Byron Bay metalcore band In Hearts Wake have taken a more hands-on approach. To coincide with the release of their fourth album Ark in May they launched We Are Waterborne: An In Hearts Wake Initiative to lead a series of clean-ups along polluted waterways in Australia.
Instead of in-store album signings, fans were encouraged to join the band at their clean-ups and about 200 people turned out in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Byron Bay to collect 17,400 pieces of rubbish.
The initiative was so successful In Hearts Wake continued the program on their European tour and in Seattle.
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“Ark and our previous albums have had lots of big environmental issues on them,” In Hearts Wake guitarist Ben Nairne said from Denver.
“Usually when you release an album we’ll go around the country to CD stores and people would come meet us, hang out and get their CD signed and have a chat.
“We thought for Ark we’d put our money where our mouth is and let’s do something about it and get our fans involved, instead of doing it by ourselves.”
Ark has continued In Hearts Wake’s rise in the fertile Australian hardcore scene. The record peaked at No.3 on the ARIA charts and enabled the five-piece to launch their first headline tours of Europe and the US.
Besides the record’s ferocious singles Warcry and Passage, the album carried particularly strong lyrical messages about preserving the Earth’s water ways. Nairne says that passion stems from growing up in the holiday mecca of Byron Bay.
The Newcastle Herald
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