Ah, NAMM. It’s one of the biggest trade shows in existence, a veritable mecca for music and gear nerds. Every year thousands upon thousands flock to Anaheim, CA in hopes of seeing some of the latest in music tech, appearances and performances by some of the most reputable artists in the business, and to catch up with friends old and new. We at Heavy Blog would, of course, love nothing more than to send a few of our staffers out there to cover the event and bring back exciting news and interviews from the whole thing. Sadly, none of us lives remotely close to southern CA, and we don’t exactly have the money in the Heavy Blog bank to cover airfare and lodging for people.
So we had pretty much resigned ourselves to completely missing out on the event when the beautiful lads over in Seattle’s A Sense of Gravity came to us with a proposition. They were already planning on attending the show, and they said they would gladly act as correspondents for us if it meant they got to interview and chat with some awesome musicians. And so a beautiful partnership was born!
For three days we had C.J. Jenkins (vocals), Brendon Williams (guitar), and Brandon Morris (keyboards, guitar) traverse the expanses of the convention center and surrounding areas to talk to some of our favorite artists and bands in attendance, check in on what they’ve got planned for the coming year, and get involved in all sorts of shenanigans. In our montage cut you can see the guys talk to members of Arkaik, Painted In Exile, Xanthochroid, Nekrogoblikon, Un, as well as stellar individuals like Ola Englund (Feared, The Haunted), Angel Vivaldi, Leah Woodward (Aliases), and the incomparable Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry, Kaipa). We’ll be releasing full interviews with several of these groups and individuals over the next few days (one does not get pancakes with Per Nilsson and only show a few seconds of it), so stay tuned for that either here or by subscribing to our Youtube channel!
Also, if you noticed the Heavy Blog swag the guys are wearing and are thinking, “Hey, that shirt’s pretty sweet! I’d like to have one!” then you may be in luck! These were just prototypes, but official Heavy Blog shirts for purchase could very well be a reality sometime soon. Stay tuned for updates on that as well!