Erika Wennerstrom (Heartless Bastards)

Performance Anxiety

Today’s guest is a family favorite. That means I’m talking with Erika Wennerstrom from Heartless Bastards. There are times when I’m completely blown away that an artist agrees to be a guest on this podcast and this is one of those moments. But Erika was and is incredibly kind and gracious. We start off like we usually do, talking about what got her into music. It turns out that she knew she was going to be a singer by around the age of four.

We talk about early bands, like Shesus, the transformation from a shy, awkward person to fronting a band, and how she came up with the name Heartless Bastards.

The band’s sound has evolved over the course of six albums. Erika talks about struggling with writer’s block, stepping back from the band to regroup, and doing her solo album.

After a brief tangent on designed obsolescence, Erika pulls the curtain back on the latest Heartless Bastards album, A Beautiful Life. Disney and James Bond were influences to a few songs and Laurel Canyon asserts its influence.

Erika is full of great stories, like how Patrick Kearney of The Black Keys ended up with her demos, growing up with The Ohio Players (at least one of them), and swinging by Robert Plant’s house to pick him up for drinks (he had shotgun, of course).

Erika is currently writing music for the next Heartless Bastards album so keep following their social media accounts and theheartlessbastards.com for updates. Follow us @PerformanceAnx. Pick up merch at performanceanx.threadless.com. Or just give us money at ko-fi.com/performanceanxiety. And I hope you’re as excited for this one as I was. It’s Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards on Performance Anxiety on the Pantheon Podcast Network.

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