Cleverly blending 1960s and 1970s pop influences with modern indie rock textures, Blue Skies for Black Hearts originated when Portland, Oregon songwriter, recording engineer, and producer Pat Kearns assembled the project. Kearns, whose engineering and production work had previously supported the Dandy Warhols, the Exploding Hearts, and the Clorox Girls, had spent years performing in various garage rock ensembles and initially launched the BSFBH name simply to house songs he had written and recorded alone. On the group’s debut release, the 2002 album This Black Heart Is Gonna Break, Kearns handled guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, and lead vocals, while also welcoming contributions from several Portland players, among them drummer Jean Paul Ramos, who later joined the first touring lineup.
By the time the band tracked its second album, Turn the Light Out, BSFBH had solidified into a full ensemble featuring Kearns on guitar and vocals, Ramos on drums and bass, Mike Lewis of the Very Foundation on guitars, vocals, and keyboards, Kelly Simmons of Man of the Year on bass and vocals, and Ratch Aronica on keyboards and vocals. The King of Hearts label, based in Portland, issued Turn the Light Out in mid-2006. Several months afterward, romantic tensions between Kearns and Aronica, who had been partners, along with creative disagreements between Kearns and Ramos, prompted personnel shifts that removed both Aronica and Ramos from the roster.
Kearns, Lewis, and Simmons then recruited multi-instrumentalist Matthew Morgan, bassist Colin Jarrell, drummer Alan Mansfield of the Nice Boys, and backing vocalist Gabe Lageson, also of the Nice Boys, to capture Love Is Not Enough, which they completed across two weekends and released in October 2006. By 2008 the group had settled into a stable four-piece configuration when Kearns, Lewis, and Simmons added drummer and vocalist Paul Noel of Durango Park. That spring they issued Serenades and Hand Grenades; Simmons characterized it as “the first real band record even though it’s the fourth Blue Skies record. It was full steam ahead from here.”
In 2011 Blue Skies for Black Hearts established their own imprint, Super Big Ltd., and delivered their fifth album, Embracing the Modern Age, the first recorded with an unchanged lineup from the prior release. The band also appeared in a short film sharing the same title, a rock & roll comedy scripted by Simmons and directed by Jonathan Griffin.
