The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
The expanse
The Head and the Heart continues evolving from its early alt-folk early days with ‘Every Shade of Blue’
As a child of the ’90s growing up in Seattle, The Head and the Heart singerguitarist-keyboardist Matthew Gervais couldn’t help becoming a fan of grunge.
That passion came full circle a few years ago when, on a tour stop in Northeast Ohio, the popular indie-folk and alternative band was afforded a personal tour of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“When I was young and impressionable, grunge was happening, so it was really cool to see artifacts from that era,” said Gervais, calling from Nashville. “We got to go back in the storage facility. There’s a very memorable Pearl Jam performance on ‘Saturday Night Live’ where Eddie Vedder was wearing a shirt with a ‘K’ on it that was for Kurt Cobain.
“They had that T-shirt, which they showed me. I was basically holding it. It was so weird to connect this moment that felt, like, very kind of just larger than life. It’s kind of surreal, like in a primordial brain state when you’re younger, in your early tween years. Definitely, it was a very cool experience to see that.”
The Head and the Heart — which is scheduled to perform May 29 at Agora Cleveland — recently released its fifth studio album, “Every Shade of Blue.”
Similar to the group’s 2019 effort, “Living Mirage,” which features two No. 1 singles in “Missed
Connection” and “Honeybee,” the outfit — more than a decade after first arriving on the music scene — continues to spread its creative wings.
“The irony of this band,
I’ve come to realize, is that there is no comfort zone,” Gervais laughed. “The comfort zone is that place of discomfort. That’s what we’re used to living in. There are a lot of different musical
tastes in the band and a lot of different approaches.
“There’s always a bit of that push and pull between embracing or recognizing the roots of the band, as sort of more folky origins, and then the sort of more pop-leaning sensibilities that have always been there.”
New songs on “Every Shade of Blue” that point to the band’s evolution include
an old-school The Head and the Heart sound on “Taking My Time (Wrong Woman),” as well as the big-sounding “Starstruck” and “Tiebreaker.”
“A song like ‘Don’t Show Your Weakness’ was a different approach,” Gervais said. “That was penned by me, (wife) Charity Rose Thielen and (pianist) Kenny (Hensley). The three of us had never written together.
“That sort of unit of writing wasn’t really represented in the band in that particular way, so there are different things like that coming into play.”
The biggest takeaway gleaned from “Every Shade of Blue” is The Head and the Heart continues to eschew easy and catchy hooks for more of a meticulously layered sonic experience. While not overly esoteric, it definitely challenges listeners who, in the end, are rewarded with something special.
“I don’t know that it necessarily shows where we’re going to go after this record,” he said, “but it definitely scratched a lot of itches creatively for different people.
“We were just embracing being out of the comfort zone and widening our own spectrum of what we’re capable of.”