The Heathens: Restored my mind again

The Heathens

Found at your brother’s witness

Sound of a mother’s grieving

Restored your mind again - I’m reeling

Here until the end

Drowned by a hundred heathens

Let it out!

You want to say you’re right now

Let it out!

You want to say you’re right down

Taken by institution

Saved by a revolution

A lucky find and then you’re reeling

Here until the end

Drowned by a hundred heathens

Let it out!

You want to say you’re right now

Let it out!

You want to say you’re way down

Let it out!

You want to say you’re right down

Let it out!

You want to say you’re breathing

Coming back to the days

Coming back in a haze

Going back to the maze

Don’t know why, don’t know why

Coming back to the days

Coming back in a haze

Giving in to the maze

Don’t know why, why you died

Let it out!

You want to say you’re right now

Let it out!

You want to say you’re way down

Let it out!

You want to say you’re right down

Let it out!

You want to say you’re breathing

The Heathens is a legacy of our former band, Imperius Rex (IR), which I mentioned previously in connection with Angel.  It comprised of myself, Evelyn Golding as vocalist, Nathan Leonard on guitar, and Toby Aitken’s awesome drumming as described.  The Heathens being one of two songs on the Inner Game EP which we salvaged from the IR repertoire to incorporate into the Soul Wide Open recordings.  It started with the verse bass line, which I recall improvising to one of Toby’s grooves in the rehearsal room while Nate and Evelyn were getting set up.  The IR rehearsal in question was in 2013 in preparation for a high-profile support gig we’d scored on the bill with 90s Australian alt rock icons, Def FX! That gig was certainly a thrill for the band at the time, and it was common for new song ideas to emerge from improvised feels, riffs and phrases in a rehearsal room setting.  I am, like many songwriters in recent years, a compulsive voice memo user – ie capturing all song ideas in the voice memo function in my smart phone.  It’s really bloody handy!  I had the bass phrase, came up with the vocal melody, then lyrics, and took it back to the next IR rehearsal! “Man, I can’t believe how readily this song emerged!” I said.  “You shit hits, Beith.” Nate said with his often-cynical humour.

The verse lyrics were my rough interpretation of aspects of Evelyn’s life at that time.  She was experiencing significant challenges in a tumultuous relationship at the time, and when I’d presented them to the band, she commented, “These lyrics are really good!” She then provided the chorus and bridge section melodies and lyrics.  And it’s very like me to be extremely referential when listening to friends’ and other colleagues’ lyrics; I still relate many Elbury lyrics to this day to my own situation for example, but then that’s as likely symptomatic of my medical condition as it is realistic in all probability.  But, even now when listening to Evelyn’s lyrical contribution to this song, I sense it may or may not have been in summary of my situation at the time.  I’m not sure I’ll ever know one way or the other though – Evelyn and I kind of fell out at the time IR disbanded in 2014.  I can say with certainty however that Nate’s guitar parts are, as was always the case, incredible, mind-blowing and completely thrilling to have involved!  He just ripped ‘em out with ease and alacrity!  But one of several frustrating things about the IR band dynamic and processes (for me at least), was the excruciatingly slow turnaround time for recordings and releases!  We played together in rehearsals then gigs for nearly four years, but we only ended up having  just one five-track EP, Kingmaker to show for our efforts by the time we disbanded in 2014.  There were many other quality IR songs, including The Heathens and Varuna, which would otherwise have disappeared into the never-world.

The day we recorded Lauren’s vocals for the for the Inner Game EP, again with Cam Smith, she’d received notification of an unfolding family tragedy.  Understandably, Lauren was most distraught and I was very forthright in saying, “That’s awful, Loz – very sorry to hear that!  It’s totally understandable if you need to take off straight away and head home.  We can easily reschedule studio time with Cam to another day when you’re feeling a little better.” That was the only reasonable thing to say! But to her credit, Lauren decided to press on and finish recording vocals for all the songs that day.  The Heathens was the very next song we did.  And, as has always been astonishing about Lauren’s incredible vocal talent, she smashed the entire album out in two and half hours, with two, maybe three, complete, perfect or very near perfect vocal takes of each of the songs in their entirety.  It has always been incredible and inspiring to see and hear Lauren perform and record with such fluid accuracy and precision every single time.  But on that day especially, it was particularly incredible given the emotional circumstances she was working through as we were recording.  And yet no such challenge is discernible in the vocal takes on this EP whatsoever; rather they are as detailed, accurate and precise as they have always been.  What a professional! Thank you, Lauren!