Tasty Licks.

Ex-Neon Indian Guitarist Ronnie Heart's New Single Is A Total Trip.

About a year ago, the news broke that Ronnie Gierhart, Neon Indian's flashy and talented guitar player, had left the band to start work on his own project called Ronnie Heart, which found him mining some similar territory to that of his old band. But, aside from a few one-off DJ gigs around town, Ronnie Heart didn't make much of a splash in '11.

Now we know why: For the better part of the last year, Gierhart's been toiling away on both his visual art and some new sounds, the latter of which he plans to keep working on, in hopes of being able to release the Ronnie Heart debut album sometime this year.

Unfortunately, that also means we still won't see much of Ronnie Heart around town in the immediate future.

“I won't be performing until I complete the album,” he happily reveals. “I am very compelled to make music that is evocative of optimism and of the desire to thrive in my passion for creating. Every organism on earth desires to thrive, so as an homage to that notion, I am prompting my creativity towards that zestful journey. My goal is to make an album that I can look back upon and smile [at], because I put so much love and time into creating it. Then, I can give it all I got on the stage.”

The good news? At least we'll be able to hear Ronnie Heart's work as he continues tweaking it. Yes, Gierhart has been kind enough to pass along his latest Ronnie Heart creation — a legit jam entitled “Tasty Destination” — as a free download to Central Track readers. Check it out below.