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Rakishly skinny, donned in Doc Martins with lank black hair that obscures half his face, if it were not for his small stature it is probable that James Heighway would be considerably intimidating, though nothing could be further from the truth. He greets us with a small smile and looks like he’s been up all night ‘I was up playing Lord of The Rings all night’ he confesses without a trace of embarrassment.
Before the interview we take a few photographs of James, something that’s obviously very awkward for him,
‘I’m really not comfortable in front of the camera’ he says nervously, and it shows, he’s gawky and has to be guided through almost every shot. It is somewhat surprising then to learn that he originally thought about going into modeling ‘It was never a serious thing’ he laughs ‘A lot of people would just suggest it to me that’s all. I guess I kind of have that skinny dark thing going on. I’m pretty short though’ he shrugs.
He can’t tell you what originally got him into music, there was no pivotal point ‘My dad pretty much started it for me and my sister, he would always play music in the house, I can remember listening to the Beatles and Queen when I was a kid’
James stresses that it was never his ambition to become part of a band, let alone a bass player. ‘I originally played guitar, that’s all I ever wanted to do and that was just for fun’ then came the day that some older friends of his asked if he could possibly fill in for bass ‘It was really weird because I had never played on a bass in my life, but we had an old one lying around, so I said yes’ James quickly learned, and before he knew it, he had become a full time member of the band that would later become known as LeadChest.
‘I’m still so grateful that I was even given the opportunity’ James says with complete sincerity ‘they could have picked anyone, someone their own age, someone who actually played bass!’ he laughs.
Are LeadChest going to be forever? ‘Probably not’ he answers solemnly ‘I mean I’m only 15. People chop and change a lot of bands before they’re a part of one that actually makes it. And you don’t know if you’re ever going to make it’
He may only be 15 but he’s got an optimistic attitude towards life, no sign of the stereotypical ’teenage emo’ ‘I hate that bullsh*t’ he says with venom ‘Emo means emotional hardcore music, it was a trend back in the 90’s in underground club scenes.’ He shakes his head ‘People don’t know what the hell they’re talking about’ We seem to have hit a nerve ‘No..’ he hesitates ‘It’s just, a lot of rubbish is said about people and bands, they’re categorized and stereotyped in a really negative way and it’s just complete nonsense’
Influences:
James is big fan of rock music that was made long before he was even born, citing Beatles, Queen, Nirvana and Misfits (Danzig era only, he stresses) as some of his main inspirations and influences.
‘The misfits are a huge influence on me’ like most music he was introduced to it through his older sister ‘She would always talk about them but I guess I was never that bothered. She bought me a greatest hits CD and I couldn’t stop listening’ James finds it hard to articulate just why he loves the Misfits so much, changing his answer mid sentence and stumbling over words ‘I don’t even know, something about how un-professional it sounds, the Danzig ones at least, there’s no finesse, it’s just loose and amazing’ he gushes enthusiastically.
Somewhat surprisingly though, James is also a big fan of some contemporary artists, one in particular anyway ’ My Chemical Romance’ he says with a smile ‘I don’t even care what anybody says about them, and I’ve put up with a lot of crap just because I’m an MCR fan, but they’re awesome and they mean a lot to me’. Again he finds it hard to find the words to explain just how much they’ve effected him ‘Before them, I mean I could enjoy music but I was never actually so invested and completely crazy about a band as I am with them.’ He thinks for a while ‘I think it’s because they do whatever the hell they want, they made it mainstream and got a lot of stick for it but they didn’t care and just kept on doing what it was they wanted to. That gives you quite a lot of hope, and taught me to not care what anybody else thought’
Rock n roll lifestyle:
‘Again, it’s a load of bullsh*t.’ It is undeniable that it exists though, one only has to open any rock magazine to be inundated with tales of drunken wild parties and chauvinistic behaviour, that’s what it’s all about right? ‘Not at all’ James says seriously ‘What so just because you in a rock band you have to act like an asshole and treat girls horribly? I don’t believe that at all. And I don’t think I’d be friends with anyone who did’
James and his band mates have certainly come up against this problem a few times in the past, just after their guitarist left ‘We needed a replacement so we started looking around and it was hard to find someone that was in it for the same reasons’ any specific incidents? ‘Well,’ he says hesitantly ‘there was one case where we were ready to actually have this guy join the band but right then he started acting like an idiot, asking if he was in our band would he get a lot of girls, stuff like that. Straight away we knew it wouldn’t work out’
Fashion:
James looks like he’s stepped off a Tim Burton catwalk ‘That’s about right!’ he laughs ‘I wear a lot of black. Sometimes I throw in a red tie to mix things up’ he says with a grin. James tells us that a couple of years ago he had no sense of fashion ‘I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, what was cool or not. I’d get up and shove some random clothes on. But my sister would always kind of suggest things and it grew from there’
There are so many different trends and fashions within the rock scene, James seems to be a mixture of many with the classic punk doc martins and his somewhat gothic hairdo ‘I like to mix things up’ he tells us ‘apart from jeans, I will literally wear a pair of favorite jeans until they fall to pieces’
James, although in terms of appearance is exactly what youd expect a guitarist in a rock band to look like, tells us that there is much more to bands than how they look and what hair they have. ‘Look at Kurt Cobain’, he says ‘He came out onstage in cardigans, nobody cared. Just like Freddie Mercury would come out in spandex suits.’ He is wide eyed and incredulous ‘Everybody cares too much about what outfits people wear and what they’re music videos are like.’
James seems to be inciting a Rock ‘n Roll revolution ‘No’ he says simply ‘I just want to remind people that it’s all about the music’.

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-Emma xoxo