Today, Melbourne guitar maestro Harts has dropped his latest album Smoke Fire Hope Desire, an immaculately-produced collection of searing riffs, soaring melodies, and straight-up rock joy.
Having already taken us behind the scenes of his ‘Power’ video shoot, and talked to us about self-producing a record like this, he’s now gone in-depth for us on the driving forces behind each track.
Released today, Smoke Fire Hope Desire is available now on iTunes via Dew Process/UMA.
Smoke (Intro)
This is the intro to the record. The idea started with me playing with tape speed edits and effects over the song ‘Ain’t Too Far Gone’ just for fun. Then I decided to use that and have it build and slam into a drum and bass groove from there, setting up the musical direction for the record.
Lyrically this track also sets up the intention and concept for the album. The chorus sections on this intro track are one of my favourite moments on the record. It also bridges nicely into the next song.
Fear In Me
I had the main riff for this song written and floating around in my head for years, possibly five years or more, and I finally found a use for the riff now. This track immediately gets into the heavy blues rock side of my sound early on in the album. I remember laying down the riff for the first time and just feeling the power and weight behind the sound of the guitar. To offset the heavy sections I wanted to write mellow and sparse verses to add dynamics to the song and make the heavy parts stick out more.
Lyrically this song deals with current day issues as well as personal revelations I had about being and living without fear in a world we can’t control. Not letting someone else inflict fear in and upon you. One of my favourite sections is the spoken word passage and choir build up towards the end.
All Rise (Play It Cool)
This is one of my favourite songs of my own to listen to at the moment. I think that’s because it’s pretty vastly different to anything I’ve released before, both in tempo and style. This tracks was inspired by my deep love for a lot of traditional 50’s/60s rock ‘n roll, like Little Richard for example.
I wrote this song prior to most of the album, and even before I had the intention to make this album. It was a lot of fun to do the recording for this song, particularly the bass and drum grooves because I had to get my hands and fingers up to speed, working faster that I was used to. I wrote the song with the lyrical idea of being unaffected by the bad, negative and destruction that may be surrounding you in your lives. Feeling the love in dark times.
Fire (interlude)
What i said above applies to this also, as this track is an extension of ‘All Rise’. This musical piece was originally attached to the middle section of ‘All Rise’ before I re-jigged the arrangements and separated them for the full record arrangements. I also used this as a build and drop to interlude into the next song.
Peculiar
I’m really proud of that way this song came out. From the moment I put the core groove and melodies down on recording, I knew this would be one of the more catchy, stand out tracks that I’ve down to date. I thought it had single written all over it.
This song was written and recorded fast, mostly all of the music was done in a day. I remember recording the guitar solo in the first take, just as a guide demo with the intention to redo a better one later… But I never did. I left it in and that’s the one you’re hearing. Most of the song was done that way, really spontaneous and natural. The outro section chord changes and melody is another one of my favourite moments of the whole record. Releasing this as a single so far has really kicked off this whole record for me.
Power
Man, so many favourite moments on this record already! I love the way this song came out. Like ‘Peculiar’ it was also very natural and instantaneous that way it came about and the way it was recorded. I started recording drum sounds one day, playing and tweaking with things to experiment with achieving a certain style of sound. When I had a basic drum track down i started playing along to it just on my guitar bass seeing what it would sound like with other instruments, other tones etc… Before I knew it I had the main riff and chord progressions down. And it was funky.
I knew I was onto something so I knuckled down for pretty much a whole 18+ hours after that and I wrote, experimented and smashed out as much of the idea as I could. I wrote the lyrics a couple of days after all that music was done and that was it, the song was done. I wanted to write something with a positive, uplifting, broad and catchy message about hope and empowerment, and that’s essentially what the song became.
Deeper The Hole
Like ‘All Rise’ this song was done prior to the majority of recording and writing for this album, as an album. I originally wrote this song when I was writing a lot more blues and rock music and this was a stand out in a batch of songs in that genre that I wrote.
I spent a lot of time producing this track, trying to get those choirs (which was a combination of my voice and virtual instruments and effects combined) to sound the best I could make them. I like the energy of this song, particularly in the heavy sections.
Hope
This is another one of my favourite tracks. This one was more influenced from my love of old school hip hop. The chorus words and melody was written in response to people discouraging me in the things I wanted to do and achieve with my life. Especially following dreams that to others may seem like a waste of time and that general “You’ll never make it” attitude. However, that discouragement only added fuel to the fire for me to want to achieve my goals in life even more.
Most of this song is about encouraging you to go out and achieve those goals your wanting to. And encourage other people to achieve theirs. Spread that love and hope. Don’t be self conscious and inspire self confidence. I also brought out my Indian scale guitar chops for this guitar solo. ;)
Unfamiliar
One of my favourite things to do is play bass and come up with basslines. And it wouldn’t be a Harts record if it didn’t have musical diversity. I think people are only now starting to understand that there’s always been more to me than just heavy riffs and guitar based stuff. There is a mellow side. This song started with the chords, lyrics and melody for the chorus’ as well as the first verse and is the first slower groove based ballad on the record.
It also is one of my favourite songs on the record. The hypnotic outro I created really happened spontaneously and was created using a lot of delay effects and layered vocals. I love the way that part came out. The first verse lyrics came from one liners I wrote a while ago while traveling. The second verse came from watching the rain fall down one day.
Wisdom (Interlude)
I wrote this from a lesson I learnt in life about learning lessons in life. Can’t really say too much more about it. Give it a listen.
Realize
“The world don’t wait for you, it don’t wait for me, it don’t sympathise. If loving you is making me old, I don’t care cos I know it’s you who keeps me alive. Realise it.“
The chorus lyrics are one of my favourite on the record and probably my favourite i’ve ever written. It encapsulated a thought I had about sticking with something or someone for love, even if your life becomes harder for it. For it’s love that keeps us alive. And I believe that.
I dig the groove I created and the verse melody on this track. Everything came together really nice and I feel as though this song sits in a genre of its own, something that a lot of my material tends to do.
Here I Go
A very personal song for me about the sheer fact of being embarrassed to write about love, or a love song and my personal life. Shoutout to Kristen. The bass was done all in one take and was the first idea I put down.
I like that free roaming effect it created throughout the song, with no real structure. There’s really nothing more I can’t say on this track. But again, its another one of my favourites and a personal favourite of a lot of my friends.
Desire (Interlude)
I had the idea of bringing back the outro of ‘Peculiar’ for this interlude, as it’s one of my favourite melodies of the album. The start of this track is the strings and sounds of the instruments after the fade out in ‘Peculiar’.
I wanted to offset that by going into an almost eerie section with some lyrics I had written about change, which lead nicely into the last track of the album and completes the records concept.
Ain’t Too Far Gone
Just listen. :)
