Today’s ‘Whatever Happened To’ feature revisits the psych/surf/garage band which plays the Dizzybird Anniversary tonight in Grand Rapids. Plus, Local Spins debuts new music by other Michigan artists.
Music That Pulses With Cinematic Energy: Heaters will return to The Pyramid Scheme tonight. (Photo/Katy Batdorff)
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On their own, each band member has delved into widely divergent musical styles in recent years, from punk to synth-pop to ambient music.
But together, the musicians in Heaters still revel in creating a “wall of sound” – that intoxicating and ear-submerging blend of psychedelic, guitar-driven rock with surf and garage-rock undertones.
And they’re going to unleash all of that for the first time in five years tonight (Friday, May 9) at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids to help Dizzybird Records celebrate the indie label’s 11th anniversary.
“We’re super-excited,” guitarist Andrew Tamlyn said of the band’s reunion show. “We’re just going to use all of our gear and just bring everything out and see how much noise we can make with everything we’ve got.”
Heaters: Back in the day. (Photo/Katie Maycroft)
“Yeah, all the sound vibes,” added guitarist Ryan Hagan.
In their heyday a decade ago, those effects-laden “vibes” made the Grand Rapids-based Heaters a sensation of sorts, not only regionally — where they quickly cultivated an uber-devoted audience — but across the globe where their psychedelic strains were embraced by legions of fans and fellow musicians.
Indeed, their tracks on several albums and EPs – starting with their Dizzybird Records’ 2014 debut, “Solstice” – have racked up more than 5 million plays on Spotify over the years.
The band – Tamlyn, Hagan, Nolan Krebs (bass, vocals), Joshua Korf (drums) and Ben Taber (guitar) – even won a WYCE Jammie Award for “Solstice” for best album by a new artist.
“Back when I met the band, they had a momentum about them that I could feel in my bones. Their music pulsed with an energy that made me feel like I was on a train speeding into some type of dreamscape,” recalled Nicole LaRae, owner of Dizzybird Records, that will also have Gringo Star, Hollywood Makeout and Crystal Trench on the bill for the Pyramid Scheme show. (Tickets are $28 at the door with music starting at 7 p.m. Tickets/details here.)
“Their songs are immersive with the reverb-soaked guitars and hazy vocals blurring together into a full-body atmosphere. I got lost in their songs. There’s a cinematic quality to their sound and they are a force live on stage: tight sets, walls of sound, no gimmicks with an incredible chemistry between them. Their music has always felt familiar yet entirely their own.”
AFTER CATCHING A WAVE, NOW LIVING THEIR OWN LIVES
Noted Tamlyn: “I feel like we just caught a wave. I feel like back in 2013 through 2016, there was a pretty popular garage, surf thing happening, and we were just kind of making music that we were listening to, copying the same tones and energy. I feel like we just kind of caught on.”
But time and other obligations and pursuits suspended the Heaters’ run after their 2018 album, “Suspended Youth,” with band members now spread across North America – Krebs in Montreal, Hagan in Brooklyn (a mural artist who works in a fabrication studio), Korf and Taber in Detroit and Tamlyn in Grand Rapids (with all three playing in the punk band Fen Fen).
“We’ve all been kind of just living our own lives in different parts of the world,” said Tamlyn.
“It feels like Ben (Taber) has been starting so may bands, playing in a lot of bands. I’ve been doing just a little bit of ambient music for myself, and Josh (Korf) and I and Ben started this punk band.”
Psychedelic Vibe: Heaters (Photo/Local Spins)
Hagan, meanwhile, is working on an album with a friend in the Los Angeles band Primer and playing bass with the New York band EZ Company.
They conceded it doesn’t seem like five years since Heaters last performed – also at The Pyramid Scheme – and they insisted there’s always a chance that another recording project could emerge because they stay in close contact with each other.
“That’d be cool,” Tamlyn said. “We all live in different parts right now, so it’s hard to do that. But we could do a long-distance thing if we really wanted to.”
Added Hagan: “Distance is always hard. I always find it very challenging not being in a room with people writing. I love collaboration. But yeah, there’s always potential for something in the future.”
This week’s Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase — which focuses on Michigan artists at 11 a.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org, as well as at 7 p.m. Saturdays on Interlochen Public Radio — featured two Heaters tracks as well as music by a host of other Michigan artists: Low Phase, Rebekah Jon, Crystal Trench, Bob’s Dock, Taylor DeRousse, Jeff Armstrong, J King Crayne, Mike Ward and Via Mardot.
Listen to the full interview and radio show podcast below. And read more about Heaters here.
PODCAST: Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase (5/9/25)
VIDEO: Heaters, “Live on KEXP”
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