Nancy White and Eric Tessmer Photo by David Rice

Heart’s Nancy Wilson covers Depeche Mode’s ‘Policy of Truth’ with Eric Tessmer, out now

Austin-based guitar great Eric Tessmer teamed up with Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famer Nancy Wilson (Heart) to record a set of classic covers and the first one premieres today, Friday, March 13 and is available on streaming platforms worldwide. Depeche Mode’s 80s hit, “Policy of Truth,” was a synthpop smash, and gets a makeover with Tessmer and Wilson, who also share vocals on the guitar-heavy track.

Tessmer has been ranked by Guitar World magazine among it’s “best kept six-string secrets,” met Wilson after performing a private benefit show in 2017. “It was a mind-blowing, jaw-dropping thing to watch Eric for the first time,” Wilson recalls. “Eric was tapping into a pure rock-and-roll thing I can really appreciate.” From this meeting, the pair bonded and ended up having an all-night living room jam, and thereafter promised each other to stay in touch and explore doing a project together.

Listen to Eric Tessmer & Nancy Wilson’s guitar-driven version of “Policy of Truth”:

Although anxious to get in the studio together, Tessmer says they “weren’t interested in sending tracks back and forth or constructing a sound on a screen.” Wilson puts it this way: “There’s a more recent way of playing music, that’s more like putting music together. It sounds compartmentalized,” she explains. “That’s why I had to come here; we’ve gotta be in the same room.”

The opportunity finally came in March 2019, when Wilson traveled to Austin to join Eric at The Clubhouse, a residential studio near South Congress. There in a one-room space they worked with producer and keyboardist David Rice, bassist Chris Maresh, and A&F DrumCo founder and drummer Ramy Antoun. The group re-imagined an unexpected and ambitious collection of Wilson and Tessmer favorites, including “Policy of Truth.” The single was mixed by Tim Palmer (Pearl Jam, David Bowie) and is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other major streaming platforms, out now.

Watch Eric Tessmer & Nancy Wilson in the studio: