Stitched Up Heart puts poppy twist on metal

Mixi Demner formed her band Stitched Up Heart after enduring a heartbreak, and the project was meant to be as much of a coping mechanism as an antidote to the mostly downbeat, glowering metal that seemed to be everywhere.

“It’s what you’ve gotta do in life,” Demner said. “You’ve gotta get up and move forward. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.”

The L.A. band will perform at the Knitting Factory this weekend, part of a jam-packed lineup in the ongoing Too Broke to Rock concert series. Demner is the only founding member still active with the band – she currently has a hard rock quartet backing her – but she’s insistent that it’s not a solo project.

“People decide they want to venture off, and you can’t stop people from doing what they want to do,” she said. “Maybe they want a family and a real job. … But I wouldn’t call it a solo project, because we do work as a band. We all put our time and hard work and creativity into this project, and we’re all just as dedicated.”

Stitched Up Heart is as stylistically influenced by thrash and heavy metal as Top 40 pop – the melodies will probably get lodged in your head as you’re moshing – and Demner’s list of influences are appropriately and wildly eclectic: Pantera, Glassjaw, Deftones, Louis Armstrong.

“I really like mixing those elements,” Demner said, “the heavy, drop-tuned guitars with something that catches your attention and that you can remember.”

Demner had been keeping busy in L.A.’s metal scene before starting Stitched Up Heart in 2010, performing as a vocalist in various bands before exploring her own vision. She says the first instrument she ever played was, oddly enough, a tuba, which she was drawn to because of its unusual sound and appearance.

“I really like something different that’s not the typical cookie cutter thing you would hear,” she explained, and that notion defined the songs she would later write once she picked up a guitar.

“I never played (my songs) for people because I was really nervous in the beginning,” Demner said. “I started forcing myself to go three nights a week to an open mic. I remember trembling trying to play Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang’ one time. … Now it’s like second nature. It’s like home up there.”

The band has since released some EPs and a handful of singles, and its upcoming debut LP will hit shelves sometime this spring. Demner hopes her newest batch of songs will come across as more muscular and cinematic than Stitched Up Heart’s previous recordings.

“A lot of the music has a very dark, deep element to it. But the lyrics bring out a hopeful message,” she said. “I want it to make people feel something, hopefully in a more positive direction. … I’ve gone through a lot of stuff since the last EP we put out on our own, and things have started to move forward and look more positive.

“Obviously you’re not always going to be in happy-go-lucky land, but it’s very hopeful and a little more grown up. We’re becoming not so much of a baby band anymore.”