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-- Intro
Hypnotic Kingdom find acceptance through the duality of death and new life on ‘My Baby Keeps Breaking My Heart’, via Ultimate Blends, the label of Yuck’s Max Bloom. The track is cut from a new EP entitled ‘Little Shadow’ due November 19th.
For the first Hypnotic Kingdom release since 2018 full-length ‘Would You Be There For Me?’, Nathan Hewitt reminds us how precious yet painful life can be on his devastatingly intimate new release. ‘My Baby Keeps Breaking My Heart’ is a touching lyrical journey that links childhood and parenthood, with Hewitt’s role as a new parent bringing back memories of his own father passing away when he was young.
--- The Song
Starting out as an old demo that was missing an interlocking melody, the lyrics and chorus of ‘My Baby Keeps Breaking My Heart’ arrived after a strange experience Hewitt had while watching his son playing with a toy he himself had played with as a child, this would light the spark of a purple patch of heartfelt songwriting from his North London home.
Hewitt reflects, “The lyrics and chorus line came from a strange experience I had when watching my baby boy play with an old toy truck my dad had given me as a baby. My 1 year old son was bashing it around on the table and I couldn’t help but think about how my dad had died in a trucking accident when I was 11. All I could see was his truck being thrown around and off the highway, and how the innocence of my son playing with a toy truck had taken me to this place. The trucking accident had broken my heart when dad died and my son - though completely oblivious - was breaking my heart by reminding me of this, I felt part of a symbolic trinity at that moment.”
‘My Baby Keeps Breaking My Heart’ is an expression of overflowing love, the often difficult nature of reflection and the mixed emotions caught in the middle. Memories that ooze emotion need time to find a resolution, especially when they arrive in such unexpected circumstances. Sonically, the track draws inspiration from the darkened corners of indie rock and the intimacy and lo-fi leanings of cult songwriters such as Elliot Smith, each verse ripping off a band-aid of raw emotion. It pulls on the heartstrings with an almost spiritual intimacy and a feeling of lived-in storytelling that you don’t find in everyday songwriting.
--- The Process
“Max turned me onto Wilco, and it was perfect timing”, states Hewitt when asked about what he was listening to when shaping a set of tracks that would become the ‘Little Shadow’ EP. Written at his home before lockdown, the idea for Hypnotic Kingdom arrived from, “a time of creative uncertainty after stopping Cheatahs,” says Hewitt, “and a bit of a breakdown in confidence about music in general.”
His songwriting came in bursts, usually in the morning after waking from a dream, or before teaching, writing on acoustic guitar before demoing on his computer. Recording at Yuck guitarist Max Bloom’s home studio in East London was key in unearthing not only the EP’s sonic identity, but for rekindling Hewitt’s passion for writing music. Bloom’s production forged a new direction and partnership between the two, while also adding lead guitar parts and organ.
Originally the project was to be a collaborative effort between Yuck guitarist Max Bloom and Hewitt himself, however the pandemic saw to it that plans would be dashed. “Max and I had to abandon plans for this project to become a collaboration. We’d started writing together but because we couldn’t do so face to face, we both recorded our own projects instead, and his role became producer.”
On the subject of the EP Hewitt states, “I think I saw a duality in the little shadow that haunts my heart and the little shadow that holds my hand. The EP’s artwork of a picture of my son with his little shadow, chasing a bubble, it really sums it up.”
Death, life and acceptance make up the emotional core of the EP, it’s underbelly awash with the type of personal reflection that usually only momentous life events bring. The EP feels like a love letter to the fragility of life and romance and somewhat a soundtrack to the last night on a dying planet.
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EP
