Today we’d like to introduce you to Herald K.
Hi Herald, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I really became a musician only as an adult. But I’ve had a passion for listening to music since I was a kid. My grandparents’, and later my parents’, vinyl record players were sources of infinite fascination. There were some children’s records around, but they all paled in comparison to Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley and Ry Cooder! I mean, even though you’re only six: once you’ve heard ‘Lonesome, On’ry and Mean’, ‘Hound Dog’, and ‘The Girls From Texas’, how could you wanna go back to kiddies’ stuff again?
Fast forward to my adult life in Austria: Through this same musical interest, I had started hanging out more and more with people connected to the Americana music scene here in Vienna, where I now live. For some years I only took part as a listener and concertgoer. Then one evening, a few years ago, I was given the chance to perform a couple of songs at a tribute concert. It was a surreal experience. Suddenly I was playing amongst people I had only gone to see as a fan until then. Of course, they were all at a higher level than me, but I managed to get through the songs without any major mishaps, and so that evening felt like quite a step forward for me.
2022 was also an important year. I released 3 singles, received some international media attention, and got to play a double concert with Canadian singer-songwriter Freeman Dre at a good music venue in Hamburg, Germany.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I’ve had lots of struggles along the way. Obviously, when you’re starting out and have no experience, some people are gonna ignore that you’re on a developing path, and find what you’re doing silly. Yet, you’ve got to do it. In order to improve, you’ve got to perform. There’s also a lot of ghosting going on. You try to book a gig or pitch your music to somebody, and don’t even get an answer a lot of the time. I’ve gotta say though: Rejections like that are probably what motivates me the most to improve as an artist!
And it’s hard work, working on your craft, but also all the other tasks connected to it. To me though, it’s all ultimately worth it. Creating and performing songs is an immensely gratifying experience. You get to share something special with a lot of people. It’s rewarding…
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I call the music I do ‘Folk Noir’. It’s a fairly new genre (I didn’t coin the term). But it describes my style well: Folk captures the folksy, down-to-earth aspect of the music, and Noir indicates that it’s often melancholic, and lyric-driven, like say, a Humphrey Bogart Film Noir would also be quite ‘scripted’.
I play the acoustic guitar, sing, and write songs. Sometimes I perform alone, and sometimes I join up with other musicians who play violin, accordion, harmonica, bass, mandolin, or other instruments. Occasionally I’m joined by harmony singers. I’ve recorded a couple of duets.
The proudest moments are probably when you’ve just finished a song that you feel has something to it. That tends to be a lonesome moment of pride, though… You wait till you’ve learnt the song well before playing it for others. Keep it secret for a while. I read a John Prine interview once where he talked about just that: walking around with a smile on his face knowing he had a good song no one else knew existed yet!
I like writing songs that connect to old literature. I guess that’s a kinda unusual thing, that some perhaps find noticeable about me. Using ancient writers like say, Ovid or Homer, as sources of inspiration. Even though they wrote their stuff a long time ago, a lot of what they had to say was timeless and resonates well also in our day and age.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I’ve never been to LA, but it is of course a part of my consciousness, and probably a bigger part of my unconscious. Off the top of my head LA is a lot about people like Raymond Chandler and Robert Altman for me. Both of them seem to cultivate a kind of nostalgia specifically connected to your city. They also hold nothing back when portraying the vanity and dark side of LA life, so you kind of learn a lot about both sides of the coin through them. Coming to think about it, Tom Waits seems to be another brilliant and witty portrayer of that city of Angels. ‘Nighthawks at the Diner’ has some of that, and is certainly one of my favourite albums of all time… Like those first two, he also has a special knack for painting that shadowy and surreal side of things…
Then of course there would be a whole host of actors, actresses, film directors and places I ought to mention, but the list would get quite long, and I would surely leave some out unfairly, so I’ll end by saying LA has taken on a kind of abstract almost mythical character to me, like I’m sure it has to millions of other people around the world too, who, like me, have also never been there physically. I’d love to go there one time though, but not for too long, as I wouldn’t wanna crush my imaginary image of the city by too much reality…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://heraldkmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heraldkmusician
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeraldKMusic
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeraldK12
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6jvicZrbeYyFjS83ZPRSBw
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/heraldk
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1rG4pmrcpdK5cmkqFDVXRk
Image Credits
All non-stage photos: (c) Funky Eye Group of four in front of red curtain: (c) Martin Winzisch At Music Star with Freeman Dre and Othmar Loschy: (c) Katharina Kafka
