Exactly 2,283 miles east of LA, 583.2 miles West of New York, 459.1 miles southeast of Chicago, and 337.3 miles north of Nashville; on the border of Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, lies the precise middle of nowhere. It’s not the place the ‘Industry’ normally goes to find the elusive ‘Next Big Thing.’ It’s a pity, really. There is no telling how much greatness is left to toil away unnoticed in tiny youth rooms of tiny Baptist churches; in small town high school auditoriums and solitary National Guard armories.
Our Heart’s Hero formed out of necessity when two friends from just such a small town in the middle of nowhere decided that somebody needed to be playing some inspired rock ‘n’ roll.
“In the small town area where we lived there weren’t a lot of great worship bands around,” explains front man, Nick Joyce. “Christian radio didn’t exist in our town. All we had was the junk on MTV. We saw a void and thought maybe we could fill it.”
Still only sophomores in high school, Nick and his buddy Jeremy McKnight, grabbed some other guys and started messing around, eventually developing a sound that was bright and poppy with an underlying rock ‘n’ roll streak, wrapped around a message of hope and encouragement.
While their classmates loved it, their high school administrators didn’t get a witness on it at all. In fact, just months before graduation, they were told to stop playing rock ‘n’ roll, or they would not be allowed to graduate.
“We attended a pretty conservative high school,” Nick laughs. “We understood where they were coming from and wanted to be obedient to the authority that was over us. But some of the local media got hold of the story and started championing the band. In the end, it just made us more popular.”
In the beginning playing in the band was just about having fun, but it seemed God had other ideas.
“All these doors started opening for us to play for youth groups and churches, and the calls started coming from further and further away from our hometown,” Nick recalls. “It just caught on like wildfire.”
The band took their show on the road and soon found themselves playing over 150 shows per year. “The demand for our music got to be so great that we had to make a decision whether we were going to do music as a career or not,” Nick says of the band’s decision to relocate to Music City. “Nashville was a central part of the country as far as touring was concerned. And it was a place where we could learn about the craft of doing music for a living so we wouldn’t have to come home from the road and go to work at McDonald’s.
“I don’t know that the move was necessary, but it took us out of our comfort zone. We came to learn. We wanted to learn the business side of things, and we wanted to learn how to balance the business with the ministry. We didn’t come with an agenda. We just wanted to walk through the doors that God opened.”
And learn they did. Nick and Jeremy added Ricky Holbrook (drums) and Jason Nattier (guitar) to solidify their lineup. The tours got better, and they ended up selling more than 20,000 copies of their indie project out of their trunk, and eventually sharing the stage with rising star bands like The Afters and Mainstay. Our Heart’s Hero capped off 2006 by signing with Gotee Records.
“A lot of our friends say, ‘Wow, all the hard work is finally paying off,’” Nick muses. “But our goal was not to get signed. We don’t measure success by having a record deal. We measure success by the impact we have on people’s lives. That’s all we aimed for. We feel like we’ve been successful from day one. The fact that God continues to open the doors for us is just confirmation that we are moving in the right direction.”
The Our Heart’s Hero live experience is anchored by Ricky keeping time with metronome perfection on the drums. Jason coaxes a range emotion from his guitar, from the sweet melancholy of “Angel’s Song” to the joyful exuberance of “Back to the Cross.” Nick and Jeremy play off of each other like hot and cold, with Jeremy encouraging participation from the crowd while Nick delivers every word of every lyric with conviction and sincerity. Through their dedication to connect and the countless hours spent meeting kids after their concerts, Our Heart’s Hero has developed a diehard fan base; one friend at a time, loyal to the end.
When it came time to record their major label debut, the band teamed up with uber-producer, Brent Milligan (David Crowder, Toby Mac, Stacie Orrico, to name a few), spent a few weeks in the studio, and prepped for the release of their self-titled major label debut on Gotee Records in 2007. Three songs were also produced by Ian Eskelin (Stellar Kart, Krystal Meyers) and mixed by JR McNeely (Relient K, Jeremy Camp). All in all, it was a poignant time for Our Hearts Hero, as a tragic fire in their hometown claimed the lives of nine people including one of their long-time friends and supporters, a young lady named Angel.
“I was in Nashville by myself when I got a phone call,” Nick recalls. “She was only 17. “Being separated from the situation, I didn’t get to be there for the candlelight vigils and times when the community came together to console each other. I stayed up all night, and around 5 AM I picked up my acoustic guitar and just started playing.”
Nick’s spontaneous tribute to their young friend became “Angel’s Song,” and has quickly become a favorite of both the band and their fans. “God does not make mistakes,” Nick insists. “He is completely in control of everything. Angel’s testimony has spread across the state and across the country. People are being impacted by her story even today.”
Fans can expect more of the music they have come to love from Our Heart’s Hero’s live shows; music that is a combination of Nick’s soulful, emotion-laden vocals set against a backdrop of smart and spunky pop-rock melodies. Radio-friendly tunes like “Tomorrow” and “Back To The Cross,” will call to mind the breezy confidence of such hit-makers as Relient K, Jimmy Eat World, and Sanctus Real, without every sound derivative. Oh, and there is also a healthy dose of encouragement in the lyrics of such tunes as the rock worship aria, “Every Breath,” with its ecstatic declaration, “Every breath that I breathe/ Is one that you take away.”
“The lynchpin of what we do is make friends with these kids,” Nick insists. “We want to show kids that they have gifts and talents, too. They may never stand on a stage with lights in their face and a huge sound system behind them. They may not even recognize the gift that is within them. Maybe they are good in school. Maybe they are a math whiz. Maybe they are sensitive to the needs of their friends. Maybe they are a good listener. They might be a great athlete or artist. There are so many different gifts, and we live in such an ADD world that sometimes we miss it. We want to use our music to encourage kids to understand that their gift is significant.”
“You have a gift, make no mistake,” Nick declares. “But you don’t have very much time to figure it out. Don’t live in fear and don’t worry about death, but take what time you have and live without apologies.”
