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Just when it feels like the whole world is disappearing into a pit of misery and mean-heartedness, along come Native Harrow to save us and remind us all what a wonderful place it can be when we all just love each other a little bit more.
“Our ‘Heart of Love’ world was built out of love and gentleness”, explains Devin Tuel about writing the song. “A song that slowly drifted its way to me and sunk in deep, it sings of the passion in soulmate love. The deep love that you may search the world over for. The love that shelters you from the weathered winds of time and space.”
“I think I dreamed you up long before I really knew you”, she sings, a swirl of Laurel Canyon-tinged pastoral folk dipping and swelling all around her. It’s sweet and daydreamy and sounds almost subversively heartfelt in a time that seems to feel less and less accommodating for kindness and honesty. Like resting your head on your best friend’s shoulder and falling asleep on the last train home after a long day out at the seaside, drifting in and out of consciousness while the world speeds by.
Taken from their forthcoming fifth album, Old Kind of Magic, ‘Heart of Love’ was written after the duo – made up of Tuel and Stephen Harms – moved to the English seaside town of Brighton with a few trunks worth of books, clothes, guitars and microphones. Settling in at the very top of a crumbling regency building where the seagulls call to the sun's rise and fall each day, they thought, “this is the perfect place to make a record.”
Immersing themselves in a new place filled with unfamiliar faces, sounds and sights, the band spent most of the year writing and recording the 10 songs that would make up the new album. From early mornings spent discovering the hills of Albion and late nights dancing in London, to the quiet hum of building a home in the heart of the countryside, rediscovering love, letting go of things lost, riding the waves and trudging through the mud to find freedom; this album spans a lifetime of lessons.
Recorded by the band with drummer Alex Hall, Tuel and Harms have pulled every instrument down off the studio wall for it - slide guitar, nylon string guitar, Rhodes B3 organ, electric bass, shaker and hooves (?) - and created something almost perfectly beautiful in its simplicity.
The video is premiering exclusively below at Holler ahead of the single’s release.
Speaking about the video, in which the pair share an intimate evening in the last of the day’s sunlight in the English countryside, Devin told us about the inspiration behind it.
“Buoyed by the love freely shared between Paul and Linda McCartney in a series of home videos they shot during their time living and loving in Scotland in the early 70s, we wanted to share, for the first time, a glimpse into the love we share. A connectedness that no doubt informs our art, our path, and our wild ways. We spent an evening (like many others) playing, walking, and basking in the fields near our Sussex home”.
Old Kind of Magic is released on Loose on October 28th
