Heir make pop music inspired by classic 70s and 80s organic pop sounds; if you wanted to place ‘A Million Followers’ into some sort of time bracket it’s kind of broadly 80s’ electro-pop.
To be honest, when the inspiration for a song comes from isn’t that important, it just gives you a vague idea of what it sounds like. So let’s try and give you a more than vague idea. Firstly this thing grooves like hell; from start to finish it’s a dance fest. The sound is sparse electro-pop heavy on the beat. And yep, there are 80s’ sounds aplenty. Bloody hell, does this take me back or what. Along the way come some fabulous harmonies, an electro-pop guitar break.
If I’m making this sound all too retro then let me make this clear; it doesn’t sound exactly how pop sounded in the 80s, but how I remember it sounding. As time passes your memory of it gets changed; usually to recall it as sounding way better than it did.
Also in a break from 80s’ pop this song is actually about something more than a relationship, a night out, you know the sort of thing. The song addresses one particularly challenging aspect of carving a career as an artist in the digital age. Sam from the band explains “I guess the prominence of social media has been a bit of a double edged sword for the band. The direct line to our fans has made it possible to establish the project by ourselves which is very empowering. However with the natural desire to grow and with this ready made, worldwide audience sat at your fingertips the seductive tentacles of potential reach start to suck you in. Forging a balanced and healthy relationship with these interactive online profiles becomes quite hard, especially when cultures like social media influencing teach us that profiles are products themselves”.
It does this via some compelling lyrics that make the song one you really want to listen to closely.
And by the way, the video does a kind of nod to Heaven 17; so go check that out.
If you’re into great pop then Heir are a band you should be listening to, and this track is a great intro to the band. Great song, brilliantly danceable. It’s a party wrapped up in 3 minutes of glorious sound.
