“It always happens at some point,” Rob Pursey says in reference to “twee,” a descriptor that has dogged he and partner Amelia Fletcher’s bands for 40 years. It was a word often used as derogatory by music journalists, but like a lot of genres — shoegaze, trip-hop — it’s become accepted and embraced by many who have listened to their band Heavenly in the nearly two decades between breaking up and reforming in 2023.
“We’ve sort of dealt with that quite a bit because we, initially, we were just resistant to it in the same way we would have been if some, you know, lardy-ass male journalist in the ’90s had said, oh, this is twee, they wear cardigans or whatever they said, or ‘they read books’ or something else equally damning,” Pursey says. “And then you realize that people of our kids’ generation, it’s just a word that refers to a kind of music is quite innocent.”
“Rob writes the press releases for the bands on our label [Skep Wax],” Amelia adds. “And some of them, I think people would think that they were in the Twee Pop category, but we can’t quite put that on the press release, even though it would probably help themself. It’s just too deeply embedded in us that even though we recognize it’s a genre, we’ll say they’re punk when they’re clearly not really punk. We’re indiepop. We use DIY, we use indiepop.” Rob adds, “We tend to afford that word in a way that is probably outdated.”
I talked with Rob and Amelia for the release of Highway to Heavenly, the first Heavenly album in 30 years. It’s stands proudly beside their four ’90s albums, mixing sugary melodies with often dark lyrics in typical Heavenly fashion. Our conversation, for the latest episode of the BV Interviews podcast, also hits on how TikTok turned their ’90s song “P.U.N.K. Girl” into a 2020s viral hit, finding community in Calvin Johnson’s International Pop Underground, how Amelia’s career as an economist came in handy for indie bands on streaming services, Heavenly’s upcoming North American tour, what’s coming up on their label Skep Wax, the 40th anniversary of their first band, Talulah Gosh, Britpop Vs Indiepop, the new issue of Zine Things Happen dedicated to Heavenly, and lots more.
You can listen to the whole conversation via Apple, Youtube and Spotify below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Highway to Heavenly is out February 27 via Skep Wax and Heavenly’s North American tour hits NYC’s Bowery Ballroom on 4/18 with Jeanines and Swansea Sound (which includes Amelia, Rob, and Ian from Heavenly plus Hue from The Pooh Sticks and The Dentists’ Bob Collins). All dates are below.
