Chartreuse are pleased to unveil their new single ‘Heaven Sent’.
This also comes with a live performance video directed by Stewart Baxter. Watch here.
The single was written late last year after the release and tour of the Black Country four piece’s second album, Bless You & Be Well. It sees Chartreuse laying bare new emotional depths; each of the band members’ personal experiences with grief, anxieties and fears are all explored vividly, making for an album that’s both cathartic and captivating in equal measure.
This latest release sees their songwriting mature further, taking inspiration from the vulnerability of BY&BW and expanding into deeper realms of pensive contemplation.
Vocalist/keys player, Hattie Wilson, explains: “‘Heaven Sent’ is about the place I grew up in. It’s a small village where everyone knows each other, but I’ve always felt there’s a bit of a superiority complex; if someone does something good, they have to tell you about it.
I loved growing up here as a kid, but I think I feel somewhat trapped here at the moment. With health struggles, with money and general life worries being at the forefront of my mind, I’m wondering if I’ll amount to more.
The song encapsulates the different feelings I have towards my hometown that have come to the surface because of where I’m at in life.”
Next week, the group will embark on an EU headline tour beginning in Copenhagen on Monday 2nd February. The full list of dates can be found below.
ABOUT CHARTREUSE
For Chartreuse, the rural Icelandic studio Flóki served as a refuge in a myriad of ways. Set in a secluded location on the northern tip of the island, a five-hour drive from Reykjavík, the Black Country band’s two-week stay here in the summer of 2024 was one of escape, connection and understanding. They returned home with a special, urgent and necessary second album, Bless You & Be Well.
The dynamic of the Black Country band feels wholeheartedly distinct. The four-piece are intimately interconnected – brothers Mike (guitar, vocals) and Rory Wagstaff (drums) are joined by Rory’s long-term partner Hattie Wilson (piano, vocals) and Hattie’s childhood friend Perry Lovering (bass).
Their 2023 debut Morning Ritual introduced a group that swerved the traditional tropes of indie-rock bands, instead using their instruments and innovative production techniques in unusual and thrilling ways. They set a precedent of equality from day one, with the instruments they play all interchangeable, and no lead songwriter dictating their every move. This remains the case. Music for them is like pulling puzzle pieces out of the air, fitting things in the right configuration.
But on Bless You & Be Well, it’s each of their personal experiences which inform their new material.
The recordings were brought to life with producer Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile) and engineer Oli Middleton. Having self-produced their debut album, bringing other minds into their creative fold was daunting at first. But it quickly became one of their best decisions. Gut instincts presided over second-guessing; if it sounded good in the moment, it stayed. If it didn’t, they tried something else. As Petts-Davies, a calm and easy-going antidote to the band’s self-declared perfectionists, told them: “You are a band and this is how you sound, so let’s just run with it.”
No people, no limits, no distractions… all external noise was shut out, allowing Bless You & Be Well to become their most expansive album to date. But their remote location in Iceland provided a sanctuary in more ways than one, offering them a vital reprieve from the personal struggles that each of the band members were facing in their own lives.
For Lovering, navigating the grief of their late father’s passing bled into the creation of Chartreuse’s latest songs. Yet rather than drowning in existentialism, Lovering learned that grief doesn’t have to be the end, and that the pursuit of creating things that make you happy – in his case, making music – is ultimately what makes life worth living.
For Wilson, the anxieties of undergoing major surgery at just 29-years-old, learning to walk properly again, and the long road to recovery that still lies ahead for her shaped her approaches to the band’s new music. Initially guilty that it would affect those around her, opening up has not only been a learning curve, but also a humbling experience to witness the care that her friends, family and bandmates are more than willing to give.
Only a band as strongly connected for so many years could create such a space for each other in order to disappear into their music together, Wilson says: “To have those bonds within the band is really special and we can naturally pick up on each other’s cues. I don’t know if it would work with any other people, or if we would be able to be totally ourselves, or as accepting of each other on what anyone’s going through.”
Being in a band is a necessary part of life for Chartreuse. Writing music offers them a canvas to lay bare their emotions. But while informed by struggle and grief, their new music isn’t defined by it. Instead, it’s a window through which to understand both yourself and those around you better and more deeply. It also affirms the power of something as seemingly trivial as being in a band, and of music as a way to understand and move through life.
It all culminates in a fresh new chapter for Chartreuse, imbued with a palpable sense of honesty and introspectiveness that will no doubt resonate with others far and wide.
Chartreuse EU Tour Dates:
(supported by Woom on all dates except Paris)
Monday 2nd February – DR Studio 3, Copenhagen
Wednesday 4th February – Paradiso, Amsterdam
Thursday 5th February – Lutherse Kerk, Groningen
Friday 6th February – Artheater, Cologne
Saturday 7th February – Molotow, Hamburg
Sunday 8th February – Bergahin Kantine, Berlin
Tuesday 10th February – Supersonic Records, Paris
Single artwork
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