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Mar 08, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Dre Gordon

Your Heart Breaks is the indie pop project of musician and filmmaker Clyde Petersen. Ever since the band started in Bellingham, Washington in 1998, the project has taken a variety of forms, sometimes appearing as a solo project and other times as an expansive musical collective. The consistent throughline is Petersen, who brings an earnest sheen and an ear for textural indie pop hooks that knits the records together.

He returned most recently in 2019 with his 9th full-length album, Drone Butch Blues, and today he’s back with news of his newest album, The Wrack Line, out July 7th via Kill Rock Stars. Petersen’s latest record is one of his more collaborative efforts and sees him pairing with a slew of songwriters and musicians, trading riffs, concepts, and conversations and weaving them into a tapestry of confessional indie pop. Some of these collaborators include Eli Moore, Ashley Eriksson from the band LAKE, and Katherine Paul from Black Belt Eagle Scout. Accompanying the news of the album, Petersen has also shared the record’s lead single, “Wesley Crusher,” featuring Kimya Dawson of Moldy Peaches, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Wesley Crusher” is partially a tightly-written power pop gem and partially a tribute to the titular character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The lyrics draw a throughline from the character’s angst to actor Wil Wheaton’s real-life struggles, eventually arriving in Petersen’s world as a younger Petersen sits in front of the TV longing to beam onto the Starship Enterprise. Petersen laces these reflections into a propulsive instrumental, tinged with distorted guitars, rollicking drums, and catchy pop hooks.

Petersen explains the song’s origins, saying, “In the early 1990’s I lived in Del Mar, California with my schizophrenic mom. I was in junior high school and I loved watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I adored the character of Wesley Crusher and identified with several of his plotlines where it seemed the universe had already chosen his path without his consent. He seemed trapped in life. I felt trapped in life and out of control. I desperately wanted him to beam me up to the Enterprise so we could be friends and do science experiments together.

There is a scene between Guinan and Wesley that always stuck with me. It’s from an episode called “The Child”. Wesley is in Ten Forward. He is staring out into space, lost in thought about his future. Guinan starts questioning him about what he sees out there. He replies with logical scientific names of stellar matter. Guinan asks again, pushing beyond the scientific, to matters of the heart. I loved the gentleness in which Guinan pushed Wesley to ask himself what he truly desired. Though I did not have an ancient alien guiding me through my youth (not that I know of at least), I felt a kinship with the character of Wesley Crusher and always appreciated these moments of self-reflection in popular culture. Thanks to Guinan, I learned to look beyond the logical and ask myself the same question. What did I see in my future?

As the world turned and Wil Wheaton, the actor who portrayed Wesley Crusher, grew to acknowledge publicly that his life as a child star was not a safe or healthy situation, it was interesting to note the parallels to the character he played on TV for so many years, to his lived experience as a child star. Yet another youth, not in control of their life. No wonder it was so easy to relate.”

He continues, saying of the accompanying video, “For this song and music video, I am grateful to have some many talented collaborators and bandmates to both record and cosplay with. You’ll see Kimya Dawson (Moldy Peaches), Katherine Paul (Black Belt Eagle Scout), Karl Freske (Drowsy), Jacob Jaffe, Eli Moore and Ashley Eriksson (LAKE). This is one of the funnest music videos I have ever had the pleasure of creating.”

Check out the song and video below, and pre-save the track here. Your Heart Breaks’ new LP, The Wrack Line, is due out July 7th via Kill Rock Stars.