UK artist HART has just released his debut single, “VOODOO PLANS,” today. It is a song inspired by an ex who tried to recreate him with another man, failing to realize that everyone has unique and sometimes irreplaceable qualities. We had the pleasure of interviewing HART, and here’s what he had to say:
Q: What was a typical recording session for “VOODOO PLANS” like?
HART: I wrote this “VOODOO PLANS” in one day so there weren’t too many recording sessions but it’s not always that way. This one came about when Jabari Manwa, one of BROCKHAMPTON’s producers and an amazing artist in his own right, sent me the instrumental. I spent some time laying down scratch melodies until I found the hook “My gift, I give you karma!…” After that, the rest of the words and melodies came quick naturally. Once I knew the song was gonna get released I went back into the session and tidied up some backing vocals and sang in some parts again. From here it was just a matter of getting it mixed and mastered!
Q: Which aspect did you enjoy the most while creating this song? Which aspect would you say was the most difficult
HART: For this song in particular, I enjoyed coming up with the concept. I just had this vision of an ex who literally takes my heart out to put it in another man in an effort to try and create this ‘Frankenstein’ version of me… it’s kinda weird but I thought the imagery was cool and not your average love song so I went with it. In terms of what was most difficult, it was probably finding the right hook melody. I remember there was another hook melody that I was singing originally and I had it down for a few hours but I wasn’t happy with it so after taking a bit of a break I went back into
the studio and came up with the hook that you hear in the song.
Q: What do you hope listeners take away from this song?
HART: Honestly, I hope it makes them feel good and also makes them excited for the next one.
Q: What do you do to get your creative juices flowing when you feel stuck while creating a song?
HART: If I’m stuck I think there are a couple of things to try. First, take a little break even if it needs to be a week, that’s cool. You can always come back to an idea and I find your subconscious usually thinks about how to fix whatever you are stuck on whilst you’re doing other things so that when you come back to something you have ideas straight away. The other option is just to ‘keep running the tap’…. Like, complete the idea to get all the ‘dirty water’ out, and then eventually, the tap runs clean. I think I got this idea from Ed Sheeran but either way, it stuck with me.
Q: At what point did you decide that you want to be a musician? How did your family react to this?
HART: Ahhh, I feel I’ve always wanted to do this. There are too many videos of me doing performances for my family and stuff when I was younger. In my adult life though, I really decided to go full-time with it a couple of years ago when I began doing a lot of writing and producing for other people but, now it’s time to push my own project out and I’m starting with “VOODOO PLANS.”
Q: What advice do you have for aspiring musicians
HART: It’s hard to say how I would advise anyone but these are some things I am trying to keep in mind at the moment which I find helpful… Make it happen in whatever way you can and take every opportunity even the ones you don’t clock are opportunities – you never know what something might lead to. Remember everyone starts off at the same place – it’s a brick-by-brick thing Make what you like and don’t watch anybody else, your fans will find you Yea, these three ideas definitely help to keep me focussed on what I’m doing and manage my expectations which is another really important thing to do when starting out as an artist or musician.
Interviewed by Zoey King
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