The metalcore five-piece are known for utilising their platform to send eco-conscious messages through their music, with past albums such as Earthwalker and Skydancer themed around environmental issues – a trend which Ark follows. The album focuses on water sustainability; with frontman Jake Taylor finding a lot of inspiration from the pollution he sees constantly clogging the waterways in the band’s hometown, Byron Bay. “We live in Byron, it’s a beautiful coastal area but people treat it like an ashtray, you’d be horrified by the pollution you see,” he says.
“It’s been so apparent to me how much we rely on water, all of humanity is built around water,” says Taylor. “Every living thing is made up of water, the same water that shapes our Earth is the same water within each of us.”
The album is also influenced by the planet and nature in a grander sense, with Taylor finding inspiration in seemingly simple things. The track ‘Frequency’ came to Taylor while he was surfing. He was out on his board and spotted a whale, he watched it and thought about it as ‘the loneliest whale in the world’, and later penned the song from that whale’s perspective. “I’ve always got a big pad of lyrics happening and we take the strongest lyrics from that, but the vibe has to match,” says Taylor. “It’s like having a movie and matching the soundtrack.”
In keeping with the running influence of nature in their music, In Hearts Wake recorded Ark in a home studio in the lush setting of Mullumbimby. “We recorded at our bass players’ uncle’s home studio,” says Taylor. “When I say home studio, it is an actual studio but it’s nothing glamorous, there are cows eating grass right outside the window.”
To promote the release of the album, In Hearts Wake are putting their money where their mouth is by conducting waterway clean-ups as part of their We Are Waterborne initiative. “Instead of doing in store signings we get to clean up the oceans and meet the fans in the process,” says Taylor. The band have partnered up with marine environment charity Tangaroa Blue for We Are Waterborne, which will see them cleaning up major waterways across the east coast including Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay and Brisbane. The band plan to take We Are Waterborne internationally in the future, but Taylor says there are no concrete plans at the moment. “It takes a lot of organising but it’s definitely something we are pushing for in the future,” he says.
The band will be embarking on an Australian tour in July which will see In Hearts Wake playing five shows across Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane over a six day period.
In Hearts Wake are set to tour nationally from Monday July 10. For more information head to unfdcentral.com. Ark is out now via UNFD.
