The Long Way to Open Your Eyes: Thomas And The Angry Hearts Hold on to the Hour Before Dawn
A Lillestrøm Folk-Rock Ballad About the Last Quiet Hour Before the Sun Comes Up
Thomas And The Angry Hearts first played Open Your Eyes to Ronni Le Tekrø in a secluded Norwegian house. It was one of three new songs the folk-rock band from Lillestrøm brought along for their producer to hear. It did not go first. What Went Wrong took that slot and came out in June 2026. Open Your Eyes followed on 16 October 2026, just as the nights draw in. That suits a song set in the small hours.
Thomas And The Angry Hearts’ new single is in the playlist below, and everything written about the band so far is collected on their artist profile. Open Your Eyes came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Press play, then read on for the story of how it was made.
Thomas And The Angry Hearts Recorded Open Your Eyes With Ronni Le Tekrø in a Secluded Norwegian House
At its heart the band is a married couple. Thomas Warhuus Ådland writes the songs, sings and plays acoustic guitar. Hilde Bergersen Ådland plays keys and sings. The two had always played in different bands. The Angry Hearts grew out of a difficult stretch in their marriage. One evening they started singing together and found each other again. Nils Stian Aasheim on guitar, Stig Terje Inderberg on bass and Leiv-Rune Gully on drums complete the line-up. Together they mix Irish folk-rock and Americana with something more reserved and Nordic.
Thomas grew up in a small community deep in the woods, where people tend to keep their feelings to themselves. Songwriting, he told the Canadian Substack Notes From The Crowd this summer, is how he says what would otherwise go unsaid. A song usually starts for him with a feeling. Then come a guitar and whatever words arrive, until a melody holds.
Le Tekrø is the TNT guitarist, and in Norway something close to a national figure. He first came across the band when they auditioned to fill a gap on his summer festival bill. He went on to produce their self-titled debut album, released in 2025. They made it at Studio Nyhagen in Toten with engineer and co-producer Kjartan Hesthagen. Both are credited as producers on the new single, which Thomas wrote, sharing the music credit with Truls Fjeldvang.
From Ronni Le Tekrø’s Studio to a Hometown Show at Martin’s Bar in Lillestrøm
For the new material, the band went to Le Tekrø’s own studio, a wooden house among the trees. The third new song that evening was Elinor, and recording started the next morning. It followed a patient order. A guide vocal went down first, then the rhythm section played until it locked together. The other parts were added on top, with Hesthagen chasing down tiny stray noises and the musicians in separate rooms. On the second day, violinist Amelie Lied Haga joined them, classically trained but at home in folk. Extra guitar parts came in at the same time.
Le Tekrø wanted a fuller sound than folk records usually allow, closer to the layered pop productions of the 1960s. The song still had to stay in charge. He also steered Thomas away from a more fragile style of singing that was not really his own.
Straight after the sessions, on 5 December 2025, the band played the new songs at Martin’s Bar in Lillestrøm. It was the night before the town’s football club played in the cup final. Open Your Eyes was the moment the set went quiet. Hilde took the lead vocal, Haga’s violin moved alongside the melody, and the piano closed the song softly. Americana UK, which travelled from Britain for the show, picked it out as one of the standouts of the night.
Open Your Eyes Gives Thomas And The Angry Hearts a Quiet Song Between the Singalongs of Their Live Set
The song lives in the hours most people sleep through. It is about staying up late once the world has finally gone quiet and everything feels right for a while. It is also about how hard it is to let that feeling go at sunrise, when yesterday’s problems return.
That makes it a different kind of release for this band. Before the album came three singles and the Perfect Rules EP, starting with We Are All Here Now in October 2024. Their hometown crowd knows those choruses well enough to sing them back word for word. What Went Wrong then looked at how a relationship wears down through small things. It asked a question instead of handing out blame. The new single moves to a later hour, a slower pace and the bittersweet side of the band.
The Waterboys, Fairport Convention and the Folk-Rock Tradition Behind Open Your Eyes
Listeners who came to folk-rock through its fiddle bands will recognise the ground. The Waterboys recorded parts of Fisherman’s Blues at Spiddal House in the west of Ireland in the late 1980s. Steve Wickham’s fiddle sat at the centre of that record. The Angry Hearts’ new single comes from the same instinct. It was made in a house far from any city, with a violinist invited in on the second day. Fairport Convention are the other touchstone. Their 1969 recording of Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where the Time Goes? proved how much a slow folk-rock song can hold when the band leaves it room. That is the trust this song places in its listeners.
It is also built to travel. Thomas sings in English because it suits the music, not to make a point. The band’s audience now reaches well beyond Norway, into Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Thomas has also talked about playing more in Britain and Ireland, home ground for the Irish folk-rock in their sound. Further afield, the band plays a Toronto showcase at the El Mocambo on 25 June 2027.
Start with the new single late, with the lights low. Then go back to the June release to hear the same sessions at a quicker pace.
NewMusic.News’s curator team:
“Open Your Eyes argues with itself. Its title tells someone to wake up, while the song does everything it can to keep the night going. It never settles the argument, and that is exactly why it rewards a late, unhurried listen.”
Follow Thomas And The Angry Hearts on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and the official site. Stream Open Your Eyes on Tidal, Amazon Music or every other service.
