Ride or Die: An Interview w/ HeartsRevolution

10 years ago

I must admit I was somewhat nervous about meeting with HeartsRevolution. If you’ve listened to their music (which you should) then you know that they’re pretty intense –– their lyrics are bold and opinionated and arguably profane, and they’re not afraid to scream. The band also drives an ice cream truck that’s covered with shimmering crystals and filled with treats: stuffed animals, sparkly things and neon merchandise. But as soon as I met them I realized that despite their intensity, they’re also incredibly passionate and sweet, and it was impossible to not feel totally inspired and captivated by their energy.

We caught up with the duo and their phenomenal truck outside of The Standard on the night before they departed overseas. They’ll have shows in Tokyo and Hong Kong, as well as various brand and fashion collaborations, including one with Hello Kitty. And while group after group of mesmerized passerbys took the opportunity to pose in front of their illustrious, gleaming vehicle, we got the low-down on the importance of social commentary and the drawbacks of nostalgia.

I’m really into the feminist stance that you guys incorporate into your music. Do you think that more artists should integrate those kinds of progressive messages into their music and lyrics, or is that what makes you stand out?

Ben: From almost the beginning, we started off like, oh we’re going to say these important things that we really believe in…but I don’t think people want to hear that. So yes, I do think that people should. It seems like with music back in the day, artists used to make social commentary – people like Bob Dylan – but nowadays it seems like it’s harder.

Leyla: You have to dumb it down so much. If you think about the biggest pop stars in the world and how dumbed down the music is, it’s almost offensive. A lot of people respond by saying that everyone just wants to have a good time, but we’re really kind of heavy. I wish that I wasn’t so heavy sometimes, and that I could just write party songs but no matter what kind of music he writes, I always seem to pull it back to this place of having something to get off my chest.

I think that there’s definitely a lack of that in the marketplace. I’m not sure if that’s what the audience wants. But I feel like kids in this generation are not being given all of the proper tools to be well-rounded individuals. That’s probably the short answer.

It also seems like everyone’s just obsessed with drug culture. Being in this truck, it’s not even kids that come up and ask if we have drugs inside; it’s like, 40-year-old businessmen! It’s just the culture. It’s this music that people hear and they’re like, we wanna get our glow sticks out tonight! It’s like this fucking weird thing where everybody’s on molly.

And you know what’s really fucked up? All of these feminist sites are like, super obsessed with nostalgia feminism. They’re all obsessed with these girls in music that can’t even play their guitars really well, and they just sing their songs about the beach and their boyfriends, and these sites are like, she’s so cute! She’s like, a rocker girl! But none of these bitches say anything. You look to these feminist magazines and you’re hoping they’ll take you under their wing and they don’t.

So you’re just kind of out with your message and your little parade by yourself, which is so fucked up. It really sucks because this is every teen girl’s dream, and we could get into their minds to actually teach them something about entrepreneurship, running your own business, being a single mom, following your dreams, building a fucking pretty successful company…but no, that’s not important. So where do you go then? When you’re not like Katy Perry and you’re not their kind of “feminists,” where do you go to find somebody who wants to help you get your message across?

Well, kind of going off of that, your ‘$EX’ video is awesome, and it’s perfect for showing what females deal with day to day. It’s interesting that you kind of did that in a playful way, rather than just painting a dark picture about female objectification. Did you specifically try to make people more attracted to it, and then hope for them to understand the message as a result, or did you just want to make the video fun?

Ben: I think that was kind of the idea behind having the ice cream truck serve as such an important part of our story…because to bring people in through ice cream and candy and toys, it made it easier. We could bring them in under false pretenses [laughs] and then give them something educational. And that was part of the original concept for the video.

Leyla: That video was done so long ago…four years ago? And we could never release it because of our record label.

There’s all these little things that happen every day and you’ll be like, ‘”Oh, that guy’s stupid or this situation’s dumb.” But nobody ever says anything and it blows my fucking mind. I’m the person who’s like, “You did not just say that to me!” I remember I was walking with my daughter who’s in that video [she’s the little girl sitting at the stool] and we were walking across the street in New York, and it’s summer and I’m walking across the street and this guy’s like, “Ay mami what I wanna do to that ass!” I’m holding Tiger’s hand – you see how old she is – and I turn around to him and I’m like, “I’m walking with my daughter, what are you fucking doing?” And he’s like, “Oh I’m really sorry, I thought you were 17,” and I was like, “WHAT? You thought I was 17?!”

I was thinking about being a girl. I was the only one that didn’t have a bra because I didn’t have breasts, and all I wanted was breasts. But the girl with big boobs, the boys would pull her bra strap as a way of shaming her, and I was thinking that if even one kid understood that if you do that, you might end up with a milkshake on your head because some girl might just do something. She might just stand up for herself. If I could plant just one of those fucking seeds to one girl, it would be really important.

I’ll stop here with the feminist questions because I could keep going and going but on a less serious note, who are you currently listening to?

Ben: All she listens to is Bob Marley, The Smiths and The Strokes.

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened in your truck?

Leyla: There was the first time that we ever took it out and this dude tried to cut us off and then hawked a loogie on the truck.

Ben: Yeah, we were kind of going slowly because were weren’t sure about which way to go, and we were scared about driving the truck since we didn’t know if the crystals were going to fall off, and he was in a hurry and fucking hawked a loogie.

Leyla: What’s wrong with people?!

This was the first truck that we ever built. We’ve built six of them over the course of the last 8 years. That first truck got sent to SXSW like, a month after it was made. When the shipping company had it in transit, the driver cracked the windshield and when the windshield came off, all the rubber tar with the black stuff got inside. But imagine like, 2,000 miles of dust and dirt and debris on these big highways? Because all this air was gushing in, the roof ripped off like the top of a sardine tin. So we fly to Austin and we’re like, we’re gonna roll around SXSW in the truck! It was covered in this black tar that we couldn’t get off, and there was no fucking windshield, the tires were bald, it had bad breaks and it was raining. We were surrounded by these big 20-wheelers on these highways in Texas, and we had bald tires, like, they hadn’t been changed since the 1970’s.

We pulled up to the Holiday Inn and they didn’t have our room, and there was no other hotel room in like, a 50-mile radius. I was hyperventilating. It was 4am, and I was driving on this highway. I grew up in California, where if you’re on the highway, it’s the right hand lane that’s going to go off, and that’s all I know. If you’re in the middle lane or the left lane on a highway, it doesn’t go off. In motherfucking Texas, you can be in the middle lane and the next thing you know, you’re on this conveyer belt to God. I was shitting in my pants.

I swear to God, we were on an incline like the one at LAX – the 110 to the 105 – the one that goes up on a ramp, and then it goes to heaven. All of a sudden we were in the middle lane, the middle motherfucking lane, like, it shouldn’t go anywhere! And we kept thinking that the truck was going to for sure roll backwards. And it’s about to be rolling backwards, and the rain was coming up and in with bugs and dirt because there’s no fucking windshield, and I’m like, Why did we decide to do this? This is the worst idea! I hate you! I’m breaking up with you! We pulled over and slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot.