Introducing: HEFF VANSAINT

With a voice that echoes Springsteen’s soul, Joni’s honesty, and The xx’s introspective shimmer, Heff VanSaint is carving out a lane all her own. The Aberdeen-born, London-based indie-pop auteur returns with Other Side of the Hill—a hauntingly beautiful new single drenched in nostalgia, vulnerability, and quiet defiance. Known for her blend of lo-fi textures and classic storytelling, VanSaint doesn't just write songs—she unpacks whole emotional landscapes.

Following her acclaimed EP Best Days Gone, and praised by the likes of BBC Scotland, DIVA, and Girl Gang Music, VanSaint’s latest release feels like both a confession and a catharsis. We caught up with her to talk reflection, resilience, and the raw truth behind Other Side of the Hill.

Other Side of the Hill” is beautifully melancholic—what was the turning point or moment that sparked the idea for this song?Was there a particular event or memory that made you feel like your “best days” were behind you?

Firstly, thank you for saying so. I guess to be totally candid I'd been single for a along time  and I started thinking back to the last and maybe only time I'd felt that really intense exciting romantic connection with another person and I guess I just started feeling not just really nostalgic for that experience and that time in my life, but also pained by this possibility that it might never appear again and that maybe I was living in the aftermath of the good old days.

Your music has been described as fusing “old-school storytelling with a contemporary lo-fi indie sound.”How do you balance your classic influences like Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen with more modern production choices?

I think its all in the production really. I definitely lean heavily into those 70s singer-songwriter influences when I sit down to write initially. My first love in music was that whole Lauryl Canyon scene so I love the simplicity of open chords on acoustic guitar and really drawn out lyrics. That's how I still start every song that I write really, just acoustic guitar and lyrics that will have started off as poems. When I build the track and  start thinking about the beat and other elements of the song like synths and bass line, that's when I bring in more modern influences, stuff like Japanese House, Sharon Von Etten, Sam Fender. But even then, those artists are massively influenced by old school storytellers as well. But yeah I'll say to the producer ; this is my song its just chords, lyrics and melody but here are the sounds that I want to incorporate to give it a more up to date feel.

There’s a strong emotional honesty in your lyrics—does writing feel more like therapy, storytelling, or something else entirely for you?

Definitely therapy. After I've written a song where I really feel like I've contextualised how I'm feeling and summed up a scenario or experience in a way that's succinct and allows me to make sense of it all from a more meaningful angle it's like the best feeling. Like instantly you feel better, more calm, more at ease with your inner world. I guess yeah it does feel like story-telling as well, because it is but always with the added intention that I'm trying to make sense of a feeling. Weird thing song-writing I don't really think about why I'm doing it I've just been drawn to it my whole life, theres just an inherent need.

This track was produced by Fionn Connolly of Forever Forever in a home studio setting.How did that more intimate recording environment affect the way “Other Side of the Hill” came together?

Fionn is obviously really talented but they're also a sweet person whos definitely emotionally aware and  was open to talking about the vibes  I wanted to evoke through the track and more abstract parts of the song, like what was I trying to bring about, how did I want want the listener to feel, which obviously was really important for me. It was just really easy to communicate with them and explain what the song was about and how I wanted to deliver it in order to connect with the listener the way I'd intended. I think it's an intimate track for sure, so being in a home studio definitely helped with getting that feel across.

You've been praised across the board—from BBC Scotland to DIVA Magazine.As an Aberdeen-born artist now based in London, how do those two worlds shape your creative process and sense of identity as a songwriter?

To be honest in a lot of my work I'm trying to capture themes that are pretty universal, like love, loss, heartache, youth - they're not really specific to any particular place or time. It's pretty hard to say, I've never really written a song specifically about my home town as I think the relationship I have with it is too complicated at this moment in time, but my track Weaver's Fields is about the area in Bethnal Green and was inspired by all the gentrification I've seen since moving to London- so that's a track thats an example of some of my work that's specifically inspired by London.

I guess being Scottish affects my song-writing  more indirectly, I think as Scots we're more critical of ourselves and less likely to be showy in the first instance, we've all grown up with the long poppy syndrome at large in the culture, so you always think you need to be better than those around you before you can assert yourself and there's also this wariness about taking shortcuts as opposed to grafting. If something comes too easy without hard work you're sorta suspicious.