Heartworms New Album: Inside “Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark”

Heartworms new album embraces dance, uncertainty, dark humor, and a fearless new aesthetic shaped by heartbreak and change.

A Dark Song With a Glitterball Pulse

Some songs arrive wearing black leather. Others sneak into the room beneath a glitterball, grin at the darkness, and start dancing. Heartworms’ “Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark” does both, pairing gothic tension with a strutting, groove-heavy pulse that hints at a bold new chapter.

The single is the first taste of Jojo Orme’s follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, Glutton For Punishment. Rather than simply repeating the stark, macabre atmosphere of that record, the new track lets in flashes of shimmer and movement. It’s indie noir with its dancing shoes on.

At its center, the song explores the way fear can grow when we’re left alone with our thoughts. Orme examines how the mind can deceive itself in moments of insecurity, creating imagined threats in the dark. Yet the song doesn’t simply surrender to that unease. It tries to party alongside it.

How a Power Cut Became a Song

The track began in a wonderfully strange and very human place: during a writing session interrupted by a power cut while Orme was in the bathroom. Add a fear of the dark, a rush of stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and the discomfort of trying to record vulnerable vocals in front of other people, and the song began to take shape.

The earliest version was created in Italy, where Orme was also preparing intimate shows and introducing a new visual era. When she returned to London, she brought the song to producer Dan Carey. He recognized its potential but helped reduce it to its essential components, allowing the tension and groove to do the heavy lifting.

The result feels deceptively simple. There’s a clean, dance-led energy on the surface, but underneath it sits a nervous inner monologue about confidence, self-doubt, and the pressure to understand what you’re trying to say before you say it.

“Over time, a lot of my lyrics do change meaning when I start to realise that maybe it was subconscious telling me something.”

For Orme, being “stuck in the dark” became a metaphor for not trusting herself. She had struggled to find an idea for the song and felt vulnerable while recording it. The darkness, in a way, gave her permission to stop searching for the perfect answer.

Learning to Be Great for Yourself

That uncertainty led Orme toward a larger question: how do you become great without shaping yourself around somebody else’s expectations?

She described the process as trying to work out how to be “great for yourself,” rather than performing greatness for an audience. It’s a subtle distinction, but one that seems to run through the new material. The more she looked inward, the messier things became. Introspection, as it turns out, doesn’t always tidy the room. Sometimes it knocks over every chair.

Still, that confusion became useful. Orme found that darkness helped her speak plainly, without overthinking every line or trying to make the lyrics behave. The lack of certainty became part of the creative method.

An Album That Refuses to Sit Still

Orme has finished recording the new album, though she was still developing its visual world when discussing it. She also warned that “Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark” may not be a straightforward guide to the full record.

In fact, she called it a misleading track and suggested that every song might be misleading in its own way. That sounds less like a warning and more like an invitation. Don’t expect a neat map from the first single. Expect detours, sharp turns, and a few musical surprises.

Orme said she doesn’t plan her records too rigidly because planning can limit new ideas. She doesn’t want to force herself into consistency or worry too much about whether every creative decision matches what came before. If a song wants to become a dance track, she lets it dance. If another leans toward hip-hop, she follows that impulse too.

That instinct gives the Heartworms new album an unpredictable quality. It isn’t built around one fixed genre or one carefully preserved character. Instead, it moves through different musical spaces according to what each song needs.

Uncertainty, Dark Humor, and Many Characters

Lyrically, Orme sees the album as belonging to one shared world of uncertainty and dark humor. That doesn’t mean the record follows a single fictional protagonist. She explained that there are many characters, rather than one central persona guiding the entire project.

The imagery seems fluid, changing shape from song to song. Orme compared her movement through the album to water, taking the form of each world as she enters it. That approach allows the material to remain emotionally open while still feeling connected.

It also reflects the way the songs developed. In some cases, Orme changed lyrics immediately before recording because she suddenly realized what she had been trying to express. A feeling that first appeared as an instinct eventually revealed itself as a message.

She described writing something she didn’t fully understand, then watching the meaning settle into place as she moved through the experience. It’s a familiar feeling for anyone who’s ever looked back at an old notebook and thought, “Oh. So that’s what I was actually upset about.”

Heartbreak Changed the Shape of the Work

Since her previous album, Orme says she has changed in ways she’s still trying to understand. Beliefs she held one year no longer feel fixed. She continues to wrestle with religion, ideals, other ideas, and the meaning she assigns to life’s events.

She also experienced marriage and separation within the same period, a deeply personal shift that altered how she lives and breathes. Writing became her way of processing that upheaval—not as a polished solution, but as a means of coping.

That distinction matters. Orme isn’t presenting the new record as a tidy account of lessons learned. The songs document movement through confusion rather than a triumphant arrival at certainty. Sometimes the point isn’t to emerge with all the answers. Sometimes it’s simply to keep moving while the questions change.

A New Suit, a New Guitar, a New Era

Launching the new material in Italy also meant introducing a different visual identity. Orme said she felt nervous about changing her look, even though the new direction reflected clothes she had always wanted to wear. That included a wool suit—something she enjoys wearing onstage, particularly because it makes her uncomfortable.

There’s a physical intensity to that choice. She feels she performs better when she’s sweating and slightly out of her comfort zone. It’s not exactly the most relaxed route to a gig, but it sounds very Heartworms: turn discomfort into fuel.

She also stepped away from her Firebird guitar, partly because playing it had contributed to back pain. In its place came a Fender Telecaster, a guitar she had long admired for its sound but felt uncertain about visually. The shape never seemed right to her onstage, so she waited until she could build an aesthetic that made the instrument feel natural.

Eventually, it clicked. She no longer wanted to rely on an all-black wardrobe, even though changing that familiar image was intimidating. Now, she says, she doesn’t want to go back.

For Orme, the aesthetic follows the music. She thinks about what she’s trying to communicate, waits for the sound and the look to make sense together, and then allows the character to emerge through the songs.

From Big Rooms to a Dream Tour

The next chapter also brings major live opportunities. Orme is preparing to join Interpol and Bloc Party on their co-headline tour across Europe and the UK, an especially meaningful prospect given her deep admiration for Interpol.

She hears traces of the band in some of her own writing, particularly in the instrumentation and shimmering textures she enjoys. Naturally, the first show comes with a few nerves. She’s already wondering whether she’ll feel calm or spend the night thinking about whether the band is watching.

That mix of excitement and anxiety feels perfectly in keeping with the new single. Even the dream opportunity comes with a little darkness at the edges.

Orme has previously played support slots for St. Vincent and Sleaford Mods in sizable venues, but she doesn’t spend much time imagining “big stages.” Touring is demanding and physically taxing, she noted, though there are moments when the best response is simply to be present and take everything in.

That sounds like a useful philosophy for the next phase: don’t get trapped inside the idea of the opportunity. Stand in it. Feel the lights, the noise, the nerves, and the strange privilege of being there.

A Meeting With Hideo Kojima

Orme has also met gaming icon Hideo Kojima, who counts himself among her fans. She described him as a close friend, funny, and a lover of Joy Division. Her conclusion was refreshingly straightforward: he’s a great guy, and the encounter reminded her that she needs to buy a PlayStation.

The moment adds another charming detail to an era already full of unexpected intersections—gothic songwriting, dance rhythms, new tailoring, cult guitar preferences, and conversations with one of gaming’s most recognizable creative figures.

“Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark” is out now. Heartworms is scheduled to headline a London show at The Windmill in Brixton on October 28, followed by appearances at Dark Arts Festival in Leeds on October 31 and Iceland Airwaves in Reykjavik on November 7. Her dates supporting Interpol and Bloc Party begin in Berlin on November 11 before continuing across Europe and the UK.

Tickets and further information are available through official ticket listings.

FAQ

• What is Heartworms’ new single called?
  The new single is called “Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark.”
• What inspired “Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark”?
  The song grew from a power cut during a writing session, Orme’s fear of the dark, and her reflections on vulnerability and self-confidence.
• What themes shape the new album?
  Orme describes the album as existing within a world of uncertainty and dark humor, with songs shaped by personal change, insecurity, heartbreak, and shifting beliefs.
• Who produced “Guess I’m Stuck In The Dark”?
  Orme brought the song to producer Dan Carey after returning to London, and he helped strip the track back to its essential elements.
• Which artists will Heartworms tour with?
  Heartworms is scheduled to support Interpol and Bloc Party on their co-headline European and UK tour.

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