Sitting side by side, head to toe in all-black everything, Urban Heat is modest about the whirlwind 12 months they just wrapped up.
“We definitely had a big year,” says vocalist and guitarist Jonathan Horstmann before pausing and glancing over at his bandmates, bassist Paxel Foley and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Naquin. The three are settled at one of the many rustic picnic tables that line the patio of a packed Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden. Horstmann leans forward and taps his glossy pastel blue-painted nails across the surface of the tabletop.
“But I don’t know if we’ve had a bigger year than say … Spoon,” he jokes, perhaps referencing a showdown in this publication’s Austin Music Awards for Band of the Year, which Urban Heat pushed out to their 42,000 TikTok followers last month. Beyond the numbers, the immeasurable wins are plentiful: a rowdy, sold-out Hotel Vegas show after the release of the band’s 2022 Wellness EP, an ACL Fest debut, and bringing their collage of synth-studded post-punk to both coasts. Booking by Atomic Music Group, also home to Texas names like Terry Allen, Rosie Flores, and Bruce Robison, propelled the band’s first tour last fall.
“We’ve had a handful of people telling us that [our show] was the first show they’ve been to in three years, which is crazy,” Naquin says. “We also lost about two years of getting to play out live because of the pandemic, but in that time, we got to really hone our sound.”
In 2019, Horstmann departed the incendiary electro-punk outfit BLXPLTN and began making beats on analog synthesizers, gravitating toward minimalist but bold LinnDrum samples. Hoping to form what he described as a supergroup consisting of his favorite local musicians, he promptly onboarded Naquin, of Nght Hcklrs and Cerulean Trade, who then proposed collaborating with Foley.
“At first I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good. I’m over starting new projects,'” Foley recalls with a laugh. “But then I went and [heard] them and was like, ‘Wait, this is really cool.'”
The influence of goth rock and New Wave emanates across the trio’s debut collection Wellness, but its six tracks go far beyond typical Eighties post-punk pastiche. Delicate synths ripple over Foley’s booming bassline in the opener, “Trust,” where Horstmann’s deep croon conveys the introspective aching that comes with navigating these endlessly uncertain times. Lyrically, the singer condemns the false promise of the American dream: “When we were young the future was bright/ No one told us we were buried alive/ Now we aspire just to barely survive/ Trapped in a box, searching for light.”
On the bracing and Moog-drenched fan favorite “Have You Ever?” he wrestles with the nature of one’s existence altogether, his vocals ascending to a near wail.
Though Urban Heat does not consider themselves to be an inherently political band, lyrically they’ve tackled everything from armed violence to mental health stigma in songs like “That Gun in Your Hand” and “Reason Why.” Their outspokenness is refreshing, considering artists in the darkwave world tend to stay on the apolitical side of things (or, in worst-case scenarios, double down on performing with Nazi sympathizer Boyd Rice, like L.A. act Cold Cave did in 2013). When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued his grossly medically uninformed opinion on lifesaving gender-affirming surgeries last spring, Horstmann fashioned a tee reading “Protect Trans Kids” in iron-on letters for one of the band’s South by Southwest 2022 performances.
“I feel like there’s definitely a segment of the population that’s really rooting for us, like hardcore,” notes Horstmann. “There’s certain poignant moments where you’re like, ‘Oh shit, we can do this’ … Holding on to those memories and those connections, where people have told you that your music has impacted them, really helps you stay on path.”
The band’s ambition parallels Austin groundbreakers Spaceflight Records, whose director of public relations and artist development, Samara Simpson, sits adjacent to the trio at the table. Last April, the Chronicle covered Spaceflight Records officially attaining 501(c)(3) nonprofit status to advance their majority-local rosters’ careers by offering grant-based financial support without the expectation of recouping. Since then, they’ve found major corporate sponsors, such as Kentucky-based bourbon brand Wild Turkey, that are eager to fund grant recipients including Kalu & the Electric Joint.
Enacting Spaceflight’s hopes of upstream benefits, funds from the vinyl presale campaign cover the band’s upcoming tour costs, including a March co-headline with Georgia alt-pop rockers Vision Video and Pasadena’s Cruel World Festival in May.
“The biggest thing that has changed in the last nine months is that we were able to start funding,” says Simpson. “It was just a pipe dream then to be able to have a fellowship program, and now it’s a reality, mostly because of our relationship with Wild Turkey. That was a huge deal. Partnering with corporations who have budgets for philanthropy is really how this modern business model works.”
This month, Urban Heat will release a deluxe version of Wellness on vinyl, which contains the EP’s six original songs plus four of the darkwave ensemble’s earlier singles.
Urban Heat’s fellowship, which Simpson says holds an estimated value of around $20,000 in products and services, supports a first-time vinyl pressing of Wellness at Austin’s Gold Rush Vinyl. The deluxe edition lands on 500 CDs and 500 vinyl copies, with 100% of sales going directly toward the artist. The fellowship also supports merchandise provided by local sponsor Capital Print Shop and preorders and shipping fulfillment through Spaceflight, as well as in-house PR in the digital and radio realms.
Horstmann says coverage of the daunting $5,000 price tag that came with pressing 500 records has been a huge relief for Urban Heat. Enacting Spaceflight’s hopes of upstream benefits, funds from the vinyl presale campaign cover the band’s upcoming tour costs, including a March co-headline with Georgia alt-pop rockers Vision Video and Pasadena’s Cruel World Festival in May. There, the band will play alongside Eighties heroes like Siouxsie, Echo & the Bunnymen, Iggy Pop, and Gang of Four, whose musical echoes can be heard in some of their forthcoming material.
Urban Heat’s cover of Q Lazzarus’ 1988 single “Goodbye Horses” arrives in March, although some fans have already caught a glimpse, as the trio began incorporating their rendition into set lists last year. Horstmann says that he dreamed of meeting the enigmatic singer-songwriter Q Lazzarus – born Diane Luckey – in hopes of getting her stamp of approval, so they delayed the release of the recording. When Luckey passed away in July 2022, the group decided to move forward with the tribute.
In their version of the much-cherished cult classic, the band boosts the whirring instrumentals and skyscraping atmospherics to near-fever-dream levels. Radiant synths and melodic bass pulsate as Horstmann alternates between a haunting baritone and a hushed falsetto, all building to a glass-shattering guitar solo that’s sure to impress even those who faithfully stand by the quiet glory of the original.
“She sings in a baritone and she’s Black, but it felt like a connection beyond the aesthetic, beyond the obvious,” says the singer. “You hear [this] story about someone who has disappeared into obscurity, but their art has still endured.
“I’m conscious of the positive effect that our darker music has had on people. I think with Q Lazzarus and with that song – the way that people interact with it, the way that that song can make people feel – she was tapped into something deeper. It’s what I try to do, and it’s what I hope we are able to do with our music.”
This article appears in February 10 • 2023 and February 3 • 2023.