Meet Heidi Curtis, the rising star using music to discuss the “core of life”

“When the storm starts to rise. I wait out in the open, with a heart that seeks no shelter,” comes the striking missive from Heidi Curtis on the atmospheric, widescreen rock of her latest EP’s title track.

By her own admission, and as that track reflects, the North East rising star deals in songs that take a wild-eyed look at the elements that make up our world, and how the very core of the human condition is deeper than any of us could have possibly imagined.

“I think the music and the songs I write are bridges to something more ancient and something more spiritual that exists in all of us,” she admits.

What is also true, however, is that Curtis is an electrifying performer who can bring these missives to the masses and bring them along on a journey which is growing bigger by the day, as reflected by her burgeoning international fanbase.

Now, having performed support slots for the likes of Florence & The Machine, it feels only a matter of time before Curtis is tackling the biggest of stages in her own right.

Read our interview with Curtis and listen to their music via our Play Next playlist on Spotify below.

How’s things, Heidi?

It’s been so busy. I’ve got my tour in two weeks and it’s been beautiful to see like there’s a core group of community growing now. I’m at a point where I’m putting out music and I just know there’s people waiting to hear it at midnight that aren’t just my family and friends. There’s a fan account in Poland now and Italy and all these different places around, oh my god, it’s so cool.

Have you brushed up sufficiently on your Italian and indeed your Polish in order to meaningful conversations with these people?

Well, to be fair, they’re amazing at English, but I would love to, I would love to learn more languages. I’ve started to realise with touring I’m now trying to learn like the basics in, I don’t know, a bit of German, a bit of French, because it’s so embarrassing being the typical British person saying ‘Can I have a coffee’ in the middle of Germany and realising I am *that* person.

For the uninitiated, how do you describe your music?

My music is very elemental and it asks questions about the core of life. It’s not love songs even if love is in there, but a lot of the time I find that songwriting’s been an amazing vessel to help understand what to expect of my life and I found it it’s a really good coping mechanism for confronting my fear of death and OCD symptoms.

I think that when people listen to my music, it’s beautiful. I’ve seen it really takes shape, people understand what I’m saying and there’s a connection. I think the music and the songs I write are bridges to something more ancient and something more spiritual that exists in all of us.

I think we’re really missing something in society right now. We’re currently progressing at a great rate with technology and there’s part of me that really feels like we’re going against the current of what we’re meant to be doing every day, especially when I watch the rise of AI. I’m writing about things that are a lot more elemental and I guess some people would say cosmic, I’d say more spiritual and ancient and just really trying to find the connection which we’ve lost a bit.

Music undoubtedly helps with that, right? It’s one of the only things that bridges languages and different beliefs.

Yeah, music forms connection and music has always brought people together in times of conflict, in times of depression.And I think as well if you go back thousands of years, the passing of information for generations is through songs, through music, whether it be through folklore or stories or important information about whether it be like plants or knowledge. I find that fascinating. I also want to get better at learning how to play the drums, because the drums in my songs are what I feel really passionate about. They can be thunderous and I think that really dates back to this primal instinct that I’m completely obsessed with.

Where does that obsession come from?

I wrote my first EP over a period of time when I was grieving. I was in the room when my nana passed away and I did actually for a while think I wanted to be a death doula because I found the whole process quite fascinating and completely transformative. All these songs I’d wrote previously felt obsolete but I suddenly realised I’m gonna have to go through this again and again in my life.

The sudden realisation of that was so overwhelming and I was completely numb to it. But then I realised that songwriting is the only constant. I know that I’m going to be writing songs when I’m 80, even when I’ve lost everybody I love or you know, if I’m the one who goes first, it’s going to get me through that.I think that gave me so much reassurance.

So death has shaped this EP then?

It’s massively played a part. The first EP Hollow Heart was about the fact that for a long time I felt zero emotion and it helped to dig the emotional state back out of me because I genuinely I couldn’t cry for ages.

I love cry, I love to love, and I love to be really enthusiastic about things but for a long period of time I lost all spark of anything.

And then this time, I imagined that the heart itself has now become this source of power. It’s such a ferocious song and it’s a really, really beautiful EP because it’s talking about looking straight into the eye of the storm, looking straight into the danger and knowing that there’s no turning back on it. I think that I get so much confidence in my decisions and every time that I take a step forward into a situation I feel uncomfortable about whether it be figuring out a song or getting on stage.

What this EP does is look straight in the eye about how we face our fears, how do we get through our darkest moments and where do we summon the courage to do so.

For me, that came when I wrote something and I actually questioned how loud it was and how huge it was. Suddenly I thought, is this too much, and I thought, well, I don’t think Robert Plant would ever have thought his vocals were too much. He’s a huge inspiration to me.

You recently supported Florence & The Machine on tour and it feels like you have similar vibes. What does she mean to you?

Florence is like a north star, you know, I think she is just incredible. It was so beautiful and beautifully strange that when we met each other backstage, there’s so many similarities and really we did little things where we were like, oh my god, this is so weird and really, really cool.

like to think that the the world that I’ve started to craft is is is one that that is my own. But when I was with her, there’s this confirmation of the things that I’m inspired. She is somebody that I’ve looked up to my whole life.

And did she impart any advice?

She told me to keep doing what I’m doing, keep being honest and never question myself!