Utilizing their roots in dance music, Los Angeles’s Protect Your Heart releases a pop-punk, post hardcore masterpiece in (re)introdution. Made up of vocalist Matt McDonald, guitarists Jake Bratrude, Kean Bartleman and bassists Anthony Pallazole, the four musicians are part of a wave of bands utilizing heavy breakdowns in pop-punk music.
Protect Your Heart doesn’t shortchange their growing fanbase with their first, full-length album clocking in at 45 minutes and 41 seconds. It blends the dubstep and dance music scenes the four musicians cut their teeth in with the popular sounds of acts like Four Years Strong and Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! The music is nostalgic, yet fresh. And the band’s origin story will take you for a ride.
What is the story behind this album in terms of the production?
Kean: This whole thing kind of happened in phases. The original origin story, most people probably don’t know unless they have followed us since we started, all of us in the band have come from a decade or more of being in dance music. We were all making electro-house-dubstep and trap. And some of us went on some mini tours here and there nationally. Anthony and Jake lived together and I went over to their house to work on projects…we were the family we got to choose. Living together and spending time together we came to form in the punk or metal scenes. That was the kind of music we had listened to… when the last Warped Tour was announced we all wanted to go…my wife got me tickets and we made the trek to Ventura and we were listening to the bands and thought it was really cool to make this kind of stuff. And we thought we should try and see if we are good enough song producers and writers…and write three songs…the next day I messaged two demos in the middle of the day. And basically, for the next two years we got together on the weekends and wrote all these demos. We got to the point where we had 50 demos written and no vocalist. We were on the hunt for someone. Through the dance label we work with we had a friend called High Society…he had a song called “Fireproof”with Matty…I hit up James and see if he can put me in touch with Matty…I emailed Matty. Never got a response for two weeks. Got a Facebook message from him. He was in Haiti at the time for a mission trip. I Facebook messaged him and he messaged right back….he called and we ended up talking for like two hours… I sent him all of our demos and he listened to them. And he scheduled a time to meet up. When I got off the phone I texted Jake and said “this is our guy.” He came to the studio and met Jake and Anthony…and they were like “yep.” That day we started tracking the vocals…and the very next weekend was Covid lockdown… And then we were all forced to, we created a discord channel and sat on there. We went through the process of creating for a year because we could never get together. Then the last year we’ve been releasing music.
I want to get back to your influence in EDM, but Matt, are you a doctor or something?
Matt: My first job was in medicine, but I gave that up to do music. But I recently founded a nonprofit that helps out people in Haiti and Ecuador….it’s been this good relationship for me.
That’s super impressive! OK, I love the little production elements like the “heys” in “Best of me” or the soaring background vocals and “woahs” in “Never Gonna Leave You.” What is the thought process behind those additions?
Kean: It’s honestly coming from our EDM stuff. They heys are very popular dance music things. All the ear candy stuff comes from our background in dance music. When we started writing the album, we wanted to make one that sounded as good as dance music…it is mostly focused on the low end and the drums. Coming out of that world that is what we expected music to sound like.
I love the pacing in “Last To Love You.” I feel like it has about five levels and then the breakdown in the bridge really drives it home. And then the finish is perfect.
Kean: That was an interesting one. It was the first song that we ever had lyrics written for. It was the only song we handed to Matt and said here it’s done…Jake did a majority of the writing on that one. At the time we did the writing on that song with it, he was living in a house with a bunch of producers… one of them (Brandon Paddock) just really liked the song as well. He worked on it with us. And we had a bunch of sessions with him. He recorded the demo vocals on that one. It was one that we wrote pretty quickly. But it took forever to get done because Matt had to rerecord the vocals on it. A little unique.
Matt: When I first talked to you Kean, we clicked so well. And I got back to my car and said OK he is going to send me vocals. And they said trust us, this is going to be really good… So when I first heard that demo a day later, I was blown away. I was like fuck these guys are great. They are excellent. They can really write a great song.
I know it’s tough to pick, but is there a song you want to highlight from the album?
Kean: We had a lot of conversations about this project obviously. We have been at it for a long time and only releasing for like a year and half. We had three kinds of mantras going into it. The first one is just make cool shit. Whoever has the best idea, has the best idea. The other part was make it sound like we want it to soud. And the final piece was every sound on the record needs to have its own identity. We didn’t want to write three singles and put out filler. We wanted to spend time and put out the best 13 songs for the album….I like them all for different reasons and on different days. If I had to chose one, it is “Closer To The Grave.” That was the first foray into writing on the guitar with no one else. Jake at that time was in the bay area…and he just sent me drum loops to practice to. One of the loops I started recording over and noodling on. It came like that “Closer To The Grave” intro riff. And I just started playing guitar… “Closer To The Grave” was the first song I wrote for the album completely on my own. But it was originally on the album because it was only that riff and the chorus and a verse. So it was not a full idea. We put it in the bin and said maybe one day let’s come back to it. Matty found it in the drop box and convinced Jake and I to work on it. Everyone liked it so much and we released it second. And when we play it live, it feels the best. Getting a reaction out of it from the crowd, is really rewarding.
Matt: “Closer To The Grave” for me as well. It was a song that almost didn’t make the record… when you write 100 different guitar riffs it is easy for that stuff to get loss. Same thing for “Worst Side Of Me.” I remember driving down from Fresno to Los Angeles for Jake’s birthday. It was the first time seeing each other in six months… where all we knew each other was from discord. It was going to be a nice fresh writing session to go over ideas. That riff, we pulled it out of the bin and tinkered with us. And it really came together so quickly. It showcased how easily we write together. There is a special feeling I get when I think about “Closer To The Grave.”
What are some of the big messages of the album?
Matt: The ebb and flows of life. Lockdown happened. We chose to look at things optimistically. I had a lot of time alone to think about these songs. The downside is I drank a lot during Covid. I was lazy during Covid. I didn’t get a lot of social interaction. I didn’t get that side. The ebb and the flow. The ups and downs of life. Like Closer To The Grave” and “Fireproof”….really optimistic and forward looking songs. But songs like “Fall Apart” and “Take Control” were written while I was depressed…being able to look forward with optimism even though you have a troubled past.
Kean: A lot of shit happened throughout the years writing this record to everyone. Obviously the pandemic was most notable, But Anthony got married. I got married. Jake moved twice. Matt got a new job. I just bought a house. Anthony just had his son….this record I think for all of us is kind of like a time capsule in a way of all of those moments. And you know with all of that going on in our individual lives, we still manage to do all of this by ourselves. We wrote every song. We recorded every song….we produced all of our own music videos and directed them. We paid for the financial side. The overall message is you don’t need other people to do what you want to do. If you want to achieve something and pursue something. It just takes commitment and dedication to getting it done.
What’s next?
Kean: We would love to do this full time. I think anyone in the arts want to pursue art at a full-time level. In the immediate in the future we have a handful of shows coming up in Los Angeles and Orange County. We have a bunch of apparel designs we are trying to source. All the blanks and printing for our first run of merch. If you look at our videos and anything, we want to do it at a pretty high level. So we are getting in the weeds….at the end of the day we want people to think of Protect Your Heart on the same level as the bands we look up to We are trying to set ourselves up the best we can. We are probably planning to release a new single not on the album.
