The band Heavy Denim stopped by Live & Local this week, following the release of their new album “Young Hearts Die Hard.”
Follow Heavy Denim on Instagram.
“Young Hearts” is Heavy Denim’s first full-length album, following a pair of EPs – most recently “Cereal Dreams,” which was one of our favorite local releases of 2024. Though the band in its current form has only been putting out music for two years, the bandmates have been playing together for a much longer time – dating back to New York in the 2010s, when guitarist Danny Weiss was in separate bands with fellow guitarist Blake Courlag and singer Greg Arent. Eventually they all found themselves in the Triangle – and Heavy Denim was born.
“We’d been playing those songs for six months or so before we decided to record them,” Arent says of the new album. “We got introduced to Ryan (Pickett) at Stadium Heights Sounds, and he did a great job. We recorded these live, to really capture the energy of our live sound.”
Listen to the album and purchase it on Bandcamp.
You’ll be able to hear that live sound in person on Friday, October 17: Heavy Denim is celebrating the album’s release with a show at Bond Brothers Eastside in Cary. The show begins at 8 p.m., with Buzzard Company, Fake Jr. and Newspaper Taxis opening.
Visit BondBrothersBeer.com for more information.
Friday’s show is a bittersweet one for the band: Arent recently moved to Philadelphia, so this will be his last Heavy Denim show, at least for now. But the guys all say this is not the end, for a band that’s quickly established itself as one of the best rock outfits in the Triangle.
“Blake and Danny and Steve (Weunch) have been writing some new material that will turn into whatever the new version of Heavy Denim is,” Arent says. “There’s no shortage of really good singers here – and maybe they’ll feel a little bit more unencumbered when I’m gone.”
Courlag agrees. “We’re going to just go out there and have a great time on Friday, then see what happens afterwards,” he says, (but) we’re going to keep going in some way, shape or form…we’ll regroup and rebuild and have something good.”
Heavy Denim stopped by the studio to discuss the album and Friday’s show in Cary. They also played three songs: “Breaking News” and “Pause,” both off the new album, and one still-unreleased song, “Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em.” Listen:
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