Heartbreak is super fun and cool, you should try it! OK, I don’t actually feel that way, but BROODS‘ new single “Heartbreak” offers a pretty compelling—and optimistic—take on the matter. “Oh, heartbreak,” siblings Georgia and Caleb Nott sing on the track, “is an opportunity to get your feelings straight.” Are they suggesting, um, actually letting yourself feel your feels and process your emotions? Yup, and they couldn’t be more clear about it: “Let your heart break,” Georgia pleads to herself, adding, “I think I need space, an island of my own.”
“Heartbreak” will appear on the New Zealand electro-pop duo’s fourth full-length album, Space Island, announced today and due in February. It’s a sleek, swirling breakup bop grounded by a sticky bassline, and it also comes with a video courtesy of Dr. Foothead, an animator who’s also crafted visuals for Mild High Club, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Babe Rainbow. The flick, featured below, is equal parts inward descent and intergalactic drama.
“Heartbreak” is out now. Space Island arrives February 18 via Island Records Australia/Ingrooves and is available for pre-order here. Check out BROODS’ new visual and read a short Q&A with Georgia below.
How’d your new song “Heartbreak” come together, from start to finish?
We wrote this with Stint—great producer/great person—starting with the bassline. Then the drums. Caleb was really on one that day. Everything was just rolling out of him so easy. I was having one of those days where I was feeling like I was going backwards. I was being hard on myself so I decided to write for myself as I would for a friend. It’s good to be your own friend. I thought, “What would I say to my sister?” And wrote, “Let your heart break,” god damn it, you’ve had a rough time!
What was the vision for the music video?
We kinda let the animator, Dr. Foothead, go for it on this one. We were already such big fans of his work and just wanted him to interpret the song his way. What came from letting him run free with it was something that really aligned with us. The facing dark demons that turn out to be trying to help you. The going further and further down. I read in a book by Pema Chödrön that the journey to enlightenment is down, not up. We often aim to rise above it, but I say get down there and bury yourself in it! That was what I was trying to do after my breakup. I wanted to dig deep and really be with everything that came up as a result of the grief.
When and where did you write and produce the songs on Space Island?
We wrote everything in LA, most of it before the pandemic really hit the U.S. We spent the first part of that notorious year of 2020 finishing and tracking and organizing. That’s when we really built up the world of Space Island. Watching old sci-fi films from the ’50s and ’60s. Listening to a lot of space-themed Les Baxter records and brainstorming how to take people through our world visually and sonically. It was a gift to have that time to be patient with the process. Especially with the world outside struggling with the weight of the pandemic. I think it helped us process it.
What are some recent inspirations or influences?
Les Baxter, Sinn Sisamouth, Hether, Solange, UMO, Caribou. We listen to a lot of music. Caleb is a really avid listener and he puts me on to a lot of stuff. Our friends do, too. Our whole community is our inspiration, really. We have accumulated a crowd of insanely beautiful people around us with great music taste.
Around the release of your last album, Don’t Feed the Pop Monster, you commented, “Honestly, I feel like the moment you think you know who you are, you close yourself off to realizing who you actually could be.” Do you think you’ve become different people over the last few years? Can you hear any of those changes in your music?
A big thing since the last record has been coming to terms with the impermanence of everything. Nothing lasts forever, and the tighter I grip onto something the more I find I suffer. Sure, there are things I would rather forget and things I wish I could relive, but knowing that things are constantly changing, us and our music included, comforts me. I like that we’ll never be done changing and growing. It’s exciting to us. There is so much more to come, and we’re learning to trust the process a lot more.
