The Head and the Heart has been working on new music to follow the band’s 2019 album, Living Mirage. As for when we’ll get to hear the upcoming material, the short answer is soon. The longer answer is perhaps not as soon as the group would like.

“It’s just sort of this dance of, like, we want to put out new music tomorrow,” vocalist Jonathan Russell tells ABC Audio. “[We’re] trying to figure out how best to do it.”

“We’re still waiting on some mixes and stuff like to really be finalized,” he adds. “But I would say in the next three or four months to expect a song or two from us.”

Part of the holdup, Russell explains, has been the question of “What is an album anymore?” in the age of streaming. It’s a question especially relevant to The Head and the Heart, who Russell says would argue for “days and days” over album sequencing.

“You exhaust yourself trying to figure out what the cadence and the arc should be from song one to song 10, 11, 12, 13,” Russell explains. “And everyone’s just basically going, ‘I like that one, I like that one, and I’ll put it over here with this band.'”

Russell has no problem with that listening method, but it has led him and his band mates to wonder, “What’s the most powerful way to put your music out now?”

“If people are only digesting a handful of songs, maybe you just do an EP,” Russell muses. “Maybe you do two EPs throughout the year, kind of make this spring/winter feel.”

“All I can tell you is we’re working on new music,” he adds. “The packaging of it, or the release of it, is still pretty malleable at the moment.”

By Josh Johnson
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