Just back from the band's first tour of Europe, Seattle's The Head and the Heart are currently making their way across the U.S. opening up for The Walkmen. Interestingly, the two acts couldn't be more dissimilar. But that dichotomy should mostly result in a beautiful blending of styles.
Playing soft-spoken Americana that features aching harmonies and songs that even Ryan Adams might admire, The Head and the Heart are an opening act certainly worth getting to the venue early to catch.
Their tour with The Walkmen hits our own Granada Theater on Saturday night, and lead vocalist Jon Russell was nice enough to share his thoughts with DC9 concerning the Seattle scene and a number of other topics. Catch the complete Q&A after the jump.
You were born and raised in Virginia. What prompted the move to Seattle?
I
had a friend who was moving to Seattle just for a change of pace. She
had a place to stay for free for a couple of months, and I didn't want
her to have to drive by herself. I told her that if she let me stay with
her, I would split the gas and we would go from there. I had just
recorded an EP of stuff I was doing by myself in Virginia, and I was
looking to get out of Richmond. I wanted to go to where there was a
little stronger music scene. It was perfect timing.
What is it about Seattle that makes it such a vibrant music locale?
I
can't figure it out. I don't know if it's something in the air. Maybe
it's the constant overcast and people just play music more. You can just
feel it when you go to the shows, even when you go to an open mic.
There's just more concentration on music. That allows people to have
more focus and confidence. And the people here support local music.
Your
music doesn't appear as depressing as a lot of music associated with
Seattle. What is it about your songwriting that helps it break free of
the city's tradition of gloom?
I think it's because most of the
people in the band are transplants. Tyler [Williams] on drums and myself
are from Virginia. Josiah [Johnson], the other singer and songwriter, is
from Southern California. Only two of the members are actually from
Seattle. We had other things to write about. I think coming from a
different part of the country and having other influences had a great
deal to do with it. I also think that's why the band caught on rather
quickly in Seattle. It was fresh. It wasn't from Seattle, but it still
was in a way.
You guys are often compared to Fleet Foxes and Grand Archives. Are you tired of being lumped in with those bands?
No,
because I think it's not a valid comparison. If that's what someone
hears, so be it. We get all sorts of comparisons. Most of the time, it's
like I don't hear that at all.
But don't all three bands use similar harmonies?
Yes.
I guess that's why we get compared to those bands. I have no idea how
or why all of these bands started back with the harmonies. I never sang
harmony in any of my music until I moved here. I never had another
person to sing with. The first person I met was Josiah and he has a
great voice and he is a great songwriter. We slowly started working out
some harmonies. There is now this definite trend for Seattle bands to
use harmony. It's this grassroots revival. I was shocked when I moved
here and heard so many bands playing this roots-y style of music. I was
expecting stuff like The Shins. We have a huge folk scene and a huge
country scene. I was expecting more indie and more heavy stuff. It kind
of caught me off guard.
A lot of your songs have a Ryan Adams
vibe to them. With Adams' petulant reputation, is being influenced by
him a good or a bad thing?
I am a huge Ryan Adams fan. I
understand what you're saying because he's cheeky. He puts out so much
music and some people say it's garbage, but I love Ryan Adams. I can't
say I love everything he does, but I don't think it's a bad thing to be
compared to him. I still like the guy.
How did you come up with The Head and the Heart as the name of the band?
Every
member was coming up with a bunch of names and they were all really
bad. I think everyone was sick and tired of trying to come up with a
name. In a song that Josiah wrote, there's a line that says don't follow
your head, follow your heart. We booked a couple shows under the name
just to see how it went. Nobody seemed to hate it and it seemed to be
working so we just went with it.
Why did you re-record your debut effort, Sounds Like Hallelujah, when you signed with Sub Pop?
Well, we
only re-recorded one song -- the title song. We just wanted to up the
quality of that one song. We didn't want to make too many changes. So it
was kind of a pain in the ass. When you do something the first time, it
feels natural. And then you try not to over-think it. But after months and
months of playing shows, certain things change. You figure out certain
things live and you start doing things just slightly different. When we
went in to re-record the song, it was nerve-wracking. We were trying to
make it sound close to the original song, just with better sound. It was
the most stressful recording session that I have ever been a part of.
The
album is already available digitally, but physical copies are set to
come out on April 16, which is Record Store Day. Who came up with that
marketing plan?
That was through Sub Pop. We are still trying to
get things set up, get the art work laid out. We knew we could not get
the CD out until late March at the earliest, and someone heard that
Record Store Day is one of the busiest sales days of the season. It was a
way to tie things together.
