2016 BEAUTIFUL BROKEN

Heart Studio Album, titled “Beautiful Broken”: July 8th 2016 (Concord Records) (Universal Music Canada) (Rounder Records) and produced by Dan Rothchild and Nancy Wilson.

Side one: “Beautiful Broken” (with James Hetfield) | “Two” | “Sweet Darlin’” | “I Jump” | “Johnny Moon” 

Side two:  “Heaven” | “City’s Burning” | “Down On Me” | “One Word” | “Language of Love

Amazon.com: CD (July 8th) | Vinyl (September 2nd)

Amazon.co.UK: CD | Vinyl

iTunes

(Unconfirmed) Cover Art Work
Cover Art Work by Brian McGuffey and Nancy Wilson


August 22nd 2016: Nancy in AZCentral: The new album gets off to a headbanging start with a title track that boasts a guest appearance by James Hetfield of Metallica. “I feel like it was a pretty brilliant stroke,” Wilson says. “And I wouldn’t have thought of it. My husband thought of it. And the more I thought about it, it seemed like it would be pretty cool to ask James, who’s a friend of my husband’s, to lend his energy and his voice to it somehow. So we sent him the track and he ran with it in such a cool way. “We never expected all those great background harmonies. And the part he added that wasn’t there initially. We ended up including him as a songwriter, too, because of that part that he added that was so perfect it pulled the whole song into focus for me. And that song is so muscular so it makes total sense.”
Ann in Tacoma WeeklyTW: That title track is rockin’. Tell me about that one and how you wound up working with James Hatfield. Wilson: We were working on it in the studio, and someone came up with the idea of getting a male voice in there to do a cameo appearance. They kept saying “somebody like James Hetfield.” Then someone said, “Why not James Hetfield?” So we sent him the track, and he loved it.

August 13th 2016: Vinyl ordered at Heart’s website is already shipping for a few days, way before Amazon will start. Several fans have received their signed copies. These signed copies are no longer available. Yesterday Heart released a live video from the first single “Beautiful Broken”. It was filmed in Chicago, IL at the historic Genesee Theatre this past May and directed and produced by Dusty Kraatz of XI Media Productions (who has also directed videos for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and All That Remains).

July 22nd 2016: Yahoo: Heart, Beautiful Broken – No. 105 – A little more than 40 years after Heart arrived on Billboard’s charts, the rock band returns with its new album, Beautiful Broken. The set, which is its debut effort for Concord Records, arrives at No. 105 with 6,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending July 14, according to Nielsen Music. (Nearly all of those units were driven by traditional album sales.)

The group, led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, made its Billboard chart debut back on April 10, 1976, when Dreamboat Annie sailed onto the Billboard 200 at No. 194. It later peaked at No. 7 on the Oct. 30, 1976-dated tally.

Beautiful Broken is Heart’s 19th charting album on the Billboard 200, but, notably, it’s their lowest-charting album outside of a hits package (These Dreams… Heart’s Greatest Hits, No. 131 in 1997) and a live album (Rock the House Live!, No. 107 in 1991). However, the seemingly low debut of Beautiful Broken can likely be attributed to how the set is a quasi-archival album, where seven of its 10 tracks are reworkings of previously released Heart songs. The three new tunes include one cut co-written by Ne-Yo, “Two.”

July 19th 2016: In the US #beautifulbroken has entered the album chart “Top Album Sales” (This week’s top-selling albums across all genres, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music) at #30, the rock chart “Top Rock Albums” (This week’s top-selling albums across all rock, ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen Music.) at #9, but the “Album 200” (This week’s most popular albums across all genres, ranked by album sales, audio on-demand streaming activity and digital sales of tracks from albums as compiled by Nielsen Music.) at a low #105.

July 17th 2016: #beautifulbroken is projected to debut at #26 in the Billboard Album Chart. Here’s a snippet from an interview with Ann about the new album:

Wilson wrote “Beautiful Broken,” originally released in 2012 as an album bonus track, after thinking about English singer Marianne Faithful, best remembered as a 1960s girlfriend of Mick Jagger.

“She was like the original fabulous disaster woman who was iconic,” Wilson said. “She was talented and beautiful and had serious problems, but was brilliant.”

Wilson said Courtney Love also came to mind as she penned the song that begins with “She’s a big star/And she’s burning bright/Losing her religion each and every night/She’s the real thing/And she’ll tell you so/And lots of other things you don’t want to know.”

Interview with Nancy:

Not long ago, Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson was working on the remastering of vinyl reissues of the band’s albums “Passionworks” and “Bebe Le Strange.”
She couldn’t help noticing several songs that felt like lost gems in Heart’s extensive catalog of music.
“I was listening for the quality control of it all, and those songs like ‘Johnny Moon’ really stuck out to me, stood out,” Wilson said in a mid-June phone interview. “The same with ‘One Word’ and a couple of songs like that. ‘Down On Me’ and ‘Sweet Darlin’ ’ were the other ones that really stood out to me. Those songs are really nice songs. They’re really well crafted, sort of quality songs, and we had sort of forgotten about a lot of those songs. I was like ‘Wow, we really worked hard on those songs.’ We were careful when we were writing them to make them songs of substance.”
The thought occurred to Wilson, who founded Heart with her sister, singer Ann Wilson, in 1973, that the recordings of certain songs never quite lived up to their potential.
So when Heart signed a new record deal with Concord, and label executives John Virant and John Burk suggested doing an album that included a few new songs and newly recorded versions of some songs from the band’s back catalog, Wilson’s work on the vinyl reissues gave her a good start in identifying material that would fit on what became Heart’s excellent new album, “Beautiful Broken.”
“We were happy to redo some of those songs, like ‘Sweet Darlin’ and ‘One Word,’ just such a great opportunity,” the guitarist said. “A lot of times you miss a song (and feel like) ‘Oh God, it’s too bad that song never got its day.’ And to be able to go back and do it again was really a total pleasure.”

One of the many highlights of “Beautiful Broken” is the blistering version of the title track, which was a bonus song on “Fanatic.” Co-producer Dan Rothchild suggested the song after he and Wilson began feeling the album was a bit weighted toward ballads.
Then Wilson’s husband, Geoff Bywater, who handles music production for Fox network television shows, got into the act.
“Me and my husband, Geoff, were sitting in the kitchen to the ‘Fanatic’ version of ‘Beautiful Broken,’ ” Wilson recounted. “And Geoff said, ‘What if my dear old friend James Hetfield could guest on that song?’ ”
Hetfield, of course, is Metallica’s lead singer and guitarist. Wilson sent him the “Fanatic” version of “Beautiful Broken,” and Hetfield was eager to contribute. Wilson sent Hetfield the basic tracks that had been re-recorded by Heart.
“He laid down all of these amazing parts with background harmony parts,” Wilson said. “He sort of ended up being a co-writer, with the phrase that he added, the ‘just like you and me’ phrase, perfect. To me, what he added to that song brought the entire song into focus. It was kind of a little more vague to me when it was really, it was about somebody who is really beautiful, but they’re also kind of insane. But when he put the part about ‘just like you and me’ into it, it just made everything, it made it pop for me. Just the meaning of the whole thing came clear.”

July 9th 2016: Beautiful Broken was released yesterday and is currently charting on Amazon.com at number 3. Billboard published an article with streaming of the full album.

June 28th 2016: Samples of the other 9 tracks are released to social media each day. The digital single ‘Beautiful Broken’ can be purchased on iTunes and Amazon.

June 22nd 2016: The first single, “Beautiful Broken” has been premiered on Rolling Stone.

Also, if you hurry you can order a signed copy at Heart’s homepage!

June 13th 2016: Heart has released a press release. The first single will be “Beautiful Broken”.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaj0_O7MFHY[/youtube]

Press Release:

CONCORD RECORDS TO RELEASE  NEW ALBUM BY ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME LEGENDS
HEART, 
‘BEAUTIFUL BROKEN,’ OUT JULY 8
HEART’S HEADLINING SUMMER TOUR WITH JOAN JETT &THE BLACKHEARTS AND CHEAP TRICK LAUNCHES JULY 14
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members HEART return July 8 with BEAUTIFUL BROKEN, their sixteenth album and their first on ConcordRecords. HEART has sold over 35 million records, and this anticipated album is their first in four years. BEAUTIFUL BROKEN finds Ann and Nancy Wilson exploring new songs, but taking some of their favorite “cherry picks” from their catalog and rerecording and rethinking them. The title track and first single features a dynamic guest vocal contribution by Metallica‘s James Hetfield with Ann Wilson.
“There is really a seventies feel to this record both in the sound, and the way we got to the emotional core of each song,” says Nancy Wilson. “We picked songs that we always wanted to re-do, plus we’ve added three new tracks. On both new and old, we have the band playing together the way we used to. This is classic Heart.”
The seven tracks that were pulled from the HEART catalog were tunes both Nancy and Ann wanted another shot at, due many times to how they were initially produced. Songs like “City’s Burning,” “Down on Me,” and “Sweet Darlin'” have always been live favorites of the sisters, but they had somewhat languished. “Those songs may have fallen through the cracks, in a way, because of where radio was at the time when they were first released,” Ann Wilson says. “Rediscovering those songs, I found ways they emotionally still speak to me.” Two songs are from Passionworks, two from Private Audition, and two are from Bebe Le Strange.
BEAUTIFUL BROKEN‘s title track had been a bonus song off Fanatic, HEART‘s last album, but this version is essentially an entirely new song with barnburner vocals—and even some lyrics—added by Metallica‘sJames Hetfield. “It blows the previous version out of the water,” says Nancy. “James just took the song on, and what he added was perfect with a bite and a rock accent.”
Producer and bassist Dan Rothchild said his goal was to capture the human feel of HEART live in the studio. “On these classics, some of which had suffered from eighties-era over-editing-production-curse, we stripped the paint off and found the beauty underneath,” he says.
For Ann, the album allowed her to revisit, and re-sing, songs she felt “never reached their full development.” For Nancy, the lyrical heart came alive: “I felt these songs were poetic pieces that were lost in translation with the sounds of the eighties, which was harder and more digital. We wanted to drape them in velvet, and make them shine.”
Nancy Wilson sings one of three new songs, “Two.” The song had a different genesis than many HEART classics, as Wilson first heard it on a demo made for a television show her husband Geoff was working on. She reached out to the song’s writer–R&B sensation Ne-Yo–and asked if he’d consider giving her the song. “I went to work begging for the song,” she says. “Ne-Yo said, ‘sure.’ It ends up he’s a Heart fan. He may still release his own version at some point, but to me the song feels like mine now.”
BEAUTIFUL BROKEN is an album with pure rock power on the title track, but also tender sexual yearning on “Language of Love.” It’s a contrast that has always been the essence of HEART. “We still make records like we always have, and they are always impossibly romantic, because Ann is always an impossibly romantic singer,” Nancy says. “In a world where there is less poetic lyric writing, we’ve always tried to plant a flag for poetry.”
That may seem “broken” in a way, in a world of machine-created pop music, but it is also certainly a beautiful vision. This year HEART will bring that vision to half a million fans during their summer concert tour.

June 12th 2016: Ben Smith has revealed that Brian McGuffey and Nancy Wilson are the creators of the artwork. Here’s some visuals of the proces, taken from his public profile.

Background
Background
It's getting there!
It’s getting there!

June 5th 2016: Yesterday’s link to the full audio on Concord’s site, has now been shut down. You need a password and that password is unknown. So right now it is only accessible to journalists and reviewers who personally get the password. It seems that during the first 24 hours the label had forgotten to install a password.

June 4th 2016: The label has uploaded the album: LISTEN HERE (LINK REMOVED). Plus the artwork is now confirmed of course.

June 3rd 2016: A webshop has published a tracklist and cover-art. Though not an official source, it is likely the real thing. The information at the top of this page has been altered. Of the 11 tracks that heartlinker.nl has reported about in these past months, only “Sand” has not made the cut. Which kinda makes sense, as that would be the third appearance on a studio album with A&N.

May 21st 2016: Heart performed “I Jump” last night!

May 20th 2016: Elusive Disk: On Beautiful Broken, the Wilson sisters return with all new, heart-wrenching, original material, as well as some hidden gems from their legendary past. The project is so powerful that it has drawn in other superstar friends of the band from across the music world, including Metallica’s James Hetfield and Ne-Yo, each lending their incredible talents to the record. The album is made up of 10 magnificent tracks, featuring new original music as well as updates on some treasures from their catalog.

May 18th 2016: The new album has showed up on Amazon.com with a July 8th release date! And VINYL!

Nancy: And then there’s a few of the best rock ‘Yeahs’ I’ve ever heard. Ever.

In the first song, the title track Beautiful Broken, before she even starts singing she drops a laughing yeah in the coolest most conspiratorial way. In Sweet Darling she adds a hey yeah that is super gorgeous not to mention the elaborate yeah of Johnny Moon.

But the best yeah on the album might be yeahs that reoccur at the end of each chorus in Heaven culminating in the longest most wrenchingly beautiful moment perhaps of them all.

May 16th 2016: Heart played in Michigan last night and according to Heartmonger Michael Ann said the new album will be released July 7th.

May 7th 2016: Lesley contacted the fanclub (thanx Lesley!) and learned the following:

Hi Lesley,

The release date has now been pushed back to at least July 8th. You should start seeing pre-orders available within the next month or so.

Thanks!
Heart Fan Club

May 5th 2016: Nancy has revealed that “Sand” and “Down On Me” will be on the new album. The number of tracks from albums from 1980 to 1984 is remarkable, as is the absence of tracks from the Capitol years.

The band has recorded Sand for a studio album twice before. Some fans say that in the answers below, she is not saying Sand will be on the new album. Judge for yourself:

Can you talk about the new album?
It’s called “Beautiful Broken.” There are some new songs, and we also got the chance to redo some of my favorite old ones that were kind of lost in translation in the ’80s. It was like, “Ah, I wish I’d had a chance to record that well,” you know? So there’s a whole bunch of songs that are meaningful to me, like “Heaven” and “Sand,” and also things like Johnny Moon, Sweet Darling, Down on Me, and Language of Love. They’re just really beautiful and, I think, poetic songs that are really fun to play.

When you say that some of these songs were “lost in translation,” what are you referring to? The production?
Just the sound of the music, the performances…honestly, there was kind of a lot of drug use going on in those days. One of the producers was pretty much hitting bottom on cocaine when we did a few of these songs. And it sounded like that. You could hear it in the vocals, too—it’s not a relaxed interpretation or a conversation. It’s more like, “I’m proving it to you…now!” That kind of approach. A little pushy sounding. So, really, one of my favorite things about what we just finished doing in the studio was that we gave a couple of these songs another chance, another life. We had to love them back into existence.

April 16th 2016: According to Dan “Vinyl is Probable!”

April 14th 2016: According to Dan yesterday was the last day of mixing at Sunset Sound.

April 9th 2016: We have a release date! June 17th! Listen to Ann’s interview.

April 6th 2016: a short clip from the studio: “I Jump”, featuring heavy guitars and yes; the strings are back. Final mixes are happening for the new album.

March 27th 2016: Another 80s track has been found for the record: “Language of Love”. A new song for the record has a title starting with “I Jump”. This information comes from bassplayer Dan. Paul Buckmaster can be seen on Dan’s Facebook behind the controls in the studio, likely arranging a string section. Brett has pointed us towards the photo of “City’s Burning” on Dan’s Facebook, so thank you Dan!

March 23rd 2016: Andrew has reported that Nancy said on stage that “Two” will be on the new album:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aneeATEXuMg[/youtube]

And hear Ann announce the new album “Beautiful Broken”:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkPTG7UalrA[/youtube]

That song is about “Somebody you might know, who might be you, who is …. , beautiful, put together, everything’s perfect, but you’re crazy, one little detail”, according to Ann.

March 18th 2016: Here’s the title track live in Canada

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8u6tKwFWVc[/youtube]

March 10th 2016: Prince George Citizen: They have a new album coming out this summer – both a Heart disc called Beautiful Broken and a solo Ann Wilson EP – so watch out for a few new songs on the set list.

March 9th 2016: according to several fans, Ann is calling the new album ‘Beautiful Broken’. Which refers to an extra track from Fanatic. The band performs the song right now on tour.

March 1st 2016: click here for an interview that only is viewable in the US. Click here for international.

February 19th 2016: ‘Sweet Darlin’ can be added to the list, according to Heart’s management on the official message board.

February 13th 2016:

Saturday studio selfie!‪#‎selfiesaturday‬
Saturday studio selfie!‪#‎selfiesaturday

 

February 12th 2016:

Nancy and Dan in the studio.
Nancy and Dan in the studio.

February 3rd 2016: Ben Smith: “On my way to more Heart recording, at a killer studio (Sunset Sound) with engineers Ken Sluiter and Bill Mims (amazing guys), out talented, hardworking techs (Matt Sabin and Ed Mendoza). We get to record fun songs with a world-class band. Could be WAY worse.”

January 24th 2016Ann Wilson on KSLX:  “We’ve kept making records, we’ve kept playing shows. Sometimes we’re up, sometimes we’re down, but there we are. We love doing it, I think people can relate to that. We don’t try to be something we’re not. We’ll go to where the people live [chuckle] and they appeciate that.”

“Yes, we are. We are just finishing up a new record here in L.A. And it’s being rough-mixed right now. We have one more song — it’ll be out before the tour starts. Right now, the working title is Iconograph. It’s some new songs that have never been heard before; some really super old under-the-radar songs that we have reinvented.”

January 17th 2016: We now have confirmation that Heart is indeed recording in the studio. According to longtime drummer Ben Smith: “at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles where we’re doing the new Heart rekkid.”
Here you can see a picture that Ben has posted that suggests they are either recording “One Word” (indeed a Nancy song from the 80s) for the album, or rehearsing it for a live performance. Though it seems a bit odd to re-record an old song, this instagram post of Nancy from two days ago, suggests they are re-recording “Johnny Moon” as well. Ben’s social media sharing confirms that Ben, Chris and Dan are present at Sunset Sound.

January 15th 2016: Nancy’s tweets from yesterday early and yesterday suggest the song “Heaven” is being recorded in the studio. “Heaven” was played on the 2002 tour and ended up on “Alive in America”. On the last tours the song has been played as well. If you scroll down to February 2015, you’ll see Ann has mentioned this song as well for the new album.

January 14th 2016:

Live at the Belly Up
Live at the Belly Up

New live EP of “Live At The Belly Up” which will be out and available January 29.

The tracklist:

1. For What It’s Worth (Live)
2. I Put a Spell on You (Live)
3. Every Grain of Sand (Live)
4. Isolation (Live)
5. Permission (Live)
6. Danger Zone (Live)
7. Ain’t No Way (Live)

Pre-order: DIGITAL on Amazon.com

Currently no information on a physical release.

January 7th 2106: Heart will be busy on the road for a good part of 2016, but frontwoman Ann Wilson says the band also is working on a new studio album that may see the light of day this year.

“We’re definitely working on new stuff,” the singer revealed recently to ABC Radio. “We have about four new songs now and we only need a few more and we’ll have enough for a new full-length record, which should be ready by June.”

Wilson pointed out that Heart has a record label that’s very anxious to release the project, adding that before she and her band mates turn in the album, they “have to make sure it’s truly great, which we’re in the process of doing.”

Ann told ABC Radio that the new album will be a bit different from Heart’s previous studio effort, 2012’s Fanatic, which she noted “was our heaviest album we ever did in terms of banging and crashing, big guitars and all that kind of stuff.” Wilson maintained that the upcoming record “will have more contours.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer cited as an example of the new album’s more diverse sound is a song written by her sister, Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, which Ann said is “very sweet and just tugs at your heart.”

The singer, meanwhile, also reported that Nancy will “be doing more singing on the new record too, which I’m really happy about.”  Ann noted that her sister “always wants to sing but then at the last minute she backs out for some reason. I think she’s shy.”

Source

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TI42C7ZZwM[/youtube]

December 30th 2015Herald: Wilson said she has plans for both Heart and her solo efforts in the year ahead. “It’s a great thing for an artist to get to have lots of different places to go,” Wilson said. “I still work with Heart. I still enjoy it, and we have a whole year touring with Heart coming up as well as The Ann Wilson Thing. I’m just working two jobs and loving it — using all of myself.” More from this interview at the Herald.

Park Record: Wilson will continue to make her mark with the Ann Wilson Thing and Heart. “We’re currently working on a new EP for the Ann Wilson Thing, which will be out at the first of the year,” she said. “Heart is also working on a new project that will be out in the summer.” More from this interview at the Park Record.

December 4th 2015: Second Story Garage: In that vein, the sisters, who are working on a new album, think more globally now, Ann said. “If we’re going to write a song,” she said, laughing, “it isn’t going to be a silly love song.”

November 17th 2015: Vegas Buzz: The recently wed singer, who got married to Dean Wetter back in April, said she’s looking forward to returning to the House of Blues, as Heart’s mini Las Vegas residency not only gives the band a break from traveling but also time to work on new material. When asked if fans could expect a new Heart album in the future, Wilson teased “maybe” before changing her answer to a more affirmative response. “The way things are going, I would definitely say we’ll have something new come out,” she said. “Possibly by next summer.” Given how many genres of music Wilson has performed over the years (Heart has been classified as everything from folk rock to hard rock while The Ann Wilson Thing! mixes blues with rock), one has to wonder if she might experiment with anything new on Heart’s next album. Although Wilson said she would love to do something with singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams in the future, when asked if fans could expect a country song from Heart, Wilson said she didn’t look at things that way. “If I say I’m going to write something country, that immediately squashes the magic,” she explained. “I always write a song first and then see where it goes. A song will always tell you what to do.” While fans may have to wait a bit longer to hear any new material from Heart, Wilson plans on staying busy in the interim with The Ann Wilson Thing!, confirming that “The Ann Wilson Thing! will continue into the future when Heart isn’t working.”

September 24th 2015: Ann is already working on a #2: “Yeah, if we come up with them, we will definitely add them. And we will be coming out with another EP (#2) next year (we are aiming for February), which will have at least two new songs.”

September 19th 2015
: #1 can now be bought digitally. Plus, the artwork has been uploaded at the TAWT site:

The Back of the CD
The Back of the CD
Inside Left
Inside Left
Inside Right
Inside Right
Click on picture to pre order at Amazon.com
Front Cover

September 4th 2015: Also; “The next twelve months will be busy ones for the band Heart, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will have a definitive vinyl box set by this time next year” Inthestudio.net

September 2nd 2015: The cover has appeared and pre ordering has started!

Click on picture to pre order at Amazon.com
Click on picture to pre order at Amazon.com

August 19th 2015: Ann Wilson, lead singer of Heart, is about to release her first solo EP digitally on September 18, 2015 followed by a release in stores on October 9th. The EP titled the ann wilson thing will be released by Rounder Records and will feature the tracks “Fool No More” and “For What It’s Worth.”

‘Fool No More’ was written by Wilson and is described by her as “a heavy blues song about bad love and the fleeting of time” and ‘For What It’s Worth’ is described by Wilson as “a melding of some timeless lyrics with meat, hair and teeth.”

August 15th 2015: The Ann Wilson thing EP is now scheduled for a September release, according to the information listed below their YouTube vid.

August 11th 2015: The Ann Wilson Thing has responded to our Q about the EP: “There will be a physical release — details to come. And we’ll keep you all posted if we do have a vinyl release.”

August 1st 2015: ‘The Ann Wilson Thing” has debuted a new studio recording as a teaser for the upcoming EP!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwgMJe0EWSc[/youtube]

The EP is to be released in August, according to the official Facebook page, but a more recent shred of information stretches the timeline a bit more to “It will be up on iTunes by the time she’s in Solana Beach, September 21st.”

July 28th 2015: The EP by ‘The Ann Wilson Thing’ will be studiorecordings. (Thanx to Ronnie for asking that q on Ann’s page!)

July 25th 2015: Troyrecord.com: This dynamic duo is working on their next album while on the current tour. “Yeah, we are,” say Ann. “We’re always trying to push it forward, and we’re on tour. We have all these opportunities. We play maybe three or four times – three times a week I’d say. Right now we’re doing a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off schedule in Heart. So we have lots of opportunities to grab things and get new things going.

“We don’t really go into the studio like we used to do in the old days. These days you can record anywhere. We’re set up to record off the stage in some little room we find at the venue, at somebody’s house. The big challenge is getting the time to do it and getting the will to push that through because you’re tired. You’re traveling, and all you want to do is just kinda chill when you’re not on stage or moving, but that’s our challenge to get up there and come on. ‘We’re doing this today, you guys.’ ‘But it’s our day off!’ ‘No, we’re doing this!’

So far, they’re not working with producer Ben Mink who handled “Fanatic.” For the first time in their career, they’re self-producing. “We’ll see how far it goes in that mode before we either say, ‘Come on. We need to bring in a producer,’ or we don’t. So far, it’s great, explains Ann. “We have some really capable guys in our ranks like Creg Bartock is a really good writer and producer in his own right, our guitarist, and Dan Rothchild as well. So, we’ll see whether we even go through that, we even go there this time.”

July 17th 2015:

So, the EP is actually a "The Ann Wilson Thing" release!
So, the EP is actually a “The Ann Wilson Thing” release!

June 12th 2015: Chicago Tribune:  “We’re writing new songs and we’re working on updating our website in preparation for a new era,” Wilson said. “So there’s all kinds of new stuff happening in our world. Recording-wise, visually. It’s all coming along great. And we’re touring.” The new album will feature a variety of music, she said.

“It’s everything mixed together. We’re not trying to have a pigeonhole , be a rock band or a ballad band,” Wilson said. “Right now I think you call us a performing band the most, because we’re really on tour and we’re in the process of writing new stuff.” No release date has been set for the new material, but Wilson anticipates it will be in early 2016.

June 3rd 2015: CleveScene.com: As they travel across that landscape, they’re starting to work on new music, as Ann Wilson reveals. “We’re not in a recording studio. We’ve been recording live off the stage in soundchecks, because you don’t really have to go into a traditional studio anymore,” she explains. “We have been recording, but it’s been off the stage. And then we’re going to take the tracks that we get off the stage and you know, mess with them!” Nancy Wilson hints that the first bit of new material might make its way to fans soon in the form of an EP. “We have a new song that we haven’t quite finished yet, but there’s also some live versions of stuff like ‘Let Me Roll It’ and some different things that we’ve been recording the last two runs to probably release along with the new song. So an EP is coming pretty soon.” The next full-length Heart album, according to Ann Wilson, might be a little bit further down the road. “You know, we’re still in the songwriting process and we’re touring at the same time. So when you’re trying to give your attention to two things, it might slow them both down. So that’s where we are right now with that. We’re still working on it!”

June 2nd 2015: Ann Wilson on cleveland.com: Wilson said the band is working on new music, which would be their first release since 2012’s “Fanatic.” “We’re actually recording off the stage,” she said. “We have a couple of new songs and some really interesting covers already. We take the live basic song and record the overdubs in the studio. “We’ll be done recording by early fall,” Some of the songs will be tunes the band has been playing for years, but has never put on an album. “We never had a formula for songwriting,” said Wilson, who shared the authorship credits for timeless Heart hits “Barracuda,” “Magic Man” and “Crazy on You.” “Sometimes, songs just fall into your lap and you don’t have to labor over them,” she said. “And sometimes, getting a concept for a song is the hardest part. “Right now, we’re in a songwriting period where we’re really trying to once again reinvent ourselves by being less formulaic than ever,” Wilson said. Imagine how difficult it must be to try even to match – let alone top – those iconic Heart songs that still resonate today. “Everybody hopes for that when you’re writing and recording,” Wilson said. “It’s a bull’s-eye, and having a hit that becomes a standard in the culture is really a long shot. “When it does, that’s your thing for life,” she said.

May 5th 2015: Ann Wilson in Screamer Magazine: “We’re not slowing down just because we’re 40,” states Ann.  “There are a lot of things being developed and shopped around and already recorded.  I’d like to make another solo record myself; I’d like to do gigs as a singer with a blues band.  Just because it would be so different and so fun!  I’m going to travel more apart from the group this year to a couple of places I’ve never been; just for a few short stays and I’m going to do a couple of things in my life that I haven’t been able to do yet because I’ve always been 100% completely devoted to Heart.  This year I’ve gotten a little more personal freedom to do these things so I’m hopefully going to go to India for a little bit and then to Mexico for a little while, and write some songs while I’m there.  I’m going to look around and see what the world is like, offstage.”

March 24th 2015: IReadCulture.com

Do you and your sister have any plans to work on any new original material for Heart coming up soon?
Yes we do! We have some more songs that we’re working on. We’re not ready to go into the studio yet, but that’s in our future definitely!

When you do sit down to write new material, has your approach to songwriting changed in the decades since you and your sister began writing music?
It’s different every single time we write a song; sometimes they drop into our laps, sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get them. Everyone is different. The good part about it is when you get the inspiration, and then you get the drive to do it.

Do you look to similar things for inspiration when trying to write new songs?
Mmm, well, it all comes from lots of different things actually.

March 18th 2015: the Billboard interview from March 13th (see below) has popped up again with some additional quotes:

WCSX: Wilson says Heart has given itself a “fantasy deadline” of October to finish the album for release during early 2016 as the follow-up to 2012’s “Fanatic.”

kshe95: Although Ann is confident that the band will be able to capture all the necessarily elements for the new album in a quasi-live setting — she still wants to go “old school” when tracking the vocals: “For vocals, I kinda prefer to go into a real studio, just ‘cause of the isolation (to) really have control. But the rest, these days, you don’t have to be in a studio; you can do it in a phone booth, really.

March 13th 2015:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=864w9ljcggE[/youtube]

Ultimate Classic Rock: That kind of tour schedule usually doesn’t give bands the opportunity to spend time on a new album. But Heart have come up with a solution. “We are writing songs and we are recording [them] off of the stage at soundcheck,” Wilson said. “Then we’re gonna take those tracks and mess with them. And we’re looking to make a new record using that method, so we can get the spark of the live performance and then we can, you know, create the song in a more controlled environment at home.” Read More: Heart’s Ann Wilson Says Hall of Fame Inductees Should ‘Be Gracious’

Ann tells Billboard:

“We’re touring and recording at the same time,” Ann Wilson tells Billboard. “We’re actually recording off the stage in sound checks and the shows, so if we’re doing a song you’re not familiar with at a show this year, you can be sure we’re recording it to be worked on later. We’re going to take the tracks and mess with them towards making a new record. You can get the spark of the live performance in the basic track, which is something which is really hard to do in the studio.”

There was also a pragmatic reason for the recording approach, Wilson adds.

“We wanted to make another record, and then the question was, ‘Yeah, you do, but when do you do that?’ Because you’re on the road all the time,” Wilson explains. “The answer is, well, you do it on the road, because nowadays we have the technology to do that.”

For her finished vocals, however, Wilson says, “I kind of prefer to go in a real studio just for the isolation, so you can really have control.”

Wilson says Heart currently has four new songs ready to play, which are “sounding very multi-dimensional, just real different from stuff we’ve done before. Some of it is intensely soulful. One of the songs has a crazy departure that it goes off on. One of them is really spiritual… Just real different stuff. We’re not in a box on this new record, for sure. We’re out of the box. But after nearly 40 years, if you’re still in the box, you better think of how to get out of it.”

Heart, which hits the road March 18 in Mankato, Minn., hopes to finish recording the album — the follow-up to 2012’s Fanatic — during the fall, with an early 2016 release. 

February 24th 2015: Ann tells the crowd in this vid that they are developing the song Heaven for the new album. Here’s a bit of background about the song: originally written in or before 2002 for the album that would eventually become “Jupiter’s Darling”, the song was played on the 2002 “Summer of Love” tour and can be found on the official CD, DVD and Blu-Ray of this tour, named “Alive in Seattle”. The song returned to the setlist only recently. The song was among four songs played in 2002 on the tour and destined for the new album. Shortly after that tour Craig Bartock was flown in and these songs were shelved. In 2003 Heart played a couple of new songs that did end up on the album “Jupiter’s Darling”. “Heaven” has only even heard (or recorded) live by the Heartmongers. The studio version, if produced well and catching Ann on a normal or good day, will be stunning!

December 12th 2014: Here’s a recap of what Ann & Nancy have told us so far about what seems to evolve into a 4 of 5 song EP, (newest to old):

Taken from this lengthy interview with a website from Belfast, United Kingdom.

Yeah, we want to make a new, well, we are actually beginning a new project now which is going to be an EP which is going to have a theme. It is going to be the sharpest, heaviest, and the most incredible four or five songs that we can produce, that we can come up with. Nancy and I are both really committed to that right now. We don’t think things too far in advance – we don’t think too far ahead. So we are in the moment.


In this All Access Group podcast Ann (recorded December 1st 2014) talks about getting back in the studio, doing an EP length “very aimed” 4 or 5 song thing, where each song is just blow away. And there’s a theme. Ann & Nancy have a couple of songs already started up and are in the process of getting other people excited.

Also about the EP, but from Classic Rock Revisited: What is next?  Are you going to take some time off?

Ann: [laugher] surely you jest?  Down time?  No, we have the Christmas season off, and then in the New Year we are going to New Zealand and we have a year of touring ahead of us.  Nancy and I have begun work on a new EP of all new songs that we’re writing.  There is also a documentary in the works.  There is a lot of stuff coming up.


RollingStone.com: “Heart is also thinking ahead to its first studio album since 2012’s Fanatic. “We have the urge to get into the studio, that’s for sure,” Wilson says, adding that the band has already written a trio of new songs “good enough to consider” for the new set. But first, the band has tour dates through February 2015. “We’re just booked, booked, booked,” Wilson says. After more than 40 years on the road, Wilson says she enjoys playing live more than ever. “I used to have a lot of stage fright in the past and a lot of nervousness. Now I don’t have that any more,” she says. “You get to express yourself and shoot your soul up to the sky. It’s really just a lot of fun.”


Ann in StAugustine.com:

Compass: Your last studio album was “Fanatic” back in 2012. Have you been working on new material?

Ann Wilson: Yes. Cannot tell you about it, sorry. Love ya.


From poconorecord.com: Q: In the last four years, you’ve released two studio albums. Are there any plans for new Heart music? A: Oh, yeah. Next year, probably, is the reality. We have so much going on this year, so we probably won’t have a complete focus until next year. We’re writing now; we have notebooks going.


And here’s a snippet from March/April’s 2014 AOR magazine:

OAR magazine
AOR magazine

And here’s an older April 2014 snippet from an Ann Wilson interview:

Q: Has the band begun working on new music yet? What’s going on, on that side of things?

A: We’re at the notebook stage right now. Notebooks full of new ideas and lyrics and stuff that you look at the next day and go “Oh God, what was I thinking?” [Laughs]

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