Silicon Heartbeat is a punk band from West Michigan. They've released a handful of incredible tapes, including "Earth Static" on Goodbye Boozy late last year. We spoke with Silicon Heartbeat about the project, splits, and the future of music. Enjoy!
SILICON HEARTBEAT
Remove Records: Tell us a bit about Silicon Heartbeat. How did the project start?
Silicon Heartbeat: Silicon Heartbeat is a one man project from Kalamazoo, MI that started out of boredom, for the most part. I hadn't done any music for a lot of years and I guess I just got the bug & thought it'd be fun to see if I could put my love of (early) Soft Cell & the Ramones in a blender & see what came out. Apparently people like it & that makes it a lot more fun.
How did you link up with Goodbye Boozy for the "Earth Static" tape?
I love what Goodbye Boozy puts out, and, if memory serves, I just emailed and said "Hey, check out my stuff" and Gabriele emailed back and said it was good and maybe we could do something and then a few months went by and I forgot about it. So I was caught off guard when he emailed and asked if I wanted to do a tape, of course I couldn't say no!
You've put out a couple cool splits as well. What do you like about split releases?
The thing I've always liked about split releases is the contrast in styles and that it's a cool way to hear new bands. If you like one band that puts out a split you'll buy it for their side right? But then you flip the record & there's a band that you've never heard before that knocks you out! I've always thought that the unknown element was cool, you don't know what you're going to get. Kind of like trying a new dish at a restaurant or something.
Are there any other bands/artists you'd like to collaborate with?
I would absolutely love to collaborate with Billiam, I think that dude is a genius. Him and Erik Nervous, I would like to work with both of them. I would like to do a split with Axe, they're a killer synthpunk duo from California who put out one of my favorite EP's this year.
What's the music scene like where you're from?
I'm not really involved in the scene here, I'm a stay at home hermit kinda person. I'm sure there's some awesome stuff from here but I don't get out enough or at all (pre-Covid) to really comment on it. Erik Nervous rocks, of course, as well as Thee Elder Gods, a hardcore band from here. Those are the only two local bands that I really know of from here though.
I should have two 7's out sometime this year. One is going to be on the always awesome It's Trash! Records & the other one is going to be on the equally amazing Under The Gun Records, I believe that one's going to be a split. I'm super stoked to be involved with both of these labels & I'm really excited about the songs! Although I must say the songs I did for It's Trash! are probably the best I've written so far. But I'm really excited for both!!!!
How do you feel about the future of music/art?
The future for live music is kind of scary with all the Covid business going on but in the end I think it will get back to what it was sooner than later, things are looking up. I think the future for music in general is really exciting. With technology, pretty much anybody can record and put it up on Bandcamp or whatever. It's kind of a double edge sword though for the same reason. Sometimes you have to sift through shit before you find something really good. But it's so much easier now to hear all of the amazing stuff coming out of, say, Australia that back when I was younger you would never be able to hear about unless it was from, like, somebody's second cousin who visited there once.