“There was a dead rabbit at the entrance that was strategically placed”- Zakk Poland

True Heights, a promising rock band from the Midlands, recently put on a gig called ‘A Night For Sophie’ in Manchester, but what made it special?

The gig was to raise £215.89 for The Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

I caught up with them before the show, to find out more about them and why they’re donating the money raised.

The interview was riddled with: laughter, bad puns and a warning to kids, from guitarist Alex Harry, to stay away from ‘John’ the maze man.

Interested? You should be.

So what exactly makes them distinctive in such a saturated industry?

According to frontman Zakk Poland, it’s because: “We like to think we blend the classic with the modern, with electronics, but with er kinda rocky riffs and big choruses ,which is hopefully what people wanna hear.”

If you fancy hearing exactly what a blend of the classic and modern sounds like, then take a peek at their latest single here:

The six-piece have a new album in the works and ‘Exit Route’ is the first single released from that.

But, how is it different to their previous releases?

This time round they have another song-writer in the form of Alex.

He said: “I suppose it’s very different coming from a different background. I don’t know if many people know but I come from an acoustic background.

“This is the first band I’ve been in. I joined about a year ago and started taking the writing in a different direction. Writing with Zakk, from a rocky background as well really took us in a different direction. It’s cool.”

This must have caused some clashes, surely?

This alone caused a conflict of opinion, but not in a nasty way, more like banter between good friends.

Alex directed his first comment towards Zakk, with : “You know what I’ve never told you but yeah sometimes.”

This was met with laughter from the other guys before Alex continued : “It’s not clashing, its different ways of looking at things.”

Zakk piped up with: “I think it’s healthy. It’s a healthy clash. You know we’ve got different song styles coming in, then they’re always bound together by a certain melody, or a certain drum beat.

“Then go yeah, that’s the one, that’s cool. We always write songs acoustically mainly. On our own me and Alex; we’ll write a couple songs each and whatever, bring them to rehearsal and everyone will put their own spin on it. The band make it the whole.”

Alex thinks: “It’ s not really clashing. One of us will show another one a song and then they’ll go do you know what will sound even better? And it’s like yeah wicked, great.”

Then a relatively quiet (until now) Luke Poland (lead guitar) chips in with a cheeky comment: “I think it was easier as a five-piece.”

“We had a three person and a two person split if we didn’t like something. Now there’s six of us it’s a bit different. But,when we take it to the studio, with our producer Matt O’Grady, who’s very good at what he does, he can best direct us on what he thinks will sound great as well.”

With a new album on the way and recently signing to We Are Triumphant, the future is looking bright for the sextet.

They have had support from the BBC’s Huw Stephens and Kerrang’s Johnny Doom too.

So, what can we expect next? 

Luke: “We’re definitely looking to do a lot more tours. We’re working with a company called Artery Global, who’s our booking agent and they’re sorting us some big shows; hopefully some festivals.”

Ash Maugham (the bassist) spills some juicy details too. He adds: “We’re at the first stage of a three-parter video as well. So, the video we just put out [Exit Route] will be leading onto two more single releases.

“After everything that’s out, then it will be bigger tours like the guys said.”

If you watched the video earlier on, then you would have noticed the maze, which for some people can be seriously creepy.

Will there be more mazes to feature in their videos and what was it like filming there?

Then came potentially the worst pun known to man from Alex.

“No, there’s only one maze, but it was A-maze-ing! Ahhh someone had to say it.”

Zakk followed this with some eerie details about the maze.

“The guy that owned it, I think his name was…”

Quickly butting in was Alex with some good advice: “His name was John. Stay away from him kids. He’s weird.”

Zakk justified the claim with: “This maze was in his garden and there was weird things hanging from the trees.

“There was like, old umbrellas and children’s toys in the woods. It was really scary. Walking back to the van after all that was terrifying. It was dark. There was a dead rabbit, that was strategically placed on the entrance of the maze.

“We’d been using it all day. It was never there when daylight was. Then as soon as the darkness hit, there was the rabbit.”

That does sound a little un-nerving, but it can’t have been that bad. Right?

Alex remembers more details about John.

He says: “He started telling me how he was allergic to the sun after visiting Dracula’s house. That was well weird! His hands were all crispy and stuff and flaking off.”

It was then discovered that none of their videos seem to go to plan and are generally traumatic for them.

To round things up it was time to ask how the decision to donate the money came about.

Zakk claims it was down to their manager Sam Broadbent.

“It’s a cause quite close to his heart. We were honoured to be asked to play to be honest.

“Such a tragic thing happened to that girl and it’s nice to give something back. We’re honoured to be back here in Manchester. This time for a bit more of a delicate reason.

“So thanks for having us Manchester.”

Check out the full interview here and find out what the pros and cons of being in a band are–>

Want to know how the gig went? Click on here