Alt-Pop duo Hooked Like Helen released their new single ‘Tear This Place Apart’ on 26 April, from their upcoming EP, Tragedy Of Physics set for release on 31st May via Stipp Manor Music. The album was co-produced alongside Grammy award-winning mixer, engineer and producer Isha Erskine who has credits on the works of Ziggy Marley, Maroon 5 and Black Eyed Peas.
Hooked Like Helen is the husband and wife duo of Nikki and Jonathan Stipp. Together they craft their songs from their humble home in the woods just outside of Cleveland. Using the collection of outdated recording equipment left to Jon by his uncle, the two shaped their sound around the blend of organic and electronic production.
The duo twists their idiosyncratic brand of alt-pop into a power ballad on ‘Tear This Place Apart’ and allow Nikki’s vocal intensity to boil over into cathartic exultation. The track offers lyrics about the agonies and ecstasies of love, impeccably underpinned by a soundscape that reaches nuclear-threat levels, thanks to Nikki’s voice. Piano hooks, intricate, rhythmic bass lines, and epic, driving drums carry the track through the subject matter, but with an underlying groove and a constant sense of pop.
Speaking of the track, Hooked Like Helen said: “Being married to your musical partner is a gift that we wholeheartedly embrace, but there are times when the dynamic can get a little intense! ‘Tear This Place Apart’ is an artistic reflection of the moments of total chaos between us. We are completely entrenched in each other’s creativity and psyches, and there is really no line between life and art for us; this track is the expression of our tension and also the thing that mends us and brings us closer.”
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