April 30th, 2013 
Tyler Osborne Under the Gun Review is stoked to bring you this exclusive interview with Topshelf Records’ Have Mercy.
Have Mercy are gearing up for the release of their debut full-length, The Earth Pushed Back, and have touring plans throughout the Summer. In this interview we talked about the new album, the inspiration behind it, and signing with Topshelf. You can read the interview below.
UTG has been fortunate enough to hear an advance copy of The Earth Pushed Back and are not exaggerating in the slightest when we say we were blown away by its content. Keep reading and get to know a band that is going to be making an impact in 2013.
First off, could you give me your name, and what do you do in Have Mercy?
I’m Andrew and I play guitar and do backup vocals/yells in Have Mercy. I’m also known as “That Beared Guy”
I think it’s fair to say that The Earth Pushed Back is a very bold debut full length that should have you making waves over the course of 2013, can you talk about gearing up for creating a large release?
Haha, thanks for the compliment man! After releasing My Oldest Friend we had 2 members leave and we got Nick as our bassist. I also joined the band right before we went into record that record so I didn’t have much influence on it because I was literally in the band for like 2 weeks before we recorded it.
So right afterwards we started writing new stuff, and more of mine and Nick’s styles of playing and writing were showing in the newer stuff. After our tour with The Jealous Sound (those dudes are the nicest dudes on earth, seriously) we kind of slowed down so we didn’t get worn out before recording and really focused on picking out the songs we wanted on the record and re-writing old parts and listening to records that we wanted ours to sound like sonically. Really just taking a step back and looking at it from the outside and asking ourselves “Does all of this look right to you guys?”
I think one of my favorite parts of The Earth Pushed Back is that there isn’t a song that feels out of place on the record. Was the cohesion of the album organic, or was it something you really pushed yourselves to do?
We were used to moving really fast in the studio. When we recorded My Oldest Friend, we only had 4 days to do it. The guy we recorded it with was also recording 2 other bands at the same time and I would be there from 11am and not track until 3 in the morning and only have 1 hour to do all of my leads and parts, so I couldn’t really fuck around or come up with better ideas.
On this one [The Earth Pushed Back] working with J. Robbins he was so open to trying new ideas (like playing my guitar with a violin bow or recording some parts live) and we were practically living there [in the studio] for 12 hours, not really leaving and kind of just immersing ourselves in the project. I think that had a huge part in the sound of the record, almost like we were growing something. Helping each other out with ideas or even saying “hey try this instead of this,” like on the song “Living Dead” Swindle took a swing at recording the piano part, then he suggested I do it and I couldn’t think of anything really rad. Then J took a go at it and it’s now one of my favorite parts and songs on the record and it was the moment when I was like, “Holy. Shit. This is going to be fucking huge.” So stuff like that kind of came naturally, but it also helped that J had a PS2 and a HUGE collection of old horror and cult movies on VHS haha.
The record feels very personal to me, so much so that I can’t help but relate to the lyrics. Is it a nerve wracking experience as a band to put out such an emotionally charged record?
I wouldn’t say its so much nerve wracking as it is powerful and helpful to get stuff like this off our chests. We aren’t the most serious dudes out there like we watch COPS and crack jokes left and right and like to party so it was kind of like I said healing to get our emotions out there in a way that can relate to people like us or the most serious person out there.
Why did you choose to rerelease the song “Let’s Talk About Your Hair” on The Earth Pushed Back?
BECAUSE IT FUCKING RULEZ DOOD! No but in all seriousness that is one of my favorite songs to play and it was fun to re-record some stuff on it that we didn’t have time for the first go around. It’s just so powerful and seems to resonate with people. If it were up to me it would be on every album we do. haha.
Speaking about hair, If you had to choose to eat one person in your bands’ hair, which would it be and why?
Swindle’s looks puffy all the time but he doesn’t wash it too often, and Nick’s hair is really curly so it would kind of sting going down (I guess) so that only leaves Aaron. So I would eat Aaron’s hair (he also has the most stylish hair.)
Can you talk about working with Topshelf and getting ready to release this record?
Kevin and Seth are two of the most nice and genuine people I have ever worked with in a band. They’re almost like our cool older brothers or cousins that kind of show you how to do certain things you’ve always wanted to do. They hooked us up with some great shows and people and are always full of great advice when we come to them with a question, no matter how dumb it is.
When writing this record, who were some of your greatest influences? What bands were you listening to?
We all have VERY different musical tastes and influences, and I think that shows on this record. I know personally I was listening to a lot of Iron Chic, Glocca Morra, and Spraynard. I also went back and listened to a lot of stuff that I listened to in high school, like Gin Blossoms, Danzig, Dashboard Confessional, and a lot of comps like Punk-O-Rama and those AMP’d Magazine Comps (those were the god damn jam back in the day, I still miss my AMPd Metal comp haha).
Who in your band has the weirdest music tastes?
I’m going to go out there and say me. I grew up listening to all sorts of stuff and got huge into metal when I was around 9 and never really grew out of it. For example when we were driving home from Pittsburgh on our last tour Swindle was driving and I was DJ’ing and we listened to Willy Nelson, Clarence Carter’s “Strokin'” for like 15 minutes straight, some oldies, a lot of Boy Bands, 90’s and early 2000’s rap, and some Ittalo Disco and Chiptune stuff. I’ve had friends who get into my car and have a big case of the nostalgia or even nausea from what I’m jamming while driving.
What is it like growing as a band in the Baltimore scene?
The Baltimore scene is really weird, like you have the DIY scene, the metal and hardcore scene (which is pretty huge), a large group of jam bands and kind of “radio rock” type bands. And it’s not weird to go to a show somewhere and have a band from each of those scenes on one bill. I guess since our sound is so eclectic we’ve been fortunate enough to play with a number of bands in Baltimore who we truly enjoy playing with and hanging out with.
Any plans coming up after your album drops?
We’re touring with Koji, Turnover, and Ivy League from June 7th to July 24th which is going to be sick nasty and before that playing BLEDfest in Michigan May 25th. Other than that, just lots of shows and watching COPS. We. Love. COPS.
Anything else you woud like to say?
Our album The Earth Pushed Back comes out on May 21 so if you haven’t pre-ordered it already go ahead and do that or go out with your gang of friends and buy every copy in stores when it comes out because that would be awesome. We’re playing BLEDfest in Michigan on May 25th with some awesome cats and also come out and see us on tour; bring us gifts because we are broke. We like things such as COPS, Nintendo 64, food, boxer briefs, Cliff Bars and Redbull (we love that shit). And lastly thanks for taking some time to listen to me ramble because god knows I love to ramble.
Written and Conducted By Tyler Osborne. Follow him on Twitter if you want, but he’s not one to tell you what to do with your life.
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