New Music: Head Full of Stars – Burning Hearts

William Bernhard’s Head Full of Stars project incorporates some unexpected musical and emotional references on Burning Hearts.

The track’s outer boundaries are defined by loss, yet it isn’t a funereal ode or lamentation. Bernhard mentions that he was influenced by Low’s The Great Destroyer – itself an album touched by grief, yet not burdened with it.

Coming to terms with that is a gradual process, and that is hinted at in the lyrics, as he sings of seeing a loved one in ‘lost keys and scattered rings,’ something those of us that have grieved can identify with.

It’s a slow coming to terms, learning to live, an aspect that can equally be heard in the soft touches in the arrangement, neo-psychedelia and 80s/early 90s alt-rock, the perfect vehicle for Bernhard’s delicately woven tale of remembrance.

“2025 was a rough year for me,” says Bernhard, who was previously a member of Seattle psychedelic outfit Sky Cries Mary. “I lost people who were dear to me, including my mother and the first person I ever fell in love with. The week after my mom passed away, I wrote the main body of this song, and the lyrics followed shortly after. While the context may be driven by grief, there is joy in the expression we captured in this recording.”

Burning Hearts and the April mini-compilation After & Before are available to download on Bandcamp and stream on Spotify. Keep in the loop with Head Full of Stars on Instagram for upcoming releases and artist news.