Dear heart stringers,

Its has indeed been a mammoth amount of time since last I blogged, but here I am to let you know what’s been going on with album number two . . .  

Well, when first we began album 2 writing, a few years ago now I guess (?!), there was a semi classical, grand adventure type vision brewing. ‘Pedalo’ type stuff with chunkier beats and more ghusto. Some songs were recorded, but that phase didn’t have time to expand into an album, because at some point I began listening to more simple, happy upbeat stuff, and became more enamored with the feeling songs like the Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls’ were giving me. At that point I was interested in conjuring a sense of naive excitement, happiness, warm retro pop scrummyness, maybe a smidgen of summertime drunkenness. A bit more ‘Paperback Writer’ compared to the first albums ‘Eleanor Rigby’. The start of this year, we mixed three songs with Dave Pemberton (a friend of a friend who randomly mixed Groove Armada and Prodigy stuff ?!). Those three tracks kicked off the more upbeat heart string vibe, and through them I wrestled with the parts of me that were squirming that it was all too simple and pop-tastic. ‘But that’s how you’re feeling’, came the wisdom from within, ‘so be true to that’. They’re now looking destined to be b sides, but they paved the way for Max and I jamming a load more stuff, which turned into 5 songs we recorded a few months ago with album 1 producer, Julian Simmons. That went well, and probably all 5 will be on this album.

After that, a personal happiness/semi spiritual revolution led me into a 60’s free love, semi psychedelic, technicolour tastic vibe, nurtured by me spending hours every day walking around the woods, and searching for my path to ‘joy’ (as opposed to the habitual treadmill esq, low grade but accumulatively stressful life I’d become accustomed to). The 6 songs that came out of that, I’m very happy with. With more depth than some of the previous 5, which are at times MGMT versus the Monkees (nowt wrong with that !), there’s a lovely celebration going on here, with some downbeat tender nurturing moments, and some soaring beat-tastic harp swirling keyboard mungous highs. 

So, in but a few days, we’re back in the studio, and by the end of November, it’ll be all mixed. But then our label has to assemble its team of pr, pluggers etc, plus with a 3 month lead time for press etc to do reviews bla bla, you wont be able to get your hands on it till april/may next year, although I suppose we’ll be releasing singles before then.

Anyhow, bit of a beefy update that, but its 2 years or so condensed, so I guess it was gonna be. In conclusion, all is good here in camp heart strings, and for those of you interested in hearing the second album, it’s in the oven, on the rise. I reckon it’s gonna taste yummy !

Hope all is with you.

Bye for now.

Todd x

p.s Max sends his love !

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The Heart Strings - 'Try Fly Blue Sky'(Grandpa Stan) 4 Stars

by Tom Hocknell (Rockfeedback.com)

We were first alerted to this lovely lot through the Future Sounds column way back in 2006. Well now they arrive with their full album, complete with fluffy attention to details on the packaging, namely clouds, and if anything enhances the listening experience more than clouds then we'd like to know about it. ....

....There is something inescapably companionable about this touring seven piece; it's the consummate playing entwined with the distinct sense that there's freshly brewed tea, and biscuits, in the background, perhaps even the foreground. It smiles but crucially without feeling forced, insincere or nauseating. As we have said before, the whole thing simmers perfectly, like it needs a stir, yet commendably never boiling over....

....The opener 'Kids' sashays in with the easy confidence of a host at their own party, like an English Eagles; it sounds timeless. That's not to say this unpinnable dating continues throughout, as the 2nd World War strangely overshadows this album, with titles '1942' and 'General Sherman', the former being a tinkling and tuba-aided ode to 'that night', which fades into a melee of horns and lilting backing vocals, and contributes to the vague sense of the vaudeville dancehall pervading the DNA of their songs. ....

....However, it is not all war, and they do not neglect to mention Pedalos, which they do, and bear with us here, on 'Pedalo', which is bizarrely not half as cheery as perhaps it should. However any lost bonhomie is recaptured by the recent single, 'Jose Fernandez', the telling of the fatefully true story that befell the world's greatest flying trapeze artist. And yes, it is as much fun as that sounds. ....

....They add to the ranks of ramshackle 'Womble Pop' such as Mystery Jets and Guillemots, most successfully on the hymn-like 'He Wanted To Fly', with its soaring gently breathed lyrics, ecstatic girl-band 'woo hoos', and the best effect treated guitar twang this side of Chic-moments ABC. The Spring-timing and the current success of kooky, well-written, magical pop songs, means the time could just be right for this cheery gang to fly. ....

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Losing Today Review for Try Fly Blue Sky

... no strangers to these pages both their debut three track demo 'try fly blue sky' (see missive 75 and incidentally one of the best demos we've had the pleasure of hearing in such a long time) and 'Jose Fernandez' (see missive 159) had us all a swoon and begging for more, an intoxicating blend of shy eyed twee pop and classically sourced mid 70's MOR (Eagles, the Band, post Brian Beach Boys, Fogelberg, Nilsson, Alan Price et al). The Heart Strings arrived on our turntable sounding unlike anyone around at that moment.

Embracing a symphonic tenderness and a deft ear for a lingering melody, 'try fly blue sky' arrives packing a delightfully engaging 12 part love note in its wake - all at once frail, bashful, dainty, lilting and disturbingly adorable each of these goose bump prompting effervescent love arrows are primed to charm and woo, dappled deliciously with yearning couplets ('Mariana' is especially decorated as such armed as it is with tiger-ish rushes of exhilarating pop grandeur) and somersaulting serenades

Blending sepia tinged romance with vaudevillian music hall guile speckled by subtle sweeps of 50's styled bubblegum ballade ring (check out the buzz sawing nimble tip toeing beauty of 'Nina and her very long hair' as it nuzzles into the same cleverly conceived song craft flair as Paddy McAloon) and bathed and mellowed within yearning pools of heart hugging melodies, these twinkling gems shimmer amid jubilant crests of softening euphoria inspired by the notion of love - whether that be the notion of, falling in or being in. Braided by brass florets and radiant with peek a boo textures the overall effect is one of seduction - the see sawing 'pedalo' in particular deliciously courts a lulling piano motif sumptuously caressed by cascades of harpsichords and disarming peppercorns of arresting string arrangements. Elsewhere 'the new golden day' literally picks you apart from the inside out with its simplistically fragile framing of cosmic nursery room warmth while 'General Sherman' on the other hand sounds like its been prized from another era and shaken from its dust covered slumber and elevated to an uplifting though irresistibly tear jerking pop carnival. All said and done nothing quite touches like the arcing, cooing and aching 'he wanted to fly and he flew' - simply put this is utter perfection cast and calibrated into a three minute pop dream coat.

Quite frankly what is there not to love?

Mark Barton
http://www.losingtoday.com/reviews.php?review_id=4619
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The Heart Strings - 'Try Fly Blue Sky' (Grandpa Stan) Released 09/06/08

"catchy folksy-pop melodies..." 4 Stars (Gigwise.com)

* by Mark Perlaki

'Try Fly Blue Sky' is the debut album by Londoners The Heart Strings, an album dressed up in its' Sunday best that charms and lifts the spirits like the chance meeting with an old childhood chum. Fronted by the Roache brothers and featuring a live line-up of some seven musicians, 'Try Fly Blue Sky' is given the added bonus of co-production by Julian Simmons who served time with Midlake and The Guillemots. 'Try Fly Blue Sky' revels in catchy folksy-pop melodies and an obvious love of Sufjan Stevens, with bands such as The Young Republic, The Hidden Cameras, Mercury Rev and a shading of Prefab Sprout providing a reference for melodies, while songwriting prowess reveals an Vampire Weekend-like wit and erudite airs of observation. Multi-instrumental arrangements are peppered with brass, xylophone, accordion, cello and organ, The Heart Strings dealing with nostalgic and wistful songs about trapeze artists, fallen stars, a very long-haired lassie and how Grandparents first met, as well as the big fish of pop-cosmology, all served with a good dose of bon homie to warm the cockles of your laboured ticker.

"...zap/ zoom/ whack/ whack/ kaboom..." sings Todd Roache with a nostalgic look at childhood games and role-play, an adjunct to a rolling piano-led melody that hooks the attention from the off. 'Cannonball Stan' reminds of Mercury Rev's 'Goddess On A Hiway' and deals with lofty themes of love and moustache wax, whereas the timorous 'He Wanted To Fly And He Flew' lacks zip and fizzle but rolls along with a good dose of gaiety, Roache observing how "...he wanted the heights/ he wanted the view...". 'Mariana' blasts with brass on a Sufjan-like jolly and witty aside - "...Of Mariana, Mariana/ She served me my pies with wanton brown eyes...", and the uncluttered arrangements permit the naive melody of 'The New Golden Days' a quiet reflective moment with xylophone tinkles.

The songwriting comes to the fore on the Sufjan-like naive melody of 'Pedalo' on a tale as tall as the seas as an ambitious sailor sets sail with a pedalo across the Atlantic and a long, long way to go as his friends wave him off to a roving minimal piano and harpsichord melody with wit in abundance - "...the sky was huge/ the sea was placid/ soon my vim was/ somewhat dimmed by/ bucket loads of/ lactic acid..." as fanfares of trumpet bring about a close. 'Jose Fernandez' finds chants of the title from the band as the high-wire trapeze artist goes about his poised pursuits - "...he always looked up/ he never looked down..." reminding of I'm From Barcelona, as does the ever so jolly 'Nina And Her Very Long Hair', only with Latin subtext - "...I have a tale/ But not a tail like felius domesticum...", and the dainty 'Her New Disaster', Roache singing in falsetto - "...she could have kept her head on/ she could have kept her dress on...". "...there's no place like space..." sings Roache as the folksy melodies go intergalactic, while 'General Sherman' furnishes a reverie, and the full moony night and auspicious signs of '1942' leads to a Grandparents first meeting - "...the man/ who was Stan/ saw the dame/ by the name/ of June..." as a Hidden Cameras richness of melody swoons.

'Try Fly Blue Sky' has a fabulous felicity of touch as naive melodies prove the strength behind Todd Roache's songs. Giving obvious homage to the charms and musicality of Sufjan Stevens, there is a charm and uniqueness in Todd Roache's songs that remind of the adage - from small acorns... 'Try Fly Blue Sky' opens the curtains wide to greet the day, cutting an album so infectious you'll want to spread it by fair means or foul.


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The Heart Strings - 'Try Fly Blue Sky'(Grandpa Stan)

by Jenni Cole (Music OMH)

The world could do far worse than have more music by The Heart Strings in it. Co-produced by Julian Simmonds, who you'll know from his work with Guillemots and Midlake, Try Fly Blue Sky is the same kind of summery, happy, gentle pop that might have escaped from a Bella Union sampler when no-one was looking.

With a lyrical quirkiness that sits somewhere between Jim Noir and The Decemberists, filled with melodies driven more by piano than guitar, The Heart Strings are feelgood music for days when you're too busy smiling to worry about being cool.

Recalling great purveyors of unashamedly shiny pop from Guillemots to Captain to The Feeling, Try Fly Blue Sky could be Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band without the drugs. In a good way, you understand. The lovely Pedal, for instance, sidles along with the type of rythmns you might employ on a pedalo headed to the centre of a clear blue lake.

Brothers Todd (vocals, guitar, keyboards, co-producing) and Max (drums, piano) Roache do look like stationery salesmen (HARSH!? :-)), but that's a minor gripe when they serenade you so beautifully. While most of TFBY isn't overtly intended to be full of love songs, the gentleness and tenderness of the tunes ends up fulfilling that function admirably.

Titles such as Nina And Her Very Long Hair, He Wanted To Fly And He Flew, or Cannonball Stan carry their sweetness on their sleeve, twinkling in from a land of pop fairytales even when they are presented by men in sta-press slacks.

There's a simplicity to the music that belies the complexity of the brothers' honey-drenched piano chords and classical arrangements, a little cheekiness that suggests they know more than you think they do; that they're not quite as innocent as they're letting on.

Caught between bigger boys of rock, you could let them slip by if sun-drenched moments such as the sublime The New Golden Days didn't hook you and reel you in so completely. There's a nu-gaze haze over their Supertramp foundations that can't be ignored.

The only downside is that the summer might not be as good as you need it to be to get the most out of this album. Lazy, hazy summer afternoons on the sunlounger, with a pitcher of homemade lemonade and ice-cubes would be the perfect accompaniment to Try Fly Blue Sky. Until the right weather arrives, close your eyes and imagine, instead.....

RELEASED? Out now.

SOUNDS LIKE? Sweetly complex and perfectly constructed pop. Your easiest point of reference is late era Beatles, on the strict understanding that this is a pointer to the cunningly multi-layered sound of The Heart Strings and not anything to do with Ringo and co. Confused? Imagine how we feel, awash in identikit-indie-shit and then faced with cerebal excellence that owes as much to fairground sounds and foreign film as it does to early Genesis or Stackridge.

IS IT ANY GOOD? Too good for common punters like me, but for a stylish and clever person like you?

WHERE IS IT? www.theheartstrings.com
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The Heart Strings - Jose Fernandez (Tasty Fanzine)