Heartbreak can lead to some interesting places. After a particularly painful breakup left South Bay musician Jay Chiorean feeling lost, hurt and uncertain, he did what does best: he transformed his pain into music.
Born and raised in San Jose, Chiorean has always kept music in his life. As a child, he played piano at the behest of his Romanian immigrant parents. But it wasn’t until adolescence that he really felt the draw and power of music. To this, he credits his neighbor, who showed him the wiles and wonders of the guitar.
“I kept plugging away through the years. And then, when I was like 16 or 17, I started to get pretty serious about it,” he recalls. “That was when I first realized, ‘Oh. This is what I really want to do with my life.’”
Chiorean founded and played in a variety of bands throughout his twenties—most notably indie rockers Rove and the folky Careful, Brother—but he was still finding his musical footing. It wasn’t until after his particularly difficult breakup that he realized he had stumbled upon a voice and sound of his own.
It was February, 2022, when he wrote “Legs,” the first song to fall under the banner of Cartoon Hearts. Heartfelt and full of forward momentum, the Japandroids-style rocker asks, “Has this thing got the legs? / Or were we doomed from the start?” This Saturday, the band headline Art Boutiki in one of their first shows since releasing their debut full length this Valentine’s Day.
“I had this big, kind of life-altering event go down and was just dealing with a bunch of stuff,” Chiorean says. “The way I worked through my feelings and everything was through writing. It was just kind of therapeutic at first, I didn’t really have a goal in mind, but after a few months and a few songs, I realized I might have something there.”
By then the catharsis had set in, and Chiorean started having more fun with it. As for the name Cartoon Hearts, he still doesn’t know where it originated.
“It just popped in my head one day,” he says. Not only was it not already taken, it was fun, catchy, poppy and accurately encapsulated the music he had been writing.
Cartoon Hearts’ sound straddles the line between refreshing and familiar (and the one between pop and punk). In an era when pop music has given way to a combinatory mashup culture—‘trap meets country,’ hyperpop or some other string of keywords—Chiorean writes his music from the heart without much pomp or pretense. Cartoon Hearts songs are catchy and melodic, grabbing listeners by the heart and leading them on a whimsical, often poignant journey. Falling Out of Love Overnight, their first full length, shines with a pop sensibility that feels honest, capturing something tender that exists in all our hearts, no matter how cynical.
“I was always self-conscious about my music and my voice, thinking it didn’t sound like what you hear on the radio,” Chiorean says. “Cartoon Hearts is me just finally throwing all that to the wind and being like, alright, this is who I am. I’m just going to put myself out there and see how people respond.”
The response was quick and enthusiastic. Cartoon Hearts quickly began performing around the Bay as a headliner. Though they just released their first LP, there are plans to release a new single at the end of summer, with a handful of other songs in various stages of completion—some of which may be heard at Art Boutiki.
“Art Boutiki is really great about their production side of things so we can plan the show to a T,” Chiorean says. “It’s going to be a special show.”
Though Cartoon Hearts started as a solo project (and ostensibly still is), it is slowly transforming into a full band with Chiorean at the helm and South Bay locals Randy Moore on bass and (sometimes) Henry Chadwick on drums. Jay also credits drummer Garrett Smart for shaping and producing the songs. And though there are already plans for follow up singles, Chiorean aims to ride the current momentum, with hopes of a West Coast tour in the fall.
“There’s hope of branching out even wider. But for me, I’m taking it day by day. The response to this project so far has been surreal, and I don’t want to take anything for granted,” Chiorean says, “but we are evolving.”
Even broken hearts can be a springboard to success.
Cartoon Hearts
Sat, 8pm, $20
Art Boutiki, San Jose
