Few bands mix the barbed and the sweet with as much gleeful flare as Oxford, England’s Heavenly. A jangly, androgynous antidote to the chest-pounding post-punk, metal and grunge of the ’90s, they helped pioneer the twee esthetic with their American counterparts on the influential Olympia, Wash.-based K label founded by Beat Happening’s Calvin Johnson. Three decades after personal tragedy upended the band, original members Amelia Fletcher, Peter Momtchiloff, Cathy Rogers and Rob Pursey are back with Highway To Heavenly (Skep Wax), an album the holds up surprisingly well to their exceptional K releases. And their timing couldn’t be better, given the resurgence of interest from a new generation of fans who’ve embraced both the music and their inclusive take on feminism.
MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland caught up with Fletcher to sort out the past 30 years.
Highway To Heavenlyis your first album in 30 years. What finally brought you out of hibernation?
The end of Heavenly in 1996 was abrupt and traumatic, following the suicide of our drummer and my brother, Mathew. At that point, we fully intended to lay Heavenly to rest for good, and we all moved on to other things, both musical and non-musical. We only started thinking about it again when we were invited to release a Heavenly singles compilation. Rummaging through old photos together and listening to old tunes was much more enjoyable than we’d expected. Then, apparently out of nowhere, Heavenly’s popularity started to build, so we thought it would be fun to play a couple of shows. Well, of course, one thing led to another, and now we seem to be back.
From a creative standpoint, what have been the benefits and drawbacks of the extended break?
It’s mainly been beneficial in terms of us all being really excited about doing Heavenly again. If we’d kept the band going all this time, I suspect we’d have grown bored of it by now. But instead, we’ve used the time to do lots of other things, including a whole bunch of other bands: most recently, the Catenary Wires, Would-Be-Goods, Swansea Sound and Railcard. Now we can return to Heavenly with renewed enthusiasm.
It’s been an interesting challenge writing Heavenly songs again. It feels important to have musical continuity, but equally, I can’t pretend not to be 30 years older. The songs are perhaps a little slower and longer than our old songs, but I think we’ve managed to preserve the way we combined very melodic and harmony-laden songs with far darker lyrics.
Where do you fall in the “twee” debate when it comes to Heavenly’s sound?
It still makes us cringe a bit, since it was originally used in a disparaging way. But so were punk, grunge and apparently even heavy metal. And it would be churlish to pretend that we weren’t part of a genre that so clearly includes us. So we do accept the term, even if we don’t tend to use it much ourselves.
Mixing pop and politics can be a tricky proposition. How does Heavenly make it work so well on this LP?
I was originally thinking that the lyrics on this album would be feminist in nature, along the lines of later riot-grrrl-influenced Heavenly. The first song, “Scene Stealing,” is in this vein. But when you’re writing lyrics, you can’t help but be influenced by what’s happening around you. I was writing at a time when trans-exclusionary feminists were making me uncomfortable to even call myself a feminist—and when the U.S. was seeing the first stirrings of what we’re seeing play out now. So it felt right to write more about the importance of holding onto what you believe in—and even fighting for it if you have to. I wasn’t entirely sure the mix would work, but I’m glad you think it does.”
What has it meant to have this surge of interest from younger fans?
It’s amazing, and we feel honored. When we were first making music, we were dismissed by the musical establishment for being too twee and effeminate. We didn’t care because there were always people who appreciated our anti-macho stance. But it’s wonderful to now have a whole bunch of young people, including trans and non-binary people, finding something in the songs for them. It will be interesting to see if they take so well to the new songs, but I hope so.
See Heavenly live.
