The Wandering Hearts talk Robert Plant, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and returning to Birmingham ahead of their second city show

The Wandering Hearts have been taking the world of country music by storm - they were discovered less than half an hour after they uploaded their debut single to SoundCloud, and have gone on to play shows across the world, and gather legions of fans in the process.

Now, the quartet are embarking on their debut headline tour, and it comes to Birmingham’s Hare and Hounds on Wednesday.

“It's going to be great going back to Birmingham. Tara and I have a lot of links to Birmingham, and I used to play the Hare and Hounds a lot,” says vocalist Tim Prottey-Jones

“We’ll be playing most of the new album live, and it will probably be the longest set we’ve ever had to do.

“We’re just going to take you on a journey. There will be sections of full band work, audience participation, and stripping it right back down to a single guitar and four voices, which is really what got us together in the first place.”

Both Tim and fellow vocalist Tara Wilcox have a lot of links to the local area. Tara and her family moved to Edgbaston when she was a baby, later living in Moseley.

She went to Edgbaston High and Sutton Coldfield Girls School, and sang with the Birmingham Opera Company when she was a child, then the City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus.

Tim grew up in Droitwich Spa, attending Droitwich High School and the University of Wolverhampton. Whilst living in Edgbaston, he sold advertising space on roundabouts around Coventry and worked for a community music charity in Digbeth, working with young offenders and at risk children.

They are both excited to return to the local area, and attend some of their favourite local haunts.

“The band will probably stay in their cool hotels and I’ll be with my family two minutes from the Hare and Hounds!” Tara told us.

“Tim and I love Birmingham, Tim and his wife and I always come back and see our families here.

“Its an incredible city, we both really miss it, so we’ll be seeing as much of it as we can.”

This tour is the first that the London-based quartet have embarked upon, with their Hare and Hounds date being the first to sell out.

The response they have received has been incredible, with the band meeting unlikely fans along the road.

“The reception we have had, as a whole and over this tour, has been overwhelming.Tim had a taxi driver yesterday singing one of our songs. ” Tara told us.

“We’re really big in the Uber world,” Tim laughed.

The pair are notably excited to return to their hometowns, yet feel the nerves so much more when it comes to local shows.

“The differences between hometown shows and shows elsewhere can vary,” Tim said.

“We played the Town Hall last year which is a very lovely, respectable and polite venue where everyone sits down.

“Then you play places like The Flapper and the Hare and Hounds, where you have loads of people in your face and on their feet dancing.

“That can happen in any city really, but I definitely think the nerves kick in that little bit more when you have a hometown show.”

Tara agrees, adding that: “I feel the nerves more, but the pay-off is like nothing else you can imagine when you play a hometown show.”

This string of shows comes in celebration of the band’s debut album, Wild Silence, being released on February 9.

The writing and recording process of Wild Silence was a massive learning curve for the band, and the pay-off has been more than worth it.

“We wrote around 60 songs for the album, and had to narrow it down to 12, so you can imagine the diversity amongst all the songs!” Tim said.

“Picking the right songs was a massive part of the process. We were passionate about every song we had come up with, so we relied a lot on our producer and our management to guide us.

“The actual recording process was wonderful. We tried a few different ways of recording, like recording all at the same time, and separately to really focus on what we all do individually, which was quite a bit learning curve for us.

“We’re so excited and happy with the final product.”

Despite releasing their record less than two weeks ago, The Wandering Hearts have already jumped straight back into the saddle and continued the writing process, ready for record number two.

“We just don’t stop writing!” Tara laughed. “Because there’s four of us and there’s so many ideas floating around, writing has helped us bond how we have.

“We work in one of those environments where you can’t hold things back, and we always bare all.

“We’ve been so lucky in that the songs we’ve put out so far. They’re quite different, which is freeing when we are writing.

“We can have fun, try things out, and not just write things that fit under one umbrella.”

The Wandering Hearts were formed in 2016, after a chance meeting miles away from their homes, brought Tara and Tim together.

“We were both doing a show separately and ended up chatting about our influences and what we wanted to do musically,” Tim said.

“This mostly centred around group singing, harmonies and an acoustic vibe. Because of that we decided we needed more singers, and we wanted that blend of male and female vocals.

“We were introduced to the other two members, A.J. Dean and Francesca ‘Chess’ Whiffin, through mutual friends who thought we’d get along.

“We all had similar influences and opinions, and we just gave it a go! We went straight to writing original music, which was brave, when we could have just covered Fleetwood Mac.

“Everything was really relaxed, and fit into place immediately.”

Going under the name The Paper Hearts, the group recorded two demo songs, Today Is Ours and Sunshine, which they uploaded to SoundCloud.

This led to a flurry of immediate interest, and the band were discovered by Decca Records less than half an hour later.

Within a month, they had been invited to audition for Decca, who signed them on the spot. They changed their name to The Wandering Hearts, and their monumental career began.

“We didn’t go into the band thinking that we would manufacture something that would be desirable to a label, we were just tired of not being creatively fulfilled,” Tara told us.

“We all felt like we had known each other forever, and the first practice was perfect.

"The second rehearsal Tim had wrote a beautiful song and we recorded it, it was quite rushed, and we just put it out there.

“We didn't think it was a big deal, we did it so we could go back and listen to it, and our now-manager messaged Tim 26 minutes later, saying he thought it was really interesting and asking to meet.

“We were very doubtful of this random man called Steve who wanted to meet us, but he was a real person!

“He supported us and introduced us to Decca, who are the most incredible label.

“It all happened so quickly, we were all still getting to know each other when we were signed.”

From sudden beginnings to global success, an amazing 2017 filled with high-profile shows and recording, culminated with The Wandering Hearts being awarded the Bob Harris Emerging Artist Award at the AMA Awards.

The band also played the award ceremonies’ closing, a tribute to music icon Tom Petty, with the likes of Robert Plant, Imelda May, Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons, and more.

“The award nomination came after we had just released our second single Devil, and we were riding on that because it had been on Radio 2 and garnered a lot of interest,” Tim told us.

“Then the Bob Harris sessions popped into our calendars, which was our first moment of ‘oh, that’s a really big deal’.

“We had listened to Bob Harris when we were growing up. I don’t know how much he knew about us before going in, and the session did really well, I think that's what brought us together.

“We kept in contact with him after he showed such a kind and generous interest.

“To do the awards ceremony in Hackney Empire was so special. To be nominated for, receive an award, and play a closing song as a tribute to Tom Petty with the likes of Robert Plant, Imelda May and Mumford and Sons, and more, was such an honour.

“It was surreal and I don’t think it'll ever be something we get used to.”

As well as being honours to be involved with the awards, the band were thrilled to be around Midlands music icon Robert Plant, and chat to him about his musical success.

“It was amazing to meet Robert Plant, although unfortunately we didn’t bond over football,” Tim laughed.

“I’m sorry to say I don’t follow Wolves. I went to university in Wolverhampton, but I’m a Liverpool supporter!

“Steve Bull came and handed Robert Plant his award on the night, which was really special.

“I met Robert Plant once before, I brought a cup of tea next to him in Selly Oak. To now share a stage with him in Hackney was really surreal.

“He spoke to us a lot which was incredible, he told us how he hadn’t found his true voice until 50 years after he started, and now he has found this new way of performing that he loves.”

The Wandering Hearts enjoyed brushing shoulder with a lot of musical royalty, at 2017’s British Summertime shows at London’s Hyde Park.

The band played alongside Stevie Nicks, The Lumineers, Tom Petty and The Heartbreaks, and more at the annual event.

“When anyone ever asks us what has been the highlight of our career, it is the British Summertime show,” Tara said.

“We got to open the Barclaycard stage as everyone was coming through the main entrance. When we started our set there were a few people watching us, and by the end the stage was packed.

“Stevie Nicks blew me a kiss as well!” Tim told us. “She was being driven past in a golf buggy and blew me a kiss. That made my day!”

“That was Tom Petty’s last European date as well before he passed away,” Tara added.

“It was so incredible to see him. We felt so lucky to receive such an opportunity.”

Despite already playing with such huge names, The Wandering Hearts still have a few acts on their musical bucket list.

“There’s loads of artists we’d love to play with, but I think we could all agree that to play with Chris Stapleton would be a dream,” Tara says.

“We talk about him at almost every interval, he is definitely the one. If we could do any collaborations that would be life-changing.”

“Then, bands like Fleetwood Mac, I don’t know how many more tours they are planning on doing but any support slots would blow our mind,” Tim added.

“We’d love to play with people like Jack Savoretti, Little Big Town, Mumford and Sons. Anyone really, we’re not fussy, do you know anyone who will have us?”

The phenomenon that is The Wandering Hearts has snowballed faster than anyone could imagine. From uploaded a rough demo at their second band practice, to playing festivals across the UK and embarking on their first headline tour in a mere two years.

But what is it that makes the band so endearing? Tara and Tim believe it is because their lyrics connect with people, and bridge generational gaps within music.

“We’re not fresh out of high school, we’ve had a lot of life experience, and we try and use that in our lyrics,” Tim told us.

“I think people connect with that, but I think it's also the age gap we can spread across.

“We can appeal to people discovering this music for the first time, and feel like this is a brand new style of music, as well as those who are reminded of bands such as Fleetwood Mac and other 70s artists.

“We’re not trying to fight pop music, we love pop music, but we’re trying to go back to basics in regards to songs and structures.

“We’re essentially just singing the stuff that we love to hear in music, choruses and catchy moments, and hopefully that is getting across to other people.”

The Wandering Hearts play Birmingham’s Hare and Hounds on February 21.

For more information and to buy tickets, click here.