The Artist Explains: Arms & Hearts - 'Kerouac on Minimum Wage'
Manchester singer-songwriter Arms & Hearts combines the spirit of folk troubadours past with a cathartic punk sensibility to create his own contemporary brand of folk-punk. His latest release ‘Kerouac On Minimum Wage’ is a rousing offering complete with an accompanying 8-bit video. He talks us through the track.
The track draws attention to the experience of many millennials, in that they’re working too much and being paid too little. At what point did you decide you needed to write about this?
I would like to point out at this point that this was not written with millennials in mind. We have always had the rich extracting wealth from the working class since the dawn of capitalism (and feudalism wasn’t great either but we won’t get into that) and right now, specifically in the UK it's getting worse and worse. We now have a government full of people who wish to strip away any bargaining power that workers have to demand better conditions and pay. Our only political power in the absence of capital is to withhold our labour and without that, the economic divide in this country is going to get worse and worse. I didn’t intend to write about politics and before this song, as a rule, I stayed away from politics due to the fact I don’t think I’m smart enough ha. But this was written primarily from my experiences - I think the conditions that I lived in decided that this song needed to be written.
Its video is an 8-bit metaphor for said narrative. How did the idea for this come about and how does it link to the track itself?
So I had no input in the creation of the video, when I released the album I asked my friend Dory from Fish Outta Water films for 3 videos. We had the one for Out For Blood and Community, but we never really nailed down an idea for Kerouac. I had some really stupid ideas, which we’re all probably glad that covid made it impossible to even attempt. A few months ago Dory surprised me with this lovely video. This is all Dory, I think they just wanted to make some raccoons unionise and do a violent revolution on the boss but I’m sure Dory probably has some deeper meaning.
There’s an overall message of optimism running through the track, despite, or perhaps in spite, of its negative narrative. How important was it for you to convey this in both the lyrics and the video?
I think there is optimism in it because there had to be - I wanted to write a song that was political but framed in the personal. I think this is how you really connect with people. Politics is discussed in wider culture as an abstract concept and never really discussed in the reality of how it affects most people.
Despite writing the track a couple of years ago now, do you feel its message is only becoming more relevant given the country’s current political and social climate?
100%. I think it was always inevitable that this is how it was going to get. Every time we think it can’t get any worse it finds a new interesting way to become.. worse. I think the problem is, is that there is a political-economic class. The more money, or capital you have, the more political influence you have. It costs so much to get involved in anything meaningful within parliamentary politics (and time) many of which we don’t have. So are we surprised when the people who are supposed to represent us do not have the same economic or class interests as us and are in fact directly opposed to us?
Finally, despite coming across as tongue-in-cheek, the track deals with serious issues. How important is it for you to explore such themes and ideas and how does its tongue-in-cheek nature work with that?
Well, first and foremost I am a “gobshite” - not everything I do is tongue and cheek, but it's an aspect of my personality that will appear within my writing. I know the music I make isn’t exactly breaking new ground and I’m probably never going to make a living off this but it is important to me that I at least write something that means something to me, and that can make a point to what small audience I have.
