Black Heart Procession To Reissue Debut Album

San Diego based late-’90s/’00s band the Black Heart Procession just announced the remastered reissue of its 1998 debut album,1, via Solid Brass Records. The band also announce new headlining tour dates for February 2026. Still led by Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel, both of whom formerly played in the indie act Three Mile Pilot, the group has a singular sound that uses instruments such as pianos and guitars to create an eerie vibe. Jenkins speaks about the band’s legacy via phone from San Diego.

Solid Brass made Hearts and Tanks available for streaming for the first time, and the label is working on the reissues of your debut too. How’d you hook up with the label?

Justin [Sinkovich] used to work for Touch & Go before they stopped making records. We were always very happy with Touch & Go. It’s a great label. When they stopped putting out new releases and kept their back catalog, we had to find different places to release our stuff. Solid Brass expressed an interest in reissuing some old stuff. We’re also working on a new album. We wanted to start with the first album and Hearts and Tanks. I think we have 28 songs for a new album, which might be a double album.

Talk about what it was like to revisit the album?

It’s cool. We did it once before, but I never felt like the mastering job worked out very well. Some of the pressings had issues. We tried to keep it very close to the original but heighten some things. Honestly, it’s hard for me to tell the difference because it’s vinyl. The test pressings sounded very much like the first pressing. We did the artwork similar. We made a few changes to it, but it’s primarily the same. Originally, it came out on Cargo.

Three Mile Pilot had been a successful indie rock act. What did you want to do differently with Black Heart Procession?

Toby [Nathaniel] came into Three Mile Pilot when we were doing Another Desert, Another Sea. We were roommates, and we were looking for another person to help with extra keyboards, and he joined the band and we started writing some other songs that felt different. Zach [Smith] from Three Mile Pilot is very heavy with his sound. What we were doing felt different. We didn’t want there to be any rules. Before we knew it, we had we had ten songs. I said, “Let’s go record them.” We never intended to be a full-on band. We just recorded them and it resonated with people, and Touch & Go came along. After we were driving home from Seattle where we recorded at Bear Creek. It was mixed and mastered in ten days. It was so quick. We listened to it after driving for 12 hours. I remember putting it on and thinking it might be the first album I had ever done that I was okay with it. Touch &Go wanted to do the second and third. We were getting good responses and enjoying that time. Toby and I grew closer. Our writing process was very mutual. We give each other the space to get our ideas across.

The San Diego music scene was brimming with talent at the time. Was it inspiring to you?

You know, sure. Subconsciously. A lot of friends’ bands were great, and there were so many good bands. Black Heart was always kind of different. We would shut ourselves off in our house and write these dark, moody songs. There was not another band doing that at the time. That resonated with people who appreciated that type of music. San Diego was very rock and roll. I love all that, but we were very different.

Even Rocket from the Crypt was a retro rock band.

Yeah. They’re all friends of ours. We love Drive like Jehu and Hot Snakes and all those guys. The list goes on.

I know you collaborated with J. Mascis in the early 2010s. How did you meet him?

Dinosaur Jr. moved me from that first record they put out. They influenced me heavily. Early Dinosaur was heavy nerd music. It was super cool. He was singing in this whiny weird voice with guitars that are through the roof. It was amazing. We got to play with them a long time ago and I went to several of their shows. We were in Rome playing a show, and J. Mascis had given us a positive review and mentioned us, so that was great. He was at our show in Rome because he had a day off. We got to know each other and became friends. He’s a really sweet guy. When he started working on solo albums, he asked if I would participate. I think I’m on three of the solo records he’s done. I’m sprinkled in there. Mission complete. That’s pretty awesome. It’s amazing and humbling.

What caused the band to split in 2013?

The Black Heart story there is interesting. I lost hearing in my right ear and was having really bad hearing issues. I closed my studio and back away from music and moved up to Portland and was working in wood mill and wood shop and a grocery store. I was still playing music but not recording other bands like I was. I was just navigating my new reality of not having hearing. I have 3 percent hearing in my right ear, but it took a while to get there. Once I got down to having little hearing in that ear, the left ear started compensating. Toby moved to Serbia and got married. Doing stuff became difficult. Suddenly, it’s become 15 years since we released anything and put out a record. Now, we want to get back on the train and see how it goes and come at it with more knowledge. For those six albums, we were really going after it. That can be daunting at times. Long story short, life happened.

Talk about the band you’ll take on the road.

We’ve always had different band members. The lineup has always changed. The core members are me and Toby. We have long staying members back in like Scott Mercado on bass. He’s toured with us off and on for years. We have Matt Resevich who has done violin and keyboard synths. He’s the secret weapon and is a multi-instrumentalist, like Scott. It’s nice to have those types of people. This time, we have longtime friend Zeke Howard sitting in on drums as well. We played some shows where Zeke and Joe Plummer were both playing drums, but Joe is busy with Cold War Kids and other projects he has going on. Zeke will come in for this [tour]. He and I have played together in my solo projects. He is part of the crew but was not a proper member until more recently.