Coming through as a stellar debut, with striking CGI sci-fi artwork by Luke Nugent and David Oldenburg, Heart Failure Deluxe offsets energetic dance anthems like “Annihilation” and “Playboy” with queer rave moments in “Dreams (Nightmare Mix)” and slinky pop numbers “Rains”, “Angel” and “All I Want” for a highly cohesive, polished body of work. Shining further across queer rave entries like “Body Talk 2.0” and “Giving Me Love”, the dance-pop of “On and On” is helmed with SpotifyPride cover artist Tsatsamis for a genre-bending experience.
After a viral cover of Sylvester’s ‘70s disco classic “You Make Me Feel” with Solardo (2M+ streams), lead single “Leave Him” offers an irresistible concoction of retro guitar licks, dramatic synth moments and sassy vocal growls, whereas final single “Crush” explores the rush of intimacy across punching drums and jagged synths.
Turning heads with gender-fluid, high-fashion femme looks, COMANAVAGO – consisting of Ben Dunkerley (they/them) and Gabriel Swarbrick (he/she/they) – have begun generating considerable buzz amongst those ‘in the know’ across London’s underground community, with the duo flying the flag for those who choose to unapologetically live honestly – with press support for the duo coming in hot from the likes of Attitude Magazine, Rolling Stone, ENFNTS TERRIBLES, Official Charts, CULTR, The Q Review and Yass Magazine, as well as Jack Saunders on his BBC Radio 1 Future Sounds show.
LISTEN TO ‘Heart Failure Deluxe’ HERE
Tell us about your story as an artist.
Ben and Gabriel met at University, living in the same halls, doing the same Creative Music Technology degree and started writing experimental music together. It was when they discovered a shared love of making great pop music that COMANAVAGO was truly born. From there, a world of visual exploration and live performance emerged amongst pop songs with a huge personality.
What do you think is the most important aspect of your lives right now?
Figuring out what’s next on the COMANAVAGO agenda – we’re plotting away…
What makes this album release special in your opinion?
It feels very singular and unique. Heart Failure is a real work trying to explore the initial stages of a break-up and difficulties in relationships that everyone experiences in their lifetime. Behind that lens, we also celebrate Queerness and the artistic expression that often overlooks queerness. Expansive projects made up of absolute Queerness like this don’t come around very often. We’re really proud that we get to do that.
Why did you decide to re-release the album?
Heart Failure deserved a lot more attention (even though the attention we did get at initial release was really special and positive). Now that we’re on a label, it was an opportunity to give those songs a second life on a bigger stage and to give them some fabulous new friends.
What inspired the album title?
‘Rains’ was one of the first tracks written for the album and the line “Put a shower over my heart failure” was a favourite of ours; Ben had originally named the beat “shower” and Gabriel likes to work the bad title of the original demo into the final project. When it came to deciding on a direction and a title for the project, it was clear these songs were – a lot of the time – about heartbreak; the songs that weren’t were very intense, high energy songs that we were hoping might put some audiences in a (metaphorical) hospital. ‘Heart Failure’ turned up as a potential title very early on and it felt correct. It covers all those feelings really well. It’s provocative too – people double take reading it.
What are some of the core messages in the album?
It’s a real journey through heartbreak and being a person who feels lonely or different; the intensity and sadness of being jilted, seeing where you could have done better with a person who hadn’t meant to hurt you; being young and unsure and making mistakes. There’s lots of sad lyrical themes running through the album, but then there are moments of real joy and feeling beautiful and sexy and attractive, because you have to give people light and shade in pop music. This all gets put through a Queer viewpoint too. There’s no hiding of pronouns or flamboyance. It’s an album about finding yourself and being it. So there’s a lot of these gay heartbreak records but also a lot of Queer sexy anthems to give the younger gays out there some hope: it’s not all doom and gloom!
Tell us about the concept behind the album artwork.
We asked Luke Nugent to create something really bizarre and cool. We sent him lots of references, like The Matrix movies and Born This Way’s Album art, and he and David Oldenburg created a really gorgeous monster. It’s quite hard to tell the story of ‘Heart Failure Deluxe’ in one picture, so instead we just wanted to have a really striking image to get people to lean in and listen to it!
How do you think Tik Tok and social media are contributing to an artist’s career?
It feels like a way an artist can bring you in a bit closer and show you their personality and process. At least it has for us. It gives you the ability as an artist to show people how you make things and glimpses of projects in the works, but you can also show people how you dress and the looks you’re aiming for in a fun way. You can show them songs you like and things you enjoy. You can also make silly jokey Tik Toks to get your fans accustomed to your sense of humour as a band. It’s often something we really connect with some of our favourite artists on because you feel like the two of you would be friends.
What’s next for COMANAVAGO?
Pop domination! We want you to hear us everywhere until you get sick!
