Emo / Post-Hardcore band Her Head's on Fire announce their new record Am I Not Your Girl?, out via Iodine Recordings on July 17.
Alongside the album news, the band has shared first single "We're Not Running" now streaming everywhere.
If you stand alone with a brick in your hand against an oncoming wave of tanks with no hope of success, you still throw the brick," vocalist Syd Jagger says. "If there is an overreaching theme to 'AINYG? It would be hope in the face of adversity. This song was the last one written for the album, a late night jam sent to me by the band. 10 minutes later, I had the melody and chorus, sometimes they write themselves. I wasn't trying to but you can hear me starting to blow out the vocal microphone during the 'I won't let go' part. All of the vocals for this album were done in one day so I waited til the end of the session to record this one because I knew I wanted a raspier spent sound."
Am I Not Your Girl? is the latest from a band that's excelled at weaving past and present to deliver rock music that hits a sweet spot of post-hardcore grit and genuine songcraft. Am I Not Your Girl? is an exercise in simplicity born from years of consistency, prioritizing true-blue songwriting that draws on a lifetime of influences, from Revolution Summer sincerity to the conciseness modeled by The Replacements: Big choruses, big moments, big emotions.
Despite its members having played in a murderer's row of beloved, important bands in the worlds of post-hardcore and emo (Garrison, Saves the Day, The Bomb, and more), the four-piece have locked in on what the band really is across two previous records, College Rock and Clove Cigarettes and Strange Desires. Her Head's on Fire isn't trying to coast off those acts but rather push their work forward.
Mixed by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Joyce Manor), the album excels at making the listener feel like they're in the room with the band as it happens, with production focused on capturing the music live rather than creating anything artificial.
Nowhere is the band's philosophy better illustrated than in Am I Not Your Girl?'s cover art. Painted by Joy Johnson and inspired by the photography of Nan Goldin, it's a collage of illusory moments all occurring within the same space, one emotion bleeding into the next. In the same way that different feelings melt into one another, the record's emotive highs do the same, each beat of exuberance, pain, and sadness flowing into the one that follows. "Maybe this record's on in the background while people have a beautiful conversation, fall in love, or navigate a brutal moment," Jagger says. "I am honored to be any part of that soundtrack."
At the core of the band's mission is community: Playing shows and inviting the world in. Having shared stages with the likes of Quicksand, Hey Mercedes, and The Suicide Machines, there's a sense of connection that threads through both the music itself and their consistent activity as a touring act. "This thing attracted us because we were outliers, and we needed to feel less alone in the world," Jagger says. "We can't let the ugly trappings of the world creep in and take a hold of this thing. This community, this love is what it is all about."
RIYL: Texas is the Reason, The Casket Lottery, The Get Up Kids, Quicksand, Samiam, Jawbox
