Have you ever noticed that projects that are spawned from hardcore acts tend to drift the furthest from the genre? Rarely do artists want to maintain a safety blanket or continue to do more of the same. We’ve seen a successful (nearly) full-band crossover from Code Orange as dreamy pop-rockers Adventures, City and Color is the universally loved singer-songwriter project of Dallas Green of Alexisonfire, and even on a smaller scale, we’ve seen acts like Boy Rex be born of Merchant Ships member Jack Senff. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to another one of these successful crossover stories; recent No Sleep Records signees Blue Heaven is born of regional hardcore acts but as the band is eager to prove with their debut album Volume One, they couldn’t have ventured farther from the ground that initially brought them together.
Our first taste of Volume One comes in the form of the “Growing Pains” music video. The video itself is mostly performative, cutting briefly to shots of vocalist Levi Miller with a skeleton and a radio, and allows a peek into the aesthetic that Blue Heaven has decided to run with. It’s clean and simple, allowing for all of the attention to fall onto the bombastic and refreshing jolt of pop music that’s coming at us full force. The track is buoyant and hypnotic; with clean-cut riffs powerful enough to keep you baited and waiting for that chorus to explode and wash over you like a rush of warm water.
The album (due out June 15th) is described by the band as “…a breath of fresh air. With all of us coming from hardcore punk backgrounds, writing Volume One was a challenge to push our selves as songwriters. In many ways, I think the fact that we had been conditioned with so much aggressive, obscure music led us to make choices with the songs that traditional indie rock bands wouldn’t have gone for. “
When asked about the track, vocalist Levi Miller says, “For me, the song Growing is about realizing you and your significant other have lost your shine. It aims to capture that moment when you realize things are only going to get worse from there. There is a logical and emotional give and take. That there is no one fix for the problems both partners have caused. The only resolution, or the only way to grow as people, is to end.”
The music video for “Growing” can be seen above. Volume One is out June 15th on No Sleep Records and can be pre-ordered here.
