Two Heartbeats

Album: Shadows (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lenka's son, Quinn, inspired the Shadows track "Two Heartbeats" while he was still in the womb. His heartbeat on the fetal monitor gave the Australian singer-songwriter the idea to write a song from the perspective of her unborn baby.

    "I thought it sounded so cool, really strong like the sound of a train moving," Lenka told AsiaOne of hearing Quinn's heartbeat for the first time.

    Her husband, James Gulliver Hancock, recorded the rhythm on his iPhone and it was incorporated into the track.
  • Lenka's pregnancy inspired many of the songs on Shadows, her third studio album, which she described as being a collection of lullabies for adults. "A fair amount of my time was spent lying in the bath, staring at my belly, singing to Quinn because it's a means of connecting with him. I then thought the songs can definitely work their way into the album," she explained.

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