These Hearts: 'Yours To Take' Pre-Release Interview With Vocalist, Ryan Saunders [Exclusive Interview]

These Hearts, lead vocalist Ryan Saunders spoke to us earlier today about the band's upcoming album, 'Yours To Take,' which is set to be released on July 9.  He also spoke briefly about the band's most recently single, released earlier today (July 2) entitled, 'Been Through Hell.'  In addition, he spoke about other aspects of his life and life with the band.

Q: What are you the most excited about your upcoming album 'Yours To Take' (releasing on July 9, 2013)?

A: Just to get the audience's feedback I would say, to just see what it does, who ends up hearing it, how well it does and just overall an audiences feedback.

Q: What would you say is the overarching theme of this album?

A: I would say every song on the album has a different element and has kind of a different meaning behind it, so i don't know if there's overall much of a theme.  More so just, it's, you know, the last two years of my life put into lyrical form and putting it on album that's kind of how we came up with 'Yours To Take' I guess.

Q: In your recently released Part 3 of your studio diary you spoke about 'focusing songs around a great chorus'.  What chorus is that?

A: Okay, yea.  Each song has the chorus, which I usually call like the main point of the song and what you want the audience to get from the song, and you basically come up with something that you can get a listener to grab onto and to latch onto and just kind of organize it around a point in the song and then you kind of write the verses and the lyrics, everything supporting and leading up to those points. 

Q: Where do you draw most of your musical inspiration?

A: Instrumentally, I would say bands that we love and bands that we listen to or grew up listening to and lyrically, just every day life.  We have some songs about faith and other songs are just about relationships or other certain topics, it's all just randomly whatever I'm dealing with or whatever I'm going through at the time, that's, you know, what you write about.

Q: You mentioned the bands that you guys listen to.  Do you have specific ones that really inspire you guys musically?

A: Our entire band likes bands like Blink 182 and Taking Back Sunday and Underoath and Senses Fail.  We love regular bands and we love Christian bands too.

Q: In the Part 1 of your studio diary for the upcoming album, your drummer, Isaiah, said that you guys received a lot of negative comments for your last album.  Can you tell me a little bit about that?  

A: Yea, basically we got signed and we had already recorded the album before we got signed and once Victory released it there was a lot of, I mean we ended up getting a lot of positive feedback too but, just a lot of criticism.  People on the internet love to just write hate or write whatever they're feeling without thinking anything is going to come back to them.  But there was a lot of people, you know, we're the biggest fans of our last album and, so far, this album, all of the feedback has been really good.

Q: What kind of negative things did they point out about the album?

A: It's things that are ridiculous, because we released a music video first and the top ones are we all look like girls because we had long hair, or stuff like that.  It was just people hating for the sake of hating I guess, you know, people love to do it.

Q: Now Isaiah had mentioned that you were able to grow from that, so I was wondering if it was anything that helped you to discover how you could do things differently based on the feedback?

A: Oh yea, I mean, some of it was that because people have pointed out, you know, I'm trying to sing to high or the recording quality is really bad, and we just kind of take what they say and we learn from it.  Yea, it was kind of a learning experience and, also, our band never really received much criticism before until we got singed and then we just kind of got overloaded with it so we just kind of rolled with the punches and learned from the criticism.  We were like, 'alright, well I guess we'll take the next step,' you know?

Q: How is this album different from albums in the past?

A: The biggest difference is recording quality.  This one just sounds leaps and bounds better.  He really captured what sounds like the best parts of my voice and we got the best takes and so the vocals sound way better, instrumentals sound way better and I would say the songs are a lot more thought out and it's just better written."

Q: What would you say is your favorite song on the upcoming album and why?

A: My favorite song is a song called 'Birds of a Feather' and it's probably the catchiest song on the album.  The reason I like that song so much is that's the kind of music that I enjoy and so when I wrote that song I was really excited about it because it's more, I guess, mainstream but also very catchy.

Q: What kind of message does that song relay?  Is it the message that you like or just the fact that it's catchy?

A: The message of that song, I thought it would be cool.  Every kid growing up struggles with relationships, so I just kind of wrote that song about that.  But more so, just, the instrumentals are fun.  It just has a good vibe to it, a good beat, you know, great chorus, that type of thing.

Q: How do the band members' small-town backgrounds make an impact on your music?

A: I think it drove us to push harder because all of us grew up in these small towns having these big dreams and we're not willing to give up that easily because we're putting everything into this and so it just drove us to push that much harder I think, and we all had pretty hard work ethics growing up I think.

Q: How does your Christian background play a role in your music?

A: The goal of our band is definitely to kind of use our music and our live performance and, most of all I would say, our personal relationships with our fans to spread God's glory.  And it effects some of the songs, like I said not all of the songs are Christian, but more so the way we live and what we do on the road.  I mean, we're not being stupid out there on the road, we're out there, you know, we know why we're doing it.

Q: What originally inspired you to seek an opportunity in this particular genre of music (pop-punk/ popcore)?

A: We all kind of grew up listening to alternative music and we all grew up going to shows and just loving that scene so when we all formed we knew exactly what we wanted to do.

Q: As a vocalist, do you have to pay close attention to making sure that you're not damaging your voice in the process of performing and recording?

A: Yea, I mean, most importantly I would just say it's when you're recording because the recording is going to capture your voice and you want to sound the best you possibly can for the next, you know, year and a half until you release the next CD.  I just drink tea with a lot of honey in it and that usually does the trick, and not to overuse it obviously.

Q: Let's talk about your new single, 'Been Through Hell.'  What inspired this song?

A: Just touring life and being out on the road and all the hardships that come with tour life and just kind of saying we'd been through hell kind of seemed like an appropriate metaphor for what we were all going through.  Just touring and missing the people back home and dealing with playing shows every day and not showering and not eating and not being taken care of, you know?  

Q: Well hopefully you'll see some improvement on your upcoming tour, right?

A: It will change a little bit, yea, I mean, we still are roughing it a little bit too.  I'd say touring life is never easy, it's just kind of been the last couple of yours I guess.

Q: What kind of response have you gotten from the new single?

A: So far everybody likes it.  It's, I think I would say, more of a pop/punk song, but pretty much all of the feedback has been really positive on it.  It's pretty up-tempo and up-beat and just a feel-good tune with a good chorus, that type of thing.

Q: What do u think fans can expect from you guys in the future (immediate plans/ career ambitions/ etc.)? 

A: Just a lot of touring.  To just keep a look out for us when we come to an area.  As long as people keep supporting us we'll keep doing what we're doing.

Q: So the touring can't be an entirely negative experience for you guys then I guess?

A: Definitely, we definitely love to go out and play shows and meet new people and make new fans and to interact with the old fans.  We definitely love touring, it's kind of like a love/hate thing because you're away from your home and everybody you love and all your family, but at the same time you're out doing what you love and meeting new people.

Q: Is there one song in particular, on any of your albums, that has kind of an impactful story behind it that you'd like to share?

A: I wrote a song about five years ago, I mean that seems like forever ago, but it's called 'Friends Don't Let Friends Die Alone.'  And that song, I had a friend, he got in a drunk driving accident but he was really, really close to death and he just wasn't in great shape and he had no relationship faith or God or anything.  And, basically, I just wrote a song just letting him know that I was for him and that he should just really wake up to reality and just realize what's happening in his life and how serious it is.  And the title kind of says it all, 'friends don't let their friends die alone,' and you're just supposed to be there for your friends and be light in their life and let God use you in their life.

Q: Do you have a favorite Bible verse?

A: On our last record there's one that really stuck out to me.  We actually have a song called 'Romans 15' and Romans 15 Chapter 1, it just goes, 'We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak,' and I just kind of wrote the song strictly about verse/ chapter and how you're supposed to be strong but be there for everybody who needs you and just to lift everybody who falls down, and that type of thing.

Q: What kinds of things do you like to do in your spare time?

A: Hanging out with friends, hanging out with my wife, I'm married, and just getting to spend some time with her and my family and watching movies.  I play sports, I don't know, just the usual I guess, I'm not that interesting, I'm sort of basically in a band.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add about the new album or the band in general?

A: Just that we appreciate our fans support and we hope to see them soon.