Heart and Mouth’s album, Heart in Mouth, is an alt-folk album with eleven tracks that resist settling into a single emotional or sonic space. Instead, the album moves between intimacy and distortion, creating something that feels both solid and unsettled at the same time.
Built through collaboration between Flynn and Soren Bryce, the album carries traces of different musical histories and approaches to songwriting, along with a willingness to let the songs evolve beyond their original form.
In this seventh Creative Spotlight conversation, Flynn reflects on the duality at the center of Heart in Mouth, the role of instinct in both writing and production, and how collaboration helped shape the project into something layered, dynamic, and ever-changing.
This interview has been edited for clarity and flow.
Originally published on Creating Romancivity.
At its core, Heart in Mouth exists in contrast. The project doesn’t choose between clarity and distortion, or structure and unpredictability. Instead, it holds both at once, which becomes a defining characteristic of the sound.
Heart in Mouth is described as something that sits between folk and something much harsher/more fractured. How did that duality become the foundation of the project?
FM: For me, it started from growing up playing bass in alt-rock / math-rock bands. Upon starting this project, I wrote many of the songs on acoustic guitar, which can be quite limiting sonically. During the recording process, we wanted to re-channel a lot of that initial inspiration.
That sense of duality doesn’t just define the sound of the record, but the experience of it. When asked, “What do you hope people feel after listening to your album for the first time?” Flynn’s answer is simple: “I hope that they are left in a different place within their head from before listening to the album.”
His answer is direct and straight-to-the-point in a way that contrasts with the lyrics heard across the album, which don’t always feel like they’re trying to explain something directly.
In I’ve Been, there’s a line about writing (“heavy ink from my mind”) that made me wonder: how much of your songwriting is about processing versus documenting?
FM: It really varies if I am being honest. I guess a healthy dose of both!
That looseness in approach carries into how meaning is constructed across the album. Not everything is overthought or overly structured!
And can you tell me a little about the story behind the title track?
FM: Having spent three days deep diving into the other tracks on the album, we decided to take a little break and have some fun. Soren made a beat, and I wrote some words, and we had the title track in 30 minutes!
With I Spy, the line “I feel it escaping me, and that is good” is really interesting! Would you like to break down some of the lyrics in this track?
FM: It was written whilst sitting by the window in my old flat in Shepherds Bush. I had a great view of a music venue, a pretty trendy bar, and a mosque. I didn’t think too much about the lyrics, rather, was just writing whilst people watching!
If the writing of Heart in Mouth leans into instinct, the production expands it. The album’s sound is built through layering, experimentation, and a tendency to reshape ideas long after their initial creation.
Which song’s production would you say is your favorite, and why?
FM: I would have to say I Spy. I really like all of the texture and layers; I think it really helps lift the song.
Were there any specific sounds, textures, or recording techniques that became defining elements of the album while you were working on it?
FM: Yes, a lot of the vocal textures are analog; for example, we used a radio speaker mic on a lot of tracks. DIY 🙂
That focus on texture shows up again in how certain songs evolve over time, sometimes starting as something casual before becoming fully realized through production.
I’m really in love with TalkTalk’s production! Can you tell me a bit about how the song came together?
FM: After a great dinner at Middle Farm, we decided to have a jam and record it. At the time, it was fun, but we didn’t think anything of it. That is, until we were mixing, and Soren decided to reopen the file. From there, we pitched it down, recorded about 5 different layers of vocals, and the track made its way onto the record.
How did the collaboration between you and Soren come together, and what does each of you naturally bring into the sound that the other might not?
FM: We met when her band, Tummyache, needed a dep bassist for a show at the Shacklewell Arms. A friend put me forward for it, and we hit it off. After that, Soren invited me down to Middle Farm to record some of my own tracks, and the rest is history! Soren tends to handle a lot of the production, texture, and atmospheric side of things, whereas I tend to stick to the songwriting and lyric side of things. However, these lines are very blurred.
That lack of rigid boundaries carries directly into the album, where songwriting and production continuously shape each other. The result is a project that feels like it embraces uncertainty, allowing each track to exist as its own evolving piece within a larger, shifting whole.
Heart in Mouth by Heart and Mouth is out now.
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