Heavenward embraces grungegaze on new single “Be My Blues” Debut album, Pyrophonics, out June 16th on Fever Ltd. | |||||||||||||||||
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Photo Credit: Joe Calixto | |||||||||||||||||
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“Heavenward’s debut album Pyrophonics is looking to be one of the biggest alternative rock albums of the year.” – The Alternative “Heavenward is…dishing out sheets of muscular, melodic noise and aggression, ’90s style. If your ’90s included bands like Catherine Wheel, Chapterhouse and Bush, that is.” – Buzzbands.LA “‘Gasoline’ is an electrifying first listen into the world of Heavenward as elements of alternative rock of the nineties and early aughts come into play, tugging on the heartstrings of MTV kids and beyond.” – The Daily Listening | |||||||||||||||||
Coming from the mind of Kamtin Mohager, Heavenward will release the debut album Pyrophonics, on June 16th through Fever Ltd. Today he shares “Be My Blues”, the third single off the record following the alternative-leaning “Gasoline” and “Choke”. On “Be My Blues,’ pining vocals are surrounded by synth and guitars laced with feedback to create a lush, encompassing sound before breaking off into heavier moments. The track was originally penned as demo for Mohager’s previous band, Teenage Wrist, and became fully realized when creating Pyrophonics. Speaking on the lyrics, Mohager states: “I wanted to write about the lust and desire that often comes with an unhealthy relationship. You can get so accustomed to the unfair treatment and disrespect that you end up justifying it in order to feel some sort of attention. In a way, you use those moments as emotional or physical fulfillment, having the acts become somewhat fetishized.” Heavenward came to be in 2019 when Mohager knew he had more to explore in the realm of creating music outside his long-running indie-electro moniker The Chain Gang of 1974. He launched with lead single “Hole” in September 2020 and continued on the single path leading to the EP, Staircase Music, in February 2022. Pyrophonics finds Mohager’s full vision coming to life as an outwardly therapeutic experience. The ten songs on the album blend alternative rock with moments of shoegaze and dark pop, focusing heavily on melody and arrangements. It would be easy to throw comparisons to contemporaries like Narrow Head, but Heavenward takes a poppier approach pulling from influences like Catherine Wheel and Year Of The Rabbit. Mohager wrote and performed nearly the entirety of the album himself, recruiting Marshall Gallagher (Teenage Wrist), Austin Hayman (Dear Boy) and Mike Robinson (Blame My Youth) for writing collaborations and additional guitar/drum work. It was produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Zach Tuch (Zulu, Dare, Initiate) at the beginning of this year. Heavenward may be a familiar face, but the music provides a fresh sound and perspective that makes Pyrophonics one of the most exciting upcoming releases in the world of alternative rock. Pyrophonics will release on June 16th through Mohager’s own label, Fever Ltd. and is available for vinyl preorder now. | |||||||||||||||||
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