Our journey with Heartworms began almost three years ago at the compact upstairs live music venue of a refurbished East End boozer on Great Eastern Street where Josephine “Jojo” Orme and chums were sat at the bottom of the bill of the 4 acts playing that night. From small beginnings…..
We have watched Heartworms as their 4 track debut ‘A Comforting Notion’ EP was unleashed to the world last year, followed by the ‘May I Comply’ single and this year with the ‘Jacked’ single. Whilst at the same time, more and more folks awareness of the project has seen a move up the billing and onto headlining smaller venues and now early next year they will be performing their biggest capacity concert venue in Brighton to date, when they will headlining at the Concorde 2 on Tuesday 25th February 2025, courtesy of JOY. promoters. Tickets are on sale now from HERE and HERE.
This is in support of the forthcoming ‘Glutton For Punishment’ 9 track album, that will be dropping on 7th February via the speedy wunderground imprint. The album combines the propulsive, motorik tendencies of gothic stalwarts, Depeche Mode, with the lyrical dexterity of PJ Harvey and the off-kilter rhythms of LCD Soundsystem into a powerful sonic onslaught that is entirely Heartworms.
“With my EP, people kind of pigeon-holed me into post-punk,” Jojo says. “I was like, ‘Cool, I can do that, but I can also do way more’ – I can do post-punk, but I can also be poppy and catchy, and this album represents that. I think people might be surprised when they hear it.” Purchase options HERE. Check out the lead single ‘Warplane’ from the album HERE.
So how did they manage to achieve this successful rise? Well, the best way to answer this is to refer to our live concert encounters with Heartworms…
We first caught up with Heartworms on 17th January 2022 when they performed at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch, London, we observed that “Heartworms present some interesting post-punk. The singer wears a Che Guevara beret (complete with red star) with considerable conviction. Her vocals have a deadpan delivery and she has a glacial stage presence, although she does turn and flash quick smiles to her bandmates when she thinks that the audience won’t see. The keyboard player uses a theremin, which is a far too rarely used instrument. Heartworms are an interesting band who I feel would reward further investigation”.
Four months later Heartworms then headed on down to Brighton for ‘The Great Escape’ new music festival. We witnessed their performance at The MVT Stage on Brighton beach on 12th May. We reported thus:
“South London-based Heartworms are a gothic post-punk band who I have previously seen gracing the stage of The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch back in January. This is the music project of musician and poet Jojo Orme. On that occasion Jojo seemed incredibly serious, barely cracked a smile, and hardly uttered a word to the audience”.
“What a difference four months makes! This time she remains pretty serious but does smile fairly frequently. The band are punchy, very tight and seems very well drilled. The singer has a strong and pleasantly strident voice when she feels it necessary to increase the volume, however, that doesn’t mean that there is no light and shade. There’s plenty of interesting stuff going on here: lead duties are shared between both guitarists, and a theremin is also employed. Not only do the band sound good but they look so cool as to be on the verge of glacial. One to watch methinks”.
We again caught them headlining at the Green Door Store in Brighton on 22nd March 2023, where our review concluded “If the band manage a similar step change before the next time they return to Brighton, they will truly be a very special band. Frankly they already are”. Heartworms returned to Sussex as part of the ‘Seaview Festival’ which was held on the grounds of the iconic De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea on 8th July 2023 and our account ended “Heartworms gave a really intense, varied and breathtaking performance, which was one of the many Seaview highlights”.
The last time we caught Heartworms was at this year’s ‘Rockaway Beach’ at Butlins, Bognor Regis on 6th January, our account read as thus:
“The next band I see are Heartworms, who are essentially a vehicle for the songs of Jojo Orme. I first saw them fourth on the bill to Grandma’s House at the Old Blue Last in Shoreditch two years ago, as part of that venue’s run of “Hello 2022” gigs. It’s very tempting to say “my, haven’t they grown”, as the self-assured band onstage today bear no comparison to the visibly nervous band of two years previously. The music is gothic post-punk as per the t-shirts that they were selling when I saw them at Shoreditch Village Underground in November. There’s a very definite Gang Of Four influence, along with The Cure and Killing Joke. The band collectively make it clear that this is very serious music. Jojo is very self-assured. As well as vocals she also seems to play most of the lead guitar. She seems to be unfazed by anything. Whilst the crew attend to a problem with the drum kit, she recites some poetry, which turn out to be the lyrics of the next song. There’s no dead airspace anyway. The band more than live up to the promise that they showed two years ago, and they have a theremin, which is a plus point for any band! In all seriousness though, whilst I don’t like to make predictions, I can’t help but feel that Heartworms’ upward trajectory can only get steeper”.
Tickets for the forthcoming Heartworms Brighton concert are available from HERE and HERE.
Support from the Brighton concert will come from the equally excellent She’s In Parties.
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