The Wandering Hearts Talk Mothering, Learning, Friendship, and Connections on New Album ‘Mother’ [Exclusive]

Consisting of Tara Wilcox on vocals, Francesca “Chess” Whiffin on vocals and mandolin, and AJ Cook on vocals and guitar, UK band The Wandering Hearts have created a testament to motherhood, friendship, love, and the human condition in their recent album Mother, dropping today (March 22). They’ve created a song for every feeling, a feeling for a plethora of experiences, and done it with heart at the center of everything.

The band met with American Songwriter to talk about the new album, discussing what “mother” means to them, connections between songs, and how the album came about in the midst of Tara and Chess’ pregnancies.

American Songwriter: What does mother mean to you in the context of the album?

Tara Wilcox: When we were talking about what to call the album, we were talking about “Mother.” It felt really right, and then we were like, does is age? How does it feel? Is it something that would have a relevance? Mother being the beginning, Mother being the creation, Mother being the process of mothering, the time that it takes to mother something. It seemed more poignant than ever that this record be called Mother—and you know AJ [Cook] talked really beautifully about it in an interview we had earlier in the talking process—this album was written pre-post pandemic when everything felt scary, like there might not be a music industry, like we didn’t know if we had careers, if it was going to be something. And so the songs that we wrote … they helped us get through and navigate a really challenging time, so now the term “Mother” means so much more than just “we happened to have two kids whilst making this record.” I think people go “oh they have two kids so of course it’s called Mother.” But it’s not that—it’s something that the three of us really connect with and feel is a really apt title for this record.

AJ Cook: We dove heavily into all things around “Mother” because you’re surrounded by motherhood in so many ways. We were talking about … what does motherhood mean to you now, what does motherhood mean at this moment … thinking about what this could possibly be in the future of you being a mother. We talked a lot about our own mothers and our own childhoods, and for so many reasons I think a lot of what motherhood represents and a lot of the roles that it represents we kind of have touched upon or covered within the album or within the songs.

AS: I really resonated with “Tired” and “Still Waters,” they feel almost connected as if one is a response to the other almost. How did it feel to get those songs out, because they feel very cathartic.

Francesca Whiffin: “Tired” we actually wrote quite a long time ago—that was from the archives but we’ve been wanting to use it—and I remember the day we wrote that song, I remember going, “Oh my God I think this is one of my favorite songs we’ve ever written” There was something about it that felt so cathartic. I think at that point we were coming from a place where we’ve had kind of a whirlwind of a time—some really high points, some really low points, and we were kind of coming out the other side and we don’t have the same space to complain or be tired—and this is before kids, we didn’t know the meaning of tired—but it definitely came from a very true and honest place without being too on the nose with things. It was a very kind of turbulent time and I think we came out of it like, we need a break, give us a break.

Then with the same people years later we wrote “Still Waters” and it’s really interesting that you’ve made that connection because I hadn’t really thought about it like that, like it is a bit of call and response, those two songs. That’s a really cool observation.

AJC: Thinking about “Tired,” we often write songs through metaphor a lot of the time and that’s fun and you can hide behind that as well … but “Tired” is like one of those songs that always seems like being honest with ourselves … writing this song to be honest with ourselves as well as friends, families, loved ones that have to live with us doing what we do and everything that entails. It felt like one of the only times I think where we said quite directly and also very personally—straight from the page, as it were. It was very cathartic in that way because it almost feels like something you almost couldn’t say to somebody. It’s got that much weight behind it, almost like saying, this is so important it takes a bit of coaxing to get it out, so it was very cathartic, that one … especially just to say it to ourselves. You have to just accept that you got to get away from it, or even things that bring you the most happiness in the world, like you have to have that space from it all.

AS: Also kind of in that same vein I felt like “Waiting” and “Will You Love Me” felt a little bit connected … I feel like I felt a lot of personal connections in this album. Tara, there’s a quote from you where you said “It would be wonderful if there was a song on Mother to help you in any moment you need” and I feel like you guys definitely succeeded in creating that space. Was that a driving thought or did it just sort of happen?

TW: I think just hearing you draw comparisons from song to song helps it feel worth it, like that’s the point, you make a record … we make it first and foremost for ourselves so that we can look back and go “this was a great representation of what we do and what we needed to say,” but you hope people listen to it, you know, that’s the point right? So the fact that you’re going “I took this and I thought that,” that’s the motivation to do it. We’re all first and foremost music lovers, we create music but we do this because we love music, because when we were kids music was our safe space, and now that we’re adults it’s our safe space. It’s where I turn to when I want to cry, it’s what I turn to when I want to run, it’s what I turn to when I want to laugh or feel joy.

And so the best artist, the best music does that, and it’s something that for this record to feel you can do that on an album that would feel empowering in something like “Hold Your Tongue”; that could feel heartbreaking when AJ sings the beginning of “Waiting”; that can feel small and tender with “Will You Love Me.” And for that all to feel like it works on a record and to get the feedback that it does, I don’t know whether the intention when we were making the record was “we are going to box tick all of these powerful moments or these tender moments” but just the fact that it’s somehow worked out in a way that we’re all really proud of.

FW: We didn’t have a record deal when we started making this record, we started writing the music because that’s all that we could do during that time—we couldn’t get together, we couldn’t perform, we couldn’t play gigs—we particularly didn’t want to be doing loads of live gigs online cause we were like “what’s the point it’s not the same.” So we just wrote … and like I said we didn’t have a record deal, but then when the time came around to putting some songs together, and we played them to Jeremy [Lascelles] at Chrysalis [Records] he was like, “why are you saving these big songs, like let’s make the album, let’s make this album.”

I think because we did it that way round, we didn’t limit ourselves when it came to writing or choosing those songs because we literally were just writing them because of what we were going through, and how we were feeling and not because someone was going “well make sure you have a radio hit on there, and make sure there’s enough up tempo songs on there and you know you’ll need a couple of ballads.” We didn’t have that and I think quite often when you’re in that cycle of writing and making a record and touring, it so easily can get caught up in that. And because we had that freedom to just create what we wanted, to create in that moment wherever we were, it then formed this album and I just think it was such an amazing experience for us… because we didn’t limit ourselves, didn’t have anything limiting us or stopping us from writing the song. We wrote loads of songs that we didn’t use, but they all meant something in that process. They all meant something along the way and one song led to the next song which led to “Hold Your Tongue” and then two more in between, three more in between before “Still Waters” came about.

And it’s like those songs in between all led to the next song which then created this record. So yeah, it was in a way really nice to have that time and that space to feel all of those things and express them in a way that felt very authentic to us without it being — like Tara said, “ticking boxes.” 

AS: “Not Misunderstood” is so atmospheric and thematic. I think you guys described it like a building storm. It also kind of felt like a steam train speeding gradually out of control, like you feel that in the beat. And I felt that “River To Cry” also gets a little bit of that desperation at the end, so I just want to know the inspiration behind these two tracks specifically.

TW: “Not Misunderstood” was an interesting one because we wrote it with a wonderful singer-songwriter called Rose Cousins. She was over in the UK and we got to grab a couple hours with her. When we saw Rose, it was a time where we were kind of in the pits of something—it was feeling really tough, and we were having a kind of personal situation within the band—not between the three of us—but kind of close, just outside.

And it was that realization that someone is playing a victim and they’re not a victim—I think it was before the term “gaslit” was being used all the time. But it was definitely a situation where we were kind of mad and angry and frustrated and disappointed and sad but weren’t able to verbalize it because it was kind of young in our days as a band, and there was so much going on … we didn’t explicitly say to Rose what was going on but we were kind of talking in these metaphors and she was able to have an outsider’s perspective of not knowing the finer details of this really difficult situation that we were trying to manage, and keep our heads very much just above the water line.

My husband had played this riff to me which is kind of the motif that’s used on “Not Misunderstood” and I brought it to Rose and she kind of augmented it, and I love the fact that it has this sense of undulation, sense of something needing to change, an urgency and it was so—back to our favorite word, cathartic—but it was wonderfully cathartic to write and to play and it’s still like joy, and it definitely has echoes of “River to Cry.”

For me so much of that’s in the drums. We have the most incredible drummer, Siân Monaghan who plays drums with us live. She’s incredible. We’re so lucky to have her on our team and it’s the first time that we’ve been able to have her play drums on a record for us and she knows us so well. She’s so appropriate when she drums, how much she drums, what she drums …whether it’s an interesting tambourine part or a shaker part. She’s orchestrally trained so the kind of  flavors that she brings in are wonderful, and when I hear both of those tracks it’s really her that elevates those two songs to build that kind of storm. 

AJC: When we recorded “Not Misunderstood,” Siân came and recorded the drum parts at the Premises Studio in Hackney in London and she heard the track for the first time there in the studio. What we want is to get this idea that there’s this storm building up and it’s building up throughout the song, and just at this one point—basically where we wanted to go mental—when you just imagine that this huge eye of the hurricane is just passing over and she’s like “I think I know what you mean” and went into the drum booth and did it, did that one that’s on the record in one take, like “is that okay, is that what you meant?” Yeah, that’s going on the record.

AS: Now, sort of a reflection, looking back, do you find that creating this album changed you at all musically or as people? 

AJC: Oh yeah, definitely changed us musically and as people … and as musical people. I mean we kind of mentioned before that not having the security of a record deal definitely allowed us to open ourselves up to what we can create and what we want to create. It shone a light onto the places in ourselves that we had perhaps not had the full confidence to explore and let go, musically speaking. But also being tight during that process, especially coming out of the Covid times. I feel like the way we’ve grown as a band, as people and musicians in that time has been the greatest amount that has come upon us since our inception as a band. 

TW: Music also became more precious, and what we do became simpler in the time we made this record because of having the babies. We were there for each other during those pregnancies, births, babies, the sleep, the stresses and all the normal life stuff was going on too.  You know, it’s not just babies that complicate things, everything complicates things, and the salvation is getting together and doing music. You know, there’s never been a more bonkers  time to be a musician ever, I don’t think. It’s a stupid industry—we’re away from our families and there is no guarantee that anything is going to work. We do it because we love it and and we love making music together and we love spending time together, and this record has clarified that in more ways than I think we ever would have thought that it would have done. So this record is a big one. It’s definitely changed us and I think it’s changed how we’ll continue to do music. 

FW: I remember saying like really early days, we just want to be authentic, we want to write and make music that feels authentic to us. And we’ve always said that, but it’s never always worked—it’s never always been the case because there’s outside pressures to do this and be that. We’re really proud of the first two records, like we’re super proud of them and you know they did a lot for us. But we had to go through that and explore all of that and get to where we are now, to learn about each other, to experience some life together as a band and experience things together.  When we met we were complete strangers and we signed a record deal really quickly, so we literally spent the next few years just getting to know each other … it only now feels like we really know each other because of all the stuff that we’ve been through. It could have easily broken us, but instead every time it’s made us stronger and I just think that is incredible because who knew that that was going to be the case nearly 10 years ago that we would be here today. We’re friends for life regardless of what happens now, regardless of what happens in the music industry, regardless of what happens in life, we are together for life. That’s unfortunately the reality of it guys — you’re never getting rid of me!

Featured Image via The Wandering Hearts/Chrysalis Records