Urban Heat is an American

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band from

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. It consists of frontman Jonathan Horstmann along with Kevin D. Naquin (synths, programming) and Paxel Foley (bass, samples). Their single "Have You Ever" went viral on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

in 2022, and received the 2023 Austin Music Award for Best Song.

History

Horstmann, a native of California, was raised in a conservative Christian family, and had little exposure to popular music growing up. He moved to Austin in his 20s, where he had played in Austin-area punk and indie rock bands. After the birth of his first child in 2019, he began writing songs using synthesizers, so he could write music with headphones on. He had also recently been diagnosed with OCD and

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...

, and become sober after a history of alcohol and drug addiction. Although Horstmann had intended for a solo project, Naquin demanded they collaborate once he heard his demos. Foley was then recruited to play bass. Horstmann was familiar with Naquin and Foley from the Austin indie community: he met Naquin at a video shoot for the musician SORNE, and he and Foley were part of the same group of fixie riders. The band's progress was halted by the

COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas Austin, Texas, reportedly confirmed its first cases on March 13, 2020, with the related onset of symptoms occurring as early as March 2, 2020. However, the disease may have reached the Austin area earlier. In an unconfirmed case, a 67 year old ...

. They were slated to play at the 2020

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

festival, which was cancelled. Horstmann took his family to North Carolina to stay with in-laws for three months. Despite the interruption, Urban Heat released six singles before their debut album, ''Wellness'', came out in 2022. The band played at SXSW and the

Austin City Limits Music Festival Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, on two consecutive three-day weekends and is inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series ''Austin City Limits''. The festival is pro ...

in 2022. In 2023 they played SXSW again, the

Cruel World Festival The Cruel World Festival is an annual music festival held at the Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 2020, and is organized by Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG Presents. The festival revolves around the new ...

, and toured. Their album ''The Tower'' was released on the 16th August 2024, 9 days after the announcement of their supporting role on the 'Belaya Polosa' tour by

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

sian band,

Molchat Doma Molchat Doma (, ) is a Belarusian post-punk band from Minsk, formed in 2017. Its current lineup is Egor Shkutko (vocals), Roman Komogortsev (guitar, synthesizer, drum machine), and Pavel Kozlov (bass guitar, synthesizer). Its style has been call ...

Discography

* ''Wellness'' (EP) (2022) * ''

Goodbye Horses "Goodbye Horses" is a song recorded by American singer Q Lazzarus. It was written by Q Lazzarus's bandmate, William Garvey, and released in 1988, with an extended version released three years later. It is a synth-pop, dark wave, and new wave ...

'' (single) (cover of Q Lazzarus) (2023) * ''The Tower'' (2024)

References

{{reflist 2019 establishments in Texas American gothic rock groups American post-punk music groups Electronic music groups from Texas Musical groups established in 2019 Musical groups from Austin, Texas Musical trios from Texas