We quizzed Heavy Heart frontwomen Anna Vincent about their bold new single ‘Cry Ice’.
Hey Anna, how are you and what is new?
“I’m well thanks! It has been a rollercoaster of a year so far – and I don’t tend to like theme park rides – but I’m back on solid ground now. What is new is that Heavy Heart have just released our third single of 2019, ‘Cry Ice’.”
You have written story songs before, but ‘Cry Ice’ is on another level. What inspired you to write in this new style?
“Thank you! I normally have a slight story thread or character in my songs, but this one is definitely the most direct and literal so far. In ‘Cry Ice’, two lovers freeze to death on a mountainside just out of reach of each other. During the course of writing this song (and the other two we’ve released this year), I was going through the beginnings of a breakup. It moved glacially slowly but I guess these songs documented what came to be the end. I felt like the story of this song really summed up what it can be like at the end of a relationship. Frozen together but alone, not really able to touch each other or get through to each other any more. But there’s also something beautiful about that, about seeing it through together, at the end of it all.”
Have you ever climbed a mountain yourself? What inspired you to write a song in this setting?
“I haven’t, I’m more of an explorer of the internal world. I would probably have to be airlifted off the side of even a moderate hill after about half an hour. The inspiration for this song was an article I read about the climbers who have died over the years whilst scaling Everest and whose bodies are still frozen there. Some of them are even used as landmarks for climbers making subsequent expeditions. The idea of these people being alone up there forever made me sad. But at the same time, they kind of achieved immortality through their actions. When a relationship is ending, you sometimes just want to live in denial for a while before it’s really over, so I imagined these two people up there on the mountain, their love frozen perfectly forever, exactly as it was in that moment. In terms of music I’m also very interested in the idea of crystallising and preserving emotions and thoughts, so I guess it resonated in that sense too.”
Anyone who has heard previous records or seen you live will know you as a guitar band. What brought about the change of sound for this track?
“We’ve always used synths and other electronic elements here and there in our music, but generally in addition to lots of guitars, so it was nice to strip it back for this one. It’s a personal song and I wrote it on a synth so it just felt right to keep it there. I wanted to created a kind of icy, dreamy atmosphere to place the story in. But it gets very guitary by the end!”
In 2016 you released 12 tracks in a month. 2019 has seen a more leisurely three tracks (so far). Which approach do you prefer?
“Writing, recording and releasing a new song every month for a year was a really big challenge and I think we still have a bit of PTSD from that! It was self-imposed and it really helped us improve as songwriters I think, but it’s not something I’d do again in a hurry. Saying that, our singles this year maybe took a bit too long to make. So I’m hoping the next songs will be somewhere in between.”
What’s next for Heavy Heart?
“Recording more new music. That’s what I’m focussing on now. And I’m sure we’ll play a few shows around the place too…”
If you could hear one final song before freezing to death on the mountain what would it be?
“I’d probably go with ‘Until I Die’ by the Beach Boys.”
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By Benji Tranter
hardofhearingmagazine.com 