INTERVIEW: Your Heart Breaks Works Hard to Build Space For All Fans
With the release of their monumental The Wrack Line, Your Heart Breaks (a.k.a. Clyde Petersen) demonstrates their careful observation of a life well-lived. The song is a collection of collaborations, chronicling Petersen’s misadventures in the freak fold world. Petersen is also an accomplished filmmaker, and in our interview they share how these interests — combined with their activism — work to create a one-of-a-kind experience at their shows: one where everyone can feel welcomed.
Is there a professional “bucket list” item you would love to check off?
I would love to run a 24-hour arthouse cinema that screens experimental films, public access shows, old music videos and guest submitted content. I would like it be a place where bands could spontaneously live soundtrack films or someone could drop in with a VHS tape and project it on the big screen immediately, where you could come by at all hours to watch surprising and unexpected films.
What’s the first concert you ever attended? What do you remember about it?
Whitney Houston, the tour after The Bodyguard film came out. It was wild. I was 11 years old. Someone was very drunk and was trying to jump off the balcony before the show and security had to sneak up on them and pull them off the edge. They spilled their beer on my head. Whitney was obviously amazing.
Where are some places you’ve found joy within the country/Americana world?
As a kid, Garth Brooks was my all-time favorite musician, and despite the fake industry-created feud, I also liked Clint Black. But I grew up in San Diego and Seattle during grunge and no one else I knew listened to Garth Brooks. Even though he is one of the world’s top-selling artists, people treated me like an absolute freak for liking him on the West Coast. His lyrical storytelling and dramatic productions absolutely informed my own songwriting and I still love him. My favorite songs are “Lonesome Dove” and what I consider an underdog of his collection, “Wolves”. I was in a Garth Books cover band for a while. We were called Ropin’ the Wind. I still love alot of 90’s country. Trisha is always welcome on my stereo. I saw Lee Ann Womack live a few years ago a it was dream come true.
Does your album have an overarching theme?
The Wrack Line is a collection of 19 new songs that are almost all collaborations written with friends from around the world in 2020-2021. I’d say the theme is community, digging through the past, examining emotions, unearthing new ideas and saying goodbye to old narratives. A lot of the songs are stories about queer people or punk community, our collective history, looking at the ways we went right or wrong, the complexity of humanity and questions about why we keep recreating broken systems.
How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
I am very invested in accessible community show spaces. I have been a part of running several all-ages DIY spaces and have actively worked to combat ableism in these spaces. I make sure they have wheelchair accessible ramps for the entryways, accessible gender neutral bathrooms and access info posted for all events, as well as hosting donation-based events with no one turned away for lack of funds. I use a lot of my energy on ramps. I even wrote a guest verse about the proper rise to run ratio for ramps in the Kimya Dawson song, “Thunder Rolls”. You can listen to that here and learn how to build a proper ramp.
