Lande Hekt, Whiskey
Get Better Records

Lande Hekt is known and loved for the searing punk rock she makes in Muncie Girls, but she’s striking out on her own now – and she’s just as searing in a gentler outfit. Latest single Whiskey is a hypnotic lofi rock jam, and it comes with the joyful news of a debut album due January. If ever there was a time to get closer acquainted with Hekt, it’s now.

Whiskey kicks off with a hauntingly held-back guitar strumming, and seems to hold its breath, just adding in some bass and a pounding heartbeat of a drum line. Hekt’s vocals stick to the same melody all the way through, but with the addition of a howling guitar line, she turns up the intensity. Whiskey is, like its namesake, a slow-burner, and Hekt’s control over the atmosphere is almost painful.

Hekt’s vulnerability only adds to the wonderful intensity – Whiskey is an ultra-honest confessional about realising your sexuality, and Hekt doesn’t hold back. She details self-doubt, homophobia, internalised homophobia, and the journey towards the incredible freedom of coming out, all the bumps in the road unflinchingly included. Her lyricism is understated, and stingingly real for it.

Titled Going To Hell, queerness is a recurring theme on Hekt’s debut, and going off Whiskey, it’s set to cement her as not only a songwriter but an incredible, addictingly candid storyteller. We can’t wait to hear what she’s got to say.

Going To Hell is out January 22nd.