Mike Pays Heat: Of Failed Relationships, Communication, Learning to Live With Yourself and Remembering to Hope.

The guys from Mike Pays Heat will drop their debut album on January 15th via Dead Medium Records and we’re premiering the video from the first track here. 

We talked to the guys about the band and their new music.

Mike Pays Heat? What’s up with the name?

Ian Hunter: No Comment.

Wil Schade: College, man.

Dan Siper: Honestly, the only time we’ve ever given a straight answer to this question was on Temple University’s WHIP radio station. But to give you another answer, it was my Uncle Randy’s mechanic who would always tell him that Mike paid the heat.

How did you guys come together?

Ian: Have you seen How I Met Your Mother? Sorta like that.

Wil: Took us 9 seasons, but here we are.

Dan: I just remember 40s being involved.

Tell us about the upcoming album. Got any stories about the writing, arranging or recording processes?

Ian: Lyrically, it’s a whole hodgepodge of ideas that are ultimately pretty insignificant but that seemed really important at the time. It’s about failed relationships, communication, learning to live with yourself and remembering to hope. All that good stuff.

Dan: I’m not normally too involved with the writing being a drummer, but with this record, the drums were written as the songs progressed, so they really fit the songs well. Every song is completely different for me. I tried not to reuse any drum beat in any songs. As far as the production, our friend Martin Black engineered and mixed the record and he’s incredibly abstract and a super hands-on producer. It led to some great moments in this record that would not have been possible without him. There are tons of little screams and instruments and vocals that are super low in the mix you’ll probably never hear but are there.

Wil: The recording process seemed to last forever. Being our first LP, we had a concept going into it, but most of it took shape once we started.  We did basic tracks for the entire record in one session with the help of Ian Farmer (of Modern Baseball). It ended up lasting 24 hours.  Tons of ideas were born in the studio. We redid, took out and added parts.  We promised each other that we’d never put out anything we weren’t 100 percent proud of and I think we got it.  The record is called Tape 1 Play.

What’s the story behind “Circuits?”

Ian: “Circuits” is one of those “remembering to hope” tracks I mentioned earlier. When you spend a lot of time in your own head, you get caught in this self-centered cycle (hey alliteration!) that doesn’t give you any space to think about the people in your life. I guess Circuits is about getting yourself back into the world around you.

Dan: The idea for the video was to be visually stimulating without distracting too much from the song itself. This is my personal favorite song so I wanted that to be the focal point. The video was done by Bad Dad Music Productions, a production company I’m working to start up.

How do you plan to celebrate the January release?

Wil: We don’t want to give everything away but there’ll be a killer release show at a DIY venue called Mantua Yacht Club on January 15^th with some bands we think you’ll really dig and probably already do.

Dan: And 40s. Definitely 40s.

Ian: I’ll probably go dancing.

Other future plans for the band?

Ian: Go dancing.

Wil:  We’re heading out on tour this spring to support the album.  I guess just keep playing and meeting new people.  We’ve got big hopes for this record.

Dan: Hit the road, get big, sell out, quit, rinse, repeat.