Heart released a new studio album “Fanatic” on October 2nd 2012. This page is keeping track!
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Sony Legacy – October 2nd 2012 – 10 tracks (Best Buy: 13 tracks) – Produced by Ben Mink
Quick links to: – Fanatic (studio) – Dear Old America (studio) – Walkin’ Good (studio) – Skin and Bones (studio) – A Million Miles (studio) – Pennsylvania (studio) – Mashallah! (studio) – Rock Deep (Vancouver) (studio) – 59 Crunch (studio) – Corduroy Road (studio)
ORDER “FANATIC” CD / VINYL / iTUNES | ORDER “KICKING & DREAMING“
June 10th 2016: According to hitsdailydouble.com Fanatic has sold 50.000 copies so far in the US.
May 5th 2013: Billboard reported on April 9th 2013: “It sold 43,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan”
February 28th 2013: some new sales figures from a couple of months back. The last we had was Fanatic had dropped to number 82 in its second week on the US Billboard chart, with sales of 5.677, totaling 22.091. Now we can add these numbers: 3.029 in the third week to a total of 25.120 and 2.031 in the fourth week to a total of 27.151. Also Heart’s Jupiter’s Darling had 73,394 on 08/2005, which was about a year after its release.
December 24th 2012: number 16!
December 19th 2012: “Dear Old America” is now at number 17
December 10th 2012: “Dear Old America” is now at number 19.
December 9th 2012: “Dear Old America” cracks the top 20 on the radio chart and I think that means it’s a bigger hit on the radio than “Fanatic” and “Walking Good”.
December 2nd 2012: “Dear Old America” is still going up in the radio chart. This week it’s at number 23.
November 25th 2012: “Fanatic” spent 3 weeks in total on the Billboard album 200. Both leadsingles “Fanatic” and “Walkin’ Good” are no longer charting on the radio. However the release of the new Veteran’s Day video for “Dear Old America” has sparked some radio airplay on Mainstream Rock formats as the song is currently in the top 30 on Mediabase. Also: this week a new digital single was released and it’s a special one: it has two tracks and both are club-remixes for the blistering “A Million Miles”. I hope these two new initiatives spark some new life in the album.
October 25th 2012: “Fanatic” is at number 152 in its third week on the Album 200.
Added October 20th 2012: In the UK “Fanatic” has entered at number 142, which is higher than the 196 for Red Velvet Car
Added October 18th 2012: Fanatic has dropped to number 82 in its second week on the US Billboard chart, with sales of 5.677, totaling 22.091. Meanwhile: Heart has launched a campaign to gather photo’s of veterans for a new official video for what is most likely a new single: “Dear Old America”
Added October 13th 2012: Fanatic has entered the Billboard Album 200 at number 24 and the Rock album chart at number 12. 16.253 units sold (soundscan) | Also “Fanatic” is played in stadiums: All MLB Playoff teams have “Fanatic” and are reportedly playing it: SF Giants, Baltimore Orioles, Oakland A’s, Washington Nationals. Others confirmed this week: Cincinnati Bengals- Current play in stadium of “Fanatic” and “59 Crunch”, Washington Redskins- Playing in stadium, Tampa Bay Buccaneers- Playing in stadium , Notre Dame- BIG game against Miami in Chicago. They will play “Fanatic” in stadium… may bleed onto TV. Minnesota Vikings- Planning a giveaway, and LOVE “59 Crunch”. Definitely playing in stadium… Oakland Raiders- have been playing “Fanatic” since week 1. The UFC is looking at “59 Crunch” as a possibility for use during a UFC promotion. NASCAR loves the whole album. We have a big fan there. They may use a track or 2 during one of their TV shows. | “Smiles of a Summer Night” is a Nancy ballad and can indeed be purchased via Cricket. | The download link for the vinyl album has been fixed! | A rumored 13 track vinyl at Best Buy is probably an import of the “Music on Vinyl” Dutch pressing.
Added October 11th 2012: “Fanatic” is heading for a 24/25 debut with sales of 16.253 or 16.433.
Added October 4th 2o12: Check out all the reviews here. Also: a new bonustrack seems to have surfaced: “Smiles of a Summer Night“. Plus: with the vinyl, you get a downloadlink for the album in mp3. The projected sales at the moment for the first week are between 14 en 17k, which makes me afraid a top 10 entry may not be in the cards.
Added September 28th 2012: As long as Legacy Recordings keeps them online, you can hear the studio edit of “A Million Miles” right here and “Corduroy Road” right here.
Added September 26th 2012: As long as Spinner keeps it online, you can hear the studio edit of “Rock Deep (Vancouver)” right here.
Added September 25th 2012: As long as Legacy Recordings keeps it online, you can hear the studio edit of “Skin and Bones” right here.
Added September 24th 2012: As long as Legacy Recordings keeps it online, you can hear the studio edit of “Pennsylvania” right here.
Added September 23rd 2012: As long as Legacy Recordings keeps them online, you can hear the studio edit of “59 Crunch” right here and “Mashallah” right here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIoxpJtMe0E[/youtube]
“Fanatic” music video (added September 20th after premiering on Ultimate Classic Rock)
Added September 20th 2012: Listen to all the “Fanatic” 30 second clips and the “Making of” here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0yPy3ND4Uc[/youtube]
The making of “Fanatic”
The Japanese edition has conflicting reports about its extra tracks: either two Led Zeppelin covers “Going to California” and “Misty Mountain Hop” (possibly from Zeppish) or the as yet unknown track “F30”. The Best Buy USA only version will have: “Beautiful Broken”, “Zingara” and the before unknown title “Two Silver Rings”.
Added August 22nd 2012: Best Buy will be selling Fanatic with three exclusive tracks. International mongers: they don’t ship outside the US!
Added August 21st 2012: The “Fanatic” single has been released to AC Radio, Amazon and iTunes and AC radio single “Walkin’ Good” can now be found on YouTube:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3miTHCH1TQQ[/youtube]
Added August 13th 2012: Qatar Tribune: “I spent a lot of time riding around on a tour bus the last couple of years with a notebook,” Ann says, “just way out in the middle of the country where the poetry speaks really loud.” Because of that, she says, “It’s pretty rockheavy. It’s got a lot of edge. It’s a fiery bunch of words. There’s anger, there’s passion.” Nancy agrees that “there was just this urge for us all to just rock,” resulting in hard-driving songs such as the title track, Dear Old America, 59 Crunch, Mashallah and A Million Miles, a muscular adaptation of the folk standard 500 Miles.“We’ve always been a little, well, fanatical, a little flippant about trying to satisfy our artistic urges,” she says. “It’s important that we don’t just feel like we’re out there and it’s only the hits that are important. They are important, but having new material sets us apart from most of the boys – the old boys, especially.” Fanatic has its softer moments too, most notably Walkin’ Good, which features Sarah McLachlan and addresses the romantic renewal Nancy has felt in recent years. “I knew that it definitely might have a lot of meaning to her too,” Nancy says, “because she’d had something similar in her life, dealing with being a mom and being separated from a relationship and reconfiguring all of what that symbolises to a woman. So it was a really natural fit to ask her to come in and sing on it. She really liked the song. We were hoping she might sing a couple more songs, but we ran out of time.”
Added August 10th 2012: RegisterGuard.com: “It’s just amazing some of the different techniques that were used to record this record, because it was recorded in lots of little different places — on a tour bus, in a parking lot, in a hotel room, actually in a studio, just everywhere,” Ann Wilson said in an interview last week. “Everybody’s favorite thing would be just to have a comfortable life, get in your car and go to the studio in the afternoon and work until 8 p.m. or something and go home and sleep in your own bed,” Wilson said. “But we really didn’t have that luxury. “We had a tour going on and we were writing a book and we were writing songs. We realized real quick we had to do it however we could, wherever we could. “And you know, as it turns out, I’m really glad we did, because I think we caught something on ‘Fanatic’ that is quite a spark,” she said. “We really did catch a spark. And we didn’t sit in the studio and just over think and overthink and overthink. “We were on the move the whole time.” [..] Then there are the songs. “Fanatic” is one of Heart’s hardest-rocking albums to date, and songs such as “Dear Old America,” “59 Crunch,” “Mashallah” and the title track are crisp, highly melodic and full of surprising and entertaining twists and turns. Check out the electronic tones that greet the listener on “Skin and Bones” and give the song a bit of a futuristic accent, or the techno-funk touches that flavor “Million Miles.” It’s no exaggeration to say the “Fanatic” CD has sounds and textures that are different from anything Heart has done. “He (Mink) knows good and well what Heart used to sound like in the ’70s and in the ’80s and the ’90s,” Wilson said. “But he’s a guy who is really dead set in the present. So he’s going to pay respect to us and who we are, but he’s always going to push us. “And he really has a great sonic imagination and ability to come up with crazy ideas that really refer to us in an honest way. “Like for instance, ‘Million Miles,’ it’s a tip of the hat to a folk song, but it’s definitely on steroids and it’s a crazy dance idea that just goes out into space. “A song like ‘Skin and Bones,’ we got a lot of it on an iPhone in a hotel room and then went from there with it.”
Rock of Ages: The 10-track album includes “Dear Old America,” inspired by the Wilsons’ father, a U.S. Marine captain who saw action in World War II and the Korean War. Post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t discussed then. It’s a huge issue now. ”He was really, really badly wounded,” said Wilson, active in assisting Iraq and Afghanistan war vets. “He didn’t talk about. It’s not something you talked to women and children about. How to begin to tell what you’ve heard and seen and come off as a strong dad?” The new record also includes a collaboration with Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan (“Walkin’ Good”) and a contemporized version of “500 Miles” (“Million Miles”), a traditional American folk ballad. More from this interview.
Added August 3rd 2012: From Heart’s Facebook: Fanatic: Between the book and the box set, the Wilson sisters had fully exorcized the past and now it was time to think about the future; they started writing songs that would become Fanatic. “We did it every possible way,” Nancy remembers. “We had many nights together on the tour bus. Then, when I was in LA and Ann was in Seattle we were each emailing each other lyrics ideas and [producer] Ben Mink groove ideas.” The threesome eventually congregated in the sister’s hometown outside of Seattle and had a series of what Nancy calls songwriting “pow wows.” When it came time to record, the band’s approach was organic, very much in keeping with their roots as true performance oriented rock band. “These days things are formulated digitally or layered or looped and assembled but this is live groove,” Nancy explains. “It was our mission to go in there and capture the energy as it magically happens without too much over-thinking or repetition, just letting it escape.” When you put the Wilson sisters plus some trusted musicians in a room with instructions to feel their way around, great things happen. “You do a take and you listen and you go that’s so great, but that’s not the one, and then you go and have a snack and keep going and suddenly it’s like everybody’s hair goes up and it’s like: that’s the one!” Nancy says with glee. From the crackling guitar noise and vicious drumbeat that drives album opener and title track “Fanatic” through the scorched-earth power of tracks like the “Mashallah” Fanatic is definitely a full-bodied American rock and roll record. “I place it really highly among the albums we’ve made, right along side Little Queen or Dog & Butterfly,” Nancy says. “Those are two really heavy hitting albums and this one has that same spark.” But the record’s power is nuanced. “Million Miles,” has delectably ominous prog rock undertones, the collaboration with Sarah McLachlan, “Walkin’ Good,” has a sweet folky delicacy, and “Pennsylvania” is a poetic painting of a ballad. Among the album’s stand outs is also “Dear Old America,” which blends Heart’s signature rollicking rock and roll guitars with poignant lyrics about soldiers coming home from war, a topic close to both sisters’ hearts since they were born and raised as Marine corps brats. As it should, the title track most succinctly encapsulates the spirit of Fanatic. “I thought of Nancy who is so devoted to the idea of love and especially to the idea of romantic love,” Ann recalls. “She will not take no for an answer. There is no way you could ever convince her that it’s not real. She will not hear it. She’s a true fanatic about love, and I thought how cool and inspiring is that? The meaning then grows to become a worldview.”
Added July 28th 2012: alternative artwork for “Fanatic”, possibly the artwork for a single f the title track or promo artwork for the advance CD?
Added July 26th 2012: the studio version of “Walkin’ Good” can be found here. And this is a live version of “59 Crunch” (Pittsburgh July 26th)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqUVx6Ezbc[/youtube]
Added July 22nd 2012: Ann Wilson in The Miami Herald: Fanatic once again sounds identifiably Heart, with Nancy’s lead guitar carving a path for some of the Wilsons’ most personal songs. Dear Old America is based on their military father and what he dealt with after World War II and the Korean War. “I spent a lot of time writing prose like I used to do as a teenager,” Wilson said. “ Dear Old America really came from trying to deal with my own daddy issues.”
Ann Wilson in WNYpapers.com “Our new album, ‘Fanatic,’ I think, is probably our most … we … try to light fires,” Ann says. “That’s what we do. We’re fire lighters. And I think we brought a spark on this one. That’s good. That’s what I was looking for is a true spark.” Like Foreigner and Huey Lewis & The News, two of Artpark’s other “Tuesday in the Park” headliners this summer, Heart has continued to release new music despite having more than enough hit songs to stage nightly “Best of” concerts. “It’s important for us to put out new music, because we don’t want to rest on our laurels,” Ann says. “I don’t see that there’s anything that exciting about laurel resting. Maybe I’ll get to the point in my life where I just go, ‘Oh my gosh, show me those laurels – I just want to rest on them!’ But I’m not there yet.” In all seriousness, the singer explains it this way: “If we’re going to go out and ask people to come out of their homes and spend their non-existent money to come see us, I’d say we better be awake and alive, and we better have something … new to show them. “I just feel, conscientiously, that we should be (an) awake, alive, evolving band, or we should get out of the game.”
Images have appeared of a possible first single “Walkin’ Good”
Added July 17th 2012: watch the vid below past the 5 minute mark and hear part of “Walkin’ Good“!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqdaFnzJppI[/youtube]
Added July 15th 2012: two vids of Heart performing new songs
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oDCPpSZdag[/youtube]
“Fanatic” from St. Louis, July 4th 2012
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXs6wJzAf8I[/youtube]
“Dear Old America” from St. Louis, July 4th 2012
Added July 10th 2012: Heart played two new songs for the first time in Hammond on July 6th: “Walkin’ Good” and “59 Crunch”.
Added July 3rd 2012: Comparing the released track list with the earlier reported names of songs leaves us with the possible bonus tracks: “Zingara” and “Beautiful Broken”
Added June 29th 2012: The Wilsons say they had fun making “Fanatic.” “On this one, for some reason, we just needed to crank it, and it really worked,” Nancy Wilson said. “Every time we record, it’s different, but classically, Ann writes more on the side of the words but I also write a lot of the words, and I write more music on guitar and piano and stuff,” she said. “But on this album, we’re both doing both a lot more together, more equally than we’ve done for a long time.” Ann has some of Nancy’s favorite moments lyrically on the new album, too. “I’m just really happy how the whole thing turned out, it’s just such an incredible, heavy rock album,” Nancy said.The new project celebrates the steamy, classic-rock guitar sounds of the ’70s, she said. “You have other bands out there right now that are doing that, too, like Black Keys — they have such a good sound, those classic screaming guitar sounds,” Wilson said.
Guitarworld: Nancy: But then they also wanted a new album, so we were like, “OK, we’re right on that.” So when we were doing and writing the new album, we had this perspective going on and we sort of turned the new album into this heavy, heavy rock album, because going back seeing everything we had done, we’ve done beautiful soft music, but we also are quite a rock band. It’s just really cool how each of the projects cross-coordinated and cross-pollinated with the other. On your new album, Fanatic, you did a song with singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan. Is she a friend of yours? Yes. We did Lilith Fair last year and she’s friends with our producer Ben Mink, who’s also a Canadian. I have song called “Walking Good” that Mink thought she’d sound really good singing harmonies on. So he called her up and we talked it over, and she sounds incredible on that song. She’s incredible. [..]I have a Gibson Thinline that I designed the body shape of, which I used a lot on the Fanatic album that I’m going to shake out.
Added June 28th 2012: Wilson calls the album, “Fanatic,” “very heavy.” “When you look at it, it’s really folk music on super steroids. It’s probably our heaviest work so far.” They’ve been playing heavier in concert, and wanted to capture that feel on record. “It’s our most focused, and lyrically it doesn’t pussy-foot. It’s got opinions, it’s got love, it’s got romance.”
Added June 27th 2012: click here for a behind the scenes on Heart’s “Fanatic” video shoot! And some insights on the album from management: “I’ve heard the entire record – and love it :) Walking Good and Pennsylvania are both ballads. Walking Good is an answer to Hey You. Its wonderful.”
Added June 25th 2012: Amazon.com has set up pre-order links for Heart’s new album “Fanatic” and the big news is that the new album will also get a release on VINYL! This has been confirmed by management! PRE-ORDER CD | PRE-ORDER VINYL. Amazon tracklist: 1. Fanatic 2. Dear Old America 3. Walkin’ Good (featuring Sarah McLachlan) 4. Skin And Bones 5. Million Miles 6. Pennsylvania 7. Mashalla 8. Rock Deep (Vancouver) 9. 59 Crunch 10. Corduroy Road. Heart’s 14th studio album, Fanatic, ranks as one of the Wilson Sisters most rock & roll albums to date. With Grammy-winning producer Ben Mink at the helm (who also produced their last album, Red Velvet Car), these ten essential performances by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson are a celebration of their life spirit: Ann and Nancy are fanatics about love, art and truth. Includes the title track “Fanatic,” “Dear Old America,” and “Million Miles.”.
I do still wonder how to correctly spell “Mashalla” the way Heart wants it.
Added June 22nd 2012: On June 21st Heart revealed the art and tracks for “Fanatic” including the premier of 2 of the 10 tracks of the album on their website. Management confirmed again that 4 tracks are to be used as bonus tracks. The 10 tracks that are standard on the album are: “Fanatic,” “Dear Old America,” “Walkin’ Good” (featuring Sarah McLachlan), “Skin and Bones,” “Million Miles,” “Pennsylvania,” “Mashallah,” “Rock Deep (Vancouver),” “59 Crunch,” and “Corduroy Road.”
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“Dear Old America” comes from memories of a military household and is written from the point of view of their father, a Marine Corps officer, returning from war (“When I get home, I’m going to own this town/Shine this medal/Wear that crown….”); “Rock Deep (Vancouver)” harkens back to the city where Dreamboat Annie was written; and “Walkin’ Good” (a duet with Vancouver resident Sarah McLachlan) captures the joy of finding new life in a new love.
Added June 7th 2012: Billboard.com: Heart will bring fans up to date this fall, when the duo releases “Fanatic,” its 13th studio album and the follow-up to 2010’s “Red Velvet Car.” Like that set, “Fanatic” was produced by Ben Mink and recorded in Los Angeles and Seattle, with Sarah McLachlan guesting on a track called “Walking Good.” Wilson expects 10 songs to make the final cut from 20 that were recorded and says “Fanatic” is “pretty rock heavy. There are only two ballads on it. It’s got a lot of edge. I spent a lot of time riding around on a tour bus the last couple of years, just way out in the middle of the country where the poetry speaks really loud. I had a notebook. I wrote a song about Pennsylvania. There’s one about Vancouver. It’s a fiery bunch of words. There’s anger. There’s passion. That’s why it’s called ‘Fanatic,’ because it’s love fanatic.” Wilson says the additional songs recorded for the album will be used as bonus tracks for various editions of “Fanatic.”
Added Jun 1st 2012: management: “there are four bonus tracks for Fanatic. I’m not sure which are going where… still too early to know.”
Added May 27th 2012: The title track of the new album can be heard in part 3 of this radioshow. (Thanx to Seattleboy!)
Added May 24th 2012: Ann Wilson: “Well, ‘Fanatic’ is way more rock-heavy then Red Velvet Car was. It’s got 10 songs on it and I think two of them are what you’d call ballads. It’s quite, it’s a lot heavier. You’re just going to have to judge for yourself. It’s going to be released on October 2. I’m real excited about it.” “We don’t take a side, like, you know, Democrat or Republican, in our songs, but we definitely have opinions. And on the new album, there’s a song called “Dear Old America,” which is from the perspective of a soldier in, you know, like in Afghanistan or Iraq and what it’s like to be them and what goes through their mind, and coming back to America after they go through that and see that. We definitely can relate to the modern day world and have opinions. We’re not going to just shut up because we’re in music and don’t want to offend. I think musicians should be participants.” (Thanx to The Heartmonger Blog)
Added April 7th 2012: Sue Ennis just tweeted: “10 songs mixed for Fanatic. On to the bonus tracks! Big. Loud. Fun.”
Added April 6th 2012: Nancy wilson just tweeted with a photo: “Listening to new album playback. Fanatic!”
Added April 5th 2012: Nancy Wilson just tweeted: “The new album is almost done! Called Fanatic. So Rock!”
Added April 4th 2012: management on the official BBS in reply to the question “why Fanatic?”: “cause its a subject and song title. oooooh SCOOP! song named Fanatic on the record!”
Added April 3rd 2012: Sue Ennis on Twitter: “My pal played me 6 rough mixes from the new album, now in the mixing process in Seattle. HUGE sound. The philosophy is simple: rawk!” and: “As shaping and polishing continues, FANATIC keeps getting more amazing. New revelation every day. Today’s: Ben Smith is a monster hurricane.”
Added April 2nd 2012: The publicly accessible ASCAP database -that lists the composers of songs- has added a couple of titles to their database. So a new bunch of unconfirmed song titles for “Fanatic” are: 59 Crunch (confirmed song title), A Million Miles (confirmed song title, without the A), Beautiful Broken, Corduroy Road (confirmed song title), Dear Old America (confirmed song title), Fanatic (confirmed song title), Mashallah (confirmed song title, possibly without the second “h”), Pennsylvania (confirmed song title) and Zingara.
Added April 2nd 2012: Ben Mink on his website on February 29th: “I’m currently mixing Heart’s new album, due for late fall release”
Added March 15th 2012: The new album will be released on October 2nd 2012.
Added March 6th 2012: management: record company Sony, releasedate hasn’t been announced at this time.
Added February 28th 2012: A print magazine article (Classic Rock Magazine) surfaced with 4 more song titles! We now have: Mashalla, Fanatic, Dear Old America, Skin and Bones and Beautiful Broken.
Added February 26th 2012: Heart performed a song from “Fanatic” (a rocker) titled “Mashalla” in Anaheim, February 25th 2012.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GdW4T7DrMA[/youtube]
Added February 20th 2012: Nancy Wilson told KSBR 88.5FM that the new album will be released in October 2012 and is named “Fanatic”
Added January 25th 2011: Management: “today is the last day of recording… and then the girls will be working with the author to finish the book.”
Added January 19th 2012: Management: “Nope – the ladies are recording” (an answer on the question if A&N will be at NAMM this weekend)
Added November 18th 2011: Management: “They haven’t started recording yet”
Added August 29th 2011: DeseretNews.com: During a recent break in their tour, Ann Wilson told the Deseret News during an interview from Chicago that she and her sister are already in the process of writing their next album, which she says will be a much heavier record than Red Velvet Car. Like all of Heart’s music, the songs on the new album, Wilson said, come from her and her sister’s observations of what’s going on around them. “There’s a song on the album coming up about the way it feels right now to be in this economy,” Wilson said. In what she called a “very poetic” song, Wilson said the song looks at how someone can stand in the middle of a street, close their eyes and feel what the town was like at its peak, and then open their eyes to see what was happening today.
Added September 10th 2011: Heart management on the official bulletin board: “i wouldn’t count on the spring…but a new album is being recorded this year“, meaning a Spring release is not likely.
Added September 20th 2011: Nancy Wilson on Salt Lake Tribune.com: “Our new stuff, we’re writing heavy electric,” Nancy Wilson said. “ ‘Red Velvet Car’ was heavier acoustic. … [Recording albums] helps us to stay vital. It’s less and less lucrative, and more for the love. There is a groundswell of fan appreciation for what is real.”
Added August 23rd 2011: The Mountain, Nancy Wilson: We are writing songs and making demos. Here and there we get together, in all kinds of various locations with our speakers and laptops and guitars and microphones and just pound them out. Ann and I are doing as much writing together as we can, on the tour bus, between show days we are just putting new songs together as fast as we can. We are really excited to keep working, it makes us feel relevant to keep doing new material all the time.
Added August 18th 2011: CantonRep.Com, Nancy Wilson: We’re working with the same producer, Ben Mink, on a new album that we’re going to, hopefully, get finished before Christmas. We’re approaching it more like a rock ‘n’ roll album than an acoustic one. We’re excited and energized.
Added August 13th 2011: Billboard.com: ”We’ve got most of it written already,” Wilson says. “We’re writing again and working on songs with (‘Red Velvet Car’) producer Ben Mink. This time we’re gonna go a little more heavy rock, a little more electric guitar. And so far so good; I think there’s some really amazing songs already.” Wilson says the sisters and Mink have demoed “about eight songs already,” working “in various hotel rooms…with microphones and his laptop and a couple of speakers and some guitars and notebooks. Me and Ann work on stuff independently of each other and we bring our notebooks, and (Mink) brings musical ideas, too, and we write together and just put everything together.” Heart — which this year celebrates the 35th anniversary of its debut album, “Dreamboat Annie” — hasn’t previewed any of the new songs yet during its summer tour with Def Leppard, but Wilson expects to play something new before the trek wraps Oct. 29 in Australia. “It’s not unlikely that we would probably road test something in the course of the summer,” she predicts. “We’re still kind of polishing and buffing the rough demos so far, but we’re getting excited.” Heart expects to hit the studio “as soon as the tour is done…and hopefully we can have everything recorded by Christmas.”
Added July 24th 2011: Ultimate Classic Rock: Ann Wilson: Yeah, we are, we’re writing now and this break in the Def Leppard tour, though it was a surprise break, it turned out to be really good, because we got our producer down here and we sat and worked and just wrote for five days. It was incredible, [we] came up with a whole bunch of stuff, so we’re on it! […] It’s more developed [and] it’s more rock I think, this time. You know, we’ve been traveling constantly and all kinds of things have happened, good and bad. We’re always writers, but right now, there’s really a lot of stuff that’s going down on paper from our experience here, just out in the country. There’s one song that just was banging around inside my head after we were in Pennsylvania. And I’ve never seen the Northeast quite so beat down, quite so poor and broke. The Rust Belt speaks really loudly about what’s going on in the economy. When we went on the break, like everyone flew home, but I said, “No, I’m going to take my bus and I’m just going to go back across the country to L.A. And I’m going to write on the trip.” I didn’t know how haunted by the economic situation back east and how it affects the people. I wrote all of this stuff on the trip back when we were going through Nebraska, going down through New Mexico and stuff, the big empty out there, it just spoke really loudly to me. So, there’s a bunch of stuff, my observations of what it’s like in the country right now.
Added July 22nd 2011: TheWest.Com.Au: Wilson says the band, which will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year, is currently working on another rock opus with Mink.
Added July 13th 2011: UrbanTulsa.com: In fact, the experience and response has been so strong that Wilson said that she and sister Nancy (Wilson, guitarist and songwriter) are already planning to make another record in the same manner.
Added July 4th 2011: Nancy was interview for TapMilwaukee by Piet Levy: The band plans to plug in for a harder-rocking album next June.
Added June 15th 2011: Nancy was interviewed was WMGK.com: She said Heart has probably one more writingsession to go. Recording after the summertour in November/December & out in the Spring or Summer of 2012.
Added May 25th 2011: Ann & Nancy mention their plans to make a new album on Rockline on May 25th.
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