FUSE TV - How Travel Shaped The Head and the Heart’s ‘Signs of Light’

If The Head and the Heart kept track of all the ground they’ve covered in the last three years, the needle on that odometer would be worn down to a nub. It would be well-loved, well-used and well-done. It would be spent.

By the time the Head and the Heart had finished up touring behind their 2013 album Let’s Be Still, they had criss-crossed the country, played every music festival you could possibly think of and logged an absurd amount of miles. Instead of heading home to Richmond, Virginia at the end of 2014, Jonathan Russell—who stands at the head of the five-person ensemble as vocalist and guitarist—wasn't finished moving: he bought a van with a bed in the back, and he kept driving.

“I was definitely trying to make sure that I wasn’t just taking time off and just settle in—that can be dangerous," Russell explains. "I knew we were going to take 2015 off, so come January, I drove out to Los Angeles, and stayed out there for two or three months.”

Russell is on the move again; he's calling from a parking lot somewhere between Miami and the Florida Keys. He’s making the most of this calm spell before touring revs up again in support of Signs of Light, the Head and the Heart’s new album, out September 9. 

“On the way back, I visited my dad and my grandparents," he says. "All my family either lives in Mississippi—they live outside of Tupelo—or Florida, except for me and my mom in Virginia. I was going to drive around and travel and get my finger back on the pulse, you know? My band was touring so much that you’re reflecting back what you’re seeing, which is a really unrealistic bubble of the world. Unless you pop it, it’s not going to change. I’m trying to do my best at that.”