INTERVIEW WITH HEATHER HARDY

"I'M KIND OF LIKE THE SALT"

By Judy Jennings

Copyright © 2015

You started playing piano at the age of six, and violin at nine.  Have you always wanted to make your living as a musician?

I always loved it more than anything on the planet.  I never thought I’d do anything else. Music has saved my life from day one.  It’s always been that healer.  What is the thing that gives you authenticity within yourself?  The thing is music, for me.  It’s what I do.

I still play piano every day, and I write on it, but I’m not a jammer.  I play a lot of Debussey, and Bach and Beethoven.  It’s hard to write songs to sing on the violin.

Do you feel like you have a chance to collaborate with other musicians as much as you’d like?

Every single night of the week!  I wish I had more time, there are more musicians I’d like to work with.  I mean that genuinely.

I love playing other people’s music.  If I didn’t get to have my own project, then I would not be happy just playing everybody else’s stuff all the time, but I do have a moment to do what I’m feeling, what I’m hearing.  Then playing with all these other people keeps me fresh and keeps me growing.

I’m kind of like the salt, I’m the person you add when there’s enough money to add Heather.  But you can do the gig without the violin.  The core of the band is bass, drums and guitar in a songwriter kind of band.  So that’s why you’ll see me in these large bands. 

It’s a very generous thing we have going on (in Tucson), where we allow each other freedom.  I take great care to know that, until I can pay my musicians’ rent full-time, they’re going to need to play with other people.  And they’re going to have their own dreams, and they do that for me.  There’s that feeling in town where we all move around, and have great loyalty for our bands, but nobody’s in prison.

How do you think the music scene in Tucson has changed over the past decade?

Twenty years ago, it was hopping, and then it really died off, (but) I would say in the last decade it’s had a resurgence.  There’s a lot more people working than there were ten years ago, without a doubt.

Here’s the other thing:  We all pitch our music love to the scene that we’re in.  We say “Oh, there’s not enough music!”  Well, maybe that’s the blues people speaking.  But downtown, there’s a bunch of stuff going on that I don’t necessarily go to, because I’m not a college student, but I know it’s there.  As long as there’s live music, the circle covers everybody, eventually.  As long as there’s not just DJ’s and karaoke.

What kinds of challenges are you facing now as a musician?

Well, my son just graduated.  I made a choice to be a mom, I made that choice consciously.  The only thing I could do to raise him was to stay a musician, that would never change.  But my whole thing about playing music has been about making enough money to live, and still getting to play music and do my thing.  So now my challenge is to branch out farther than the gigs than I’m doing. 

I want to travel, I was traveling a lot when I was a pre-mom.  So now, that would be my challenge, how can I create that again, because now I have the freedom to do that.  I want more.  I have big dreams.

This is a big transition, and I don’t want to be sad about it, either.  You know, single mom, empty nest, yeah I could go there.  It would be easy to be that sad, and I’ve even gone to the place where I’ve thought maybe I’ll start fostering children.  I need to fill this thing, but I need to fill it with just me.  I need to remember that.  I think that I’m the only one doing what I do, and I think there’s a niche that I’d love to fill. 

What effect would you like to see your music have on the world?

That it makes people feel good, and wakes them up out of the computer place, or the work place.  That’s what I love, it’s a beautiful thing, making music,  If I watch people be happy and dance and have a great time, I am receiving so much, because I could play at home.  I could sit around the studio.  It’s a whole other experience to see that joy, and that emotion makes you play different, it makes you engaged in a different way. 

And to open the possibilities for the violin itself, because that’s certainly happening now.  People never used to see violin doing anything but classical music, and had never heard of electric violin.  That’s blown wide open, and I like that, I want that to keep going on.  Violin belongs in the blues, it’s been playing the blues as long as the guitar’s been playing the blues.  Being part of that would be great.