Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Pearson of HeartByrne
Hi Josh, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
HeartByrne was formed in 2011 as a “Hoot Night” at Momo’s in Austin with several local bands: Jabarvy, Moving Matter & The Trim, playing tribute to the music of Talking Heads. At the end of the night, the bands collaborated with a supergroup, which then went on to become HeartByrne.
They did it again next year as the not yet named supergroup, at Antone’s and had a line of 200 people outside the venue. They realized they had something special and decided to name the band HeartByrne and start playing more than once a year.
Over the years, the lineup evolved. The three remaining founding members are Josh Pearson (guitar), Evan Bozarth (bass) & Dustin Bozarth (keys). Darin Murphy is the lead singer, Casey Byars on drums, Grego Loboz on percussion and Erin Stein on backup vocals.
The band has an energetic take on the Talking Heads, merging the structure and form of their music with an exploratory improvisational touch. Several of the members came from a jamband influence with the band Phish, and have incorporated the philosophy that every night is a unique show.
The band has grown well outside of Austin and Texas, stretching to Colorado, the midwest, the northwest and the southeast. The band recently played FIBArk Whitewater Music Festival in Salida, CO to an attendance of 6,000 highly energetic fans.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
About 6 years into the life of the band, there were some lineup changes. As close friends that created the group together, it was challenging to part ways, musically, but the band continued on.
About 2 years ago, the founding lead singer, Andy Harn, decided to step away to be with family, having had his 2nd kid at the time. Finding someone who could fill his big suit, was a big challenge, but we got very lucky finding Darin Murphy, who has far exceeded our expectations.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We love getting the opportunity to recreate this amazing music. We love that we get to put our own artistic take on it at times and create an energetic evening of joy. The community that has grown around this band has been wonderful. Our fans are so appreciative and connected to the music, dancing and smiling most of the night. It’s very inpsiring.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I’m a big fan of the moment and how it truly encompasses everything. It’s the truest thing that matters. So, with that in mind, I think that success is really about being present. Whether that’s happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, etc, I find that I’m most successful when I’m present with those emotions. Having a band of 7 members, involves 7 very unique relationships, individually, and then an exponential amount when combined in different groups. There’s a plethora of emotions that comes with those relationships and interactions and I feel the band is the most successful by sharing them with each other and holding space for each other while processing them. I think we do a great job of this and because of it, have grown to really enjoy playing music together. To me, that’s success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heartbyrne.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/heartbyrneatx
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/heartbyrne
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/heartbyrneatx
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/heartbyrne
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/heartbyrne
Image Credits
Trent Grogan
Stephen Olker
