Biography

The Empty Hearts are four guys with impressive musical resumés who've banded together to play music they love -- simple, straightforward, and soulful rock & roll informed by '60s garage rock and British Invasion sounds. Paying explicit homage to mid-'60s rock & roll as it poured out of transistor radios back in the day, the Empty Hearts showed they could not only play in the classic style on their self-titled 2014 debut album, they could also write songs that fit their style like a glove. The Empty Hearts feature Wally Palmar of the Romantics on lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and harmonica; Elliot Easton of the Cars on lead guitar and vocals; Andy Babiuk of the Chesterfield Kings on bass and vocals; and Clem Burke of Blondie on drums and vocals. The idea for the Empty Hearts came to Babiuk while he was providing period-appropriate music gear for David Chase's '60s rock film Not Fade Away; working on the film reminded him of the excitement and spontaneity of playing music in his teenage years, and he wanted to form a band with some friends that would feel as fun and as powerful. Babiuk first recruited his longtime friend Palmar for the project, and they then brought in their mutual friends Burke (who had played with Palmar in the Romantics) and Easton (who had done session work with Blondie). Babiuk's friend Steven Van Zandt suggested the name the Empty Hearts, and the new quartet got to work writing songs. The band gathered in Rochester, New York, in March 2013 at Babiuk's recording studio Fab Gear, with Ed Stasium as producer and former Faces keyboard player Ian McLagan guesting on piano and organ. In five days, the Empty Hearts knocked out an album's worth of new material, and after striking a deal with 429 Records, the record, simply called The Empty Hearts, was released in August 2014. The busy schedules of the four musicians meant it would be a while before more recordings appeared, but the group did give their fans a Christmas gift in 2016 in the form of a Yuletide single, "It's Christmastime" b/w "Joyful Noise." Three years later, another Empty Hearts single arrived, "Coat-Tailer" b/w "Run and Hide from You." The 7" turned out to be a preview of the band's sophomore LP, The Second Album, issued by Steven Van Zandt's garage-centric Wicked Cool label in August of 2020 and featuring a cameo appearance from Ringo Starr. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi