Interview: Tom Gardner from Harbinger!

We had the pleasure of having a pint with Harbinger frontman Tom Gardner at Upsurge Festival and were lucky enough to get him to agree to answer a few questions for us in the first of a new series of exclusive interviews. We’re big fans, having seen the band on tour with Loathe and then putting on a crushing performance on the main stage of UK Tech-Fest in 2017.

It was a pleasure meeting you at Upsurge Festival this past weekend. How was your experience?

Likewise! Upsurge was incredible. As a festival no one had really heard about before, the lineup was amazing. I was handed a flyer at a show and couldn’t believe the lineup ws so good and had to go! Definitely want to see this festival return next year! And possibly get to play too haha

Recent single “Darkest Days” is a phenomenal tune. How does the new material you’re working on compare?

Thank you so much! After our recent tour with A Night In Texas I made a bit of a vocal breakthrough, so if you dig my pitched screams and love heavy then “Darkest Days” is going to seem like a day at the park compared to the skull crushing tunes we’ve got coming for you.

Harbinger covered “Burn It Down” by Avenged Sevenfold for a recent Metal Hammer compilation. That must have been a dream come true? How did that come about?

We’ve been in Metal Hammer a few times before and they approached us through James at Hold Tight PR, so we cracked on to get into the studio ASAP and get it back to them. It had a really good reaction with lots of people saying it was their favourite cover on the CD, which was amazing to hear! We also gained a fair few new fans from it so it was definitely worth doing!

Who would you fancy touring with when your first European run comes up? Do you fancy going head to head with the likes of Malevolence?

Going out with Malevolence would be amazing, such a sick band! We were gutted that we didn’t continue on to the euro part of our tour with A Night In Texas, but if we had a choice then bands like Nexilva, Goteater, Bleed From Within, Conjurer, Venom Prison, Heart of a Coward.

What’s it like being in a London based band but living in Birmingham?

It’s actually not too bad, I have a direct route via train which makes life easy! You hear about way worse with members living in different countries which I can’t even begin to imagine, so shout out to all of those putting in that dedication to music!

“Human Dust” by Harbinger is out now via Basick Records – you can pick up a copy here.