It’s now been a decade since Canine Heart Sounds—that would be the quartet comprised of Zach Hegg, Matt McElroy, Yan Westerlund, and Matt Peterson—made their way from Duluth, Minnesota, to Durham. The relocation, Hegg says, caused friends and family to believe the band was “nuts,” at the time, but the Triangle’s music scene had made its siren call. Though that call didn’t lead the instrumental foursome to sudden fame, it did lead to new lives and gigs backing bands like Grandma Sparrow, Molly Sarle, Beauty World, and Mipso.
“Maybe some things didn’t quite turn out the way we envisioned; most of us still have mind-numbing non-music day jobs, our “numbers” are hilariously low for a band that has seriously pursued music together for the better part of our adult lives,” Hegg reminisces. But, he continues, “We are grateful to share that journey and the gift of music together and in a beautiful place like the Triangle.”
Find some of that gauzy, gleaming gratitude on the band’s new release, “Realize,” premiering today exclusively on the INDY website. “Realize” features on the band’s forthcoming album, Sun Size Guitar, out February 11, which is also the first album to feature vocals on every track. Happily so: the group’s languid, soulful Southern rock harmonies recall the best of Megafaun, whom the group says it was inspired by, along with “hazy 70s AM radio soft rock.”
“It’s taken us a while to get to this point, but we’ve more or less fallen in love with singing together and are glad we got to fully embrace that aspect of music-making, this time,” Hegg says, adding that the band plans to explore melodies as well as more purely instrumental music, with plans to record the latter at Sylvan Esso’s Betty studio later this year.
Watch the music video, filmed at Jockey’s Ridge, below.
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