One of our favourite acts out of Tassie, indie pop trio Heart Beach have today released their second album Kiss Your Face, the follow-up to their self-titled debut in 2015.

At times sparse, at others almost relentless, Kiss Your Face is anchored around the distinctive girl/boy vocal harmonies of Jonathon and Claire McCarthy – and the latter has kindly taken us through the record’s inspirations, from duck-print pyjamas and romantic encounters, to life’s more deeply painful experiences.

Kiss Your Face is out today through Spunk Records, and you’ll be able to hear it live as the band head out on tour (dates below), beginning with a launch show on November 25 in their hometown of Hobart.

Defacto

‘Defacto’ was written in the empty bedroom at Jon and my house in South Hobart. It took ages to get the words right, but there was always that bassline and then we lifted it with Weezer-esque guitars and steady drums. I wanted to capture some of those moments at the start of a relationship – that feeling or realisation that this is getting serious.

For me it whirls through a series of vignettes: being breath tested near Davey St and blushing when the cop asked me where I was going. A man answering the door in his pyjamas with ducks printed all over them and half the buttons missing. Trying to be quiet because there were other people in the house. And the newness, excitement, breathlessness, paired with feeling trapped by another routine.

Counting

Counting is a simple pop track written over bass with minimal effort. The lyrics are about understated romance, letters written and never sent, honest love, day-dreaming and the realisation that even the day-to-day of relationships shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s a self-talk ditty. Some of the things you might hear if you could read my thoughts.

Brittle

Jon wrote ‘Brittle’ when Dan Butcher was in the band playing live drums. We’ve redone it for the album with Chris and the tape machine. It started out with a simple two-note, driving bassline. Guitars and drums were layered over that.

Jon wrote the lyrics, but I think it’s about being with someone who you think is the total best and you are still pinching yourself that they let you in. For me it encapsulates the nervousness of first times and the sadness of recent breakups: dating someone who is still a bit heartbroken and not being sure if they love you back, and about being angry at the ex on their behalf. Jon just says it’s a throwaway rock hit.

Record

This is our favourite feedback track – the one that sound guys hate. Jon stands back and shouts at the mic and I croon to the best of my ability. I think Jon and I sing this one best when something bad has happened. One of us might have stuffed up at work or it’s been a hard week. Life seems like it’s repeating.

I had a miscarriage last year and I think performing the song after that gave it the raw edge the audience responds best too. It’s therapeutic to perform and I hope the audience gets some of that relief too. The song also includes some of Jon’s best pick up advice: ‘Tell the truth / It always works.’ A little takeaway life lesson from an old master.

Know Her

‘Know Her’ is all about potential, possibility and taking a punt no matter what. This song barely made the album, but I’m really glad it did. For me it’s a little like ‘Record.’ A musing on the circularity of time and the daily grind. But Chris’s drums and the guitars, as well as the relatively chirpy bass (for an owl perhaps), give this song its uplift and groove.

Sleeping

‘Sleeping’ was written with Adam D’Andrea playing live drum machine (Icaro) for a Hobart little bands event. The aim was to have massive reverb on the bass, enhanced by somehow hopeful bass chords, and a despondent vocal line that strikes the chorus with a sudden will to live.

Chris and Jon added the guitars and recreated drums to give it more of a song, rather than experimental effect. The lyrics are about the ordinary, stress and anxiety, reflection, talking to yourself, knowing you’re going crazy but that you’ll get through it, getting older, and being with or doing all those things with someone you love and want in your life. The line: ‘last birthday before I choke’ was inspired by turning 27 – that famous age where rock stars die and become gods and the rest of us continue, seemingly failing to fulfil our potential.

Call

‘Call’ was known as ‘Eyeballs’ for ages so I still have to think twice when I see that track listed. The working title came from the amount we played it to get it right: up to our eyeballs etc. But it also makes me think of a book I read when I was a teenager about Roma people and how their word for orgasm translates roughly as to take one’s eyes out.

That’s more on the money for ‘Call.’ It’s about the physicality of short-term sexual relationships or encounters. The ones that keep drawing you back in. It’s also our dance track, although Chris and Jon wouldn’t let me choreograph it. They are both cool and wise.

Recover

This track breaks my heart and tapes it back together again. It’s the only one I cried in between takes for when we recorded it, although that was more to do with me consistently singing one of the lines sharp. Jon wrote the lyrics and it has Chris’s signature guitar and drums all the way through it.

‘I never thought that I would say’ is the line that gets me the most. Even to our closest friends and the most special people in our lives I think it can hard to admit that life has turned out differently to how we planned. That we are vulnerable to other people’s needs. That things aren’t perfect but that we can’t or don’t want to go it alone anymore. That what we have is pretty great.

Milk

If I could play this song lying on a banana lounge beside a crystal blue pool in LA, I would. I love the drums on this track. They lock in perfectly with the simple-bass groove. The 12-string really comes to life as well in the outro with the measured tremolo of Jon’s guitar strummed under it.

Summer

We wanted to end the album with a “happy” track, albeit one that is loaded with nostalgia like some golden Jacob’s ladder streaming through the clouds. Chris brought the bones of this song and I wrote the vocal line.

The lyrics are inspired by two things: a facebook post where a friend told her boyfriend how much she’d enjoyed their first orbit around the sun together, and another Hobart mate who moved to Melbourne telling me that he would move back if he could. I also tried to capture that feeling in Hobart at Christmas to New Year’s when everyone comes home to see their families. We all run into each other at The Brisbane Hotel, and try to catch up on our disparate lives. Perhaps I was also predicting my own departure.

Heart Beach Tour Dates

Friday, November 25 – Hobart, Grand Poobah (Kissing Room)
w/ The Native Cats, Ghost Drop , Black Hole Sugar (Heart Beach’s last Hobart show)

Thursday December 1 – Melbourne, Gasometer (Upstairs)
w/ Mares , Shiny Coin , Jealous Husband

Friday December 2 – Sydney, The Vic
w/ Bare Minimums, Suburban Girl

Saturday December 3 – Sydney, Jura Bookshop
w/ Slag Queens (Tas), Queen Anne’s Revenge 

Sunday December 4 – Thirroul, Frank’s Wild Years
w/ Slag Queens, the Nah

Monday December 5 – Melbourne, Northcote Social Club, Monday Night Mass
w/ Redspencer , Quivers , Summer Flake

Friday December 16 – Vancouver, Canada (Kingfisher Bluez Xmas Party)

Saturday December 17 – Victoria, British Columbia at The Copper Owl
w/ Island Eyes, Noble Wolves, Soft Alarm

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