Hailing from Cincinnati, OH, HereComeHere blends high-energy hard rock, alternative rock, and a taste of pop for an upbeat vibe that provides the kind of pop sensibilities that will have their choruses stuck in your head for days. Having been featured on local and nationally owned radio stations such as Cincinnati’s Project 106.3, 96 Rock, WEBN, Class X Radio, WNKU and at the top of the charts on regionally noteworthy sites as CincyMusic.com, it’s no surprise that HereComeHere have a slew of accomplishments under their belt. Adding to their success, they're releasing their sophomore full-length, ‘Chernobyl’, on April 8th, 2017. ‘Chernobyl’ follows their debut full-length, ‘Pants Were A Bad Idea’, along with two previous EPs. Pre-order HERE.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Tom Bodner – Lead vocals and Guitar
Bryce Hogland – Vocals and Bass
Tyler Abbatiello – Drums
Josh Smith – Lead Guitar
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to HereComeHere? How long has the band been around?
Tom was in a band in high school called “K” but was mostly involved in solo acoustic gigs prior to forming HereComeHere. Josh’s background comes mostly from hard rock and metal bands, most notably with Amongst Villains from 2011 to 2013. Bryce’s high school band Out of Exile had a large local following and he continues to write and record solo music under the pseudonym Bryce Arthur. Tyler has been performing with various jazz and concert ensembles for years and is a graduate of the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts, although HereComeHere is his first original band.
HereComeHere was formed in 2012 by Tom and original guitarist Mike Malowski, with Tyler and Bryce joining shortly thereafter. Josh joined the band in 2014 when Mike stepped down.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
“HereComeHere” comes from the band’s original guitarist, who is from Herkimer, NY. When the band was first formed, it was called “Demos” (pronounced dee-moes) and one of the first songs written was titled “HereComeHere,” which, with a slurred mispronunciation, becomes Herkimer. Before the first EP was released, the name of the band was changed to “HereComeHere” and the song’s title became “Wax & Wane.”
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
Originally our songs came from Tom and our original guitarist Mike. Since then, Bryce has become one of the main songwriters for the band. He comes to us with an idea for a song and we all add our own parts and influence to the songs to make a finished product. As for the themes, it really depends on what’s going on at the time we write the song. We draw from everyday circumstances; moving to new places, falling in love, failed relationships, current world events, and sometimes just whatever sounds good. There’s quite a lot happening in the world today and with all of us individually, and this upcoming album holds heavy influence from many of these categories. When the band first started, we were a very pop-punk band and have since evolved into a heavier, but still catchy, hard rock sound. We’re sure that will continue to change. It’s all about evolving and growing with our music, and putting it all in a package that relates to the individuals listening.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
We all feel a heavy sonic connection to bands like Chevelle and Deftones, individually we all have our own personal inspirations. Josh credits a lot of his guitar playing to the huge guitar riffs of bands like Royal Blood, and his lead work to old-school guitar heroes like Mark Tremonti, Zakk Wylde, and Kirk Hammett. Tom credits a lot of personal inspiration to Brandon Boyd of Incubus, and Alkaline Trio. Bryce’s current inspirations are very eclectic and include “anti-melodic” vocals of artists like Soul Coughing, Daniel Johnston, Cake, and Chronic Future. For this newest album, Tyler drew a lot of inspiration from various solo percussion artists.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
We all have our own individual moments that inspired us to be musicians - for Josh it was watching old home videos of Metallica and Pantera, for Tom it was an Alkaline Trio concert with his brother, Bryce grew up following Breaking Benjamin around on tour with his friends and mother, and Tyler just loves getting to play music with his friends.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …
Bryce has a strict ritual of really bad puns, and “That’s what she said” jokes. Josh likes to run scales and fretting exercises to warm up, usually with stuff that’s way more complicated that what we actually play. You’ll usually find Tom in some isolated place making weird sounds, trying to warm up his pipes, stretching and doing some guitar warm ups. Most of Tyler’s stretching is focused on his forearms, as well as rudiments and sticking exercises. Occasionally, we all get together and run through a few songs together, unplugged, to prepare ourselves.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
We’re split between two things for our biggest highlight for the band, the first is when we won the 2015 Madison Theater Band Challenge here in Cincy; we beat out over 80 very talented bands in the area and took what we thought was an upset victory in front of roughly 1,000 people including our closest friends and family. The crowd was huge and everyone in the whole venue was pumped. The energy on stage and in the crowd that night was amazing. The other is this latest record; we thought we were making another EP, just 5 or 6 songs, but we came out the other side with just too many songs NOT to put out a full length album. We worked the hardest we’ve ever worked on this record and are incredibly proud to be releasing it.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
Incubus, Chevelle, Rage Against the Machine, and Seether just because it would be awesome to tour bands that we’re heavily influenced by and grew up listening to. It would also be cool to tour with Every Time I Die, because those dudes know how to party.
Is the album cover a reference to Alice In Chains' The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here? Because the covers are very similar.
They look remarkably similar, but it wasn’t intentional or even conscious. If you listen to our music, it’s obvious that we draw influence from Alice In Chains and other heavy-grunge bands of the 90s and early 2000s, but the cover was entirely coincidence. None of us were aware of Alice In Chain’s artwork until after we had our CD’s printed. We actually went through several ideas for the cover before we settled on the final design. Ultimately, what we landed on for the record personifies an extinction-level event that is universally understood and visually embodies the theme of the record. This ties in with the album title of Chernobyl in that the message is one of a man-made extinction.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
First, we want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk with you!
Additionally, this is probably overstated, but most people don’t realize right away what it takes to build and maintain a band. It’s a lot of work and it’s not always easy! It’s not just playing music, it’s running a business and thinking about the financials, marketing, and so much more. We couldn’t be happier with where we’re at and have our fans to thank for that. We have an awesome family of fans that grows every day and they keep us inspired to continue. We ran an Indiegogo campaign for our album and didn’t know what to expect, but ended up exceeding our goal. That was refreshing and reassuring to know we have amazing people supporting us and we can’t thank them enough. To all our new listeners, thanks for checking us out and hopefully we’ll see you at a show soon!