Track By Tracks: Sean Nolan And The Heartmakers - The Machineries Of Joy (2020)

Sean Nolan and The Heartmakers consists of Sean Nolan (vocals, guitar), Chris Cross (vocals, lead guitar), Kyle Nolan (synthesizers, keyboards), Matt Bayer (bass) and Kenny Duclos (drums).

On May 13th 2020, the guys revealed their new EP, titled “The Machineries of Joy” and are now here to share more details on each song of the EP.

1. Velveteen Sleeves:

Sean: “I’ve always liked the idea that love causes wear and tear. Inspired by these themes in The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, I knew I wanted to get them down in a song. Truth is, I tried a number of years ago. I wrote a song with the same title and a similar chorus. It just didn’t work. I think I needed to live a little before I could do it right. And I think it works. We all want to know we’re real. To be real we need to be loved. Sometimes it means loving ourselves. That’s not always an easy thing to do.”

2. Heartbeat:

Sean: “The bravest thing anyone can do is follow their heart. To disregard circumstances, put aside fear and anxiety, blindly stepping out and allowing consequences to come can be terrifying. But I believe it’s important. Ray Bradbury once said, “Jump off the cliff and build your wings on your way down.” Thing is, you might not build them in time. But what good is it if you don’t at least give it a shot.” 

3. I Wanna go Home:

Sean: “I’ve never quite fit in. I’ve never been punk enough or hardcore enough, never hip enough to hang with the folk singers. I wasn’t always confident in just who I am. It’s taken a long time to figure some of these things out. I can’t imagine I’m alone in this. So, I decided to sing about it, about the desire for a place to belong, to fit it. The search for a place that feels like home.” - Sean

4. Endless Breath:

Chris: “In “The Doll’s House”, volume two of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”, Gaiman takes the stubborn and hard-hearted main character, Morpheus through a series of tough situations that ultimately soften his heart and show a brief moment of compassion for others. This change continues throughout the series bit by bit until Morpheus becomes a kindhearted and open minded being.

In “Endless Breath”, I wanted to highlight Morpheus’ first step towards empathty. Because I believe acknowledging our first step towards a goal is important. I’ve always had this notion of who I need to be, or what things will look like when I’m “successful”. All too often I try to rush towards what or where I think I need to be. Only to realize that, each step and the time it takes, is almost more important than getting to the “goal””. 

5. Isabel Dubs:

Sean: “Years ago, Chris and I, on tour singing with a college chorale, met a man in a retirement village in Florida. He put us up, fed us grapefruit from the tree in his front yard and told us all about his wife who’d just recently passed. She’d been his whole life. Left alone, collecting model trains and state quarters, all he had left was her memory. On the cover of the program for her funeral he’d typed in block letters, LONG LIVE MY ISABEL DUBS. This song is for her.” 

6. Or, the Whale:

Sean: “Sometimes, regardless of how hard we may try for the opposite, we may hurt the people we love while chasing after the things we dream about. Sometimes we hurt ourselves. Reading Moby Dick underlined these things for me in a way I couldn’t shake. While following your heart, chasing after the things that matter to you it’s also good to remember to tread lightly. Not everything is worth losing”.