Unicorns At Heart: You’re An Indie Rock Star, Baby

Unicorns At Heart: You’re An Indie Rock Star, Baby

Unicorns At Heart is an indie rock collective based out of Southern California who are just beginning to make a name for themselves above and beyond the Golden State.  Recently signed to Dangerbird Records, Unicorns At Heart has just unveiled a vibrantly quirky new single entitled You’re A Mirror, Baby.  They’ve played the L.A. County Fair and plan to release a ton of new songs in the future.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Unicorns At Heart to find out a whole lot more about these future indie rock stars.  Read on, baby…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Unicorns At Heart, and how long the band has been together.
Rico: I sing and play a few different instruments. We’ve been making stuff as uah since like November 2015.
Ryan: I produce some sounds.
Gabriel: I play bass and help somewhat in the writing process.
Jordan: I play drums in the band.

Where is the band based out of and what is the local music scene like there?
The band is half from Hesperia and half from Monrovia, and the music scene in both places is just people putting on house shows/parties mostly.

How did you wind up signing with Dangerbird Records?
Jim Fairchild who does A&R for the label asked us last summer on Instagram if we would like to be part of their microdose single series, so we sent them a batch of our new demos at the time and they picked the two that they wanted to use.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the Fixture single?
Fixture is just centered around believing something that isn’t true for one reason or another, and trying to figure out the mental and physical process that lead to that point.

Another single is You’re A Mirror, Baby. What is the story behind that song?
Rico: That song is sort of just a pun, I think. I wrote the lyrics for it in class while I was going to college in Portland. The title came first while doing some stream-of-consciousness writing in a notebook, and I thought it sounded like a weird metaphorical criticism. So the rest of the lyrics I feel are just trying to explain the contents of that criticism.

What could one expect from a live Unicorns At Heart show?
Rico: The shows we tend to just all get into the music itself and not really the performing part.  But lately we have been going to an effort to find new ways to make it more of a performance, or making it more interesting to look at. So in some ways we don’t even know what to expect from our shows either right now.
Gabriel: Something that’s almost a guarantee is Rico breaking a string or two, three if you’re lucky.
Rico: I just strum really violently.

What was the experience like playing at LA County Fair and how did the show go?
Ryan: That was pretty fun, it was our first time playing at any sorta festival show like that. I just wish we had longer than 15 minutes to play, which is all we got since we were on the smallest stage I guess.
Jordan: It was vv fun and a fun crowd to play to at the la county fair. Also the other bands we met were very cool and it was good to make new friends.

If Unicorns At Heart could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Rico: That’s such a hard question, but right at this moment I’d say Elvis Costello and The Attractions, just because I really like the energy and attitude that they played with in their prime, and also just because I’m obsessed with Elvis Costello.
Ryan: The Pixies, Black Francis’s voice is so powerful.
Gabriel: I’d have to say Jurassic Shark, they’re my hometown heroes.
Jordan: Weezer because I have always looked up to them and love their music! I also have some great memories of them live.

What’s the best and not so best part about having two brothers in one band?
Rico: Well we just share a lot of the same musical values and ideas, so there’s a lot of unspoken agreements we tend to have about what we both like and don’t like. At the same time, there are a lot of areas where we disagree in a lot of fundamental ways, but I feel those differences and points of contention that exist from just being similar but different makes the end result of what we make together have an added layer of reflection and it communicates depth in maybe a more universal way rather than a super singular way that might only have value or meaning to one specific person or a person with a certain type of perspective.

If the music of Unicorns At Heart was a donut, what kind would it be and why?
Rico: Strawberry frosted with sprinkles. You can’t tell but it secretly has jelly on the inside. I chose this one because I’m not sure if it actually exists.
Ryan: Just one with four sprinkles on top.
Gabriel: If it had to be a doughnut, strawberry with rainbow sprinkles, but every bite you take is a different flavor.

What’s up next for Unicorns At Heart?
We are just always working on new music, we get tired of songs quickly and are always in a rush to write more and improve and change how we write. Right now we are just sitting on a lot of songs that we’re excited about and we are just figuring out how they are going to get released. We have like two albums worth of demos sitting around right now.

Any final words of wisdom?
Ryan: Real eyes realize real lies.
Gabriel: wash your hands!
Jordan: do everything with passion
Rico: love each other 🙂

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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