Autoheart’s New Album Pays Homage to Its Loyal Fanbase

In the wake of the release of their fourth album, Heartlands, the London-based, queer, indie pop trio Autoheart will head out on a 36-date North American tour in two legs — September and November — by far their biggest to date. Produced by the band and mixed by Danton Supple (Coldplay, U2, Pet Shop Boys), Heartlands is “pop for overthinkers: big feelings, bigger choruses, and the occasional dissociative episode. A little bit camp. Maybe a lot. It’s crying at the disco — with harmonies.” A tribute to the landscapes the band encountered on the road across the U.S. on their sold-out 2024 tour, the album acknowledges the group’s loyal fans, the “Heartheads.”

In a recent Zoom call from their home in London, keyboardist Simon Neilson and guitarist Barney JC speak about the band’s history as well as its new album.

I think the band formed in London in 2011. Talk about what those early days were like.

JC: We put our first album out in 2013 and recorded it a year before that. At the time, we were a band with a manager and hopes of getting a record deal. We made the album with an amazing producer, Danton Supple. We thought we’d put it out, and people would love the music. It would be a dream come true. We recorded the album, and we were really pleased with it. It was just crickets. There was feedback from the industry but it was highly negative. There were one or two people who were fans, and they disappeared. People hated it. We put it out ourselves on our own label and it was in the early days of DIY. People weren’t massively doing it in those days, but it wasn’t as normal as it is now. It felt like a concession of some kind. We failed to launch in a way. We carried on gigging.

Neilson: The London music is tough for small acts and we got to the end of the promotional cycle and had zero to show for it. We sat down and thought about what we would do. Two band members left.

You would still make a second album. Talk about that.

JC: Simon and Jody [Gadsden] had come up with demos for a song that would be on the second album called “Before You Came” and it totally blew me away. It was so evocative of Cyndi Lauper and that ’80s film soundtrack vibe. There was some nostalgic about it, and it brought Jody’s voice to life in a way that the band format did not. We said that no one likes us but let’s take out a bank loan and record another album We borrowed 5000 pounds and made the album. It was all we could get.

Neilson: it felt like a lot to us but it’s not a lot to make a record. We went on to mix and produce and record it on our own.

JC: It was done in bedrooms. That was the way we worked for the next album as well. It was a true choice. We just wanted to make music and had a compulsion to make music even though we thought no one liked us. It wasn’t like when bands say, “Let’s just make the record for ourselves and see if anyone likes it.” That question had been fucking answered. No one did like. But we wanted to still make it. It’s a vanity project but we needed to do it. That was our second album.

Neilson: That took the pressure off. If you have a successful first album, you feel pressure to match it. For us, the only way to go was up.

JC: We’ve had that we-can-do-whatever-the-fuck-we-like attitude ever since then.

How was the second album received?

JC: After that second album, something did happen. We started getting emails. I remember there was a moment where a teacher got in touch with us to share a project that one of his students had done. Everyone had to do a podcast about something that meant a great deal to them. That student had chosen our music. It was like a 40-minute podcast. It was so significant to hear that people were connecting.

Neilson: It seems common place now. But it wasn’t that common to have music discussed on a podcast at the time.

JC: It just that anyone was listening. It totally blew me away. everything was listeneing. That pattern stated to be repeated. The streaming numbers kept going up and up and people were doing videos with animation on YouTube.

Neilson: People were doing dance routines. Someone even did a pole dance

JC: Tt felt like an organic growth. We put out a third album and suddenly, it was the ten-year anniversary of our first album. There were people who really loved the album in the way we hoped they would. It had just taken a bit of time. People kept asking us to go on tour in America. We worked out a way to do it. We got in touch to see who are fans liked and found Shayfer James, who has a booking agent who booked a tour for us. By that point, we hadn’t played live for ten years. It was hard to get a visa and convince people we were actually really a band. But we made it over there, and the entire tour was sold out and it was absolutely amazing. We realized we wanted to make music we did back then. We had gone down a production route. With this album, we take a journey back to that band aspect. And we’re better at writing songs.

When did you start writing the songs?

Neilson: We started writing one of the songs on the bus. It was hard to translate some of the songs whereas the Punch songs translated live. This is about everything being played live. We want to translate our parts and the first song came off that tour was “Indigo Chateau.” It’s based on the reaction we got and the tempos we were playing.

The song’s music video is really out there?

JC: We’ve been working with Joseph Wilson, who directed it, for years. The last video was for “My Hallelujah,” which was the last single off our second album. He’s part of the London queer creative scene that we’re involved in. We chatted about it and he came up with this treatment. He loved this song. The redemption arc spoke to him. He came to us with this idea of dogs in a dog pound that will come into contact with an evil cigar-smoking dog pound owner. This time, we were like, is it too much? We thought it might be too weird even for us. We thought about it and decided it wasn’t. He’s taken meanings from the song that I would never have thought of. It’s perfect. The narrative really works. There’s a third layer of meaning, which is trans solidarity. It’s about people who try to make us conform. It’s camp as anything. We’ve always done that. “Moscow” is two gay soldiers in front of the Kremlin. It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s a little bit of the finger to people who say we can’t do anything.

You’ve said that the album title represents an “imagined queer refuge.” Talk about that a bit.

JC: One of the reasons we did the tour is because of the people who had written to us. They told us how music played a role in their lives. We wouldn’t have kept going if it wasn’t for that. Going back to the idea of taking out loans to make our album — that was a dark moment. Music was all we wanted to do. To think that we had gotten that far only to fail was quite a dark moment. I was going to do my day job in an office, which I hated. But I feel like people connected with us as outsiders. We’ve never been picked first. We were never the ones picked for success. There are loads of people out there who are. I love the fact that there are so many queer-identified rock stars now. They are so fabulous. Everyone from Olly Alexander to Chappell Roan. They’re splendid. There’s so much to aspire in them. I was never that cool person. I was never the good-looking person. But you get comfortable with who you are. You find your people. There’s a certain angst in our music. People connect with it. Maybe other people aren’t speaking to that.

Neilson: We’re lucky in that respect. That story is a narrative is common with a lot of bands who don’t make it. It’s a crowded space. We’ve been lucky to have that fanbase that recognizes our music and brings it into their world For me, heartland is an homage to that and paying it back. We met the fans and they were fantastic. They would stay behind after each show. It’s about this world and universe that we were inhabiting.

JC: People had traveled from different states to go to our shows. There’s an Autoheart Discord server. They discuss what they’re going to wear and make a plan for meeting before and after. The connection between them is amazing. We can see how the visual side our music has been reinterpreted. That made me feel that we’re in “heartlands.” This community has a lot of love involved in it. It feels bigger than us.

“Lost” is such a somber way to close the album. Is it meant to be taken literally?

Neilson: We often finish with something slower. We want to have a slower track to wind people down. We knew it would be a slower tempo song. We had maybe two in the running. “Lost” is very personal to Jody and I won’t try to explain it. iI’s not about being lost but about helping someone who is lost.

This upcoming U.S. tour is pretty lengthy. And it comes at a moment when the federal government could not more hostile to anyone who’s not a straight white male. What do you anticipate from the shows?

JC: We’re very aware of the fact that things are difficult for the community and others as well. It’s not just about the challenges that the LGBTQIA feel. Our concerts are a place of escape. Heartlands is about joy and comfort and a refuge from all of it. We can all be ourselves without judgment and fear. I hope that is what we can do. I don’t know that as musicians we can do much else. I hope that people won’t stop being creative and won’t stop being themselves. We owe it to each other to keep being ourselves and being proud of who we are.

Photo credit: Lezli+Rose

Tour Dates:

09/05 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
09/06 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey
09/08 – Atlanta, GA @ The Loft at Center Stage
09/09 – Richmond, VA @ Canal Club
09/11 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
09/12 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
09/13 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Bowl
09/14 – Boston, MA @ The Royale
09/16 – Montreal, PQ @ Theatre Fairmount
09/17 – Toronto, ON @ Annabel’s Music Hall
09/19 – Lansing, MI @ Grewal Hall
09/20 – Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy
09/21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
09/24 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
09/25 – St. Lous, MO @ Old Rock House
09/26 – Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
09/27 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Café
10/10 – Manchester, UK @ Rebellion [sold out]
10/11 – London, UK @ Oslo Hackney [sold out]
10/12 – London, UK @ Dingwalls
10/30 – Dallas, TX @ The Echo Lounge & Music Hall
10/31 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s
11/01 – Houston, TX @ Bad Astronaut
11/02 – Ft. Worth, TX @ Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall
11/04 – Kansas City, MO @ recordBar
11/05 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
11/06 – Denver, CO @ The Summit Music Hall
11/07 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
11/08 – Boise, ID @ Shrine Ballroom
11/10 – Calgary, AB @ Dickens
11/11 – Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Ballroom
11/13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl
11/14 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theater
11/15 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
11/17 – Oakland, CA @ Ceremony
11/19 – Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall
11/20 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
11/21 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
11/22 – Phoenix, AZ @ Nile Theater