OFM Exclusive: Your Heart Breaks Debuts New Track ‘Queer Fire’ (feat. Vince Sagisi)

Your Heart Breaks should be indie-rock royalty with how long the band’s been around. And yet they’re still under a lot of people’s radars. Founded in Bellingham, Washington in 1998, the band has a constantly shifting line-up but has always featured frontperson Clyde Peterson. Over the course of these past 25 years as a band, Peterson has released a whopping 11 studio albums. The 12th is due out on July 7 on Kill Rock Stars.

Currently, Peterson’s band has Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson of LAKE and Katherine Paul of Black Belt Eagle Scout. The new album features collaborations with such names as John K. Samson and Kimya Dawson. Peterson, who identifies as transmasculine, often works queer themes into his music. This was especially true on his 11th album Drone Butch Blues, which was a concept album of songs based on the writings of LGBTQ authors.

Today, OFM is proud to debut the latest single from Your Heart Breaks. Off the band’s upcoming album The Wrack Line, the sensual and passionate indie-pop gem appropriately titled “Queer Fire” features a guest appearance from Vincent Sagisi of Deft Pleasure. OFM sat down with both Peterson and Sagisi to talk about the new song, the new video, the new album, and what it’s like to be a queer person in rock music.

Let’s start with the song and then get into the video. What’s the song about?

Clyde: This song was like a collaborative co-write between Vincent and I, and for me it was about the lengths that people are willing to go to to feel at home in their own bodies and to feel desire. And particularly, I was reading the journals of Lou Sullivan at the time, who was an early trans masculine person and just thinking about the effort that people have to put in to be at home in their bodies.

Vincent: I took the hedonistic angle with it as well, piling on to what Clyde’s sentiments were, and just going to a very deep, sensual space and treasuring what that means for each individual person.

The video is a lot of fun. What inspired this video?

Clyde: There was a magazine store in San Francisco called The Magazine, and they sold used magazines. And I used to love to go there on tour and buy an entire grocery bag of old, mostly gay men’s pornographic magazines, like Mandate in particular, and read them as an analog relic of queer history. And so when we started to talk about making a video, I was like, “Oh, I have this huge collection of old magazines. Maybe we can bring that back in as a tip-of-the-hat to queer history pre-internet.”

I will say personally, growing up, I never felt like a person that was very desired in traditional queer spaces, as a person kind of in-between genders. For being a community that’s supposed to be breaking boundaries, we often build a lot of boundaries for ourselves, and a lot of unintentional rules about who is desirable. And so that video felt like a way to explore, for myself, could I be desirable in these spaces? I think about that a lot as a trans masculine person. How does a trans masculine person fit into gay men’s spaces? It’s a big question I still have.

What was it like shooting the video? Because that had to be complex since you have all these images everywhere and you’re being fitted into everything.

Vincent: For me, it was pretty intense, because I did it in this (bed)room. And my partner helped me. I feel like the creating (of) my segments of the video were very much emblematic of the song and the video itself, where it was a really intimate space, it was very steamy feeling and exciting.

Clyde: For me, it was definitely a lot of self-exploration. I filmed it myself. (I) just flipped the little view screen at myself and pressed record and had a lot of costume changes that I tried on. And I honestly felt like a pretty big imposter a lot of the times that I was filming. I was like, “Be sexy!” And I don’t know how to be visually sexy.

Vincent: You do a great job!

Clyde: Thanks. I still feel like I’m the clown of the video and (Vincent is) the sexy one.

I always like to ask people about their influences, but I want to ask specifically what influences made their way into this song?

Clyde: Well, Vincent took the lead on the music songwriting. Do you want to speak to that?

Vincent: Yeah, we had an entirely different song when we started, and it really took a different path based on some of the other things that were shaping up with the album. And the lyrical direction we started to take went in this more sensual area. For me, it was really about keeping a stripped-down arrangement, and really powerful, simple sounds. I drew a lot from PJ Harvey because it was exploring a depth and breadth using very little musical information, and I really loved that.

Clyde: I think we definitely started with PJ Harvey as a reference. As far as musically, I felt a little bit of The Gossip in there with the drums and the spaciousness and power that comes through in a lot of The Gossip’s drums. Leaving a lot of space and a lot of emptiness felt important to let people put their own spin on it as they listened.

So this is the third single off the new album, The Wrack Line. Most of the tracks do have some sort of collaborator on there with you. Do you just enjoy working with other people?

Clyde: I started writing the record in 2020, and it seemed like an excellent opportunity to try and collaborate over the internet or phone while folks were primarily at home. It seemed like a good opportunity to try something new. I do collaborate within my band pretty often. But this was very intentional. And I approached, like, 19 people. Even more, than that, some of them didn’t work out. Vincent and I were in a queer country band together years ago, and so it just seemed like a natural fit to come back together and try to write. Vincent had been going to like songwriting college? (laughs) That’s the right word? Music Business School?

Vincent: (laughs) It was a little bit of all that, yeah.

Clyde: I was like, “Oh, you’re excited about songwriting again? Let’s try it out in a new way.”

What is the climate like for being a queer person in rock music right now? Do you think it’s a generally accepting space?

Vincent: I’m a bedroom musician, so I don’t know that I’m the best person to ask because I’m still breaking into this whole thing. But I do feel like there are a lot of people opening a lot of doors right now. And I feel like music is one of those frontiers where the boundary is always being pushed. I’m happy to be part of that in some small way. And I hope that the trend continues and that more people get to be included and have their voices heard more and more.

Clyde: I think, as in the past, and as will be in our future, we make our own spaces, whether we like it or not. And we have and will continue to make queer spaces for ourselves and our community and people that want to be a part of that and celebrate that.

This is, I believe, your first record with Kill Rock Stars. Is that right?

Clyde: That is true, yeah.

It’s a pretty legendary label. What has your experience been like with them?

Clyde: It’s a dream come true. I feel like everyone says that. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. Kill Rock Stars was my guiding star of record labels. I listened to them since I became conscious of music. They guided me through all kinds of amazing queer music in my teens, and it’s an honor to be in that family. It still blows my mind when I look at the CD. I’m like, “It says Kill Rock Stars on this side of the CD! I can’t even believe this! It’s so cool!”

Vincent: Really echoing the sentiment because same for me. I can’t even describe the place that Kill Rock Stars has in musical canon (and in) shaping my existence. (I’m) a harsh, harsh Kill Rock Stars fanboy, so to be on the same record along(side) people I have long since worshipped, “a dream come true” is exactly how I would describe it.

Clyde: Honestly, it was quite wild. I got an email out of nowhere that just said, “Are you looking for a record label?” in the subject line and there was no message in the box. And I was like “Are you talking to me?” To add more of that history, I did work for Kill Rock Stars for a couple years full-time making music videos, so we had a previous relationship. But I would give them my record every time and they’d be like, “No, thanks. No, thanks. No thanks.” And then to suddenly have it come out of nowhere, I was like, “Sure!”

Vincent: You’ve earned it!

What’s next for Your Heart Breaks?

Clyde: We’re going to play some album release shows and make some more music videos, post-album release, and just keep writing songs and hopefully do some more collaborations with our friends. I’ll just add that I’m very excited for the single to come out. I think it’s a little bit of a different song for Your Heart Breaks in general. Leaning into the sexy vibes is not generally my zone, but I wanted to take that opportunity and try it out. So, I hope people like it!

The Wrack Line is available for preorder from Kill Rock Stars. For more on Your Heart Breaks, follow the band on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.