Heartline Have The ‘Pink Lemonade’

Adelaide alternative metal quartet Heartline have released new EP Pink Lemonade. Production from Sam Trott (Rogue Half) with a mix and master by Nick Sjogren (Thornhill), Pink Lemonade is a digital fusion of pop and metal, weaving in and out of expansive EDM soundscapes and soaring chorus’ before unleashing a wave of grinding guitar and bass, showcasing Heartline’s musicality as a unit. The quartet’s latest two releases see the band explore new creative ground, to be heard across their forthcoming ‘Pink Lemonade’ EP.

Heartline is Luke Taylor, Nevenko Sarunic, George Carey and Michael Cooper. Since their debut in 2019, Heartline have continuously shown themselves as an exciting and promising act to watch in the Australian alternative music scene. Popular releases Delorean and the two-track drop Somewhere Else [I] established a sound that seamlessly combined hard-hitting and complex grooves with soaring melodies and irresistible dance elements, with Delorean landing the band a coveted cover spot on Spotify’s Homegrown & Heavy playlist. Luke Taylor speaks to Hi Fi Way about Pink Lemonade and upcoming headline tour.

Congratulations on the EP, can you believe how much work goes into it?
Yeah, this one especially wanting to make sure we cover all bases and really milk it for what we feel it’s really worth. It’s it has been a lot of work. It’s a big, big relief to have it out now.

Did you feel you nailed it as the songs started to take shape?
It was after the demos, when it was just Fraser, our former guitarist who co-wrote the EP with our producer. They would send us the demos of tracks and once we went back and forth with our notes on what we think the track should do structure wise and some other little elements. Once we decided that, yeah this how we want the track to sit and then we went through the process of writing our individual parts on our own and it was it was really when it came together in the studio where we actually recorded all the bits, so that was like alright this is final. Now, this is the final tracked drums, this is the guitar. The drums was exciting because there’s a massive difference between live tracked drums and programmed drums on the computer. So, when we finally got to hear Michael’s riding of his drum parts on the EP recorded, that was when it was really starting to get exciting for us.

There is a sense of sophistication and maturity with the band’s sound. You have to be stoked with the end result?
Thanks, we really pushed ourselves with this one to try and put a lot of ourselves into the songs and not try and not try and ride a tide of what is popular or trying not to stick to what we listen to too much, and stick to what we know, really trying to break out of our comfort zone and be ourselves or what we what think sounds good, what we like turns out to be on the track regardless. We really struggled a while ago with, oh, this doesn’t really sound like Heartline or we need more of a heavy part or it’s a bit of a riff, so I need to do screams over it and along the process of making the EP where we just sort of broke away from that finally and just really felt creative freedom and confidence in just doing what we think sounds cool. That’s why we feel so excited and connected with this body of music because we got to spread our wings if I can get cheesy for a moment.

Was that easier said than done?
Yeah, it definitely can be. I think the hardest part is recognising it when you’re in it. I can’t remember when it was, but I remember the feeling I had the first time our producer said. you have a particular sound. There is a thing called Heartline sound and I think I heard it maybe a couple times and that really spoke to me because I couldn’t really hear that because I would think of a particular sound, like Northlane is a sound because they’re this genre defining band that really breakthrough norms in the genre. I would liken other bands to that and I’d liken some bands to Thornhill, bands that have their own unique sound. When I heard that being used for our band, I was like, wow, ok, there’s a sound. There’s a sound that some people are recognising as unique to us now and it’s taking a little while for us to feel comfortable in that as well and comfortable in acknowledging that I think. So that’s really cool to think about having our own personality as a band.

Have you been stoked with the fan response so far?
Yeah, we have so much appreciation for anyone who feels like they want to share that they like our music, whether it’s just a little re-share on Instagram that they like or like sharing a post with made about the release or sharing that that they’re listening to it on Spotify. We appreciate that so much because when no one really owes us anything, that’s the that’s the reality of it. No one owes us. No one owes us sharing our music around no one owes us coming to shows. It’s completely in the hands of the person doing it whether they want to do that, if they want to share it means that they like the music and they want other people to see that and maybe help us get more listens. That just means the world. If it’s one person, or if it’s ten, twenty people, it’s it doesn’t matter, the fact that someone’s decided to do that for us, it’s just like the craziest thing to us.

Do you think you might get a like a physical release, whether that’s a vinyl or a CD?
I really hope so. I really want to do vinyls for this one. We were just wanting to get the get the release out. I think if we were going to do vinyls it would take a bit longer and we already had a whole bunch of delays. So, we just wanted to get it out and then down the track, we might bring something out in the way of physical copies. I would really, really like to do something like that.

Did everything go to plan in the in the in the studio?
Yeah, the studio was pretty good. There were a few drum parts I know that Mike struggled with just writing real complex things and then having to play them perfectly within the studio time. I think that’s quite a common thing for musicians to do is to and I think it’s a real positive thing to do as well to just write challenging things. For me personally, the challenge isn’t so much in the studio because that’s when you use your voice the most. I think you reserve your voice and prepare for that day in the studio so things can be a lot easier to sing than. For me, it’s after I’ve recorded my parts and I need to sing those songs in a thirty or forty minute set and that’s when I go, I have really stitched myself up here because this is really hard. There are a few songs on the EP that are that have been a big challenge with rehearsals trying to sing them at a standard that I’m happy with in a in a full set. But I’ve had that for every release that we’ve done as a band, and it’s a really good feeling. On the other side, it’s looking back at what was really difficult to see at first, and that now is quite easy and second nature.

Has the creative process continued for the next release?
We haven’t decided what we’re going to do next. We are working on new music. It’s just a matter of how we want to release it that that we haven’t really decided yet. We’ve all been very focused on this EP for now and then in our spare time just working on this other stuff. It’s interesting nowadays with releases. I think traditionally we would have been well along the course of doing a full-length album now, but it’s just not the most economic thing to do as a band of our size and in today’s day and age. It’s likely that maybe just a few singles might be on the horizon, but we’re really not sure.

Are you excited for the first run of dates on this tour?
Yeah, this Saturday, it’s the Adelaide show which is kicking it off. We were chatting about just how excited we are. We’ve only done one headliner ever before and that was in amongst right as we’re emerging out of COVID. We’ve gotten so used to being a support band that I’m just excited to have a show that’s ours. It’s just not a feeling we’re used to and to have other bands that have reached out that want to be a part of it has been an awesome feeling, like really heart-warming. Having people wanting to jump on these shows because it’s a new feeling. We’re always the band that are trying to jump on other people’s shows then to have to have people want to do that to us is oh man, we love you guys.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Pink Lemonade is out now…

On tour on the following dates, tickets HERE…