Heartist Returns After 5 Year Hiatus With A Massive New EP – “Sleep”

Making massive waves in the Metalcore scene since their debut EP, ‘Nothing You Didn’t Deserve‘ in 2012 – Heartist has returned! The band has dropped their new EP, ‘Sleep‘! The EP heavily evolves the unique and trademark Metalcore and Rock blend sound Heartist has crafted for themselves ever since their inception. The 6 track EP released on June 7th worldwide and marked the end of a 5 year Hiatus for the Southern California outfit. In 2014 the band released their debut full length ‘Feeding Fiction‘ to critical claim with both fans and industry professionals. ‘Sleep’ follows the same both in both musicianship and production.

New Transcendence had a chance to get to talk with Heartist! We discovered they are already hard at work on a new, full length, album!

I was very curious on the origin of the namesake for their latest EP, ‘Sleep‘ when I asked the group where the title came from I was greeted with this response:

Honestly, the album went nameless for a long time, but the one thing that always remained a consistent source of imagery was the idea of the crimson strings. We knew we wanted that depiction to be the album art, so when we decided to name the song Sleep, it felt appropriate to make it the title track as well. It also resonated with us as we felt our band was coming out of a long sleep as well.

How long have you guys been working on the new EP?:

We’ve been working on this EP since 2015. At the time, we had been touring and writing material for a full length album, but we didn’t know how we were going to go about funding or releasing it after parting ways with Roadrunner Records, which left us feeling discouraged and the project almost didn’t get completed. In 2016, we decided to fund the recording process ourselves, which took us longer than we had liked. We took our favorite ideas from that time period and recorded what would eventually become the Sleep EP. Soon after the recording sessions, we played a show and our guitarist dislocated his knee during the first song. We took that moment as an omen that the band needed a break and we went into an unofficial hiatus. We got our feet back under us in 2018 and had a lot of discussions within the band trying to decide what to do with the 6 songs we recorded. Do we scrap it? Record more and make it a full length? Ultimately, we decided to honor the songs for what they meant to us in that dark time and felt we should release the EP as it was intended.

It has been quite awhile, is there any line up changes?:

The lineup remains the same as it was since 2015. Sleep will be our first release featuring William Catlin on bass.

Bryce Beckley- Vocals
Tim Koch- Guitars
Robby DeVito- Guitars
Matt Marquez- Drums
William Catlin- Bass

Lyrically, what was the inspiration for this album?:

“I wanted the lyrics to be more introspective than they were on our past releases. We delve into a more fragile place with our subject matter this time around, speaking relatively openly about things like drug addiction or suicidal thoughts. I think there’s this darkness inherent to the human condition most people don’t like to think about, but it’s cathartic to let yourself feel those feelings, so I hope hearing these songs stirs up some kind of emotional release in our listeners.” -Bryce Beckley

When you guys went on an hiatus did you guys have any mind to return? We missed you!:

We absolutely always planned to return. We’ve been dying to record new material and get back to playing shows. Like we said, we never intended to “go on hiatus,” we simply got stuck trying to fund everything at once with no support. Suddenly, all of the plans we had were in limbo and it was up to us to pull everything together. Back to square one. It was a mentally draining and all around discouraging time in our lives, but I’m extremely proud of us for sticking together through the chaos, remembering the true reasons that we started this band in the first place, and pushing forward to make big things happen.

Are you guys planning to hit the stage more? Possibly tour?:

That’s always the ultimate goal. We want to get back on the road and perform for people that share our love for heavy music. Can’t say for certain if it will happen on this EP cycle, we just wanted to give something to the people that have been sticking with us and have been so patient awaiting new music. However, we’ve been hard at work on our new full length album, it’s already half way recorded and that’s something we can’t wait to tour on!

I am genuinely curious to how you guys discovered your unique sound?

Honestly, we’re just a bunch of dudes that grew up with a deep love of the hardcore and metal scenes. It’s crazy to think that some of us have been playing together for over 10 years now in some iteration of a band or another. We wear our inspirations on our sleeves and we’re ok with that. At its core, we molded our sound between metalcore riffs and video game and movie compositions. Since day one, we’ve had the pleasure of working with sound designer and composer, Greg Johnson. In a way he’s like our unofficial 6th member haha He always manages to sprinkle in the perfect amount of video game Easter eggs in each album. We’ve always wanted each song to have its own vibe, while still keeping the guitar riffs and drumming of the heavy music we grew up on.

Anything you’d like to add on? It’s been a real honor getting to speak to you!:

Just want to say thank you to everyone that’s still jamming our music. We’re super anxious for everyone to hear our new Sleep EP and we can’t wait to go finish our full length this December! The long sleep is over and Heartist is here to stay.

Thank you very much!

Check out “Sleep” Below!

Open in Spotify

Tracklist:

1.) Waste My Time

2.) Ebb & Flow

3.) Obey

4.) Wasteland

5.) Sleep

6.) Pages