If you love music, your wardrobe is likely stuffed full of band shirts. You might have a bunch of hoodies or a cap or two as well, or maybe something even more eclectic than that. It’s a conversation starter with fellow fans, a way of announcing that you belong to a certain scene, and a way of shouting about bands you love. On top of that, it’s also a vital way of putting money in artists’ pockets at a time where making enough money is harder than ever. Put simply, it’s the lifeblood of music.
Equally, if you’ve ever seen someone cutting about at a festival wearing a bright orange shirt, they might well have been a Heriot fan. The coruscatingly heavy metallers have made a huge impact on the UK scene with their 2022 EP ‘Profound Morality’ and their recent debut album ‘Devoured By The Mouth of Hell’, but they’ve made a statement with their merch too, which draws from real medieval designs.
Prior to their UK headline tour kicking off in Glasgow on April 9 — not to mention summer sets at 2000trees and Bloodstock — vocalist and guitarist Debbie Gough tells us more about the band’s approach to crafting designs, also sharing the story of the mysterious chain mail that’s displayed on their merch table…
What was the first item of merch you bought?
I think it was a Bullet For My Valentine shirt from Eyesore Merch. I remember being so excited to open the package up and try it on.
What was the most recent merch item you got your hands on?
It was this lovely Sylosis horse longsleeve [she holds it up to camera] from the tour back in December. I really liked the look of it. Josh [Middleton, Sylosis frontman] and Ben [Thomas, bass] got one of our hoodies.
What was your most treasured merch item growing up?
I had a Cancer Bats longsleeve that was signed by Liam Cormier. That was my absolute prize possession. I would wear that everywhere. I’m pretty sure I still have that shirt somewhere even though I’ve grown and it wouldn’t look the same on me now as it did when I was 14. I love that band a lot and it was one of my first regular-rotation pieces of merch.
What’s your favourite merch design that you’ve brought out as a band?
We had a limited run of bright orange ‘Profound Morality’ T-shirts and that was great. During that era, you could see very clearly who the Heriot fans were. You could spot them a mile off. That was a good one. I really liked when we brought out crop tops as well. I just like that we had some more traditionally feminine styles as well. Sometimes it’s nice to just have some more summery items to wear on holiday or to dress up a little bit more, but still look like a rocker.
You’ve got quite a distinctive style to your merch that expands on the thematic and visual sides to your artistry. What do you like doing with your designs?
A lot of them are referenced from old medieval drawings. Jake [Packer, vocals and bass] is really the mastermind behind the imagery of the medieval theme. We were on tour in Budapest, and we went to this old antique shop, and it had loads of old medieval books. He bought all the books, and was looking through the designs. Sometimes he draws them as well, with the same style in mind. It comes from legit medieval references quite a lot of the time.
You have a head with chain mail on your merch table – what’s its origin story? With something like that it must have some lore behind it…
I might not be 100% truthful with this, because I’ve got a memory like a sieve, but the first iteration of that chain mail was on the cover of our EP. I feel like there was some sort of horror story along the way with the chain mail, maybe somebody wanted to buy it so much that we did sell it to them, and they might be on version two of the chain mail. I’m not too sure, but there’s definitely some lore with that chain mail. Everybody likes to put it on. We like to get end of tour photos with it as well. It's like a theme of touring with Heriot — you’re probably going to have the chain mail on at some point.
How important is merch to being able to sustain yourself as a band?
For the vast majority of bands, the only way that you’re ever able to make any income is through merch. If you go out on tour and you don't sell any, you’re going to come home minus a lot of money. Even if you do sell merch, you’re going to come home minus a lot of money. But merch is really the lifeline of being able to continue being in a band. It’s already an unsustainable model from a financial point of view, but without merch, it really becomes an impossible scenario to keep touring, really. I appreciate that some people aren’t able to buy merch at every show — it’s not an expectation on people to buy merch, but it does really, really help when people do. Obviously, people who keep coming back and buying more of a band’s items mean the world, because it really helps you keep going.
You’re heading out on tour soon — what sorts of designs are you bringing with you on the road?
We’ve got a few new items that will be on the merch stand and the one that I’m most excited about is our first tour T-shirts. I'm really excited for people to see them, because I think it’s one of our strongest designs. We’d always been too scared to do one — with other shirts, you can repurpose them if they don’t sell particularly well, you can take it out on the next tour. You can’t really get away with that with a tour T-shirt if you're on a different tour with a different lineup.
What else can we expect from these shows?
We’ve never played Opaline live before, which is very exciting, because it seems to be a song people are really enjoying from the album. A lot of people have asked for it. We’re playing some old songs as well. I’ll leave the rest a secret.
Heriot Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed April 09 2025 - GLASGOW G2
Thu April 10 2025 - BRISTOL THE FLEECE
Fri April 11 2025 - LONDON Underworld
Sat April 12 2025 - BIRMINGHAM Asylum
Sun April 13 2025 - MANCHESTER Rebellion
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