Exploding Heartbreak

Terry Six was the quintessential teenage punk. In the early 2000s, he formed the Exploding Hearts with three of his best friends and cut Guitar Romantic, a record of brash, whip-smart power-pop tunes that were attracting attention from all the right outlets. They made the cover of punk's unofficial bible, Maximum Rocknroll. They met with Lookout Records to discuss joining the lineage of Green Day and Screeching Weasel. Then everything came to a stop. In 2003, while driving back to Portland after playing sold-out gigs in San Francisco, their van flipped over. Six was the only band member to survive. After the accident, Six struggled to find his place. After a brief stint in the Nice Boys, he relocated to Oakland, where he now lives with his wife, and took a job at a school for children with autism. 

"It was the furthest thing from my life in Portland," says Six, 31. "That's why I chose it. I wanted the complete opposite of what my life was. Different environment, different hours. Just the complete opposite."

Getting up the desire to do music again at all was a slow process. But after taking several years off, Six has picked his guitar up again. Terry and Louie, his new project with "King" Louie Bankston, the New Orleans musician who made several contributions to Guitar Romantic, has released two singles on Tuff Break, Six's homegrown label. "I made this judgment call of, 'Could you be OK with never putting out a record again?' And the answer was, 'Absolutely not,'" Six says. "If I was going to return to music, I was going to do it on my own terms, and so the label just facilitated that need.” 

With so much time gone by since the accident, it's hard to imagine how an artist, now as famous for his backstory as his musical endeavors, could focus on the future while still being respectful of the past. Six's new songs are as much of a return to form as fans of Exploding Hearts can hope for. But from the titles of the new songs alone, it's clear Six is finally looking to move forward: "Can You Tell Me (How Life Goes On)" has a delicious pop-punk jangle, situated perfectly between the early rock 'n' roll of the '50s and the buzz of Big Star.

"With any sort of project I end up doing, I have a built-in, ready-to-go, die-hard fan base, but they're not always gonna understand what it is I'm doing," Six says. "But what I'm doing now, it makes sense. It's what [the fans] want. It’s what I know how to do.” 

Along those lines, Terry and Louie have several dates lined up—including a return to Portland for the second annual Project Pabst festival—where they'll be performing songs from Guitar Romantic. It's a celebration of the memory of the Exploding Hearts, and the good things that still remain. And with half of a new record already written, there's new cause for celebration as well. 

"We have concrete plans," Six says. "We have the opening number completely recorded, finished, mastered. We just have nine more to go. We're thinking about doing half of the record here in Oakland and half in New Orleans with Louie's guys, so it'd be a sort of an A-side, B-side thing—a collage of West Coast and swamp." His estimate for a release date is "by this time or fall of next year." What he knows for sure is, it'll be on his own label, even though there's interest from larger outlets. Because what's more punk than artistic integrity? 

"We probably could do well if I gave it to somebody else—sell more records, reach a wider audience, go on more tours," Six says. "But that's not what I want. Even if it doesn't sell as many records and if I don't see a return, that's not the concern. As long as it's under my roof, that's all I care about. I'd rather take a hit and oversee every detail. It's more collectable that way, too. I like that idea more than if it's in every store. It's more cherished.” 

SEE IT: Terry and Louie play Project Pabst at Zidell Yards, 3121 SW Moody Ave., on Sunday, July 19. 2:30-3:30 pm, second stage. For a complete schedule and ticket information, see projectpabst.com.

WWeek 2015