After a three-year hiatus, The Head and the Heart is back with a new record, Living Mirage. Formed in 2009, the band has a decade of experience in the music industry, giving them plenty of time to reflect, grow, and find their identity. Living Mirage shows the band as lively as ever, while feeling more confident in their emotional musical groundings. Ahead of the group's 38-stop North American tour, I spoke to vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist Jonathan Russell to learn more about what’s to come for the band.
What was the preparation and creative process like for this tour? This is actually the first time we’ve gone more theatrical with the live shows. We’re used to just being up there with amps and instruments, and now there’s more design and lights into it to really bring out more for these songs.
Does that have anything to do with the musical transition you’ve made over the years? Definitely. This is our fourth record, and we’ve been doing this for about 10 years now. We started out with really simple songs based around an acoustic guitar, but now our songs feel bigger and we feel more like a band than a singer/songwriter. That definitely influences you to push it further with the live element. Every time we start making a new record, you feel these new characters get brought out, and our new live setting really helps create these new scenes.