SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

WRITTEN BY AUTUMN MARTIN

PROTECT YOUR HEART RELEASES BREATHTAKING NEW SINGLE, "CLOSER TO THE GRAVE"

    A new pop-punk band from Los Angeles, California, Protect Your Heart, recently premiered their music video for “Closer To The Grave” on July 23rd. The band labels themselves as “pop-punk with breakdowns” on their Instagram, and their music is exactly what you would think it sounds like based on that description. It’s fun, punk music with pop melodies, and the occasional snippet of a typical metalcore sound, which can be heard with their newest single “Closer To The Grave”.    

Protect Your Heart has only recently started to release music. In 2018, members Jake Bratrude, Anthony Palazzole, and Kean Bartelman, who knew each other from their local DJ/dance music community, came together to experiment with a pop-punk project. A couple years later Matty McDonald was added as their vocalist, then completing the band. What was supposed to be a three song experiment turned into a full-length album, and a whole band emerging into a different type of music scene.

Unfortunately, Matty was only added to the band right before the global pandemic of 2020 happened, halting the band’s debut. They used their time to write and record their music, which all lead up to their first release on July 25th, 2021 for their single “Don’t Count Me Out”. It was released on the three year anniversary of them conceptualizing the band back in 2018. Protect Your Heart are officially able to dive into the world of music since their set back of 2020 and release music, like their newest music video for “Closer To The Grave”.  

Protect Your Heart’s music video for their second single, “Closer To The Grave”, features the band playing in an almost empty room, except for polaroids scattered on a table in front of them. The scene often switches to them on the rooftop of a building drinking and having fun, and flashes of the people captured on the polaroids appear throughout the video.  

Lyrically the song is pretty simple, and that is to live life to the fullest because you never know when it’s going to be your last day. Essentially, you have to always do what you want/love to do, and like the song says, “don’t be afraid to make your magic ‘cause we’re all getting closer to the grave”.

For the band, that magic and strive for life is of course playing music. The end of the music video transitions to a Protect Your Heart live performance, and them sharing their music with a crowd of people.

Protect Your Heart showed motivation by continuing to pursue music and re-introduce themselves into the pop-punk world by producing an album even if they had to wait to play. If you like pop-punk music, help a band new to the scene by supporting them through social media and listening to their music. 
Their next single, “Best Of Me”, will be available on September 24th.