Stream: Heathers, ‘Tanker’

Kevin Bronson on June 3rd, 2015

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Heathers’ guitar-propelled indie-pop recalls the jangling, mostly British bands of the 1980s whose chiming chords put a happy face on their outsider mopery. The L.A. trio of singer-guitarist Michael Francis, bassist Thom Lucero and drummer Michael Wegener make it sound cool to be bummed on their new single “Tanker” too. After releasing a trickle of singles in 2013 and ’14 — and earning bonus points by releasing a set of Wedding Present covers recorded for Part Time Punks — Heathers dove into the Ocotillo Recording Studio to make a full-length with producers Danny Nogueiras and David Jerkovich. “Tanker,” the first from those sessions and available for free download, dwells on themes of obsession. “When I wrote the song I was trying to write something sort of ’60s pop psychedelic, like something the Byrds or even the Beatles might’ve done,” Francis says. “I’ve always been fascinated by obsession and the difference between light and darkness and so I really wanted this song to have a bright, melodic, almost happy melody coupled with really dark lyrics about someone’s decaying mind. … What is obsession anyway but the attempt to fill some kind of dead and rotting space within? That’s why our anti-hero sings, ‘Don’t look, ’cause you won’t like what you might see.’ He could be denying his victim the ability to participate in reality, or he could be looking in the mirror.”

||| Stream: “Tanker”