London’s Nishant Joshi is an artist whose activism and push for social change not only extends to his music with band KILL, THE ICON!, but literally in his day to day life. As an NHS doctor, Joshi led the charge for protecting fellow frontline workers during the Covid pandemic with legal action to enforce better use of personal protective equipment. The winning outcome helped to changed the medical landscape in the UK.

With their forthcoming debut EP Your Anger Is Rational out June 2nd via Blaggers Records, KILL, THE ICON! have released their new single Heavy Heart’. Fusing the sounds of dance, synth, and punk, the song deals with the climate pertaining to race relations in present day England.

Touching on the inspiration of the single, Nishant Joshi mentioned:

“I was faced with racial slurs when I was younger, but nobody has uttered a racial epithet to my face for many years. But, I know the racists who existed in the 90s are still alive and well. They didn’t die out all of a sudden, and neither did their ideas. So, the point of this song is that everyone acknowledges that racists exist. But nobody will ever admit to being racist – so where did they all go? My answer is that they all wear disguises: as politicians, right-wing journalists, and talking heads for shady think-tanks. The brazen racism has retreated into the shadows, and subtle racism has taken over.

Heavy Heart is a sardonic call-to-arms for racists: say it loud, say it proud. Come out of the shadows, and into the light once again where we can all see you. Subtle racism is a true scourge of our times, because it’s impossible to point your finger at any given incident. It then makes you doubt your entire worldview, because you’ve not closed that feedback loop. So there’s a generation of PoC living in marginalized communities in the UK who haven’t been called a racial epithet, yet still they can detect rooms where something just feels off. Heavy Heart explores why that may be.”