[PREMIERE]: Heartsrevolution’s New Video ‘Storytime With Hiro’
Heartsrevolution is a far cry from your average pop-duo. After all, do you know any other band that bedazzled an ice cream truck with crystals and used it to travel around LA? How about a band whose mascot is an adorable little bunny named Hiro?
Heartsrevolution also takes a stand in the music industry by not adhering to the standard timeline. Instead of working towards a deadline or an album release, Leyla “Lo” Safai and Ben Pollock release music and videos when they feel inspired and when the time is right.
For a band whose image is fluffed in cuteness, the duo has some serious ideas about following your childhood dreams, finding beauty in your flaws, and how creative industries have been corrupted by capitalism. Check out the premiere for their latest video, “Storytime with Hiro,” below, and read further for our exclusive interview with the band.
You leave teddy bears on power lines while touring, where did you get the idea for that?
We’ve been doing that for like, seven years. Originally it was a way to do graffiti that wasn’t the original poster or sticker, and it would last a little bit longer because it was harder to take down. We left them as reminders to follow through on your childhood dreams and we called it streethearts revolution. We’ve left them in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London, Paris, Miami.
When you’re a kid that’s your favorite thing, you carry your teddy bear or bunny around everywhere. You have all these hopes and dreams. As you grow up you have to become what people tell you, you have to “be realistic” and hit certain markers and all those wonderful ideas we had get pushed by the wayside because that’s not reality. Having our best friends hanging in the sky on a power line is a reminder of what you wanted to be and what you thought you could do when you thought the world was more magical.
How did you find your passions and follow your childhood dreams?
I think everything we do is pretty magical. We started with this company in Los Angeles and we had ice cream trucks and then we started our band. I think there’s a common thread that has carried us through the course of our career which is not settling for the status quo of what should be.
When we had our ice cream trucks we eventually got signed by this French record label and they were telling us that “bands normally partner with brands, so what brands do you think are cool?” And we said, well, there’s this company Swarovski that used to make Michael Jackson’s costumes and when I was a little kid that looked so cool, seeing MJ sparkle on stage. We ended up getting a partnership from Swarovski, they gave us a million crystals to build the world’s first crystal ice cream truck. So, the path keeps unfolding just by dreaming big dreams and allowing yourself to see those dreams through and not worry what an album trajectory looks like and how you roll out singles and a video. Even the video we just released is from an album that dropped 18 months ago. Media doesn’t understand that. Music and art shouldn’t be like that.
It’s kind of ironic how music, fashion, and art are adhering to this strict schedule.
I remember I was at a dinner with Jeremy Scott. He looked really stressed out, so I asked him what was wrong and he said “I have three days to come up with the concept for my next collection and I fell into fashion design because I wanted to create something colorful and playful. But I have to be creative on a deadline.” In some ways it’s great because it forces you to keep working, but in another way it’s really stressful to do that.
It can feel very forced for sure.
Totally. I wonder what people would make if they weren’t trying to keep up with everything else or be like everyone else. Now that we’re connected on the worldwide web and everyone can plug into each other’s social media networks, it’s become this very weird uniformed society. There’s a uniform for what fashion, or music, or bands should look like. Automatically you change your feed and you’re wearing the outfit that everyone else is wearing and you fit into this mold. It’s so crazy because there are so many great ideas. If everyone believed in their wildest dreams, the world wouldn’t be so much copy and paste.
Do you think with the current culture it’s more accepting for people to follow their childhood dreams? Or more difficult?
Totally more difficult because the standard of perfection has become the norm. Everyone is looking for the perfect festival outfit, the perfect eyebrow, the perfect green juice, everything. Where this true essence of beauty and authenticity lies is in all the imperfections and in the trial and error of working on something. I think that people focus their energies less on what could be and try to figure out how to be like everybody else. I love the Kardashians, I love pop culture, I’m not hating on it, but I can go on Instagram and see 400 Kylie Jenners and it’s crazy. It’s the perfect lip, the perfect eyebrow, the perfect hair extensions…it’s like, fuck. Where is the room for your own perfect beauty to shine through?
What’s next for you two?
We have “Kishi Kaisei” that just came out. We’re up to 60,000 views, it’s a magical journey. What was supposed to be a three week video became a 13 month long process of us driving the truck around LA.
We connected with people from all walks of life, everybody has this childlike joy and wonder when they experienced what we were doing. So we said forget the timeline, forget all of it, let’s just document this. So we just released that video and now we’re going to start taking the truck around LA and we turned it into a mobile movie theater. The front windshield is a hologram TV screen. We’re going to play this film all around the city and bring hopes to the streets.
