JOJO ORME: ‘HEARTWORMS IS AN EXAGGERATED VERSION OF ME’
Back at the beginning of March, the VOCAL GIRLS team spent an afternoon at home with Heartworms’ Jojo Orme, ahead of the release of her hotly-anticipated debut EP, A Comforting Notion. In between outfit changes and rolls of film, we sat down and got to know the person beyond the uniform.
Photographs by Megan Graye, styling by Dani Murden
“I feel like I can get on with an aeroplane more than a person”, smiles Jojo Orme, the vocalist, guitarist, and creative force behind Heartworms. “When I clean aircraft at [London museum] RAF Hendon, I feel like the happiest person on Earth. I know they’re an object, but it’s like they’re alive”. We’re at Orme’s home in South London, chatting as the VOCAL GIRLS team joyfully rummage through her wardrobe and sketch out plans for the shoot. Despite only moving in a month ago, even a cursory glance around illustrates Orme’s demonstrable passion for aviation and military history - from the hand-drawn aircraft blueprints in the office, to the Spitfire-emblazoned mug of tea she hands me as we settle onto the sofa. Originally falling in love with the subject during “a very dark time”, she explains how it soon became “grounding and weirdly therapeutic”, and hasn’t looked back since.
Though an interest that is stereotypically more associated with working men’s clubs than the independent music scene, a militaristic aesthetic has become synonymous with Heartworms’ driving, Gothic post-punk since the release of the project’s remarkable 2022 debut single, ‘Consistent Dedication’. As those who’ve been party to a Heartworms live show can attest, Orme cuts a striking figure performing in vintage army jackets and berets. “The Clash and the big punk bands did it, and somehow people accepted that”, she says of these sartorial choices. “When I’ve done it, some guys are like ‘hmm, it’s a bit disrespectful’. I’m not the only one who’s worn these things, but when a female’s doing something, it’s just…”, she trails off and rolls her eyes. “It’s ridiculous”.
But, with the full EP coming hot off the back of her recent stint as SXSW, Orme asserts that “the military fashion thing” is just one facet of what she envisions for Heartworms: “I’m experimenting with clothes - I kind of want to go all Vivienne Westwood style and just have some fun with it”. This is music to our stylists’ ears as the two of them pull together looks incorporating safety pins, mesh tulle, and uneven hemlines. Orme shares that this will be the first Heartworms shoot in which she’s worn a dress, “which is pretty cool”. Demonstrating that women can be simultaneously steely and vulnerable, feminine and commanding, her’s is a project that’s ready to take flight on its own terms.
“All the things I’m doing are things that I used to be afraid of”, says Orme. From cutting her hair to plunging into an icy lake for the ‘Retributions of an Awful Life’ single video, there’s an element of character construction around Heartworms that has allowed her to challenge herself, both physically and emotionally. “Heartworms is what I want to be in real life, but it’s not acceptable”, she nods. “I think it’s pushing the limits of everything I’ve ever thought - it is me, but it’s a very exaggerated version of me”. In contrast to the raw physicality of the ‘Retributions’ video, the visual for EP closer ‘24 Hours’ taps into something more psychological. Set in a school, Orme aimed to capture the trauma and turbulence she felt in that environment as a teenager. “It was horrible. Obviously there were certain good things about school, but I just wanted it to be over”, she explains. “A girl punched me when I was at a party, and she broke my nose. I never told the director [Gilbert Trejo] about it, but then he said ‘I have this idea where you have a bloody nose’, and it was fitting”.
Personal though they are, A Comforting Notion’s 4 tracks by no means spoon-feed the listener. Orme’s feelings on relationships and past experiences are refracted through a poetic prism, and she explains how metaphor - particularly the use of war imagery - allows her to be lyrically vulnerable without total transparency. “I sing a lot about my mum”, she says. “A lot of it is based on unconditional love - when you love someone so much, but [it’s partly] because they’re your family, [so] there’s an obligation to”. This exploration of relational complexity is a common thread weaving Orme’s work into a larger literary tapestry; she cites Keats, Pound, and Thomas as key poetic touchstones, and during the shoot I notice Wuthering Heights, Little Women, and The Bell Jar nestled amongst the many titles on her groaning bookshelf. “Sylvia Plath introduced me to [the concept of] bringing out humour in darkness”, says Orme. “Understanding the lowest of low, but then creating a world out of it and just seeing it in a prettier way. Not glamourising it or anything,” she pauses, “but sometimes it’s quite comforting to know that someone else felt that way too”.
One of the pleasures of spending an afternoon at Orme’s flat (besides Jammy Dodgers and really nice breadsticks) is the inherent ease of the setting, away from the characteristic intensity of her Heartworms performance. Thoughtful, but quick to laugh, she occasionally breaks poise during the shoot to pull a face at the camera or grin widely, revealing a flash of silver on one canine in doing so. There’s moments of self-deprecation - “I can’t fucking spell to save my life” - but also an underlying, steady confidence in herself and her work. Talking about the building anticipation around A Comforting Notion, Orme affirms that “[this] is exactly how much expectation I had for what I wrote. I sent it to one record label, and they weren’t really going to put loads of funding behind it. But you know your art’s worth; you’re putting your heart and soul into it”.
Sticking to her guns paid off, as it wasn’t long before Heartworms was picked up by revered tastemakers Speedy Wunderground: “I was afraid to send [the EP] to Speedy because I didn’t want the rejection, because I love them too much”, Orme says earnestly. Knowing the label and the people behind it better than most, what does she think it is about Speedy which inspires such a fervent following? “Dan [Carey] really respects that I like to do it mostly myself. He likes to just be with the artists, and properly collaborate”, she answers, speaking with a genuine fondness. “I feel like they’ve broken a lot of rules that I thought weren’t supposed to be broken. It’s incredible - [their records are] made with this love and passion, not science”.
The same could easily be said of Heartworms’ output - perhaps why the label and the project were a natural fit. Though a confident and cohesive collection of tracks, Orme discusses how A Comforting Notion is an amalgamation of multiple influences: Depeche Mode and The Cure, yes, but also “artists that are very unexpected, like Aldous Harding or The Shins. I’ve been through so many phases of music - a jazz phase, a dubstep phase,” she pauses, cringing, “pop-punk, everything under the sun. And all of it’s in my brain”. In practice, listeners may not detect elements of Skrillex or Blink-182 (perhaps for the best), but it’s clear Orme has a penchant for subverting expectations. Showcasing that she’s as comfortable with soft, innocent articulation (‘24 Hours’) as she is haunting, Siouxsie Sioux-esque vocals (‘A Comforting Notion’), the parameters of Heartworms’ distinctive dark sound are only widened by this debut EP.
Earlier in our conversation, I suggest to Orme that perhaps she finds solace in aircraft because of their precision engineering - such detail and orderliness in the midst of external chaos. “That’s it, you’ve nailed it”, she smiles. “There’s something about the order, the creation, the history. It’s beautiful. And sometimes the imperfection is beautiful - from being at war, for example”. Like the Spitfires she cleans at RAF Hendon or the blueprints she pores over, Orme's first extended release is a product of painstaking effort, a few battle scars, and, well, consistent dedication. As a project, Heartworms is simultaneously performative and deeply personal - an exercise in self-definition that gives Orme the armour to step into whoever she chooses to be next.
