page_title: The Heart of Me (song)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: The Heart of Me (song) / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Charli XCX at Glastonbury 2015
context_page_description: "The Heart of Me" is a song by Swedish indie pop band Miike Snow from their third studio album, iii. Written and produced by the band, the song was initially issued as a buzz single on 19 February 2016, in anticipation of the album's release. Subsequently, Atlantic Records sent it to alternative radio in the United States on 15 November 2016, as the fourth and final single off the album. Musically, "The Heart of Me" is a synth-laden chillwave song with indie rock elements and emotional lyrics. It features background vocals by English singer Charli XCX.
  "The Heart of Me" received generally positive reviews from music critics, some of whom complimented its upbeat production. The single became Miike Snow's first to lack an accompanying music video. The song is included on the soundtrack for the racing video game Forza Horizon 3. In March 2017, a deep house remix of the track by Dutch DJ duo The Him was released digitally.
context_section_description: "The Heart of Me" was written by Miike Snow's three members, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Andrew Wyatt, for the band's third studio album, iii (2016). Wyatt conceptualized the melody of the song's intro while walking over a bridge in Australia. The recording sessions for the album took place in different studios in California, New York, and Sweden, from 2014 to 2015. In an interview for the Los Angeles Times, Wyatt said he adapted his singing based on the needs of each song throughout the album. He had previously aimed to present a "consistent character" during concerts, which resulted in the band's second studio album Happy to You (2012) holding a "more uniform sound". For iii, Wyatt switched focus to his performance in the studio rather than on stage, which resulted in a "lighter, airier quality" to his voice on "The Heart of Me". He said he learned a lot about how he wanted to sing and "how the softer you sing the bigger it sounds". 
  English singer Charli XCX, who contributed guest vocals on the album track "For U", provided background vocals on the song alongside Winnberg and Wyatt. The two previously worked with the singer on her album Sucker (2014), for which Wyatt sang background vocals on two tracks. "The Heart of Me" and other album tracks include sections of computerized vocals. Karlsson explained in an interview for Electronic Musician that "I never like any vocal when it just sounds like a normal vocal. Ever. Sometimes I feel like I spend 50 percent of my time on the treatment of the vocals and 50 percent of the time I spend on the rest of the song." The live instruments in "The Heart of Me" were played by Winnberg, Wyatt, and Homer Steinweiss. The band handled its production, engineering with S. Vaughan Merrick, and mixing with Niklas Flyckt. Digital mastering was performed by Kevin Grainger.
caption: Charli XCX provided background vocals on the song.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2015:06:29 20:31:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2314", "Image XPKeywords": "[103, 0, 108, 0, 97, 0, 115, 0, 116, 0, 111, 0, 110, 0, 98, 0, 117, 0, 114, 0, 121, 0, 32, 0, 50, 0, 48, 0, 49, 0, 53, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9158", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5070", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity and Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:06:29 20:31:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:06:29 20:31:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "213/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "26/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4000", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "3000", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8962", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "4000000/293", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "150000/11", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4168"}