Over more than 15 years, The Head and the Heart has produced dozens of relatable, sentimental songs, establishing itself as a folk-pop band full of choral harmonies, catchy songwriting, and inviting performances. The group’s sixth album Aperture came out in May 2025, and as part of a current anniversary tour the band is playing its self-titled debut album in its entirety.
In 2022, The Head and the Heart released its melancholic opus, Every Shade of Blue, a 16-track “collection of songs that celebrates the beautiful mess that we were during this time of transformation,” the band wrote on Instagram. The opening notes of the title song introduced the exquisite complexity that characterized the album as a whole.
Every Shade of Blue documented how six individuals separated by COVID-19 could bring the band’s disparate ideas together, with the result being admittedly disjointed amongst some standout moments. It was also The Head and the Heart’s final record of its major-label deal with Warner Bros.
The creative process for Aperture couldn’t have been more different. “With this one, we just wanted to be way more concise,” says drummer Tyler Williams. “But also more together through the whole writing process, where we’re all touching the songs from the beginning.”
By the spring of 2023, the six musicians had no label or manager. They went into Aperture bound by no one and it was a feeling similar to making that debut album in 2011, which was picked up by Seattle’s legendary Sub Pop Records, was the last time they’d self-produced one of their records.
“We felt like we were in that position again where we were doing it for ourselves and not really having deadlines or outside influence or pressure put on us,” says Williams. “So it really did feel like we were back to those beginning years in more ways than one.”
The Aperture project began in Richmond, Virginia, at The Brink, a recording studio that just happens to be close to Williams’ home. With two-thirds of the band present—including songwriter and guitar player Jonathan Russell, pianist Kenny Hensley, bassist Chris Zasche and Williams—“things just felt a little more spontaneous where we were not even really talking about song structure or chords or anything like that,” Williams says. “Just jamming in the moment, and fully formed songs were coming out of that. And that was exciting, because we’ve never really written that way before.”
Violinist Charity Rose Thielen and guitarist Matty Gervais were initially left out as the couple welcomed their second baby in Seattle—but were ecstatic to hear the foursome’s efforts from the first jam session, which included the emotive album tracks “Pool Break” and “Cop Car.”
From there Gervais stepped up. “He went into this record process fully himself and ready to attack these songs with a tenacity that I’ve rarely seen in songwriters,” Williams says.
Gervais took impromptu jams from various sessions in Richmond or Seattle and gave back “full lyrics, melodies, and beautiful top lines and all this stuff,” Williams says, adding that time and again, Gervais “created this beautiful piece [when] we thought it was just a jam.”
The record’s title has a few different meanings, but “one of the ideas is opening up the aperture to the collective vision of this band and allowing all of those influences onto the record,” says Williams. “For the first time in a long time, the six members had full autonomy to do whatever they wanted to do, and everyone contributed to the final product.”
“It’s kind of amazing how many songs we were able to create in the moment when we’re all feeling trusting of each other,” Williams said. “This album also feels vulnerable because it is so much us. There’s so much of our spirit in it.”
