April 7 | 8 p.m. | $36
Grand Sierra | Reno, Nev.
After a six-month hiatus in 2015 spurred by band leader Josiah Johnson’s addiction recovery, The Heart and the Heart are touring once more with a new album called “Signs of Light.”
“When we first started, we would be doing these tours and we’d just camp out,” reminisces bass guitarist Chris Zasche. “No use getting hotels when you can sleep under the stars. The first couple years our singers would do a lot of busking around and a lot of the song ideas would come from campfire hangs.”
Now the band is heading toward a summer of major festivals including dates at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Red Rocks before returning to Europe.
“Writing new music is the beacon of light at the end of the tunnel.” -Chris Zasche
“I think we earned [the break],” says Zasche. “It was a much needed time for us to regroup and discover ourselves as humans. Now was are back together and seeing ourselves as part of the whole. The excitement and giddiness of getting to play music was there after taking that much time off. Writing this record was really fun because we had taken a step back and we all realized we really missed it.”
“Signs of Light” was recorded in Nashville at the studio of Jay Joyce, who has also produced albums by Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Zac Brown and Cage the Elephant, amongst others. The recording preserves to perfection The Head and the Heart’s high-energy, melody-driven folk-pop.
“It’s actually kind of hard [to capture that live sound],” says Zasche. “You’re in a studio. You’re in a formal setting. Your head’s down. You focus too much on proficiency. You focus too much on performance and forget about the fact that there are five or six other people in the room with you. We’d be looking back at a take thinking we nailed it and Jay would be like, ‘You guys are playing like metronomes.’ He was really good about that. He is someone like that could sense that and it instantly hit a chord.”
During the hiatus, Zasche spent six months touring the Canadian Rockies in his van while other members volunteered in Haiti, learned to fly planes, mastered Kung Fu, composed songs with Mavis Staples and got sober. The band eventually reunited in Stinson Beach to boogie board, write songs and record demos for the new album, which features songwriter/guitarist Jonathan Russell’s simple, subtle yet catchy melodies.
“Jon has a separate sense just for melody,” says Zasche. “Even during this last tour we were on, I remember hearing him on the back of the bus working through new ideas. Everything he puts together is clever. He doesn’t settle for a simple ‘la la la’. He works as hard on melody as lyrical content which I think is rare.”
Moving ahead, the band is focused on continuing to write new music and following the inspiration that initially convinced them to quit their day jobs and reach for their dreams.
“Writing new music is the beacon of light at the end of the tunnel,” admits Zasche. “Touring is incredibly rewarding, but in any art from the creation process is the most thrilling part. What an incredible position to be in, to be comfortable and confident enough to write whatever we want.”
And as always, the heart comes before the head.
“When the band was just starting out [in Seattle], we were all trying to have jobs and somewhat normal lives,” says Zasche. “Then the band formed, which was this incredibly fulfilling experience and at some point we all had to take that leap together, which meant quitting our jobs and jumping in the deep end. I think that’s the approach we still have.
“You can take the risks and that’s always going to be a struggle with any creative art form. It’s sort of battling away the safer way that people always seem to create. When you lose the safety net, that’s when pure art can come out; when there is no going back. I always think of that when we are writing music, you know like ‘I’ve heard this before and should I be pushing myself further.’ That was origin of the band and I believe it still applies.”
For tickets, visit grandsierraresort.com.
