Exclusive Premiere: The Honest Heart Collective “Fine”

Anchored by four lifelong friends, The Honest Heart Collective was born from brothers Ryan and Nic MacDonald, a moment at a Springsteen concert, and a rotating cast of musicians made permanent. Buoyed by the backdrop of their Northern Ontario roots, the band embodies an old soul take of heart-on-sleeves storytelling through music. Armed with the self-built Lion- heart Studio, a blue-collar mentality, and a new collection of songs, THHC recorded their LP Grief Rights with producer Derek Hoffman. The Honest Heart Collective is currently working on a new record, with new music slated for release in 2019.

“We’ve come to find that in modern English, the word “fine” has two meanings. For example, You can say you’re fine while simultaneously being the opposite of that. We tell ourselves we’re fine all the time when in actuality we may not be. Lying to yourself and others only fuels more anxiety. The more you say that you’re fine, the less I believe it. I had a guitar riff in my head that I was playing over and over for a few weeks, but I couldn’t come up with anything to write over it. Then one night, I had a phone call with someone from my past. While making conversation, they asked how I was doing and I replied that I was “doing just fine”. I guess there was a stutter or some kind of tell in my voice because their response was, ” oh there’s always something with you Ryan”. “Fine.” was produced by Derek Hoffman, a Toronto based producer and engineer based at Fox Sounds. He’s such an intuitive guy when it comes to creating music. We’ve learned so much from him about arrangement, production, and music in general. It was so interesting to go in with an idea and leave with a song that we can all be proud of.”

Tour:

September 11 — Oshawa, ON — The Music Hall

September 12 — Toronto, ON — Horseshoe Tavern

September 13 — Hamilton, ON — Mills Hardware

September 18 — Montreal, QC — Petit Campus

September 19 — Kingston, ON — The Mansion