One Hundred: In Conversation with Hell on Hearth’s Sean Wárs

Amid the countless boring guitar tropes and those forever yearning for a Britpop revival, Liverpool has always boasted a vibrant experimental scene; a host of its purveyors having featured throughout these pages over the last three years.

Sean Wárs is another, with his excellent Hell on Hearth project the latest to burn through the mind.

Over the last 20 years, Wárs has been among the go-to artists on Merseyside for all things mind-bending and esoteric, involved in various projects including Avian Flu, The Immigrants, Monobrow, (The Royal) Bastard Swimming Orchestra (of Liverpool) and, most notably, spearheading the venerable Bodies on Everest. The latter a band etched into the folklore of U.K. noise, as Wárs and Co. spent years tormenting audiences up and down the country to devasting effect with a monolithic aural dissonance that many claim to be one of the loudest experiences they’ve ever heard.

“Bodies on Everest were the best. One of the most intense live experiences I’ve had with a band – other than Swans [in] ‘86.” says Cruel Nature founder, Steve Strode, who released the band’s LP, A National Day of Mourning, which (coincidently) was the hundredth release for Newcastle label.

“Having them release A National Day of Mourning as our [hundredth] release was apt because I had been considering that being the final release of the label at that time, and also because every tape came with an individual drawing of a Cruel Nature artist by Dan Hughes from Disciplinary,” says Strode, during a recent conversation we had about the band.

Not long before Bodies on Everest decided to call time in 2022, Wárs began the Hell on Hearth project. At a rapid rate of releases (thanks to the vehicle of Bandcamp), it’s one of the most intriguing experimental series to come out of Merseyside over the past couple of years.

Hell on Hearth sees Wárs shift approach slightly. Skeletal and abrasive, essentially Hell on Hearth is an escapist proposition for late nights and dark rooms, and while Wárs’ latest creations juxtapose the sonic bedlam of his previous works, it continues to explore the dungeon wave aesthetic Bodies on Everest harnessed during their ear-splitting reign.

Today marks the release of the hundredth chapter of the Hell on Hearth story. On One Hundred, once again Wárs presents a long-form mind-grind clocking in at just over 24 minutes. A rumbling mélange of drones and clatters, One Hundred occupies the same black pits that have proved to be Wárs’ key inspiration, calling upon the ideas and sonic sketches of the preceding 99 releases.  

To celebrate the release of One Hundred, exclusive to Sun 13, be the first to watch the video for the track, made by Liverpool-based filmmaker, Tommy Husband.

Prior to the video shoot for One Hundred back in July, with an idea of the Hell on Hearth milestone not too far away, Wárs’ agreed to catch up and talk about the project, his past endevours, as well as his love for drawing and photography and how it all fits within the paradigm.

On a Friday evening with the rain coming in at right angles, we convened over several pints at the Sun 13 hot desk – otherwise known as Aigburth’s Fullwood Arms.

Lovely Murk: In Conversation with Oxbow

Sun 13: When did the idea for Hell on Hearth come about?

Sean Wárs: “It wasn’t so much a concrete idea to start, it was just me figuring out a way to be able to fuck about and record something on my own. The second I finished the first track, I created a Bandcamp and put it up. It wasn’t laboured over in that way, it was like ‘Shit, now I can really hammer stuff out without loads of waiting around.” It was a real revelation to me, like I usually had to wait for a while for someone else to record me, master it etc.”

S13: Did you ever envisage that idea reaching one hundred releases?

SW: “Absolutely not. I thought I’d do, like, 14. The first one’s six-and-a-half minutes long, and somehow, I just ended up making longer and longer pieces. It was just a nice change of pace and method, not having to move loads of shit about or getting people together, it’s very easy. Everything I’ve done, I’ve put out within minutes of recording, and I find that really fucking cool. It’s an instant result.”

S13: Wow, so it’s like a piece of bread out of the oven. Like a bakery! (laughs)

SW: “Yeah, yeah. If I’ve got the time to sit down and record it, it’s out. This whole project has been about being really self-reliant and so simple, every piece is just a live, one-take recording, semi or completely improvised. There’s just one run through that track, and when it’s done, I don’t listen to it again. I just upload that to Bandcamp then say ‘There you go’, and move on.”

S13: Do you go back and listen to these recordings after you’re done?

SW: “No.”

S13: You’ve not listened to any of them?

[Pause]

SW: “I think I’ve listened to two or three of them, honestly. I’ve looked at the stats, and there’s some of them that nobody’s ever listened to in full. So, when I was recording them live, it’s the only time anyone has listened to them from start to finish.” (laughs).

S13: Are those stats on Bandcamp?

SW: “Yeah. I had a list of all the ones that only I had heard, which is less than you think for a hundred releases, but still it’s funny. But it also doesn’t really matter, because it’s done, and it’s nicely removed from like the expectation of, ‘Yeah, I’ve just spent two years writing and recording an album.’ It really doesn’t matter how it’s received.”

S13: Do you consider this biographical?

SW: “Yeah. It’s a diary. The recordings used are relevant to a time and a place they were recorded, and how it’s then worked on, how it’s shaped into a piece, is saying something about when that was done.”

S13: Bandcamp is a tremendous vessel for something like this…

SW: “Oh yeah. Without Bandcamp being around, I don’t think this would exist. Definitely not. I hope the Bandcamp Union manage to get all their demands met by the new owners because they absolutely deserve it.”

S13: The idea of Hell on Hearth. You started releasing music while Bodies on Everest were still together, right?

SW: “Yeah. You know, it was the old ‘lockdown is boring’ project, wasn’t it?’ I was definitely missing making music while we weren’t able to do anything… unfortunately for Bodies, it ended up feeling impossible to get the band moving again after such a long break. I absolutely love everything we did during those nine years, though.”

S13: Obviously there are dynamics with every band, but do you think the state where this country is, that’s the catalyst why a lot of bands just think, ‘fuck it’?

SW: “Yeah. And playing gigs is shit (laughs). Actually, performing your music is good. Meeting loads of new people is good. Making loads of friends that you end up being friends with forever is good. But like hiring a van, driving it, moving a fuckton of shit to end up one hundred quid down every time you leave the house to play a gig you feel could have gone better, where the sound person tells you off for the size or volume of your backline – it’s soul destroying in lots of ways.”

S13: Talking to people about Bodies on Everest and it was like an institution. You were on Cruel Nature and had their hundredth release, too…

SW: “I just like the number 100, obviously. (laughs). That Cruel Nature thing only happened because I got in touch with Steve Strode and asked, ‘Who do you use to duplicate cassettes? Because I’m gonna do 20 copies of A National Day of Mourning on my own’. And Steve asked if he could release it and said, ‘That can be our hundredth release!”, which ended up selling out beforehand, which was boss, and having a second press before release.”

S13: That’s what I like about Hell on Hearth. It still fits within that community with what Steve’s doing with Cruel Nature and what James Watts is doing with Panurus Productions. It’s all entwined.

SW: “I’m a huge fan of both of those labels, both are very happy to release things regardless of genre and both have fantastic catalogues because of that freedom. I see a straight through-line between everything I’ve ever done in the same way. From folky shit I’ve done to harsh noise to guitar orchestras to noise collectives. I see it all as being like a pursuit of the same thing.”

S13: What about your approach? Is that any different to what you’re doing now with Hell on Hearth?

SW: “Yeah, Hell on Hearth is all field recordings. It’s the polar opposite to Bodies on Everest in terms of equipment, I don’t have as much control over the input sounds, it’s more reactive. But I had a similar role to this when I was doing electronics as part of Trouble With Books, where I could only affect sounds made by the other band members.

[Pause]

“Using the term field recordings is a weird one for me, especially when I’m not in a fucking field. (laughs) Saying field recordings feels horrible, but that’s what it’s made up of. Phone memos, essentially.

“It’s factory recordings, the washing machine recordings, the cat drinking bathwater recordings, just good noises I hear while otherwise existing. There’s at least 10 of those 100, not only the samples but the whole track which I recorded in the launderette, actually put together and recorded whilst sat in the launderette. I have gone to the launderette and left with a track finished and put it up before I’m home.”

S13: That’s what I like about. It’s escapist.

SW: “Yeah, I fucking love the launderette, though.”

(Both laugh)

S13: To me it’s very open-ended.

SW: “I just try to get to the point where you’re not thinking about what you’re doing anymore, and it all becomes a point of just being in it, and almost seeing where it takes you. Even though that sounds like hippy bollocks, there was a lovely part of playing in bands, it was so loud and there was so much going on that you just lost yourself in it. I like to think through these 100 releases, I’ve found another route to get to that feeling, or lack of feeling.”

S13: Yeah, it’s interesting because I think about the juxtapositions because, speaking to people, and Bodies was so loud.

SW: “It was so fucking loud, we felt sick at band practice on multiple occasions”

S13: While Hell on Hearth is so quiet.

SW: “But you can turn it up. I’m not getting involved in the loudness war.” (laughs)

S13: But talking about juxtapositions, last week we were talking about Brendan Burke, who’s into powerlifting and also makes beautiful ambient music as Interbellum. That’s something that really resonates with you on a level, right?

SW: “Oh, yeah. The whole thing of like… I hate the band as a gang thing, like when you can tell exactly what they’ll sound like based on their costumes. I’ll always expect a more interesting result from a band that don’t look like they could be mates.” (laughs)

Gvantsa Narim Interview: “I always try to express my own opinion”

S13: Continuing with contrast, and you have a massive knowledge of pop music.

SW: “Pop music’s the best music. That’s why it’s popular. People like it. It’s really good.”

S13: When we were talking earlier about most people being sound.

SW: “Yeah, most people are sound.”

S13: Does that feed into your reasoning with pop music?

SW: “Pop music’s good. As a young teenager I can admit I also fell into the trap of becoming a baby music snob, and it’s so boring. People need to remember how to have fun. That’s the crux of it. There’s a time and a place for all music, but if I’m just sat at home having a cup of tea, I’ll listen to something nice, I don’t have to listen to harsh noise wall at 10am.”

S13: When you wake up, are you thinking about writing a track?

SW: “I’m kind of always thinking about something artistic or musical. After drawing a picture every day in 2022 that I never ended up releasing in any way so no-one ever saw, this is the opposite. Everything is out there.”

S13: Do you think your drawings are included in that same through-line?

SW: “Yeah, defo it’s all the same. It’s doing things you like. It’s making space to do that, to fuck about.”

S13: And the hundredth release is coming up and Tommy Husband is doing the video. How did collaboration come up?

SW: “I’ve known Tommy for years, he’s made loads of really cool stuff so when he messaged and offered to do the video for the hundredth and I was like, ‘Yeah, of course, that’d be boss’.

In my head, I always thought that the first Hell On Hearth physical release would be the hundredth release, then I realised I was at about 97, so had to recalculate and that’s the way things came out.”

S13: Have physical releases come into play?

SW: “Definitely yeah, but for me it’s more the case of what it’s going to be, and how that’d be different to what I’ve already done. But mostly it’s just figuring how to make a thing that fits within what’s come before and figuring out what the new rules are. Figuring out how to compile that and create a whole thing, I’m not sure what that looks like yet.”

S13: Tell me about dungeon wave…

SW: “Dungeon wave was the fake genre we invented for Bodies on Everest, but now, in my head, is totally continuing within the Hell On Hearth discography. We had stickers saying, ‘Only dungeon wave is real’ and I’ve taken that to heart.”

S13: Sonically could be it could be argued that they’re at either end of the spectrum?

SW: “Yeah, just not in my head. There are some loud Hell on Hearth tracks in there, and there were some quieter Bodies tracks. But also, I’m not paying to master the shit out of my weird 24-minute tracks that go straight onto Bandcamp for free download. It’d just slow everything down, and I don’t see the purpose in it now to make everything take longer and either lose money or have to try and profitise it.”

Dread Zone: In Conversation with Emil Amos

S13: Do you think there’s going to be a sonic shift over the next releases?

SW: “Yeah, I think so. I hope so. I haven’t listened to the early stuff to see, but I do think it’s consistently moved forward.”

S13: What about the artwork. With the speed you release music, is it on the fly?

SW: “I take a lot of photos, everyone does, don’t they? I used to carry a smashed up digital camera before I had a phone camera, I suppose this also links back into that diary element of HOH. Sometimes it’s a good photo, sometimes it’s shit, but the element of piss take is always welcome.”

S13: But that’s your personality, so that’s a part of the narrative and the reality to it.

SW: “Yeah, trying to be myself, 100 per cent.”

S13: One hundred releases down. You could do another hundred?

SW: “Or I could remix the hundred I’ve already done. (laughs) To actually not do anything new, and just recycle. So, if I did those hundred over and over again and with each iteration, what happens to the originals? I could start writing essays about it, playing mournful piano motifs or do a techno remix. (laughs) There are always options. You just need to do it. Like years back, when me and a bunch of mates played one riff for over an hour with 10 guitarists, two bassists and two drummers as Bastard Power Swimming Orchestra, the idea doesn’t matter if it’s not done. You just have to do it, especially if it’ll be fun.”

One Hundred is out now. For the full Hell on Hearth discography, visit Bandcamp.