Heartour

Heartour2020-05-22T16:05:36+00:00

Project Description

For some artists, the spark for a record comes from a chord or a lyric. For Heartour’s Jason Young, it started with an image: Three album covers sketched in a notebook before a single bar had been written.

This approach is not unusual for Young, who has always looked to eclectic visuals to inspire his music. Growing up in small town Connecticut, just an hour away from the lights and the glamour of New York City, it was the visuals of the city and the riot of colors and sounds that sparked his initial journey into music.  Eventually, that lure drew Young not only to the city, but also into indie pop band The Ruse.

From there the ideas in that notebook began to take shape, away from the rock stylings of his day job with The Ruse to the more eccentric kaleidoscopic synth that became Heartour. A trip through electric dream pop guided by an artist beginning to see the upside of isolation.

RELEASES

“Refill the Fountain”
Release Date: February 24
Heartour - Refill The Fountain Single Artwork

“extra prolific” – Last Day Deaf

The single due out Feb 24, was born out of a cross-genre experiment where Heartour’s Jason Young populated the studio with 80’s video game synth sounds. It’s off the album, R U IN, mixed by Tony Hoffer (Metric, Beck & M83) and due out later this year.

Synths pinball into an arcade induced carnival ride, ricocheting off syncopated drum beats.  The retro Atari-esque keystrokes energetically punctuate each stanza, creating a seamless fusion of modern flashback sound. The song plunges a shiny new quarter into a buzzing arcade game and ignites a dreamlike landscape of glowing neon colors and liquid pools oozing from a Moog drenched fountain.

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“Brain”
Release Date: April 13
“‘Brain’ offers up some empathy wrapped in glowing neon.” – Cool Dad Music

Heartour announces the release of the upcoming single, “Brain”, providing both empathy and relief amongst the COVID-19 crisis. The song exposes the overwhelming unrest of anxiety with a holistic surge of endorphins cast in a buzzing neon glow. The single, due out April 13, is off the album, R U IN, and was mixed by Tony Hoffer (Metric, Beck, & M83).

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“Let the Robots Drive”
Release Date: May 11, 2020
Heartour - Let the Robots Drive Cover

“it soaks into your senses in a way you’re not likely to expect” – B-Sides & Badlands

The single guides us through a haunting dystopian landscape, asking the question, “What if?” The lines of reality and uncertainty blur as the synth-driven sounds smolder and burn.

“Let the Robots Drive” illuminates a future that seems closer now than ever before. Just like a scene out of Bladerunner or The Matrix, its robotic overtones question if the human race is on a one-way trip to losing control to artificial intelligence ruling our lives.  Jason Young opens the song, “Soak it in through your eyes/ You’re never going to quite see it like this again/ Soak it in through your ears / You’re never going to quite hear it like this again.” “Let the Robots Drive” combines a flourishing melody with chrome-plated chord changes synthesizing into a steady beat. The result is a dusk-inspired soundtrack visioning a desert drive to escape, if only for one more night. 

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Bio

For some artists, the spark for a record comes from a chord or a lyric. For Heartour’s Jason Young, it started with an image: Three album covers sketched in a notebook before a single bar had been written.

This approach is not unusual for Young, who has always looked to eclectic visuals to inspire his music. Growing up in small town Connecticut, just an hour away from the lights and the glamour of New York City, it was the visuals of the city and the riot of colors and sounds that sparked his initial journey into music.  Eventually, that lure drew Young not only to the city, but also into indie pop band The Ruse.

From there the ideas in that notebook began to take shape, away from the rock stylings of his day job with The Ruse to the more eccentric kaleidoscopic synth that became Heartour. A trip through electric dream pop guided by an artist beginning to see the upside of isolation.

In quick succession, Young pulled double duty, setting out to complete the albums that he sketched out initially, with Three dropping in 2003, Five in 2006, and Ate in 2009. It was on these solo records that Young began to solidify what Heartour would sound like, and the ways in which it would differ from his previous projects.

Writing on his own, the songs come together like a tapestry, a snatch of a melody from here, a bit of lyrical playfulness from there. What starts abstract gradually takes on depth and texture. In other words, in Young’s hands, the music becomes itself.

It’s been nine years since Young released his fourth and most recent album as Heartour, Submarine Sounds, but the intervening years have produced anything but downtime. Young’s other project, The Ruse, opened for Muse on three separate world tours. When the band took a hiatus shortly thereafter, Young decided it was time to go back into the studio and create something personal once again, and the dynamic electronic soundscape of the upcoming R U IN was born.

 It’s fitting for an artist like Young that Heartour’s upcoming album, R U IN has a title with more than one meaning. Afterall, the name Heartour is a made-up word that has several words within it.  It is one word, but pronounced “Hear Tour.” Young says, “I really like symbols and art that is kind of cryptic and can work on many levels.” R U IN, on the one hand, is a question, airy and inviting. But as with the music itself, that initial positivity gives way to something more complex and somber. It spells RUIN.

“What can I say,” Young says. “I like the mix of happy music with dark and off-kilter lyrics.”

Beats Per Minute

"glittering synth-washed sounds comparable to M83 and Chromatics"

Joshua Pickard, Beats Per Minute

"full of whimsical and feel-good melodies, touched with just a bit of wistfulness and wonder" (2019)

"Young’s powerful but silky vocals rise over an amalgam of heavy synths, creating a unique scape as if meant to simultaneously hypnotize and pump up a festival full of people." (2019)

Last Day Deaf

"extra prolific"

Christos Doukakis, Last Day Deaf
glamglare

"a jolt of energy and joy in form of a grand, arpeggio-heavy synth-pop track, ideal to break out of any mental deadlock."

Oliver Bouchard, Glamglare

"The listener is completely consumed, and the track is compellingly danceable, not to mention eminently radio-ready and streamworthy."

Lisa Hafey, Essentially Pop