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By stripping back “Our House” and bringing Tara Wilcox and Chess
Whiffen’s stunning vocals to the fore, The Wandering Hearts bring something
fresh to a very familiar song – everybody has heard “Our House” before, but not
played and sung like this.
“As soon as we figured out who to sing what on ‘Our House’, it sounded like a
different song, so that it became a Wandering Hearts take on it,” says AJ Dean.
“We didn’t have to work too hard to put our own spin on this, because we just
aren’t four men from 1970,” adds Tara. “Having two female voices gives this a
new spin straight away.”
The
Wandering Hearts knew the original Déjà Vu intimately before
covering it: Tara’s American father even saw CSN&Y play at Woodstock. “It
was a record that was always on at home,” she recalls. “Those songs feel like
they’ve always been there.” “That’s so true,” agrees Chess. “Growing up, Déjà
Vu was a constant at home. And the album just hasn’t aged, it still
sounds so fresh.”
Déjà Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) was recorded with
singer/producer Michael Rault (US Girls, July Talk) and eclectic singer-songwriter
Pearl Charles at their Taurus Rising studio in Joshua Tree in the Californian
desert. With a band as distinctive and inventive as The Wandering Hearts, a
note-for-note facsimile of Déjà Vu was never an option. This
isn’t an album out to besmirch the original, but to become a loving companion
without being an overly reverential copy.
“We knew we could do something new with Déjà Vu, but it’s such a
classic record that everyone loves that actually doing it felt a little
daunting,” admits Tara. “Meeting Pearl and Michael, we knew that we’d have fun
trying to make it a reality. We could go to the desert, hang out with our mates
and jam out these songs that we all already adored.”
“Taking on Déjà Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – a
huge inspiration to us – has been surreal,” continues AJ. “It’s a record we
love, that we’ve done our own thing with, without carbon copying it.”
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Indeed it’s a contemporary reimagining that deserves to bring a whole new
generation to Déjà Vu, 55 years after the release of the original.
As Chess says: “It isn’t why we’ve made our record, but there is a new
generation finding old music, who go: ‘Woah, what’s this?’ Hopefully we can
shine a light on the original. But we’ve done it because we know deep down we
sing well enough together that we can do it justice.”
Déjà Vu (We Have All Been Here Before) marks The Wandering Hearts’
fourth studio album, following the success of their 2024 release MOTHER, an album that
showcased their evolution as artists with deeply personal storytelling and
lush, intricate harmonies. The trio introduced themselves in 2019 with their
acclaimed debut WILD SILENCE, following up in 2022 with self-titled
sophomore album The Wandering Hearts, and have established a
fanbase not only in the UK but throughout the US and beyond.
In support of the release, The Wandering Hearts will be performing the new
album in its entirety on an accompanying tour. “It’s a record with so many
different emotions,” concludes Tara. “It’s going to be so powerful to play
these to people.”
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