Eat Your Heart Out are every bit as heart-on-sleeve as you’d expect; their debut album sees them channel vulnerable and often angry coming-of-age lyrics through an onslaught of passionate emo-pop. Vocalist Caitlin Henry introduces her band.
Your debut album is out soon, does it feel to have been a long time coming? How long have you been working on it?
It feels like we have been leading up to making our debut album for a long time, so it’s amazing to know it will be coming out so soon! We started working on the album around the time Mind Games was released, but then we also ended up doing a lot of writing for it in the studio, so it still feels very fresh and new and relevant to us.
How are you feeling about its release, excited? Nervous? What do you think people will make of it?
I think it’s always nerve-wracking to put new music out in the world and release something you’ve worked so hard on and are so emotionally invested in, but mostly we are just very excited for it to be out there and to see what people think of it. I think it’s really hard to know how it will be received when you’re so close to it, but all we can do is hope it resonates with people!
Where did you record, and how did you find your time in the studio?
We recorded with Zach Tuch in LA. The studio time is kind of a blur if I’m honest! We worked from the morning to late at night every day for five and a half weeks, some days it felt like groundhog day, but we wanted to make sure we maximised our time to hopefully get the best end result possible. Emotions can definitely run high in the studio because writing and recording is such a personal thing to do and puts you in quite a vulnerable emotional state, but I think overall it was a cool experience.
What do you most enjoy writing songs about?
That’s a hard one! I think the easiest songs on the album to write were the angry ones, the lyrics kind of just flowed super fast when I think back to how upset I was in a certain situation. But I think it’s just enjoyable to write a song about anything that means something to you. I used to struggle with writing lyrics on our earlier EPs because I didn’t know how to tap into my feelings and express them properly, but this time around I started to learn how to revisit those feelings and find words to channel how certain people and situations and experiences made me feel.
How did you sign with Fearless Records for the album’s release?
We signed with Fearless Records two years ago after they reached out to us, and we have released two EPs with them since then, so it was very exciting to finally get the opportunity to work with them to release a full-length album.
What are the biggest challenges facing new bands at the mo, do you think?
Navigating social media is hard. It’s such an important tool to connect with listeners, and you have to try and be a constant presence online, and be interesting enough that people want to follow you. But it can be easy (for us at least) to accidentally just forget about it for a few days or feel like nothing is worth posting. I also think it’s a huge challenge for bands to try and create a sound that’s fresh and new but still accessible when there are so many bands absolutely killing it in every genre right now.
Have you spent much time outside of Australia yet? Will we see you in the UK soon?
We toured the USA in fall 2018, and so far that has been our only international trip as a band! If the album is well received hopefully, we’ll have to opportunity to visit the US again and of course visit the UK for the first time. We would love to get to the UK as soon as possible because the music scene there seems amazing!
It feels like there are a lot of good new bands coming out of Australia, who would you recommend?
Some of my favourites at the moment are Ambleside, Endless Heights, Yours Truly, Reside and The Beautiful Monument. Definitely check all of them out if you haven’t already!
Album aside, what else do you have coming up over the summer?
Honestly, there’s not much else! Our main focus for the summer is just on the album release and then hopefully touring as much as possible and visiting some new places and meeting new people.
Taken from the June issue of Upset. Eat Your Heart Out’s debut album ‘Florescence’ is out now.
