The Head And The Heart explores the personal on its major-label debut
When Jonathan Russell caught up with MAGNET, he was on a spotty cell connection riding a bike through his hometown of Richmond, Va. Hands-free headphones were in use, the singer/guitarist of the Head And The Heart is quick to note. But the more important factor is that he’s back home. Not in Seattle, where his band formed, but “home” home.
After bursting out of the Coffee Capital coffeehouse scene in 2009 with their self-titled debut, Russell and Co. spent seven subsequent years constantly on the road, writing and recording 2013’s impressive Let’s Be Still for Sub Pop in the in-between. When that run wound down, a year’s sabbatical was in order, and Russell headed back east. Having time off, after so much time together, is essential, and with TH&TH’s excellent third album Signs Of Light getting ready for a major-label release on Warner Bros., we asked him about those years of growth.
“First you’re awkward and uncomfortable being in front of 20 people at a coffeehouse,” says Russell. “Then you’re playing bigger shows, and you get these opening slots so you’re thrown on a stage you’ve never been on before. You’re like, ‘What am I supposed to do with all this space?’ But for me, I enjoyed figuring all that stuff out. Obviously, the bigger the stage, the bigger you want to sound.”
The new album definitely sounds big with a capital B—soaring guitars, powerful arrangements and lyrics that connect in the broadest possible way. Rousing opener “All We Ever Knew” ponders elusive fulfillment (“Feeling low, feeling high/Feeling down, why isn’t this enough?”) with an infectious, wordless chorus. The folksy “Library Magic,” awash in madrigal harmonies, is on the surface a meditation on the struggles of tour life. But it’s also about loyalty and fidelity: “It’s easier to begin and hard to end/I’m just glad to go through it all with you as a friend.” This reliability isn’t some by-product of being on a major now—it’s how Russell has always worked as a songwriter, and how the band’s fanbase was cultivated.
“I think my natural tendency as a songwriter is this: I’m more into universal parallels than trying to be like this niche, weird art thing,” says Russell. “I like those bands, too, but for some reason my natural writing lends itself more to this all-encompassing ‘I’m going through this, are you going through this?’ sort of mentality. Mostly for me because it’s an outlet of me trying to figure out existence.”
Growing also means accepting change, and in the Head And The Heart’s case, that means letting co-frontman Josiah Johnson sit on the sidelines for this album’s promo run as he battles addiction and focuses on recovery. Russell sighs as he reflects on his friend’s absence.
“The hard thing about being in a band is you sort of lose your autonomy, and as a songwriter, that can be really frustrating,” he says. “You can’t really pinpoint how it happened or where it went. Once we all sat down as a band, and were like, ‘You need some time to yourself,’ we realized that’s fair. That’s totally fair, we’re all still good friends, all on great terms with each other. I think more than anybody else at this time, he needed to step back for a minute.”
But Johnson’s presence is nevertheless felt. The title Signs Of Light comes from the closing track, a moving piano anthem written and sung by Johnson, a beacon of hope for him. And, by Russell’s logic, for all of us.
—John Vettese
