Things didn’t get off to a roaring start for the London-based queer indie pop trio Autoheart. The group recorded its first album, Punch, in 2012 and released it a year later.
“At the time, we were a band with a manager and hopes of getting a record deal,” says guitarist Barney JC in a recent TransAtlantic call with keyboardist Simon Neilson. The group performs at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 8, at Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood. “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.”
The group soldiered on trying to crack a London music scene that Neilson says is “tough for small acts.” Two band members left. But there was hope. Neilson and singer Jody Gadsden had come up with demos for the song “Before You Came,” a poppy ballad with Erasure-like grandeur.
“It totally blew me away,” says JC. “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 British pounds and made the album. It was all we could get.”
The band went on to mix and produce and record it on its own.
“It was done in bedrooms,” says JC. “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 it. But we wanted to still make it. It’s a vanity project, but we needed to do it. That was our second album.”
After that second album, something did happen. The group started getting emails from fans.
“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,” says JC. “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.”
The streaming numbers kept going up and up and people were doing videos with animation on YouTube. People were doing dance routines. Someone even did a pole dance
“It felt like an organic growth,” says JC. “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.”
Last year, the group embarked on a successful U.S. tour. Excited by how the Punch songs translated live, it sought to write another album of similar sounding songs. That release would become Heartlands. The album title represents how the band considers the songs to represent an “imagined queer refuge.”
“One of the reasons we did the U.S. tour is because of the people who had written to us,” says JC. “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.”
Neilson says the celebratory nature of songs such as “Baby Bird” and “Say That,” synth-pop anthems in the tradition of Pet Shop Boys and the Human League, should provide some solace to anyone who feels outcast.
“We’re very aware of the fact that things are difficult for the community and others as well,” he says. “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.”
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