URBAN HEAT – A CONVERSATION WITH JONATHAN, KEVIN AND PAX

By Ralph Beauchamp

Urban Heat is a trio from Austin, TX that has elevated synthwave and darkwave into a whole new animal. They drop their new album, The Tower, on 8/16 via Artoffact Records. The band is comprised of Jonathan Horstmann (Vocals/Guitar/Synths), Kevin Naquin (Vocals/Guitar/Synths) and Paxel Foley (Bass/Synths). Urban Heat‘s music is totally unique and unparalleled. They combine synthwave and darkwave textures and mesh them with modern day nuances. Their sound delivers a deluge of edgy soundscapes coupled with lush melodic articulations. Urban Heat specializes in creating layers of sonic elegance that infuses the listener with rapacious emotions.

Just listen to their newest single, “You’ve Got That Edge” off their upcoming sophomore album. The track distributes wave after wave of synth heaven. The music is vivid and phosphorescent. Jonathan’s vocals soar with brazen imagery and the stellar arrangement is voraciously intricate. “You’ve Got That Edge” is a bold statement cementing Urban Heat to the very fabric of today’s music scene.

Urban Heat sat down with AMP for this exclusive conversation.

AMP: Can you give our readers a little background on the band?

KEVIN: We all played in different bands around Austin even though none of us were originally from here, We’ve been here long enough to call ourselves Austinites. Around 2019, all our other projects seemed to run their course. So, the three of us decided to give it a try. Jonathan had some demos he was working on and he sent them to me. I hit him back saying that we could definitely do something with these.

Both of us knew Pax pretty well. The thing was that none of us were married to any particular instrument. So, Pax was in and decided to play bass. We were surprised since we never seen him play bass in any other band. Pax did mostly vocals and played synths but Jonathan was our vocalist and guitar player. So bass it was. Like I said, we put it together around 2019 and played our first few shows later that year. We has a bunch of gigs lined up for SXSW in 2020 and then the pandemic hit and shut them all down. During that time we all retreated due to Covid.

Jonathan went away with family but luckily he had access to a small studio and started cranking out new material. He kept forwarding tapes to Pax and me to work on. When things began to open up, we hit it hard. All we know and love to do is playing live shows. For us, we have to go out there and play.

JONATHAN: Thats is one of the good things about Austin, there are a lot of venues to play. As an Austin musician, you definitely get in the habit of gigging. We are not a band that lives to create social media content. It’s all about the live show.

AMP: Who are some of the band’s inspirations?

KEVIN: They’re all over the place. The obvious ones are Depeche Mode, Joy Division and The Cure. To say they are solely responsible for our sound is totally inaccurate. Our musical taste are across the board. A lot of our earlier stuff was dictated by our instrumentation. Jonathan would write his songs on the guitar but when we added synths and Linn drums they had a completely different feel. It sounded like the early pioneers of the New Wave movement. In addition, Jonathan’s voice can be reminiscent of Peter Murphy. That’s where people get those references from but our influences are totally misleading.

For example, we all love Wu Tang and Run The Jewels. If you know that they have swayed our music, you may be able to pick that up. Also, we love metal, punk and all different styles of music.

JONATHAN: Growing up I wasn’t allowed to listen to a lot of music. It was mostly choral arrangements. A lot of the harmonies you hear in Urban Heat come from gospel choir. Attitude wise, I siphon the delivery of My Chemical Romance’s singer, Gerard Way. Then I add some Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, especially in the way they over enunciate. All three throw their whole bodies into their vocal performances.

When we talk production, we think Trent Reznor and NIN. We like to be in a cave by ourselves when we are creating. There’s also a hip hop quality to our production. We want to make sure our songs slap. I think that kind of sets us apart in our genre because we want it to sound likes it’s from the future, not the past.

PAX: I’m a lot like Kevin. I grew up listening to a lot of post punk stuff. I can go from Talking Heads to Metallica. Also, I listen to hip hop and R&B. I have a ton of influences and records to show for it.

AMP: What’s the band’s creative process like?

JONATHAN: Song inspiration can come from anywhere. I can be driving with the radio off and I’ll try to imagine what I would like to be playing. Or I can take a walk and just listen to the sounds of the city. Then I will demo some things out. With this last album, I fleshed out the tracks in my home studio to a point where they were overproduced. Then I bring them to the guys and we kind of strip things back. It has to pass the Kevin and Pax test. I basically write in order to impress them. This new album I kind of wrote in a week. I went into the cave and came out with something.

In the future, was are going to write more collectively. I just needed this one sort of artistic statement. It’s the first time I’ve written a full record as opposed to just a collection of work.

AMP: Your new single, “You’ve Got That Edge” was just released. Can you give us some insights into the track?

JONATHAN: It was the first song I wrote for the The Tower. I played my wife the new demos and she commented that they were good but they all sounded similar. I told her I was looking for a particular vibe and she said she got it but they lacked a certain edge. So, I got upset and went into my studio and wrote “You’ve Got That Edge” almost out of spite. When I finished, I realized that the song was cool and went to a place that the band has never been before. It felt like the song gave me permission to go to other unknown spaces with the rest of the record.

AMP: You’ve signed with Artoffact Records. How did that relationship begin?

KEVIN: This person came running to us before a gig at SXSW and told us that he was there to see us and would we be interested in signing with them.

JONATHAN: I knew who Artoffact was because I knew their biggest band at the time, Actors. Previously, I had scoped out who I thought would be a good partner for us and Artoffact was one of them. Hey Kevin, I think he was wearing a space suit when he introduced himself.

Kevin: The funny thing about it was it was at the Spaceflight Records showcase at SXSW. A showcase for our previous label.

AMP: What’s the band’s internal energy like?

PAX: It depends on the day (all laughing). We’re no longer twenty year olds, hanging out just smoking weed. It takes a minute for me to get excited and get totally involved in anything but when we get together, the music flies.

KEVIN: It’s very much like a family. We have our good days and our bad ones. Just like a love affair, at any give time all is good and then it’s not.

JONATHAN: Most of our issues stem from hunger, especially on the road. If we need food and due to circumstances, do not have the time, things don’t go well. Pax and Kevin are much more mellower than me. I’m pretty hi-energy. I try to keep that in mind when I interact. I used to be chatty in the morning because I usually work out and have a bunch of caffeine but having someone in the car like that after a late night can be a problem. There has to be time for everyone to acclimate. So, I changed all that. It’s a learning process.

We are getting good about recognizing what each other needs to remain on an even keel. It’s all about finding that common ground. All in all, we have a lot of fun. We listen to great music when we are on the road and are always clowning around to pass the time. We truly enjoy each others company and I’m hoping I’m right because we will be in tight spaces once again for an extended period of time very shortly.

AMP: You’ve toured pretty extensively. Does any particular show or tour stand out?

KEVIN: Actually, on one tour, we got into a pretty bad van wreck in Cleveland when this car ran a red light. By time we got our van back, two weeks later, they wanted to total it out because the door panel got crashed in. That wasn’t going to happen. So, we foamed the inside of the van and put everything back together the best we could. Then we chained up the door.

The only way to get in or out was through the driver’s side door. Everytime we stopped at a gas station we looked like we were getting out of a clown car. I don’t know how we were able to cross the Canadian border and get back in the US but we did.

JONATHAN: We did two weeks in that van. We used a ratchet tie on the inside of the door to keep it closed. It always seems that when we hit Montreal, there is a record snow storm. This time was no exception. Luckingly, we foamed up that van really good.

AMP: Do you feel that the Austin music scene is nurturing to new Artists?

KEVIN: It’s an incubator. Always has been. It’s tough because of the competition. It’s better to get out of Austin otherwise you can easily fall into a viscous cycle.

JONATHAN: You have to be extremely good in Austin just because of the saturation of bands. There are really really good bands that are here that are not doing anything. The amount of incredible artists who just aren’t going to make it is heartbreaking. If you are going to break out, you have to be really smart in your gameplan. Of course, the music has to be there but you have to make intelligent decisions on where you spend your time. Right from the start, we knew we needed to tour regionally. Not because we don’t like Austin but we needed broader exposure.

AMP: Where do you see the band in five years?

PAX: I’m more of a pragmatist. I really don’t know. I just don’t think like that. It’s more one day at a time for me. Whatever happens, happens.

KEVIN: That’s 2029! You think we will still have a planet?

JONATHAN: I would like to have at least 3 more albums out. Also, either a solid support tour or headlining some mid-sized venues. In addition, for our genre, I would like to see some younger bands come forth. By then, hopefully, we can forster a strong synthwave/darkwave music scene and anchor some major tours and festivals.

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