Chris ‘Noddy’ Mansbridge - Heart of a Coward

Press time 5:30pm Saturday

N: Thanks a lot for being able to sit down, obviously we are headlining the second stage tonight, played Radar 2019, how does it feel being back with that in mind? As a group how do you feel with the change the festival has undergone and you’ve been brought back in a higher slot?

Noddy: “Its Good!. Yeah I'm really proud of the guys, they’ve worked really hard this year and you can see it, its nice to see it grow. I think it's gonna keep growing, hopefully. They’ve got some really good headliners this year, great lineup in general.”

N: Well there’s the great image of you guys headlining the Saturday tonight. Radar’s nill in 2019 was Monuments, yourselves and the also Loathe earlier in the day. All three of you are headlining the Strandberg stage this weekend, have you been in touch with those guys at all with that kind of occasion in mind?

Noddy: “I didn’t think about it that way. But I’ve been hanging out with (John) Browne from Monuments earlier. We’ve been good friends for years, just been catching up with Browne. I haven't seen the other guys yet to be honest, but it was such an early start this morning. But after the set, I’ll feel very social, I’ll be socialling my arse off!”

N: By all means, have a few. So obviously you guys brought out the new single ‘Decay’ in May, it's a very deep, conceptual track, do you know anything that prompted that in the writing process? Were you guys in discussion for what went into the content of it?

Noddy: “Lyrically? To be honest, Kaan is totally in charge of his own lyrics, but we might work on things if we’re stuck for a sentence or a phrase, or like a rhyming word? Musically its very collaborative though.

N: Is there anything in that track, or with what Kaan brough to the table on it that brought you to a certain place in terms of how you composed for it?

Noddy:: “Not really, no. Because instrumental always comes first, vocals last, they're’ always the thing we end up working on the most though. BEcause once we’re happy with an instrumental we need that vocal to really make it shine. Lyric wise, I really like what he’s done. The new album in general has got some really good things on there. Im resonating with what he’s saying, and I think other people will as well”

N: That's great actually, my next point was that you’ve just announced this new album as well, how does it feel now that there's that buzz for any future shows and the release?

Noddy: “It always feels like forever. Because you finish recording it and then you’re looking at least 6 months”

N: So you kind of just see it in stasis for a while?

Noddy: “Yeah, it feels like forever but then the singles start dropping, the ball starts rolling and excitement grows. So we’re all excited, sort of wondering what people are going to make of it, so it’ll be interesting to see.”

N: Well on a personal level, I’ve been a fan for a while, saw the Thy Art is Murder tour in 2014, and Machine Head when you opened for them that December, so I’m very excited. Obviously album number two with Kaan, how has it felt approaching this recording cycle with him firmly in the band? I had read previously obviously you had some material for the last album where you didn’t have a vocalist?

Noddy: So I don’t think we really did. I think maybe a song was underway, but I don’t think that made the album. So it was all from scratch actually

N: Oh no great actually. Thanks for setting the record straight in terms of what got released

Noddy: I will say we wrote that album quite quickly, we were, I’d say, under pressure to deliver that album. We love that album, but we knew there was a better one in us, but having done that album we had time to learn our way with Kaan, his voice, approach to song. We’ve worked with George Lever on the new album, he was really goods with producing KAan’s voals, bringing out that anger and what the songs are really about, the emotion, so we’re quite pleased with that.

N: So is that to say that with Kaan being the catalyst for some of this, there’s ways in terms of his vocal style that has evolved the way you would construct something he can lay vocals over? Or do you feel he’s really solidified the identity of Heart of a Coward

Noddy: So we don’t try to write to any particular blueprint, we’re a metalcore band, we like to write anthemic metal anthems, singalongs, crowd pleasers, y’know? Anything we write with the live audience in mind. I just think we know when the songs ready, if its not good enough, we go back, start again and its what we’ve always done

N: I love that, like proofing? But also the fact you mentioned the live crowd, you made the big change bringing him on board, bang out this great album with him in 2019, how did it feel as a band when Covid hit and just under a year into that run for The Disconnect you obviously get get waylaid quite a bit, we’re all inside, you don’t have the chance to build on things as much with the live crowd, did any of that effect how you felt about things as a group?

Noddy: Well I think everyone was just depressed as shit, y’know? It was a really dark depressing time, I think that's part of the reason we were on hiatus, it was hard to focus on writing music when we didn’t know what was going on with our lives

N: Do you feel like there’s some lingering sentiment of that then that has worked its way into the newer stuff, its obviously quite charged.

Noddy: “Well I think so, there’s a lot of the theme of struggle that people may have felt, and still may feel now. Y’kn’ow, the statement “This Place Only Brings Death” is pretty much saying “your only certainty is that our lives will end”, but as a positive spin in a way, because this is us saying you’ve got to make everything count. If you want to do something with your life, you’ve got to do it before times up, life is short.

N: “Well, obviously the medium that you guys play in, that punchy aggressive style, its a good way to channel all those feelings of potential hopelessness to say we have to feel something more?

Noddy: “Oh its therapy, The band is therapy. Its a chance to get all of our horrible stuff out and get a bit nuts with it”

N: I love that. In terms of as a group, Heart of a Coward as a band coming up to its 15th year next year, how does that feel for the identity of the group? In terms of the scene in the UK nowadays as that's quite a long run

Noddy: “Yeah, I’m just trying to do the maths on that. I sit back and think about how long it is, y’know its a very interesting and long story even from when I joined in 2010

N: And yet it seems to be going as strong as it ever has, new releases and all, it's never really halted

Noddy: “It survived a lot. Every album we go about whether we’ll do another and then we do and now we're at number five so? We’ve all grown up together though. People have come and gone but we’ve gone through some very important years together as people”

N: So it really has brought everyone closer in that aspect over the years

Noddy: “Exactly, and I guess we’ve changed as people but we’ve always had this thing in common”

N: Well we can see that in the live shows, I saw you guys when you played Bloodstock and for some reason to me that seemed like a very special show, like something was happening

Noddy: Last year's Bloodstock? That was very much a “We’re back, we are doing this” kind of show. And what a show, even that early in the morning to see all those people there watching us

N:It is an amazing festival for that, it was a great set, it felt like one of the bands to see for me. I just have one more question, devil's advocate question. Is there any advice you’ve been given as a band, or that you’ve given other bands that has stayed true over the years?

Noddy: “‘Don’t be a cunt’, simple as that haha”

N: It works, every time. I can’t fault that. Obviously I am really looking forward to the set later on, I’ve been talking to a few people shooting it and can’t wait. Thank you again for sitting down with me

Noddy: “All good, thank you too”