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I Heart Hiroshima
 Matthew Somers, guitarist and vocalist of I Heart Hiroshima, seemed to be fairly busy when I spoke to him, which seems to be the general vibe around the band at the moment. They are currently promoting their single Punks, touring around Australia, and are set to release their debut album on 11 August. "Sorry I'm running late, my girlfriend was making me take her purse to her at work," Somers claims.
I Heart Hiroshima are soon to release 'Tuff Teef' through Valve Records and with Punks well received around the country, the debut album from this Brisbane indie trio looks promising. "Yeah, actually I was kind of nervous about Punks because it was the last song we wrote before we recorded, and our manager Paul said 'I think we should make this a single' and I was like 'Oh yeah, I like it'. But we've never played it live before so we'll have to figure out if anyone likes it I guess."
The band played the Brisbane stop on the Big Day Out this year, and Somers seems keen to do it all again next year, hopefully after some international touring. "Yeah it was pretty fun actually, it was hot as hell and we played right in the middle of the day. There were tonnes of people there and yeah it was fun. I think we're trying to get on it again next year and trying to play the whole tour, rather than just Brisbane, but we're not really sure what's going to happen. I'd much rather regular shows though; I think I much rather just playing and supporting someone that I really like. There weren't too many bands from the Big Day Out I really wanted to see, except for Lupe Fiasco who came on about an hour late, so I left... I think we're trying to get a release of our album in the UK, and possibly trying to tour Japan or the UK or America. But yeah just trying to get a release in America or the UK, that's probably the big thing, the big obvious thing for us."
Somers, accompanied by band mates Susie Patten (drums, vocals) and Cameron Hawes (guitar, vocals) are set to tour the country with New Zealand punk/rock outfit The Mint Chicks, and he seems to be excited with the prospect of a high-scale national tour. "It's probably the most excited I've ever been about a tour or a group of shows I think. Usually I'll just be like 'yeah all right, whatever'. Touring with The Mint Chicks is actually quite exciting for me, because I really, really like them. I've never even seen them play live before which I think will make it better. We haven't really toured with someone I've been really excited and nervous about before. The one thing I noticed on the last tour we did, when we went to the small town places there were actually about twenty or thirty people coming to the shows, whereas before there would be about five people. So I mean that's a big improvement," Somers laughs.
And what have been some of the highlights for I Heart Hiroshima as far as touring is concerned? "Out of the shows we've played over the last year or so, Ratatat would definitely be number one. We played Sydney and Melbourne with them and they were brilliant and just really nice guys. Mike [Stroud], the guitarist, came on stage and played with us and added another guitar part to one of our songs which was awesome. Broken Social Scene were really good too. Hopefully this tour will go well. I think all of our new songs are pretty much better than all of our old songs, but every band says that I guess. I always wondered why they did that, now I know."
Be sure to catch a glimpse of I Heart Hiroshima over the next month while you still have the chance, because there's no doubt the group will be busy winning over the UK indie scene in no time at all.
Ashley Prigent
I Heart Hiroshima play Sun 12 August with The Mint Chicks at Jive. 'Tuff Teef' is out 11 Aug on Valve/MGM.
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