INTERVIEW: The Wandering Hearts on Their New Self-Titled Record

Since the release of their debut record – Wild Silence – The Wandering Hearts have gone from success to success, making their Opry debut, support from Radio 2 and journeying to Woodstock to hone their sound for their sophomore record. Here, we interview the trio about the journey to their self-titled record and their experience of the past year. 

Pre-order the record here.

Hi guys, so lovely to see you all! It’s now the final countdown – it must feel like about time!

Chess: Yes, it’s been years in the making!

This record has had a long story, obviously you recorded in Woodstock and now finally it’s being released in the UK. Did you always know at the beginning of the project that that was going to be the path it took and how did the project evolve over time?

AJ: Crikey, we always knew that Simone Felice and David had made wicked records, we really admired the Lumineers stuff and the Jade Bird stuff that they’d worked on n- we thought they were really cool albums – and so we always had them in mind for albums. We’d actually gone through a bit of a process of working with a few different producers in different countries in the build up, it had taken us all over. I think initially there had been a problem with some availability but eventually everything kind of worked out that when the time came, we were like, ‘Oh my god, they’re there.’ They were up for it and it just happened to be the case that they had this awesome studio in Woodstock and we had to go there. It was very happy and convenient that that was the case.

It was kind of meant to be. Did you go out with the songs and the body of work there already or was that something that evolved as you started to play with different sounds while you were out there?

Tara: Simon’s got a really special ear and he’s super opinionated – in a really positive way, he definitely encouraged us to have an opinion. We’d written so many songs we really had and there were a few songs that we absolutely knew were going to go on the project and they’re important – the central five – and then you had the others around the perimeter. It’s always good to make sure everyone working on the project is really engaged in the material and everyone’s really keen on it. 

You want them all to be passionate about it, because otherwise what are we all doing here? 

Tara: Yeah, is everybody going to bring their A game and be super committed. Actually ‘Dolores’ – we wrote that song and we loved it – but that song was on the list of nine songs that we had to get down to five. Simon said ‘I really just think this one is special.’ 

If that song hadn’t made the cut it would have been a crime.

Tara: I guess there was movement in that capacity, before we went out we knew what we were feeling and what he was feeling, but the first couple of days we popped to Simon’s house – his amazing house in the middle of the Catskills Mountains, with a beautiful river down the back – and he was like ‘Hey guys, let’s all sit in this lovely cabin and play some songs through and see what we’re feeling.’ That was a really good opportunity for us – we’d had Christmas off and it was the first time we’d really seen each other and were playing these songs in about six weeks, to this really great guy. We had an idea but it was sussed out between all of us, we do definitely work with the group decision rather than a unanimous vote – it’s a bit like jury service (laughs).

Obviously it was meant to be released last year, but I do think that this is kind of the perfect time for this record – it feels so joyful and a true celebration of life in all its forms and hope. Do you feel like it’s kind of meant to be now? 

Chess: Yeah, honestly I think everything happens for a reason – I don’t think COVID has happened for any reason – but I do think that the songs that we wrote and the songs that have ended up on the record – some of them were written over two years ago – have more meaning and are more poignant now. People are asking us if we wrote them in lockdown – if we’d written them recently – because they’re so relevant today. I do think that it felt really right when we came to the decision that we were going to release it in July – it felt really good and it felt really right that that was  the case, because it’s given us time to get some singles out there. We didn’t just want to go ‘here you go, here’s the full album.’ It’s given us some time to do some other bits around it and I think the timings worked out as well as it could have.

I think also with songs like ‘Dolores,’ there’s so many different layers to it. On social media people have been talking about how that song has helped them get through different times. It’s interesting to see that these songs have probably meant more to people having been released now and having gone through the past year, which is cool to see. 

Chess: Absolutely, like I say, what was really strange about ‘Dolores’ was that we wrote it kind of inspired by an article that I’d read in Rolling Stone and then by a quote from Tara’s mum that she would often say to Tara that is ‘Everyone’s fighting a battle that you know nothing about, so be kind.’ Those two things kind of came together and that was the song. The morning we woke up to record it – because we had a structure where we knew what we were recording each day and the night before, we’d jam out in the Airbnb where we were staying and we’d practise whatever we were doing the next day – that morning, we read the news that Caroline Flack had died and it was actually quite emotional, it was quite hard. We didn’t know Caroline personally, but I don’t think you have to understand the trauma that she went through. It was all so public. That gave that song an entirely new layer to us and it became even more relevant. It was just mad. 

It’s hard, these kinds of songs come from pain and difficulty, but there’s a hope that they’ll help someone else going through something similarly difficult and I feel like that’s what that songs reflects in a way. 

Tara: Absolutely, even if it kind of just gives some people something to think about or to consider and maybe get a little bit of perspective, even just to lift a mood – whatever it does. Also, just to continue the conversation, if we think about just some of the headlines over the last six months – people getting brought up and then cut down really publicly, often it’s women and there are instances where people are being attacked no matter what they do and you think if this was to really downturn, we’d suddenly have this deluge of people saying, ‘well, we shouldn’t have been so mean, and we shouldn’t have been so judgemental.’ It comes down to, if someone barges past me in the supermarket, I’m going to instantly think that’s really rude, but it’s not about you, it’s really hard sometimes to block that thought. We can all start to have that generosity of spirit and just have a conversation and keep conversations safe – those opportunities to talk about these things – we don’t have to have solutions, we just have to be open. 

AJ: It’s easy if you smile at somebody and they don’t smile back, especially if you’re a sensitive person, to feel wounded. If you consider that there’s stuff going on that you know nothing about and take a moment to consider what possibly could be going on in their life that wires that reaction. It’s not personal to you, but because you take it that way that can so easily cause resentment. If you keep the conversation going, if you communicate in the first place, and you make it easy for people to talk about what’s going on with them, you remove all of that. It gets so much easier and nobody gets hurt and there’s there’s no ill will at all – hopefully things can level out and we can start to gain that self awareness.

We’ve all learned about the importance of that during this time for sure. Finally, I wanted to talk to you about ‘Never Too Late’ – obviously it takes a different sonic route, it’s much more joyful. It celebrates life and I love that song. Where did that song come from? 

Tara: That’s the best song on the album, you’re totally right. It just reminds me – this is totally uncool – the end of the Matilda, when they play out. It instantly makes me feel so wonderfully light and happy. In writing that day – we wrote it with our really lovely friend Pedro de Souza who we wrote ‘Burning Bridges’ with and ‘Til The Day I Die.’ It was such a wonderful day, writing and recording it and afterwards the three of us went to Chapel Down in Kings Cross and we had a little voice note of it that we were playing to our A&R guy and we said we wrote this really good song, it’s really light and fun, I don’t know what you think of it. He was absolutely into it. Everything about it was a warm, sunny day – it just encapsulated a warm, light and jubilant day.

Chess: There’s huge nostalgia about that song. I think, like Tara said, it was definitely inspired by some music that we grew up listening to or that our parents were listening to when we were young – there’s definitely that aspect. I can’t remember what we were specifically going through at that moment in time, but again being in the music industry is always going to be tough. It’s always tough, there’s always problems to solve and things to get over and at that moment in time, we were just like, you know what  it’s never too late to do what you want to do. It just became this super positive message about never giving up and just keeping on going.

I feel like I need to play it every morning to start the day on a positive note. Well, I’m so excited for this record to be out – it really sums up the nuances of what you guys are about, from the important stuff to those happy moments. So, thank you guys, lovely to see you.

Lovely to see you too.

 

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