INTERVIEW WITH THE HEELS AS WE TALK ABOUT THEIR NEW SINGLE, WORK OF HEART OUT NOW
On Friday 3rd February, The Heels are a Canadian country trio made up of Bobbi Smith, Kyla Rawlins and Brittni Dominelli who are releasing their brand new single, Work of Heart that I have to say is incredible thanks to their incredible harmonies and vocal tones.
Photo Credit: Karolina Turek
What a pleasure it is to speak with you, Bobbi about The Heels today, how are you?
I am well, thank you. Thank you for featuring The Heels and our new single. It means so much to myself, Kyla & Brittni.
With you being new artists to our site and readers, would you be able to introduce yourselves?
With a shared love of country music, we met in a North Vancouver café called Buddha-Full (co-owned by Kyla) where Brittni worked behind the counter and I was a regular customer. I went there every lunch break! Kyla & Brittni had been working together at the cafe and singing together for about a year when they found themselves looking for a third member to make a harmony trio. I call it fate because I wasn’t looking to join a band but I had just begun a “year of yes” in support of a friend who was going through some major life changes and I had vowed to her that together we would both say “yes” to every upcoming opportunity and magically watch our lives change for the better. And did mine ever! Only days after beginning this new “experiment” I received a message from Kyla asking me to join a band with her and Brittni. I happened to read the message aloud to this same friend who said I HAD to say YES. I tried to explain to her that a band was a huge commitment and make all kinds of excuses to mask my fear of change but she refused to let me break the pact. It all sounds crazy but I typed “yes” and met with Kyla & Brittni to hear our voices harmonise together and listen to some of their songs. This was life changing for all of us and for me it was my full return to music which has always been my deepest passion but to be honest music has also broken my heart many times. So there we were…we hardly knew each other and we were a band. They called themselves The Heels which I loved because another obsession of mine is high heels! The Heels had a show lined up that was a week away from our very first meeting and I had a set of their songs to learn and I hadn’t been on stage in years. It was a mind blowing time of life and I am so grateful that I said yes. Had my friend not forced me because of the agreement of our “year of yes” I probably would have said no and made an excuse that I was much too busy working at my job I hated to commit to a band. I quit my job a few months later and completely committed to The Heels and it’s been the best musical journey and sisterhood I’ve ever experienced. Kyla & Brittni are the sisters I never had and always wanted. They both taught me harmonies and have helped me push myself far beyond my comfort zone. I’m always in awe of their musical ears and talents on guitar and other instruments. Our first meeting was in 2016. We released our debut album in 2017 called “Love, Heels'' and our second album “I Am” in 2021. Our journey together has taken us all over North America playing festivals and stages including our dream stage at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville Tennessee. It has always felt and still feels like magic when we are together.
How excited are you for Work of Heart to be out?
We are thrilled to share “Work of Heart” with the world. We feel like the world could really use a giant hug right now, and this song feels exactly like that, a warm comforting hug for the soul. We came together to make music and make ourselves feel better. We healed many aspects of ourselves together through music and this musical journey together. Our name The Heels represents that. It could have been spelled The Heals because our mission is to help others heal and put as much love and light as we can into the world.
What's the reaction been from fans to the single?
So far the reaction has been wonderful. An outpouring of love and support from fans, and playlisters and that feels so great. Releasing a ballad as an indie band and as women is a risky move according to industry standards but it feels like the right move for us in our evolution of The Heels.
Can I please ask you to explain a little about the single?
Our latest single “Work of Heart” is the first of many singles we will release this year. “Work of Heart” is also the title track of the upcoming album. This is the first project where every song on the album is mixed with sound healing and healing frequency. “Work Of Heart” is a ballad yet the emotions and instrumentation have such a perpetuating momentum that it almost feels mid-tempo. We feel like the world needs this song. It’s a blend of our traditional Country roots, Pop & Spirituality.
There is something so raw and special about the way your harmonies blend so perfectly together that made me a little emotional as I was listening to the single for the first time. Could I ask what inspired the songs lyrics?
The title of the song, which was presented to us by our co-writer Megan Barker, is where all the lyrics began. We wanted to focus on the play on words of “Work of Heart” and “work of art” and the colourful masterpiece that life is for all of us with the light and the dark of the human experience. We were pulling from our own experiences to keep the lyrics as repeatable as possible while also keeping with the whimsical artistic aspect we were aiming for. We feel like it’s a perfect balance of conversation and poetry.
What was the writing process like for the single?
We were high up in the mountains overlooking Kootenay Lake in Southeastern BC. We had an international tour planned which was cancelled due to the second round of lockdowns and event cancellations within the pandemic regulations. We were devastated but decided to keep the time we had planned to spend together on the road and book a cabin far away from the world and create. It was therapeutic for us all. Kyla and I brought our dogs and Brittni was pregnant. Brittni’s husband is our producer Anthony Fiddler of Fiddler Productions and he joined us for an escape to clear our heads and write some of the most meaningful music we have ever made. We wrote “Work Of Heart” together with our producer Anthony Fiddler and our Nashville friend and country music artist Megan Barker. We had planned to meet Megan in person and write with her in Nashville but when plans were cancelled and the trip was rerouted we wrote with her on zoom instead. We caught up with her when we signed on to the call and all of us were sharing our emotions surrounding the current state of the world and how it was affecting us and our loved ones on a daily basis. We talked about the fear and the anxiety we were struggling with and also the gratitude the contrast was giving us for having each other and a creative outlet of music in such a challenging time. Finally we got to writing. It was Megan who presented us the title “Work of Heart” and she said it was something she had in her notes for a while and felt like it was meant for us. We loved the idea and we immediately started painting this lyrical picture of all we had just spoken about at the start of our call. And after about three hours of writing, singing and arranging “Work of Heart” was born. Anthony was in the studio immediately afterwards to demo it because we were on this amazing high of creation and it felt like we had something truly magical. After completing some basic vocals Anthony was gone for the evening while we cooked dinner and waited to hear our parts together. And then he shared with us the first phase of what he had put together for the demo, his musical vision of how it would come together sonically. And we were all speechless, in tears and played it on repeat for days!
This is question I love asking was Work of Heart always set to be your next release or was there originally another song?
“Work Of Heart” is the song we named the upcoming album after and there are a lot of very special songs within this project. The title of the song was a perfect fit to name the album after. It felt natural to lead with this track as an introduction for what’s to come -which is truly our hearts' work poured out in honest lyrics with thoughtfully layered melodies and harmonies. This new album is a musical tribute to the ups and downs we faced along with the whole world over the past few years and “Work Of Heart” is a beautiful look into all of those feelings, the good and the bad, the light and the dark all wrapped up in gratitude. -But was it the original choice to lead with? It was and it wasn’t. As independent artists and females there’s an unfortunate challenge in the music industry to receive support with ballads.This has always influenced our past single release choices as industry team experts advise us to choose uptempo “fun” songs as singles -but we write so many beautiful ballads! So if we are being honest there was pressure to go a different direction. We ultimately listened to our hearts and we feel so incredibly good about that choice. As artistic creators we aim to write and create from the heart not the head and while it can feel safer to shape creations to fit a certain format or trend it’s never been our purpose. We are so incredibly proud of this song and the opportunity we’ve given it to shine.
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