H.E.A.T frontman Kenny Leckremo never intended to be a singer. “I started out as a drummer and did that for the longest time,” he says. “It was basically the guys in my band who pushed me into singing.”
He’s made a decent fist of it since, hoisting the melodic rock flag high across four albums with the Swedish band, albeit with a 10-year hiatus in between.
The first music I remember hearing
The first music I remember was Michael Jackson. The Thriller CD was all around me growing up, and I had Dangerous on cassette. It was pop music, but it had elements of everything in there – you had soul and R&B and a bit of rock and all these great melodies.
The first song I performed live
I sang with Deep Purple when they came to our school. They had a music clinic. So one of the first things I did was sing Smoke On The Water with Deep Purple with Steve Morse on guitar. But on stage? It might have been Iron Maiden’s Hallowed Be Thy Name. I was sixteen or seventeen. Did I nail all the notes? In my head I did.
The greatest album of all time
It would probably be [Iron Maiden’s] Piece Of Mind. That was the first album I connected to as a singer. I remember vividly going to my music school on the train – I had a little CD player and I kept listening to that album over and over. It became like a mantra: get on the train, go to school, listen to Piece Of Mind. I know it’s not the best Iron Maiden album, but it means the most to me.
The singer
It would be a mistake for me not to say Bruce Dickinson. I’ve had a lot of temporary love affairs with great singers, but Bruce has been there the longest. The first Iron Maiden album I heard was the first one, with Paul Di’Anno, so I went out and bought anything I could find with ‘Iron Maiden’ on the cover – and it was [the Blaze Bayley-fronted] Virtual XI. But then one of my friends said to listen to The Number Of The Beast, and I was, like: “Who the fuck is that?” It changed me in so many ways.
The drummer
Nicko McBrain, Ian Paice and John Bonham were my big influences. There are other great drummers, but those are the ones I measure everybody else against. They hit the sweet spot between hard rock, heavy metal and jazz, almost.
The songwriter
There’s so many of those. So many beautiful songs out there. There’s too many good ones to mention.
The best live album
It would have to be Iron Maiden’s Rock In Rio. It’s not an album but it’s a DVD, and I’ve watched it more times than I could possibly count. I was really getting into being a singer and playing live, and it was something I watched over and over to see how it was done. Goddamn, there’s a lot of Iron Maiden today.
The best record I've made
The first H.E.A.T. record [H.E.A.T, 2008]. It’s different from what we do now, but people have to understand that we were so young, and it was the first time we had a go at putting our shit down on this spinning object. It made such a massive impact on my life – it gave me everything I have today. Everything comes from that first album.
The worst record I've made
I never make bad records [laughs].
My guilty pleasure
I would say Fleetwood Mac, but they’re cool these days. I sometimes listen N*Sync, Backstreet Boys – they’re boy bands. Hey, I’m in a fucking boy band too.
My cult hero
I guess Sweden is well known for hard rock bands. Europe are the most famous, but there were loads of other bands who came up at the same time, like Alien. They were a great band who were pretty big in Sweden.
The most underrated band ever
Kansas. Some people see them as a prog-rock band, and that’s part of what they do, but it’s so much more than that. Their music is a celebration of so many different genres and styles, and there are so many instruments filling the space – violin, flute, all kinds of stuff. And when [original vocalist] Steve Walsh was in his prime there wasn’t anyone better than him.
My Saturday night party song
I’m going to say Survivor’s Didn’t Know It Was Love. I’ve partied to it, I’ve gone road-tripping to it. It fits all occasions.
The song that makes me cry
Can I say Cry, from the first H.E.A.T album. It’s a ballad, and it’s always been loaded with emotion for me ever since we did it. I remember playing the demo version to people and they would say: “Oh my god, that is so great”, and I was so proud. It was a defining moment for me. Every time I sing it live I have to control my emotions, and it’s hard.
The song I want played at my funeral
[Monty Python’s] Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life. I really believe that as a philosophy. For me, this life is fucking awesome - I get to play music and sing on stage and do all this cool shit. When my time comes, I don’t want people to think things are shit.
H.E.A.T. have upcoming shows in Europe and Australia. For dates and tickets, visit the H.E.A.T website.
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