
What was your first gig like to play? Jim: The first gig with Hedra was really good, a packed out crowd in all fairness, probably the only time actually haha!
What was your latest gig?
Jim: our last gig was cancelled as Drummer Tom hurt his foot, which leads to the next question!
Kamil : unfortunately
Have you had to cancel a gig? Jim: Me personally, I have only cancelled 1 gig in 27 years of doing music, that was because of being attacked in Leicester, I have total respect for band members and promoters that ask us to play so would only cancel if I had absolutely no voice, even that you can magic it out for 30 minutes, I know i’ve done it!
Where have you played live this year? Jim: We’ve played a few corkers this year up and down the country but the favourite has to be the Lostock Festival, this year hasn’t been as busy as all previous years unfortunately because we took on Chris who had several personal Holidays booked already it messed up our Year a bit but hopefully next year will be different!
Where do you plan to gig the coming year?
Jim: everywhere, to anyone that will have us, if they don’t want us then ok, but you know we’re a good package to have, very different, very heavy and very nice people
Kamil : exactly. We would like play in every venue in UK twice
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Jim: We’ve got the usual T-Shirts & Cd’s the cd was completed this year so thats been available in Stores since January and we do a lot of things no-one else has like ‘Speakers, Pint Glasses. You just have to ask us and if we haven’t got it we’ll get it!
Where can people buy your merchandise? Jim: All Merch is available on www.hedrastore.bigcartel.com or in the shop at www.facebook.com/HedraMetal and the nice thing is we do other stuff too if you talk to us
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?
Jim: you have to move with the times but it doesn’t work for me, it sounds terrible, i’ve moved back to Vinyl!
Kamil: it's said for me. It's like stilling
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Jim: People won’t buy if they don’t have to, that’s the end of that conversation really, I think the whole thing is too much of an endless debate, but I always thought Lars was right all the ay through the napster debate, most disagreed with me but no-one has bought me a cd for my birthday in 10 years now, I do buy my own though!
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Jim: I don’t think it will, maybe someone might see it and say ok they aren’t so bad, who knows, it’s all a big amount of chance isn’t it, the music Industry that is!
Do you have any role models or idols?
Jim: Too many, Jonathan Davis for the Vocal style, that took some guts to bring that all out in Korn I think, growing up it was Phil Anselmo, that still feels like only yesterday! Guitar wise I like the Gems of Vai and Satriani, Malmsteen it’s hard to say who my idol is though because I wouldn’t be any of them. Metallica, there you go, they’re my idols!
Kamil: Jim B. Martin
Why do you think that they exist? Jim: Why do Metallica exist, there’s a question, I think they exist because they had something different to say, much like us, no-one cared for them to start with but then suddenly it al happened for them, i’m hoping i’m going to at least see a tiny amount of that myself with this band!
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?
Jim: It’s not really important to worry about what other bands are doing so much now, yes be inspired by how they do things but rather than worry about what they are doing just concentrate on what you’re doing, I think that’s the message many bands need to learn about!
Kamil: as for me older bands. That team work and sacrifice. They didn't have mobiles , internet, laptops and they make it real. Sometimes I thinking I was born to late.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Jim: Over my life it’s always band members, nerves and reluctance always plays a factor for so many, not for me, i’ve never been afraid to delve into the unknown, sadly other are and that’s unfortunately always led me back to square one in replacing members that do not put the effort into it for themselves and the music, that’s a huge obstacle, once you have all that together the reset is a piece of cake as they say!
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Jim: Don’t be lazy, write lots, don’t believe the hype, everyone knows everyone, you have just as much chance as anyone, be nice, don’t let your other band members down ever!
How do you get psyched for a gig? Jim: That doesn’t happen with me now, it used to, now i’m just numb lol!
Do you have any new material? Jim: we’re working on it, you can find it on our soundcloud but you’ll have to look for it.
What are your web sites? www.hedraband.com
Jim: I have, i’ve been in quite a few bands starting around 1990 ish, first one was a band called ‘Livid Mayhem , that’s still the best name of all of them, I will try to remember them all. Incendiary, Grey, Barking Spiders, Subvert, If Fire Would Fall, SuperNoiseGod, Pure Negative, Black Swan & then HEDRA as the latest.
Kamil. I have. The band from Cambridge called "Encryption".
That was just before I move to Norwich and start Hedra.
How is it that you started playing music?
Jim: I was always interested in playing guitar, my Grandparents had one in their shoe cupboard under the stairs, it belonged to my Uncle, I was never allowed to look at it (much like Spinal Tap) one day my Dad had restored it and gave it to me for Christmas, I wanted to learn how to play it so badly, i’d already discovered Heavy Music via my sister who was dating ruffians (as I called them back then) into Metallica and stuff like that so I got to hear some really good stuff and stole her tapes and started playing along.
KAMIL: same was with me. I borrow guitar from my neighbour and in few weeks I already play. After few years I was watching MTV.Band Rage Agaist the Machine change everything.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Jim: Well my name is Jim Marten, i’m 42 now and that’s pretty old to be in a band that’ just starting out (well 3 Years old starting out), I do the Vocals, although I play Guitar I like to keep the 2 entities separate in bands, mostly because I can’t play as technical if i’m doing vocals, I feel it’s only going to give 50% of each on stage if I do both!
Kamil: my name is Kamil. I'm guitarist in hedra. I doing also backing vocals.
Rest of the band are :Tomas - drums
Chris-guitar and Bo-bass
Have you had other previous members?
Jim: We have but we’d rather not talk about them, unfortunately we have no reason to remove any member of the band other than them not trying to make it happen, most of them have gone from the band owing at least £200, the others left because they can’t be arsed to help the band to move forward and only thought of themselves, that’s the sad thing about bands, you have to rely on each other so much you hope they will become your friend but often it’s clear to see who has the ego and who actually wants a Career in it, it’s a sore subject that upsets me greatly really because many of these past members wanted to play the big stages but always complained about playing small gigs for free but none of them attempted to build the bands status, I don’t want people like that in my life personally, i’m glad they’re gone!
Kamil: Lol. no comment
Did you make music even when you were young? Jim: I did, I got a Keyboard for my 12th Birthday but it wasn’t really what I wanted so I was glad when i got the Guitar on my 14th, that’s where I sank my teeth in!
Where are you from?
Jim: I am from the fine City of Norwich
Kamil: I am from Poland. Over 10 years in UK
What year did the band form? Jim: we don’t know the exact date but we just say April 2014, it’s been a long tough ride so far!
What's your style of genre?
Jim: Heavy Metal, if you call it anything else then fine but I feel it’ll limit any bands progression to categorise it too much!
Kamil: I'm metal boy in general.
What inspires you?
Jim: Naturally other peoples music is going to inspire me, the surroundings i’m in can inspire me to write lyrics, or if i’m feeling theatrical often it’s horror movies, a good Artist often inspires a vision to make new things too!
Kamil: I getting my inspiration from everything. I trying avoid music influence. That help me keep my mind clear.
How often and where do you rehearse? Jim: Up until this Year we had been rehearsing weekly, we’ve lost rhythm there a bit but i’m sure we’ll get back into it when the new material is going to be coming along but yeah generally it’s weekly, we rehearse in either Bury St Edmunds or Norwich at a cost of £30 per week so we must have spent a few thousand over the years! !
How have you developed since you started with the music? Jim: Since I started music I have been through pretty much all shifts in the Metal era, the one thing I learnt is that it’s not important to have great equipment, decent enough equipment will do, i’ve also learnt that although it’s great to be technically proficient in all you do it’ll never win anyone over until you’r eon stage performing. I still see people staring at their feet playing guitar or biting their bottom lip whilst playing drums and think to myself ‘if only you knew’ it’s never just about the music ever, so that’s where I developed, it the overall picture of things no-one has to be perfect at all!
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Jim: Not really, I don’t really have time for other interests if i’m honest, I wish I did, sometimes i’ll get to the playstation though!, the fact is that if you want to be in a serious band there simply is no time for anything else no matter what you might think!
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Jim: I would love a booking agency, it’d take some weight off the band for sure, I have no problem with that, it’s one of those things though, it costs money, no point in it if no-one can play the gigs being offered either so it’s not an avenue we’ve gone down yet!
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Jim: We have our own Label, our Label can offer us more than any major Label, it’s given us more and very much less in debt so far, there’s no urgency for a Label other than (again) taking the weight off of our shoulders so that we can write music a bit more!
What made you decide to make this music? Jim: I got the demo from Kamil in 2014 after noticing an ad online looking for a vocalist, it was unique to me, very complicated to think of ideas for it, that was a challenge and I wanted that so thats why I went for it.
What are your songs about? Jim: The songs are based on a concept about a guy that falls in love with the nurse who’s looking after him in a mental home, you can check that out here https://issuu.com/jimbrettmarten/docs/war_of_mind
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Jim: The band do al the composing, we’ll get together in the rehearsal room and try out the ideas that come and i’ll generally interject but really they write al the music and i’ll put the vocals on the top, I cal lit the cherry, the cherry doesn’t go on until the icing is on the bakewell!
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Jim: always got to be the Music, this music is so odd that I have to just hum a few lines to get the melody and patterns, then I add the vocals after, sometimes I will come up with a phrase that sticks but if it’s not there the next week i’ll start a new one until it comes!
Do you compose in a certain environment? Jim: nah we can do it anywhere, if the lights are too bright maybe dim those down a bit but nah it’s one of them things where it’s possible to do anywhere as long as you can make noise, if you can’t then it won’t work!
What language do you sing in? English
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Jim: Do you mean in this band, probably 120 at the most and 3 at the least, i’ve no idea why that is though!
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Jim: At the moment until we get the Album done we’ll be sticking to these songs we’ve got, we will be throwing in covers once the Albums done too though!
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Jim: B2 Norwich is the Regular place locally to play, we like to play all over the UK though so we decided we only play Norwich when we are invited to do so, it’s harder to get gigs these days with so many places shutting but if i had my way i’d play every day!
What was your first gig like to play? Jim: The first gig with Hedra was really good, a packed out crowd in all fairness, probably the only time actually haha!
What was your latest gig?
Jim: our last gig was cancelled as Drummer Tom hurt his foot, which leads to the next question!
Kamil : unfortunately
Have you had to cancel a gig? Jim: Me personally, I have only cancelled 1 gig in 27 years of doing music, that was because of being attacked in Leicester, I have total respect for band members and promoters that ask us to play so would only cancel if I had absolutely no voice, even that you can magic it out for 30 minutes, I know i’ve done it!
Where have you played live this year? Jim: We’ve played a few corkers this year up and down the country but the favourite has to be the Lostock Festival, this year hasn’t been as busy as all previous years unfortunately because we took on Chris who had several personal Holidays booked already it messed up our Year a bit but hopefully next year will be different!
Where do you plan to gig the coming year?
Jim: everywhere, to anyone that will have us, if they don’t want us then ok, but you know we’re a good package to have, very different, very heavy and very nice people
Kamil : exactly. We would like play in every venue in UK twice
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Jim: We’ve got the usual T-Shirts & Cd’s the cd was completed this year so thats been available in Stores since January and we do a lot of things no-one else has like ‘Speakers, Pint Glasses. You just have to ask us and if we haven’t got it we’ll get it!
Where can people buy your merchandise? Jim: All Merch is available on www.hedrastore.bigcartel.com or in the shop at www.facebook.com/HedraMetal and the nice thing is we do other stuff too if you talk to us
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?
Jim: you have to move with the times but it doesn’t work for me, it sounds terrible, i’ve moved back to Vinyl!
Kamil: it's said for me. It's like stilling
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Jim: People won’t buy if they don’t have to, that’s the end of that conversation really, I think the whole thing is too much of an endless debate, but I always thought Lars was right all the ay through the napster debate, most disagreed with me but no-one has bought me a cd for my birthday in 10 years now, I do buy my own though!
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Jim: I don’t think it will, maybe someone might see it and say ok they aren’t so bad, who knows, it’s all a big amount of chance isn’t it, the music Industry that is!
Do you have any role models or idols?
Jim: Too many, Jonathan Davis for the Vocal style, that took some guts to bring that all out in Korn I think, growing up it was Phil Anselmo, that still feels like only yesterday! Guitar wise I like the Gems of Vai and Satriani, Malmsteen it’s hard to say who my idol is though because I wouldn’t be any of them. Metallica, there you go, they’re my idols!
Kamil: Jim B. Martin
Why do you think that they exist? Jim: Why do Metallica exist, there’s a question, I think they exist because they had something different to say, much like us, no-one cared for them to start with but then suddenly it al happened for them, i’m hoping i’m going to at least see a tiny amount of that myself with this band!
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?
Jim: It’s not really important to worry about what other bands are doing so much now, yes be inspired by how they do things but rather than worry about what they are doing just concentrate on what you’re doing, I think that’s the message many bands need to learn about!
Kamil: as for me older bands. That team work and sacrifice. They didn't have mobiles , internet, laptops and they make it real. Sometimes I thinking I was born to late.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Jim: Over my life it’s always band members, nerves and reluctance always plays a factor for so many, not for me, i’ve never been afraid to delve into the unknown, sadly other are and that’s unfortunately always led me back to square one in replacing members that do not put the effort into it for themselves and the music, that’s a huge obstacle, once you have all that together the reset is a piece of cake as they say!
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Jim: Don’t be lazy, write lots, don’t believe the hype, everyone knows everyone, you have just as much chance as anyone, be nice, don’t let your other band members down ever!
How do you get psyched for a gig? Jim: That doesn’t happen with me now, it used to, now i’m just numb lol!
Do you have any new material? Jim: we’re working on it, you can find it on our soundcloud but you’ll have to look for it.
What are your web sites? www.hedraband.com
How can people reach you? Facebook any of us name/Hedra in the search field
What are your plans for the future?
What are your plans for the future?
Jim: Obviously I want to Tour the world, then maybe put my feet up for a Year and then do a second Album
Kamil: Tour and make very unique Album.
Do you have something to add?
Kamil: Tour and make very unique Album.
Do you have something to add?
Jim: no damn it I think you’ve covered every crumb in chocolate thanks
Kamil : thx for interview
Kamil : thx for interview