Caitlin Henry – Eat Your Heart Out ‘The Florescence Process’

With their debut album out in a matter of hours now, we grabbed Eat Your Heart Out’s frontwoman Caitlin Henry to chat about their whirlwind touring schedule which included Download Festival, supports for Sum 41 and The Story So Far as well as a run in the USA with Real Friends. In between all that, they still managed to squeeze in the recording of their upcoming album, Florescence (our review here). How, you ask? Read on and find out…

You guys sure have done a lot in the past 12 months! What helps you to wind down and reflect after completing huge shows like the ones you just played?

I feel like every time we finish a tour, I’m always really sad, I think everyone is. It’s sad for a few days because you realise that the bands and crew you just spent ages hanging out with every day, you’re not going to see them again for a while. With the US tour with Real Friends though, we didn’t really have any time to wind down and reflect because we basically flew straight from the end of that tour into the studio in LA and started recording the album. We didn’t really have a moment to reflect, we kinda just put all our energy straight into creating Florescence.

Florescence is released in just under 24 hours now! You guys must be stoked! What’s one song off the record that you can’t wait for the fans to hear?

There’s always a bit of anxiety when you have new music coming, but we are still really excited. ‘Closer to the Sun’ is the one that I’m most excited for everyone to hear. It’s one of my favourites, because I think it’s got really cool energy.

Tell us more about the inspiration that’s behind ‘Closer to the Sun’…

‘Closer to the Sun’ is taken from the idea of tall poppy syndrome, which is like a metaphor of a flower growing above the rest. It’s like this flower that is trying to grow above all the other flowers, but keeps getting cut down for it. It symbolises the idea of wanting to reach for something different, but having people not quite understand that and cutting you down for it because they don’t really understand why.

‘Carousel’ is an awesome single by the way! You co-wrote that with Patrick Miranda (Movements) in the studio in LA where Florescence was recorded. What was the overall experience like?

Thank you!

‘Carousel’ was the first song we finished all the vocals for Florescence. We co-wrote that with Pat from Movements, and it was really cool working with Pat and seeing how he worked, his methods of writing, and how his brain works. We basically sat in a room together and were brainstorming the idea of the song off some stuff that I had written in my journal and on my phone. We wrote ‘Carousel’ all down in like a couple of hours, as well as a few other songs off the album with Pat, it was all a pretty cool process.

We actually ended up writing the majority of the vocals in the studio in LA. We went in with a lot of the instrumental stuff, but we hadn’t really solidified any vocals yet. All the vocals were written pretty quickly in the studio, which is awesome because what I was writing about was still all very fresh and relevant to me. It didn’t feel old, stale or irrelevant. It ended up being a really good thing that it all came together so quickly in the studio, because even now it still feels very fresh and relevant to me.

What does “Florescence” mean to you?

It’s a word that I’ve never come across before. It basically means the process of flowering, and sums up the overall idea of the album which is growing up as an adult and as a band. It’s realising there are things that you have to accept and deal with as an adult, and I guess moving into that next phase of life, and stage in our music career.

Do you guys have any pre-show traditions? Like, is there one thing you always do before you go on stage?

I always kinda disappear and warm up my voice, for like 20-30 minutes. I know Jake our drummer, does a bit of a warm up too, but other than that we don’t really have much of a pre-show tradition. We always wish each other well, ‘Hope you have a good show”, etc and we always make sure we have water or a beer on stage. I wish we had something cooler that we did though, but maybe we’ll start doing something crazy or fun in this next album phase…

Interview by Tamara May (@citylightsTAM)

Florescence is released tomorrow. Purchase a last minute pre-order here!

Eat Your Heart Out – Florescence tracklisting

1. Carousel
2. Spinning
3. Daydream
4. Heavy with Envy
5. Constellations
6. Closer to the Sun
7. Blinded
8. Same Stars
9. Nowhere
10. Pear Tree
11. Cold Hands