Heart Attack Man

We sit down with Heart Attack Man to dive into their journey, how they came together, their creative process, and what’s on the horizon. Plus, we get the inside scoop on their album, Joyride The Pale Horse. From songwriting to inspirations we are covering it all!

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Let’s get started!

Hey Heart Attack Man! Let's have you Introduce yourselves and a bit about you.

Adam: Hey, I'm Adam, I'm the drummer.

Eric: My name's Eric. I am the singer of Heart Attack Man. And, I play the guitar every now and then.

Ty: I'm Ty, guitar for the band. And I like riding my bike!

Tell us a bit about your background and how you came together as a band?

Adam:  Well, Ty and I have been playing music together since we were 15 or 16. So, we were in a band in high school together, and we've just been playing music together ever since. Then, Eric asked me to be in Heart Attack Man, which was, at the time, just a solo thing he was doing, a recording project. And I always wanted Ty to be in the band, but it just never really worked out until a couple of years into the band.

 Ty:  I joined us, since like 2016 or 2017, yeah, '17, when I joined.

Eric: We all knew each other from the Northeast Ohio scene before I officially joined in 2017. My old band and their band played a bunch of shows together, and honestly it was a transformative time for me creatively. I grew up playing fast, abrasive music, and watching these guys made me think, 'I want to do something more like this.' Something catchier, easier on the ears.

I remember watching Adam play and just being blown away. The guy goes absolutely crazy behind the kit so fun to watch, and he absolutely shreds. I knew I had to play music with him.

As for Ty, he's always been super chill. Like Adam said, we wanted him in the band early on, the stars just didn't align at first. But now we're here, and it's been great.

"We don't want to make anybody feel like second fiddle to anything because they're just as important as New York City. So that for me is what I'm really excited about, to go play a lot of those places that we don't typically play."

- Eric

What was one of your favorite tour stops and why?

Ty:  Vienna, Austria was so sick. I mean, just in general, I feel like it is really fun, fun for us to tour, and it's cool. We've been there three times in the last like two or three years, and it's just like a good experience. Over there and kind of like getting to explore there more and feel more comfortable over there, and you know, we have a lot of friends over there now, and it just feels like a really fun place for us to go.  I just enjoy being over there a lot.

Adam: Can you believe people love to rag on the UK, but we are firm supporters. We love playing there.

Vienna, man. That's one of the most amazing places I've ever been. Well, wait, I guess it depends on if the question is like the city itself or the shows, because if we're talking about the shows, you know, in the states it's gotta be Chicago. Like, it's incredible to us every time, or like Detroit maybe, but I love being in Chicago.

Eric: Yeah, if we're talking about the show itself, I mean because the thing is, like, in the US, I mean there are a lot of great places in the US, but we've done it a lot, and it's like, you know, it's hard to not feel jaded sometimes. You're like, 'Oh, OK, I've been here a million times before.  I, you know, but like, I personally in the US, I love whenever we hit like the Pacific Northwest, like Portland and Seattle, I love it, it's just an awesome place. I love Denver, love, love playing Denver, love being in Denver. I'd say, yeah, I mean, like to kind of echo Adam's sentiment. I  mean, everywhere we've been, everywhere we've been kind of breaking into in the UK has been very welcoming and cool, and also to kind of echo what Ty had said, Vienna, Utrecht, Netherlands, is awesome.

Adam: First time we played there, you know, I didn't necessarily know what to expect. Like, you know, but it was such a fun time and shit. I mean, you know, like you don't have any expectations. You're like, 'We've never played before,' you don't really go in expecting to know your band, but like that was, I'd say, the warmest welcome that we had to mainland Europe.

Eric: It was pretty amazing. That one was definitely like a very special show. It was because I think there is a show, I think the show that we had played the night before in Germany was like.

Ty: Maybe the low point.

Adam: It was so awkward.

Eric: People were standing there like this for us when we finish a song, they'd be like, 'Oh God'.

Adam:  I feel like, on that tour specifically, it was a little hit or miss when we were in mainland Europe.

Eric: That being our last show and us having no expectations of what that place was gonna be like, and then we played the show and it was, it felt like, you know, a show in the states to a place we've been playing a million times, so it kind of like , that's where we were all kind of looking at each other like, 'What?' 'What is going on?'.

Adam: It was afterwards.

Eric: I was like, 'This doesn't feel real.'"

Ty: It felt like a dream.

Adam: It was like, 'Oh my God, this whole thing—like, we were getting punked. Like, it was like a setup.'

Eric: Oh my gosh, it's this joke from the beginning. They're like, 'OK guys, we're gonna pretend to really like...'  And we're gonna make them feel good about themselves, and that's the joke.

Adam:  No, it was like a, you know, it was a big show too.

Eric:  It was because we were opening up for Spanish Love Songs. So it wasn't like a show that had like, you know, 100, 200 people. It was like, you know, what would you guys say, like at least... 600.

What kind of music did you listen to for inspiration for your upcoming album?

Ty: It's one of those things where you find inspiration all over the place, you know, I mean, there's a part on the new record that was inspired, that inspired me from Daft Punk, you know, and like. Or it could come from somewhere completely different, you know, it could come from the hardcore world, you know, we are so all over the place.We all collectively listen to so much different music that we just kind of are sponges and we're like, oh, we'll do this thing that's like kind of like a Houston rap thing.

Eric: Right now I'm listening to a lot of chopped and screwed music, it's got me wanting to write something slow. But my big one lately has been Failure. I saw them right before the pandemic and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. That band has been a huge inspiration on newer Heart Attack Man music. Failure, Hum, Jawbox, I'm a sucker for 90s stuff. I've also been doing a lot of CD shopping lately because CDs are still cheap. I'll straight up judge a book by its cover, if the artwork looks sick, I'm grabbing it. It's been a fun way to discover new music.

Adam: Lately I've been listening to a lot of Thundercat, Nothing, Cloakroom, pretty shoegaze-y stuff.

But I go through phases. I'm the kind of person who gets completely stuck on one song. Ty showed me this Dwight Yoakam song, A Thousand Miles to Nowhere  and I literally listened to it a thousand times. I checked my Spotify. Not even kidding. I just hyper-obsess over one thing, wear it out, then rediscover it later. I used to fight it but honestly, there's nothing wrong with that.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

Ty:  Oh, Man Doug Martsch from Spill, yeah, he'd be—that's like the goat for me. Paul McCartney would be insane, but I don't think that's really feasible. Doug is slightly more feasible.

Eric:  It's hard to say because, I mean, I feel like a lot of musicians that I admire, I don't necessarily want to meet. You know, I'm like, I want to let you just continue doing your thing and let me enjoy it and be a fan, and, you know, not fly too close to the sun. I would want to collab, with  someone that is like a musical hero. Really, kind of the only one would be Fred Durst, of Limp Bizkit. I feel like Fred Durst seems very cool and, I don't know, like cool, like, I mean, honestly, either Fred Durst or Wes Borland because Wes Borland is my favorite guitarist. That would probably be my answer in terms of, you know, people that have had a big influence on me, had an impact on my life, and seem OK I'm like, OK, I'd be down to meet you. I don't think it would ruin the band. I feel like that would be alot of fun. Yeah, it would be so cool. I'm looking forward to that hopefully one day, If I've done that,  I will feel like i threw in the towel. We made it.

Favorite venue thus far? Dream Venue/Festival?

Ty + Adam: Festival in Switzerland, I believe it's called Open Air, yea Open Air! but it's like in this beautiful valley with a lake. And there's just kind of like a stage loop in there, and that's the dream right there. We would love to play there. 

Eric:   Yes Same thing!  Open Air. It's a festival in Switzerland on a lake like Ty and Adam mentioned and it is beautiful. I would say that would probably be like a dream festival. For a while, Riot Fest was up there for us, and we played Riot Fest, it was the most recent one, and thankfully, it lived up to the hype that I had, kind of, you know, it lived up to the expectation that I had crafted in my mind. But I really would love to play anywhere or anything going on in Mexico City. I think Mexico City is such a cool city, and, you know, I went there last year, and it was a great time. It definitely made it real to me that I was like, "Oh, the city is amazing, and I really want Heart Attack Man to play here."

 Can you talk to us a little about what you guys are most excited for next?

Adam: We have our big tour coming up.

Eric: I'm just excited to get out there, see everyone, see all our friends, and for people to hear the album. Everyone who's listened to it so far, our friends and stuff, they love it.

Ty: We love it, obviously. I think it's the best thing we've ever done as a band, and I'm just excited for the whole world to hear it and get in the pit. It's incredible.

Adam: I have to say, I'm obviously very excited to go to Australia, which is uncharted territory for us.

Eric: Australia is announced, which is incredible. But what I'm most excited about with this album is that it shows a side of Heart Attack Man we've never shown before. In terms of presentation, attitude, the visual side, I think it's the best representation of what this band has become. And every album cycle I think, "This is the most excited I've ever been to release music." I feel that again, except more this time. It feels like a show and tell and I can't wait to show people this side of us.

Adam: We're excited for every step of the way. Releasing new music never gets old.

Eric: I'm just excited to get back on tour. I love playing shows for people who actually want to be there,  that's what a headliner is. We've got a great tour package, and we're hitting a lot of places we've never played before. That's what really excites me.

Ty: I'm just excited to go back on tour. I love being on tour. I love playing shows to people who want to come see us, and that's what doing a headliner is. I feel like we got a really good tour package this time around too, and we're playing a lot of places that we've never played before or don't play often, so this new.

Eric: We made it a point with our booking agent to go places we don't usually go and those are the places where people are going crazy in the comments. "You're coming to Oklahoma?" "You're coming to Iowa?" Growing up in Cleveland, a so-called B-market, it was important to us that nobody feels like second fiddle. Every city is just as important as New York. We've driven through El Paso a million times and never played there so finally going is a big deal. That's why this tour is longer than usual. No A-markets, no B-markets. Every stop matters equally. And then capping it off with Australia for the first time, that's been a dream. We can't wait.

Who would you like to see us interview next?

All of Heart Attack Man:  Ben Quad! There are Oklahomans and they're just awesome. We can't wait to see them grow.

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