Introducing: The Head And The Heart

Seattle’s The Head And The Heart are on a roll. During 2010, the five-piece went from selling their eponymously-titled debut album at local gigs, to supporting Vampire Weekend in Los Angeles, before signing to the iconic Sub Pop record label (and the much renowned Heavenly in the UK). The band mix a pop sensibility to an earthy Americana – moments of Fleet Foxes, Crosby, Stills & Nash and The Beatles flash across their sonic palette – making The Head And The Heart an easy album to fall in love with. Principle songwriters Josiah Johnson and Jonathan Russell met at an open-mic night in Seattle and fell for each other’s musical charms. We joined the love-fest during the band’s recent visit to our shores, and were sweet-talked by the ever-so-nice Josiah.

You have just played your first shows in the UK – how were they?

They went really well. We are all still new enough at this that we expect, when we go to someplace new for the first time, to have to play there a couple of times to start winning people over. But there were people singing along which was pretty mind-blowing in a new country for us.

Apologies for the arcane line of questioning, but I believe you met Jonathan shortly after you had both moved to Seattle?

You are catching me on the early side of doing interviews, so I am not totally jaded yet!

Yes, it was a funny time for both of us. We had both given up playing with other people in a ‘serious’ band context. A band is like a relationship – when you have been in a few relationships that haven’t worked out, you want a break and to be single for a while. It was the same thing; not wanting the hassle of all the personality differences.

So, was it love at first sight with you and Jonathan? Have you met your ‘musical soul mate’?

Yeah, he’s very much my musical soul mate. We really enjoyed each other’s songs. We also really enjoy each other as people and we became best friends. We then began to play on each other’s songs but it was an afterthought.

Best Friends Forever – that sounds lovely. When you started the band, what was your vision for what you wanted The Head And The Heart to achieve?

When we were talking to managers and booking agents and they were asking “where do you want to get to as a band?” we wanted The Beatles’ adventurous songwriting and wanting to continue to make songs that sounded different and unique. We love the band Wilco – I just trust them to write great songs. The third band was Arcade Fire for their live energy and passion. Those were our three inspirations and goals for the band for where we wanted to get to. Those bands are what we are shooting for and if we go towards those things, then we will think we are growing. And we have a lot of space to grow.

How does the songwriting process work in the band – do you create music together?

Jon and I have written a couple of songs actually together in a room. But, for the most part, they are our own ideas. There are songs we have where it is not one continuous idea throughout the song but a couple of disparate parts that have been put together in what, we hope, is an interesting and cool way. Jon and I write parts of songs a lot better than we write fully-fleshed out whole songs.

Lyrically, much of the album seems to deal with that mid-twenties uncertainty that surrounds making a life for oneself – am I on the right track?

Yes, absolutely. Jon actually has a really good line in ‘Cats And Dogs’ that I enjoy and it is “My roots have grown / But I don’t know where they are.” We are old enough to want to have roots but we are still in that phase where you are moving about and not entirely settled yet. It is the tension between those two things.

For me, this album came at a unique time in my life. I grew up in Southern California and graduated college there and then worked for a couple of years and then moved to Seattle about six months before I met Jon. I was realising that working in an office was not really my thing and I wanted to start doing music again. My dad is a very logical person and wanted me to be working full-time and all that stuff. So, there was a combination of a new place and starting to make a different sort of life for myself and not pursuing working in an office but pursuing music.

You have recently signed to the Sub Pop label in the US. It’s a stupid question, but just how easy was that decision?

There were a bunch of different labels that were in touch with us. There were some bigger labels, but we were obsessive about not wanting to hand over the reins of where this band goes. We wanted a record label that would do what we wanted instead of the other way around.

Sub Pop came in late in the game. We had always been impressed by them – with Nirvana, Fleet Foxes and The Shins – they have a really good history of doing interesting things. We’d been hoping to hear from them so it was like a dream come true. Jon moved to Seattle and thought “I’m in Seattle and I’m gonna make music and we’re going to sign to Sub Pop” and that was his dream. To have that happen was mind-blowing. So far, working with them has been absolutely phenomenal in communicating the vision for the direction this band is going to take.

The band has come a long way in the last 12 months – does the label of being the ‘new Sub Pop band’ create extra pressure?

Well, we grew pretty quickly just based on word-of-mouth. There is pressure if a person recommends us to their friends, but it is a little-less scary than having people invest tons of money in us. But, you kind of have to stop thinking about that and just do what it is you do, and do it to your highest ability at all times. What it has done so far is focus us to practice more and have our shit together.

Can a band’s popularity grow too quickly?

Definitely. One of the things we have tried to do is to communicate with our fans as much as possible. Sometimes we will be working after a show until midnight because we want to have conversations with as many people as possible and make connections. It’s growing so fast that we cannot do that, it’s get to a point where you cannot talk to everyone, but there is a personal connection I really enjoy about being an accessible band. We try to respond to almost every post people make on our Facebook wall – we are never going to have some social media person running that.

Your debut album was initially released nearly a year ago. Have you been writing new songs and what do they sound like?

We’ve been fortunate enough to have kept writing songs since self-releasing the album. It is not going to be the ‘folky strumming’ which dominates a lot of the debut record. We want to try different things and we are trying to expand the places we are taking musical influences from. We tried to make every song epic in its own way on this record, and maybe there will be times when we simplify that. It’s a combination of trying to grow our songwriting craft and understanding that a good idea can stand on its own.

And finally, seeing as you’ve admitted to not being jaded by dumb questions yet – why is the band called The Head And The Heart?

It describes what I was going through when I realised I wanted to make a go of music. That contrast was really about either following what your head told you to do, or your heart wants to do. People go through that all the time. Someone once said to me, ‘The Head And The Heart – that’s the struggle, isn’t it?’

The single ’Lost In My Mind’ will be released on 7th March via Heavenly Recordings/Sub Pop with the album The Head And The Heart following on April 18th.