Road Show

With New Album and Tour on Horizon,

Half Heard Voices Seeks to Conquer World

By Colin McGuire

A lot can change in five years. In the case of Frederick progressive metal quartet Half Heard Voices, change is good. 

Having formed in 2019, the group began as a five-piece original rock outfit that brought together some of the best blossoming musicians in Frederick for a blend of shred-heavy guitars, intriguing time-signature choices and soaring vocals. In merely half a decade, the group is now set to release its first full-length album and spend the majority of this year touring the world. How’d it happen? 

Perseverance. 

“I think anyone at our stage in the game, you kind of have to be crazy to do this because it’s kind of like logistical gymnastics,” the band’s singer, Alex Conner, says. “But that’s the story of all musicians. You have to do what you have to do to make it happen. We’re in this mindset of the long game. We’re all lifelong musicians who have been striving for this since we were kids and first picked up our guitars. We are super focused and we all have this mindset that we’re always working at it.”

Working at it these days means riding the momentum of single Familiar Ghosts, which was released in mid-April. Leaning into a hard rock aesthetic that’s typically made for arenas and heavy metal radio stations, the song’s verses are propelled by a mid-tempo groove before exploding into an aggressive chorus meant to be joined by a chorus of thousands. 

It’s the second single off the group’s first-ever album, Moon Burial, to be released later this year and following two prior EPs—2019’s Dissidence and 2021’s Twelve Way War. The new collection of songs will be heavily featured on the band’s tour throughout the summer. Split into three legs, the U.S. trek starts June 20 in Carrboro, N.C., and will wrap up in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Oct. 27.

Touring is a big reason why the four members of the band got into making music in the first place, explains guitarist Dillon Baird, who also teaches music lessons. “I love it,” he says. “I tell my students and my girlfriend, ‘Sayonara! I’ll be back in a month; see you on the other side!’ I love the juice—the traveling, the going, the unknown. I just love it.”

“It’s the same for me,” bassist Stefan Sandman adds. “It really was my ultimate goal since I started doing this as a teenager. Then, one day you look up, and you’re in the middle of it; it’s stand and deliver time. There are people out there who would trade anything to be in this position, so we’re very lucky and I love every moment of it.”

Perhaps the group’s most prized moment will come outside of the country later this year when they embark for the first time on a tour of Japan. Set for early October, before the third leg of the North American tour, the opportunity to perform overseas is the perfect way to wind down such a seminal year for the band. 

“I shed a tear when we got the original offer for Japan,” Baird says. “Just the thought that a bunch of dudes from Frederick had this crazy dream all of our lives and we’re going to go play our music in one of the greatest countries in the world, I couldn’t handle it. It was so surreal.”

But even as 2024 is shaping up to be a turning point, the band’s sights are set on the future, as work on a second LP has already begun. It’s all part of a long-term vision that Conner notes is only in its beginning stages. 

“We’re really excited to see where things go,” he says. “For me, in a lot of ways, I feel like we’re just getting started. … We have such a great opportunity to let people hear these new songs with these tours.”