An Interview With Cyberattack
A new release from Cyberattack takes a pop rock classic and brings things into a synth-driven electronic pop soundscape but does so without losing any of the heart or charm that the original had.
"Listen To Her Heart" is an absolute love letter to its original creator and manages to bring things into such a current platform without a hitch.
Everything about this track is so seamless and shows so much character that you find yourself drawn to it almost immediately.
For those of you that don't know, the single is originally recorded and written by Tom Petty and was somewhat of a hit for its time.
Now, there's of course a million different ways to cover a song If you would, but this is done with such attention to detail and such an intriguing style and approach that you find yourself listening to it again as soon as it's ended.
For those of you that know the song, you'll recognize it almost immediately but if not, soon as those vocals come in you'll get it.
This was produced extremely well and sounds like it was a blast to do.
There are a few layers to this track but there's something also quite subtle about it and I think this is because the artist didn't want to stray too far from the formula while still producing something that was completely different and refreshing at the same time.
He absolutely pulled it off and did so with a great presence and love for the craft that you can hear oozing out of every note on this release.
Yes, the melodies stuck and the arrangement stock, all that. But this is original. This is a different approach to covering a rock song and it's because it's so bright and vibrant with these textures that are slightly edgy but also have such color to them.
The song was wonderfully woven and well thought out.
The only thing that makes this track even better, is the accompanying music video that was done for it which is somehow absolutely perfect for the song itself.
Being able to take something old and bring it into a new Arena takes a little bit of foresight and just a knack for creating without so many boundaries.
Cyberattack is an excellent example of all of these things because this is obviously done as a passion project.
This is something you can just tell by listening to it alone and when you hear stuff like that it immediately wraps itself around you and keeps you right where it wants to.
For me to explain the music video would be borderline pointless so it's embedded below. Definitely just give it a watch because it's one of the best ways to listen to the song anyway.
With the release of such a fun and honorable single, we wanted to have a sit down with the artist just to see what inspired him to do this and what might be coming up next for the artist as well.
Here's what happened.
TSWS: Okay Ivan, let's start with "Listen To Her Heart"! This cover was unique and really quite a clever take on the original! How did this idea come about?
You know how at the end of the movie The Shining, you don't really know what just happened, but it seemed like it must be something really important and terrifying? That's the vibe I wanted to get, both for the song itself, and the music video. By the end, I want it to seem like this giant, incomprehensible message has been beamed directly into your brain, and now it's your problem.
TSWS: How did this all start for you as an artist? When did you fall in love with music?
When I was a kid, I used to hear the Smashing Pumpkins on the radio, and it was completely fascinating to me. I remember not even knowing whether the singer was a girl or a boy, when I was really little. But that was part of what knocked me out. It just felt like the band was operating on levels that I had never imagined. The sound of the music itself, the emotional stuff going on, the vocals, all of it felt like a new version of reality, and I couldn't fully understand it yet, but I wanted to enter it. That was the beginning of me being obsessed with music.
TSWS: What kind of things really inspire songs for you?
I like to start with the title whenever possible. Like I can usually hang on for as long as it takes to finish a song if I feel like the title is worth it. I can't always explain why, but sometimes I'll hear something, and I'll just decide it has to be a song title, and then I'll agonize over how to write an entire song based on it. Doing it that way is actually less agonizing for me than writing a song without a title—I try to do that sometimes, and I never feel like I know what I'm doing. There are just certain phrases that have the "song title" quality, and I'm way more confident during the whole process if I feel like I'm sitting on one of those. Ya know, like "I Want You to Want Me." It's so clear that the title is supposed to be the title.
OK but then when it comes to picking which song to cover, I have to feel like I can sing it without rewriting my personality. It has to have the sort of basic melodies I can do, and it has to have the basic attitude that is my attitude. On the instrumental side, I feel like I can make anything sound like anything—any cover song can be rearranged a million ways, that part is always wide open. But the lyrics and melodies have to be doable for me, and since I have major limitations as a singer, this is what narrows it down.
TSWS: This single has some great style combinations on it! Maybe Tom Petty is an influence for you? Can you give us some of your biggest influences musically?
Tom Petty is definitely an influence, especially vocally. He could do this charismatic-loser thing that I have a soft spot for, like in "You Got Lucky" or "Don't Do Me Like That." He sounds like he's on the verge of tears, but he's fighting through it. It just adds some extra heartbreak and tough love to his songs, which I try to steal whenever I can.
Then in terms of music videos, I still get wrecked when I think about something like "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinead O'Connor, where it's just her staring into the camera the whole time. If you can be that hardcore, then you don't need anything else. I wish I had the guts to make a music video like that, and to become that killer, as a singer and performer. But there is a thing I think I'm doing that was inspired by her, which is just to commit fully to whatever the idea is, and then go as hard as I can into the idea, with zero hesitation. So like if I make a video that's about being inside a calculator, then I want it to be the most vivid, intense calculator music video of all time. Or if I make a music video about being a teenager and wrecking people's lawns in the suburbs, then I want it to be the most gloomy, hazy, angsty music video about wrecking lawns ever. I want all my music videos to be so specifically about one thing that by the end it feels like too much of the thing.
TSWS: What are you doing when you're NOT working on music?
I like to watch YouTube videos where people explain how they got insanely high scores on old video games, by abusing various glitches and absolutely destroying how the game was meant to be played. That is a huge source of inspiration for me.
TSWS: Who's in your headphones right now?
L'Rain. I also play guitar in my friend Fusilier's band, and we recently did a show opening for L'Rain, and that made me listen to all her stuff again. Super cool and very inspiring, just makes me want to be more creative and do more music.
TSWS: Are you doing any live performances right now?
For sure. I've reassembled the Cyberattack live band and plan to play shows for the 2nd half of this year. The goal is to try out the new material I'm writing for the next Cyberattack album and make some decisions about how all those songs should go, using the live shows as the final test.
TSWS: What kind of recording set up do you have to create a track like this?
On this particular song, it was all low-tech. Like, very low-tech. If I can make something sound cool in GarageBand, I'll just stay in GarageBand, because it helps me avoid overthinking stuff. I did switch to ProTools for the vocals, but most of this song was me messing around in GarageBand and trying to push that artificial, junk food vibe as hard as I could. Probably the fanciest piece of gear I used was the vocal microphone (Mojave MA-200, for anybody who cares about this). The real reason I got away with any of it is that it was mixed by my producer, Geoff Stanfield, and mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant Mastering, and they were able to make everything sound pro.
TSWS: The video was so cool! Did you do that yourself as well?
Thanks, I did it all with my buddy John Marty, who collaborates with me on basically every video I make. Usually we just rent a studio with a green screen for a day, and then we film me lip-syncing whatever song we're trying to do, and then we figure out what to replace the green screen with later. At this point, the hardest part, by far, is coming up with new things for me to do in front of the camera. Like what do I do with my arms while I'm singing? Impossible question, just completely impossible. I ran out of moves 2 or 3 music videos ago, and I've gotten through every shoot since then on sheer panic. Sometimes I think about taking a beginner dance class so that I could learn to have ideas again.
TSWS: What can your fans expect from you in the near future?
I vowed to make a music video for every song on my last album, and after finishing this latest music video, there's only one song left—"I Just Wanna Talk." So I must make that video, and then I must begin recording the next album. I feel pretty good about the new songs, but I'm worried about how I'm gonna make more music videos after this one. I honestly feel like "Listen to Her Heart" is the final, most perfect demonstration of what a Cyberattack music video should look like, so I really have to come up with some new ideas now, which is terrifying. Basically I live in fear.
TSWS: Before we go, what would you like to say to fans of the music?
Thank you for supporting me when I release hostile cover songs that devolve into several minutes of noise.
