U.K. based vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lande Hekt has been working around the clock to craft her upcoming 11-track album, House Without A View, out now via Get Better Records and Prize Sunflower Records.
Listeners may know Hekt from the band Muncie Girls, an indie-punk trio specializing in hyper-political lyrics and raw garage melodies. Between her debut Going To Hell and her fall sophomore LP, she is discovering time and time again what it means to be authentic to herself and the world around her. Uniquely, this means juxtaposing lyrics and rhythms of personal triumphs and daily life with deep-seated political issues and melancholic themes.
“The kind of mood of this record is just that I feel a lot more comfortable in myself, and in my own queerness, and I feel a lot more settled and more confident,” she shares. “That’s a real celebration!”
Groovy, whimsical guitar lines in “Cut My Hair” pair with the lyrics surrounding Hekt’s gender identity. Her optimistic vocals on “Lola” detail the life and love of the singer’s beloved pet cat. House Without A View’s title track references her childhood traumas, but that’s not what every listener needs to derive. “I wanted it to be a song for anyone who had something unhappy about their childhood sort of thing, which is most people,” Hekt says.
Even beyond personal issues, the album title and title track also point to the systemic inequity faced by young people across the globe. “‘House Without A View’ is also (about) living in a horrific state of like housing crisis and how things are financially for our generation and that backdrop of living,” she says.
Though her solo records prove much more introspective, politics will always play a part in Hekt’s writing. Now, with time to navigate her sound and recording process, she’s ventured into a new style of writing. “I’ve even let myself explore a bit more kind of like metaphor and poetry on this record,” she says. “I’ve always been quite a literal writer.”
Ahead of the album release, Hekt released “Gay Space Cadets” and “Backstreet Snow,” alongside stunning, vintage-style music videos. Fully encapsulating her desire to live her best queer life and abandon grim realities, “Gay Space Cadets” was a single that “just kind of felt right” to release ahead of time.
“It’s kind of one of those songs looking at non-reality because reality is so horrific. And I think that that’s something that a lot of people are kind of getting into at the moment,” she says. “The reason why a lot of people like sci-fi is because the world is quite difficult to stomach,and it’s nice to be taken away somewhere else.”
While embracing her queerness and desire to float out of this world—if even for a short while. Hekt also embraced a new sound: pop. Opening track, “Half With You” is twinkling with catchy choruses and layers of acoustic guitar. All it took was a few more moments to reflect. “I think I’ve needed a bit more time to develop my ideas because I’m not as experienced in that kind of genre doing poppier stuff. It’s really nice to kind of really realize my ideas and turn them into something tangible,” she notes.
Despite making her most happy record to date, Hekt knows it is still necessary to process twisted realities in tandem. “Even if I’ve tried to make an uplifting record in some ways, I think probably a lot of the struggles that are going on right now have probably made its way in there. Because how could they not?”
Photo by @gingerdope
