A Dirty Dozen with BRADLEY SCHULTZ from THE CORRUPTED HEARTS – August 2023

According to a recent press release: “The Corrupted Hearts are an Alternative Rock Band out of Columbus, Ohio. Formally known as Inverso, the band is fronted by singer/guitarist Bradley Schultz. Rounding out the group are bassist Jeff Sionnach, guitarist Adam Harrington, and drummer Thom Chakra. In 2022, Schultz set out to complete the album he had started in 2011 back in the Inverso days. Given the passage of time, Schultz needed to recruit new band members. The current lineup came to be after several personnel changes, which has helped The Corrupted Hearts find their sound. Their 2022 album Smile With Your Eyes was recorded and produced by Schultz. It was mixed and mastered by Glenn Davis in Columbus, Ohio. They have plans to release their second full length album by the end of 2023, which will be entitled Long Winter Blues.” We get Bradley discuss new music, influences, and more.

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

Our newest single is called “We Dug A Ditch & Laid Down”. It comes out September 29th on streaming services. We released the music video for it last week. We had so much fun making the music video. We rented an old farm with a few creepy barns on it in our hometown of Delaware, OH. We shot the whole thing in under 4 hours. It was 95 degrees and humid that day, so we’re all sweating through our clothes the whole time. You’ll notice I’m also wearing a warm leather jacket in some of the scenes. I kept yelling over to Jeff (bass player) to throw me a towel in-between takes. I kept yelling, “Towel boy! Where’s my towel boy?”

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I had 2 friends in middle school that played drums and bass. They brought a kick, snare and hi-hat and a bass with a small amp to my 14th birthday party. They taught me how to play “Good” by Better Than Ezra on bass that day. I was instantly hooked. I’m left handed, but my dad had a crappy acoustic guitar that was right handed in his closet that he never played. The next day after my party, I started learning how to play chords upside down. I turned on MTV and would sit there trying to learn Green Day songs. That’s how I started playing. I actually learned to play guitar upside down first.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

We’re all children of the 90’s in our band. I was obsessed with Scott Weiland from STP. I tried to sing like him and I think some of that stuck at an early age. I loved Kurt Cobain because he was another Blonde left handed guitarist/vocalist. I loved Silverchair’s Freak Show Album. That’s still my favorite album to this day. Ok Computer came out when I was 15 years old and I pretty much got lost in that album for a long time.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

I would pick a rapper. I love doing cross-genre stuff. One of my favorite hip hop artists right now is J Cole.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour?  What do you like to do to unwind?

I play hockey twice a week. I lift weights. I’m very active. My wife and I have been getting into trail cycling. We’ll do 30-40 miles at a time. We found a place that serves waffle fries, so we usually stop for that half way.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

We have influences from the 90’s grunge and hard rock days. We would’ve fit in nicely in 1994 with Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains and Smashing Pumpkins. I think our sound is unique enough to stand out today. We write 3 minute pop format songs. There are heavy metal elements mixed with jazz chords. I’m focused on dynamics. I’ll scream in the same song that has a I vi IV V7 chord progression. To me the most important thing by far is the song writing. People have told me several times that I have the same speaking voice as Michael Cera. They are not wrong. I hear it too. I just don’t want it to be true. I wish I sounded like Brad Pitt or Jason Momoa. No one wants to sound like Michael Cera.

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

We just did a cookout at Jeff’s (Bass Player) house not too long ago. Tom (Drummer) is the outgoing one who brings the beer. Jeff, Adam (guitarist) and I are all pretty much shut ins. We love playing Acoustic songs around a fire. Adam and Jeff’s kids love our songs and will sit there calling out what to play next. They sing along. Apparently our core fan base is 6-10 year olds. Sherri (Adams wife) will call out pop songs and we’ll mess around with those. She’s the one that made us put out “Blinding Lights’ by the Weekend last month. That was her idea.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

I get star struck easily. I love celebrities. I was just in Brooklyn with my wife. We saw Gemaine Clement from Flight of the Concords at our hotel. My wife saw him first and was like “Don’t be weird, but look over there.” So I got creepy and started staring. My wife doesn’t even want to tell me when stuff like this happens because I don’t know how to act like a human.

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The best part about being a musician is the feeling of being onstage with your friends when it goes really well and the crowd is having fun. It’s such an insane adrenaline rush. It’s so hard to calm down and go to sleep after that. I am a retired master plumber. I sold my company in 2022. Music is my full time job now, but I gave up music entirely for a decade to raise my kids and provide for my family. I don’t believe music should be a job for 99.9% of the population. Music is art and it doesn’t have to be commercial art. There’s nothing bad about having a career and also playing music for the art of it.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

I’ve always wanted an interviewer to ask, how did you get so beautiful? Why are your eyes so blue and did it hurt, when you fell from heaven? I just want to get hit on, you know? Guys just need compliments. We rarely get them in our lives. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the music is cool and all, but just tell me I’m pretty, you know? I don’t really like answering the question, “Who does your band sound like?” And I know listeners want to discover us based on the artists that they are familiar with. I get that. Of course our music sounds like other music. I just don’t want to be the one to categorize our own music. If you think we sound like Deftones and Radiohead, that’s fine. But we spent a lifetime finding our own voice that is separate from our influences. We are focused on what makes us unique, not what makes us the same as everybody else. With that being said, we sound like Deftness & Radiohead.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Yeah I recently got grilled for making a meme about Donald Trump’s mug shot. I turned it into a fake album cover for our new album that comes out in December. I got a bunch of nut jobs sending me death threats. Apparently it wasn’t funny to everybody. (I still thought it was funny). Regardless, the band has decided collectively to stay out of politics and religion online. We should be pushing a message of unity during polarizing times like these. Music is where people who disagree on everything can still come together and be on the same frequency for a minute.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

If I’m going back in time magically, I’m taking my Apple M2 Laptop, UAD interface and all my insane plugins, and Ableton 11 with me. Can you imagine what John Lennon would do if he had access to all the audio stuff we have now? I would go back to Abby Road with my treasure trove of magical future audio equipment, and the world would never be the same. I’m still looking to Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band for inspiration. John Lennon’s voice on that record is still my ideal vocal sound, and it pretty much always has been.

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Category: Interviews