“And then I walked back again like this and said something to him, and he thought I was stupid.
“I saw him in a dark dungeon and I walked past him like this,” reminisces Lo, re-enacting a swift trot past her man. Unsurprisingly – especially considering Ben’s willingness to remain somewhat in the background of Heartsrevolution – it was the singer who made the first move. Leyla Safai and Ben Pollock met checking in and waiting on guests, neither intending to pursue a career in the accommodation industry.
And all of this started in The Standard Hotel, West Hollywood. Franki drums to the sounds wired into his headphones so hard he busts open his fingers. Moross provides backing yelps and the overhead-projected display. Like a Roman candle in a biscuit tin, she fiercely ricochets around come showtime, yelling into a distorted microphone to the thrashy, glitch techno zapping from Ben’s keys and buttons. The four waited patiently for their sound check, quietly taxing the venue’s Wi-Fi on their laptops.īut with a fluoro pink strip of makeup across her eyes comes too Lo’s explosive and mischievous onstage persona. The duo – and only fulltime revolutionaries – came flanked by stand in drummer Franki (usual live sticks-man Prince Terrance otherwise engaged on tour with Santogold) and sometime visuals provider Kate Moross. Along with Ben (Lo’s modest boyfriend, synth-controller and Hearts co-founder), her large opal eyes peeped around the door of the north London boozer for the politest of hellos. Six hours earlier Lo arrived at Camden’s Monarch in an altogether shyer mood. “Where’s my one from you? You owe me one… no, two.” “Do you like my rings?” she then asks excitedly, fanning out her fingers decorated with oversized jewels the type usually found in arcade machines. It’s been five minutes since Lo and her band alighted the Dirty Bingo Vs Loud And Quiet stage and already we’re being pinned against the wall by the tiny singer. Patience, clearly, is worthless in the world of Heartsrevolution. “How come we’ve played your club but not been in the paper yet?” “Loud And Quiet is fucking us in the ass!” spits a neon war-painted Lo in our general direction.