a night with the heart shaped aces
The Heart Shaped Aces band members Charlie Swansson (left) and Oscar Robson (right). Photo: Charlie Bickler
The Heart Shaped Aces “feel really good to be authentic” amidst their April residency at the Punters Club, performing every Monday of April, colloquially connoting their performances with #ihatemondays. However, this hashtag could only be derived from the most ironic sense, as the typical monotonous Monday didn’t stop Melburnians from coming out to see the band perform. Their third of the four Mondays marked my first venture into this bar, and signified the allure of the promising two-man band. Additionally, their following gig at Grace Darling Hotel on Friday the 25th of April debuts their lead single and title track of their upcoming EP, Dancing In Decay.
Oscar and Charlie, the members of The Heart Shaped Aces, were deep into their “nightmare” of a soundcheck when I first arrived. It was only when I was deep into my first drink that technical difficulties were resolved and the two approached me for the commencement of this interview.
We had stepped outside onto the wet bar stools - away from the background prattle and the clicking of cue sticks against striped billiards - a postlude of the pouring rain that night. Almost as a pathetic fallacy, the droplets from the roof of the 1860’s establishment fell on beat with what would soon be a rhythmic conversation, covering the plains of inspiration, marketing, collaboration, and upcoming song releases.
The consensus was in: the two previous performances of their Punters Club residency were “really good”, with Oscar emphasising “it’s been really nice fleshing out these new songs, especially in front of a crowd that come for free and just come to check us out”. On the basis of their #ihatemondays campaign, Oscar added, “Mondays feel like there’s really no pressure to push the gig” as marketing was a “word of mouth” task, albeit their TikTok page was what drew me in initially.
Their social media, run by Oscar, displays videos of the two posing in front of walls covered in images of their faces, with snippets of their indie haze music in the background. It was interesting to find out that neither Charlie nor Oscar studied marketing at university, and that now, promoting their music online came about naturally. A finger pressed gently on the guise of Melbourne’s music scene, it seemed like both musicians were aware of the current state of independent bands in the landscape of music in this culturally-rich city. Conscious of what teens and 20-somethings want - a free gig on Easter Monday - powered by the effortless furtherance of their TikToks, was what we’ve been needing to see.
Taking a step back, I wanted to know the roots of this enigmatic band, and Charlie divulged. “When I was sixteen, a couple of mates were getting into guitar music properly. We’d always been interested, but at that time, we were just obsessed with bands. One band gets you into another band and so on. Then I bought this guitar for five bucks, and we’ve been in various bands since.”
Oscar shared, “I was sort of similar. It was actually kind of wholesome. [Charlie’s] first band was quite popular when we were at school and I went to their gigs, and that introduced me to guitar music.”
Photo: Charlie Bickler
What struck me was the mention of “guitar music” from both musicians, mostly because I, naively, thought music was just… music. If I ever was to classify music, it would be by genre, not instrument. Oscar followed this train of thought with the admission that he “really only listened to rap.” Consoling, I suppose, but the conversation diverged back to guitars. Oscar continued, “I always played guitar from when I was quite young, but I never sang. When I finished school, I met one of my older brothers’ friends who was a proper musician, and we were in Kangaroo Island on a holiday. He would just get the guitar out, after dark in this tin shed and sing songs. And then, you know, in a safe environment, he encouraged me to sing. And that’s how it started, in the four walls, and I’ve been obsessed ever since.”
Confession: Guitar is now cool. Alright, maybe it was also cool back in the day, but Charlie and Oscar make it known that now more than ever, “guitar is cool”. Charlie comments that “there’s a lot of great contemporary guitar music happening at the moment. In an alternative sense, Mk.gee has completely changed pop music”, with Oscar comically interjecting, “he’s working with Justin Bieber now”. Pulling inspirations from Fontaines D.C., The Cure, and Mk.gee, it becomes clear when you see the two on stage, guitars strapped around their shoulders, eyes closed in the present moment, that their musical muses shine through, while still starkly sustaining their own image.
Photo: Charlie Bickler
“The foundation of our friendship is [built on] similar music taste, and then that just sort of transpired into what we are now, which is enemies.” The turning point of our conversation started here, where I saw their banter at play, and within that, their way of collaboration and musical contributions.
“Usually, I’ll write alone at home” started Charlie, “and then I’d send it to Oscar and we’ll make some changes. We have a modern partnership in how we divide the work. Oscar more or less handles everything visual, including social media, which I wouldn’t dare touch.”
Upon further discussion, their collaborative process is “quite fluid”. In Oscar’s eyes, “it’s a really massive privilege to have such a prolific songwriter that can churn out songs to play. It allows me to focus on what I’m good at, but it’s not a hard pass rule. I’m not avoiding the guitar, we’re really honing into what we’re good at.” Their basis for musical partnership is to evade rigidity. The more free-flowing their process is, the more it “feels like we’re hitting our stride”. Having each other “holds a lot of power”, says Charlie. “It’s necessary to have that collaboration. In that sense, it's not this rigid thing, like, “you do that, i do this”. It seems pretty natural”.
Photo: Charlie Bickler
The Heart Shaped Aces have a forthcoming EP, titled Dancing In Decay, and the title track, donning the same name, will be debuted at The Grace Darling Hotel on Friday the 25th of April. I got to hear the song early, and it encompasses the ephemeral sound that this band is making themselves known to be. When I asked what went into this song, I was met with a brief pause, almost as if, this song and this EP had swept them away so long during the making of it, that now, back on earth, it’s a difficult process to describe.
Waiting for one to bite the gun, Charlie claims, “it’s pretty earnest”. Following, “I used to talk about the meaning of a song, but now, not at all. There’s so much meaning that can be instilled into the song, I don’t want to force anyone into having one kind of idea or relationship with it.” Charlie has this hollowed out guitar that he put baritone strings on, and the sound it made was “really crunchy” in a “horrible” way. But horrible to me was not what horrible meant to them. “Horrible good” was what that baritone stringed guitar was. A new way to incorporate unique sounds into their music, something refreshing in the sea of indie art.
“It’s real to me. It’s real to us”, was what Charlie finished surmising the song as. With so much interpretation placed on music, it can be challenging to let go of expectations you have for a song. Oscar put it as “the guy rocking up to John Lennon’s house saying “all the songs you’ve written are for me” and he’s like “nah”. They’re not.”
The catalyst for the Dancing In Decay EP is the song Bruise2, written by Oscar, that brought both band members on common ground. Charlie revealed, “this spark went off in my head. Before, my writing was very eclectic - all over the place” but soon Bruise2 gave way to the idea that “this is the sound and this is as many influences as we want to make known”. My interpretation of this is that both Charlie and Oscar aren’t necessarily restricting themselves within the confines of one sound, but shaping a particular audial aesthetic that avoids them from running rampant and resulting in a song that sounds all over the place. Having guidelines is stigmatised in the creative space for being too restrictive, when in reality, it can help shape our ideas to be more ironed-out and concise.
Photo: Charlie Bickler
Oscar concludes that “it feels really good to be authentic. We want to continue to be bold and not shy away from trying to take success by the balls. We’re really looking forward to promoting this EP, having people here and playing plenty of shows. These sort of shows have reminded me it’s really, really good to play in front of people and have them react to the music.” Of the same vein, Charlie relates that it’s “really heart warming, to see people get a good feeling, a few tunes on a Monday night. We were expecting to play for ten people”.
Stepping back into Punters Club and out of the subdued rain, I was met again with the atmosphere of live, independent music, and an introspection into the band playing right in front of me.
You can stream The Heart Shaped Aces on all streaming services.
Thanks to Charlie and Oscar for the interview!
