A Conversation with the Heydaze

By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com

I truly enjoy discovering new talent!

One band in particular that caught my attention is the Heydaze.

Comprised of Jesse Fink, Andrew “Evil” Spelman and Andrew “Good” Underberg, this New York City-based pop rock trio’s impressive songwriting and sound is not only satisfying music lovers, but also media outlets including Good Music All Day, College of Music and Oblivious Pop.

In this edition of A Conversation, the trio talked about the group’s origin story and the challenges that today’s bands face in the Digital Era.

Jacob Elyachar: Jesse, could you please share the group’s origin story?

Jesse Fink: Since we have two Andrews in this group, we have nicknames to tell them apart. Andrew Underberg’s nickname is Good, while Andrew Spelman goes by Evil. I have known Good for a very longtime. He was a senior in high school, when I was in sixth grade. My parents used to pay him to give me music lessons. After he graduated high school, Good went to Brown University, where he majored in electronic music and became an engineer. I stayed in touch with him until I was in high school, until we lost touch for a little bit.

Meanwhile, Evil, was my very good friend at Penn (University of Pennsylvania). We started writing music together and experimenting with music. A lot of the students enjoyed the material that we were coming up with. Last summer, my dad ran into Good on the street and shared that I was doing a new project. He was interested in it and we grabbed drinks. From there, we wrote our first song and we began to promote our band.

JE: Good, all three members of the group went to Ivy League schools for your higher education. Instead of choosing traditional careers (doctors, lawyers, etc.), the three of you became musicians. Why did the group choose that route?

Andrew “Good” Underberg: I admit I am the “Old Man” of the group! I graduated from Brown in 2009, while both (Jesse and Evil) were still in high school. I studied music while I attended Brown, so I knew that I was going to do something in the music industry. I ended up writing several J-POP (Japanese pop) songs. I was never going to be a doctor or a lawyer.

JE: Could you please describe my songwriting process to my readers?

AGU: Our songwriting process varies from song-to-song and it is also very collaborative process from other bands. Evil might come up with something at two-in-the-morning, and then we would get into the studio and start writing. It might be two or all three of us working on the track…but it is a very collaborative process.

JE: Evil, how long did it take the group to compose “City Girl” from conception to release?

Andrew “Evil” Spelman: “City Girl” was the first song that the three of us wrote together. We were scrolling through Good’s computer and looking at tracks that he did for other artists. We saw a file called “Ice Queen” and we thought it was interesting. The group opened the file up and we used the piano riff to open up the song and we wrote a song about a city girl and we recorded it in one afternoon.

JE: Jesse, what are some of the challenges that today’s bands face in the Digital Age? How will this group overcome those challenges?

JF:Obviously, the Digital Age has made it a lot easier to record music. However, because of that easiness, there are so many more artists in the marketplace! If someone posted a cover of one of our songs, we would be going against other YouTube cover artists. I think that is something that is a problem, and we are trying to make our sound more unique. In addition, there is also a mad Instagram and Twitter game that we are still trying to figure out. At the end of the day, we are developing a voice and a vinyl that people can go on these social media platforms and talk about how awesome our album is and hopefully, we get more fans.

JE: Speaking of social media, Good…how has social media helped the band with your marketing strategy?

AGU: Social media has given us the power to interact with our fans! We played our first show in Philadelphia at the end of April, and we made a few new friends and fans. We communicated through Twitter and Instagram, which was interesting because 10 years ago, bands had a hard time connecting with their fanbases through the Internet.

JE: Evil, could you please share the group’s progress in releasing your debut album? What can fans expect from the group’s debut album?

AES: We have been constantly writing new content everyday, in order to have quality material on our debut. I think the plan is to put out an EP near the end of the summer, hopefully towards the end of August. As we get ready to release the EP, keep an ear out for more singles from us.

To connect with the Haydaze on social media, visit their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube channels.