The Band Explains: Heavy Heart - 'High Dive' (Single)

Lead singer Anna of South East London outfit Heavy Heart  talks to us about the ideas behind their dreamy rock single, 'High Dive'.

'High Dive' is a dense and intoxicating whirlpool of tranquil and futuristic sound. The track is the first single taken from Heavy Heart's limited-edition vinyl LP entitled 'Keepsake' and features an animated artwork video. 

Heavy Heart Explains:
"In 2016, we wrote, recorded and released a new song each month. ‘High Dive’ was June’s instalment and we’re now releasing it as part of a 12-track collection called ‘Keepsake’ which documents the whole project.

‘High Dive’ was one of the earliest songs we wrote, maybe the first actually, but it stayed as a demo fragment for quite a long time. We’d been writing a lot of quite driving, straight-ahead songs up until that point, and we felt like we wanted to try something with a more off-kilter rhythm and some more varied textures. We put some synth elements alongside the guitars which I think adds to the watery feel of the song.

The song has this heady, late night feel to it, and is really all about contrasts - hot/cool, thirst/water, day/night, before/after. I was inspired by David Hockney’s swimming pool paintings when we were writing this - I love the contrast between the lush blue of the pool and the arid dryness of the surroundings - and also by a J. G. Ballard story called ‘Memories of the Space Age’. There’s a scene in the story where a man is suspended in time, eternally diving towards a pool, and that image always stuck with me: the moment just before. The moment just before you jump, just before you hit the pool, just before your hands brush, just before your lips touch. It’s a love song really, but there’s a bit of danger in it too. A siren song."

Feature by Karla Harris
'Keepsake' is due for release March 31st on brand new label  I Can and I Will and is available for pre-order here.