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The Hero Cycle
By Miriam Lamey
Photo by Patrick Marinello
The Hero Cycle is a small-town band with big aspirations - especially if one considers Burlington, Vermont a small town and believes that recognition, airplay and other perks are a lot to ask for in the independent music realm, particularly for a young band. Yet, The Hero Cycle has perhaps achieved more and propelled their imaginative blend of music further than many of their contemporaries purely through their ambitious, driven mindset. Singer and guitarist Frank Smecker explains: "A lot of bands get comfortable with being a great act in Burlington ... and then they don't push on any further. It really is about how much you care about your music, how much you want to do it and how much work you put behind it. You set a goal and you work towards it." Having recently released their first EP, Lakes and Ponds, through Australia-based Hidden Shoal Records, The Hero Cycle have, in drummer John Gorman's opinion, realized "it's time to spread our wings."
Along with Smecker and Gorman, The Hero Cycle's core members are Mike Prall (guitars and percussion), Tom Kelly (synth and vocals), and Charlie Gerry (bass). The group formed out of a need to explore their own creativity. "Initially, [Frank] wanted to go in a different direction than with what he was doing at the time, which was more aggressive music," explains Kelly. "We all listened to a lot of indie rock, and we all wanted to start something together." Hence The Hero Cycle became an outlet for a new kind of sound. All the band's members feel very positively about their music, a triumph in itself considering the band has been together just over a year. "We are relatively still young," Smecker explains, "and I feel like we are all pretty impressed with how far we've gone." His reasoning? Smecker puts it simply: "Everyone is involved" in the band.
With full input comes profound respect, which all members exude. "With our [separate] parts and with our performance," Gorman says, "there's certain freedom with each member to [go] in certain directions while maintaining the basic structure of the song ... It's focused." He remarks that each member keeps "individual freedom in each part." One would think this multifaceted approach would make for a disorganized cacophony. Yet somehow, The Hero Cycle gathers the elements together to create moody indie rock songs that possess both a poppy and electronic edge, such as on "Lover's Crime". At times, fuzzier vocals almost echo across the keyboards and distorted guitar - especially on "Breathing In." And then, perhaps as a reflection of the band's many contributors, The Hero Cycle changes it up and presents a rockier, bouncy sound with a jarring guitar riff on "American Proxy."
Clearly, pinning down a signature sound can be difficult. Smecker attributes the music's depth and intricacy to a certain level of concealment. "[We're] adding layers to [the music] so the average listener won't really pick up on the fact that it's literally three different interchanging keys," he describes. "There's so much going on within those little progressions."
While The Hero Cycle produces a phenomenal array sounds, there are obvious similarities between this band and Broken Social Scene. In fact, The Hero Cycle describe themselves as "Broken Social Scene meets Built to Spill" on their MySpace page. Yet both Smecker and Gorman are very quick to point out that their intentions are not to mimic influences. "We do have our own unique sound," Smecker states, "[and] as much as there are similarities to Broken Social Scene, it's only an influential similarity." For all their talk of inspiration and musical depth, The Hero Cycle seem to be very audience-oriented as well. Gorman explains, "[We aim] for joyous expression of our music, but it shouldn't be too deep, on some level, to grasp at a show."
The Hero Cycle has fully embraced digital distribution techniques, as evidenced by their significant success on the internet. "We are just as popular on Last.FM as we are in our hometown, which is kind of a cool thing," Prall says. "Now our home community is not only Burlington, it's online." Smecker emphasizes, though, that they still understand the importance of connecting with their global fans. "We've gone out of our way to email and thank them, and that just increases a personal relationship," he explains.
These nice guys from Burlington are currently heard from Toronto to Germany, yet they succeed in maintaining an honest focus in their music.
"Being in a band, it's a tough job to do," Smecker explains, but "It's what [we] love to do." In fact, he aptly concludes, "We all have a common enjoyment of what we do."