Jack Antonoff, Sam Dew, & Sounwave Form Red Hearse, Share 2 Tracks
Now here’s an intriguing supergroup for you: Songwriting and production heavyweights Jack Antonoff, Sam Dew, and Sounwave have formed a new trio called Red Hearse and are sharing two songs today. (I can neither confirm nor deny that the band name is inspired by this Onion article from 2013, which is the first thing that came up when I searched “red hearse” on Twitter.)
Antonoff is the Bleachers leader and former Fun. guitarist whose profile has blown up in recent years thanks to his closely collaborative production work for artists including Taylor Swift, Lorde, St. Vincent, and Lana Del Rey. Sounwave, aka Mark Spears, is Top Dawg Entertainment’s in-house production genius with abundant credits for Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, and others on the label — as well as Bleachers and St. Vincent’s Antonoff-produced MASSEDUCTION. Rounding out the lineup is Dew, an artist and songwriter who has collaborated with TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek and who worked with Antonoff on the Taylor Swift/Zayn duet “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.”
Red Hearse’s self-titled debut album will supposedly be out this summer, and for now we get to hear two of its tracks. If I’m hearing it right, Dew, who sang on Wale’s “LoveHate Thing,” handles lead vocals on both, his voice tweaked and manipulated as it arches into falsetto. The better of the two is the digital soul love song “Honey,” which has Dew rejoicing, “We move slow like honey,” and proclaiming, “Whatever you’re servin’ is whatever I want.” They’re also sharing the eponymous “Red Hearse,” an uptempo track with a more pronounced hip-hop influence, which boasts a lot of energy and reminds me of Justin Timberlake.
Hear both songs below.
Red Hearse is out this summer on RCA.