"Made just for you and me"
"Go On" by The Blue Herons, the pop potent clash of Andy Jossi (The Churchhill Garden, The Serpent Garden) and Gretchen DeVault (The Icicles, The Francine Odysseys, Voluptuous Panic) feels beautifully romantic and nostalgic. The punchy bass and cleanly struck guitars, the beat on the rails and DeVault's vast pretty vocal aesthetic is at once an 80's movie about young love and devastating crushes that don't go any further. There is a late 70's, early 80's atmosphere and listening to "Go On" and "In The Skies" there is a lot of amazing cross generational things happening. Off the top of my head and my heart I am feeling twee pop, jangle pop, new wave vibes, an amalgam of artists like The Softies, Talulah Gosh, The Cure and Cocteau Twins.
This accomplished paring are relatively new. I love the aesthetic and maybe even the homage here to gentler, more tender dreams, the Brit pop affections and DeVault's timeless beautiful lilt. 2021 is a brand new year and a perfect time for The Blue Herons to blossom fully.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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The Blue Herons need to be on your 2021 indie pop bands to watch list. This jangle pop powerhouse calls to mind guitar riffs reminiscent of C86 and Sarah Records bands like Even as We Speak and Heavenly, with infectious melodies and soaring vocals that easily sit alongside the likes of current artists Alvvays and Hatchie.
The Blue Herons are Andy Jossi (The Churchhill Garden, The Serpent Garden) and Gretchen DeVault (The Icicles, The Francine Odysseys, Voluptuous Panic), both forces of nature in music creation. Serendipity brought the duo together in late 2020 and in a short two months the pair will have released two singles, with an arsenal of jangle pop songs to be released in 2021. Stay tuned.
The Blue Herons started as a side project for Jossi. After establishing a following for his shoegaze band The Churchhill Garden, he needed a separate space for his indie pop songs. The Blue Herons featured frequent guest vocalists and musicians such as Krissy Vanderwoude (The Churchhill Garden, Whimsical), Marty Willson Piper (The Church, All About Eve), Hideka, and Thierry Haliniak. While releasing music under The Blue Herons moniker, still searching for the perfect vocal complement to his instrumentals, Jossi found what he was looking for in DeVault.
DeVault, a veteran of the indie pop scene, led The Icicles through a series of well-received albums and licensing deals with Target and Motorola in the early 2000s. In 2013, she elevated her recording skills and vocals to new heights as half of the transoceanic shoegazer duo Voluptuous Panic. After relocating to LA in 2016, she got reacquainted with her indie pop roots and formed The Francine Odysseys.
The jangle pop force known as The Blue Herons is about to take flight – soaring to new musical heights.
Reviews from The Blue Herons’ October single “In the Skies”:
It’s a glorious slice of euphoric jangly guitar pop with soaring vocal and harmonies plus added glockenspiel. (Davey Hammond’s Smelly Flower Pot)
‘In The Skies’ opens with nice ambient guitars, and light percussion that picks up in energy as the track progresses, Gretchen’s vocals are equally a treat, strong and clear and in sync with the almost happy dreamlike quality of the instrumentals. This soft, almost muted track, still manages to pack an emotional wallop as you just experience it. This is one of those tracks that starts off good, but just gets even better with repeated listened, because you are so caught up in it the first few times you might just miss little things like the chimes mixed lightly throughout, and heavily at the end which are so simple and yet add so much to the track. (Off The Record)
In The Skies is an addictive listen as the guitars jangle and the words about dying relationships (or should that be stars?) get the imagination going. Is it me or is there something Kirsty MacColl like about DeVault’s voice? (Records I Like)
The joy of seeing Andy Jossi taking up his The Blue Herons project , left on the sidelines for more than a year now. At his side we find Gretchen DeVault who deals with the lyrics in this jangle-pop delight, so sweet and fragile but at the same time captivating and exciting. A magical return…. (Indie for Bunnies)
Jossi has teamed up with someone whose natural vocal style is becoming increasingly unique in modern day indie-pop, inasmuch that she has a genuine uncluttered quality to her vocal delivery.
Such a sound is unfettered by the post Sarah Records need to add all manner of hush and sultry to every single indie-pop female vocalist the world will ever see. As such we are left with just the beautiful vocals of a woman who invites and thrives upon more muscular levels of jangled riffs and percussion. Hers is the propulsive sound of a Wendy Pickles (The Popguns) or Mary Wyer (Even As We Speak) and she simply courts the jangly dynamism that this track provides. (Janglepop Hub)
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