Kenny Leckremo is a man with no ‘off’ switch. H.E.A.T’s ebullient frontman arrived only seconds ago, yet here he is, beaming a thousand-watt smile. “Let me get rid of this jacket, I’m burning up,” he says, shrugging off his leather without breaking his verbal stride.
He’s currently on the road as part of his side hustle as guest singer with power metallers Avantasia, but today his enthusiasm is focused on his regular band’s gleaming new album Welcome To The Future, his second record with the Swedish hard rock champions since rejoining in 2020 after the departure of Erik Grönwall, who replaced him a decade earlier.
The album is called Welcome To The Future. What does the future look like through H.E.A.T’s eyes?
We called it that because this album doesn’t really care what came before it. Force Majeure [Leckremo’s first album since rejoining] was a great album, but it had to live up to [Erik Gronwall’s 2019 swansong] H.E.A.T. II, whereas this one is unapologetic. It doesn’t give a shit. This is how we are moving forward.
Ghost are basically a hair-metal band these days. Are you a bit jealous that they’ve stolen your thunder?
Ach, I left jealousy behind a long time ago. Today, the more noise we can make as a community, the better. I don’t care if a band gets on this radio station or gets this many thousands of people to their gigs. What matters is that we get the message to younger generations who don’t even know what rock’n’roll music is. I’ll go to the gym and put some music on, and someone will come up to me and say: “What the hell is this?’’ And I’m like: “What are you talking about? It’s Survivor! How do you not know this?!”
H.E.A.T, Ghost, Europe, ABBA, Max Martin - why are Swedes so good at writing massive tunes?
It’s the weather. For most of the year, it’s grey, it’s cold, it’s snowing, it’s dark. You’re loath to go outside. So what do you do? You shack up inside and write music to cheer yourself up and make you feel good. I bet you most of those songs were written in the dark.
Have rock bands become too apologetic and forgotten how to write tunes these days?
It’s not just in rock, it’s in every genre. I guess people associate it with a ‘retro’ style of music. In H.E.A.T we’re not apologetic or retro, we love that kind of music. We’re not going to do some sort of hip-hop or EDM song for the sake of pushing boundaries. All the old-school bands we looked up to knew exactly who they were.
Is it tough to get noticed as a straight-ahead hard rock band in 2025?
Rock is definitely a little bit underground at this moment. It’s definitely not the centre of attention. You’re always going to have AC/DC and Iron Maiden and Springsteen, but regular rock bands aren’t gonna have the same space in the media as your Taylor Swifts. But it’s exciting right now. There are a lot of great fucking bands just waiting to reach that big audience. And there is a big audience for rock music, it’s just about reaching through the noise.
What would you say to someone who thinks H.E.A.T are cheesy?
I love cheese! It’s great on a sandwich. And maybe on a speaker system too. No, it’s a bit weird when somebody says they don’t like such and such a band cos they’re cheesy. Whatever. Just listen to the music and come see us fucking live and then tell me it’s cheesy.
One of the reasons you originally left H.E.A.T was because you were diagnosed with a heart condition. Is that still a factor in your life?
It’s all in the past. I was born with a condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, which didn’t really manifest itself in a bad way until I got older. It’s a rare condition, but you get it operated on and get it fixed, and you have to hope it doesn’t come back.
When you were out of the band, were there times when you thought you might rejoin?
Of course. I’m not gonna lie, a few years after I left, I thought it would be amazing to work with the guys again, whether it was in H.E.A.T or something else. And then Erik was, like: “I’ve had enough of this.” The guys told me: “We’re gonna ask Kenny if he wants to come back, and if he doesn’t then maybe we say fuck this shit”.
Have you ever met Erik?
Yeah, and there’s nothing but love and respect there. If any weird vibes existed between us, it would have been when we were much younger and we didn’t get the opportunity to get to know each other. He’s a great fucking guy, and he’s part of this band for ever, whether he likes it or not. He was in the band for ten years. You can’t just erase that shit.
So when do you and Erik team up for a song together?
You can never say never. I’m a big fan of what he does, and he thinks what I do is pretty good as well. So yeah, it’s something that could happen in the future.
You were a boxer when you were younger. Do you still box?
That was a very small percentage of my sporting career. I only boxed for a short time. I was actually an ice hockey player. Can I still play? I think I could still work some magic on the ice.
H.E.A.T have the best hair in rock today. But if one of you went bald, would you kick the guy out, or make him wear a wig?
No, you can look however you want to, man. Personally, if it started going tits-up here [points to luxuriant barnet] I’d just shave it off. Is there room for bald people in H.E.A.T? Fuck yeah!
Welcome To The Future is out now via earMUSIC.
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