Pearces right to the heart

THEYsay the best things in life are worth waiting for, and when it comes to producing their long-awaited fifth album Hobart band Hey Mook couldn’t agree more.

Gone, gone, gone is a five-year labour of love for Hey Mook frontman, singer-songwriter Kim Pearce.

Released last month as both a gatefold vinyl and an online download, the nine-track record sways to overriding themes of “grief, loss and loneliness filtered through a healthy love of film noir”. “Basically, it’s dedicated to my late wife,” Pearce said. “It’s a pretty honest record, I can say that, in its feelings and its emotions.”

A secondary source of inspiration for Pearce, who wrote seven of the album’s tracks, is from his work as an archivist at LINC.

Side A’s Tranquilizer references colonial missionary George Augustus Robinson and the so-called Black War that decimated Tasmania’s indigenous population.

“An article came in here that mentioned a line ‘and then we tranquillised the natives’, so I took it from there and wrote a song about it,” Pearce said.

Hey Mook — Pearce, Simon Cruickshank, Jonathan Cruickshank and John Button — continue to woo fans with their acoustic guitars and poignant lyrics that tell stories in song.

The folk punk outfit have been in the music scene long enough that their work has spanned changing technologies, from their first recording in the 1990s, which came out as a cassette, to CDs and now a return to vinyl, along with a digital download option.

In a touching tribute, the artwork on the back cover is by Pearce’s late wife.

Gone, gone, gone is available in vinyl for $30 from Tommy Gun Records, the Hobart Bookshop and Lansdowne Cafe, or as a download from https://heymook.bandcamp.com/releases for $10, including three extra tracks.