Heiskell

By WAYNE BLEDSOE, bledsoe@knews.com
May 27, 2007

"Soundtrack for an Aneurism," Heiskell (www.heiskellmusic.com)

Jeff Heiskell made his mark on the national music scene with the early 1990s as lead singer-songwriter of the Judybats. The Knoxville-based group made some waves with its debut disc (and the college-rock hit "Don't Drop the Baby"). However, in the shadow of the emerging grunge movement, the band floundered commercially. The group's second (and best disc) "Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow" was roundly ignored as were subsequent releases.

While Heiskell occasionally resurrected the band with various memberships, the Judybats never quite came back.

Thankfully, "Soundtrack for an Aneurism" returns Heiskell soundly back into the music scene.

The best two tracks on the disc (and possibly the best in the songwriter's entire catalog) are seemingly dissimilar portraits.

"Gasoline" (also available on the bonus disc to "Just One More: A Musical Tribute to Larry Brown") is pure Americana, filled with acoustic guitars and a country music vibe. It's a picture of a rural free spirit and Heiskell is at a surprising peak as he drawls the chorus: "Life's a shotgun, goin' mean/Love's a red light, goin' green/breath smells like gasoline "

But "The Death of Knoxville Cool" is just as American and even better. In it the singer spies a mother and her effeminate son in the park and share a moment of mutual cognizance: "That boy will grow up to be/a big girl someday, you'll see."

The song follows with the boy's journey to become an Atlanta drag queen and future transsexual known as "the Death of Knoxville Cool," blending acoustic guitar with bits of electronica and electric guitar (courtesy of band member Doug Hairrell) into an irresistible package. Heiskell is simultaneously sensitive and crass in his delivery.

Heiskell has matured as a songwriter and, thankfully, not lost his distinctive vocal style. Other fine tracks include "Like a Vampire" and the uncharacteristically sweet "Smile."

The best of the disc, though, is so much better than the weaker tracks (including an unnecessary cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Trouble") that it makes for an uneven ride. Still, the best is something not to be missed.

- Knoxville News-Sentinel

Go to:

http://www.spinner.com/2008/06/27/rockin-out-interview-the-judybats-jeff-heiskell/ - AOL Music

http://www.outinamerica.com/arts/two.asp and at www.audiophile.com - Out In America

"Clip On Nose Ring," Heiskell (www.heiskellmusic.com)

Jeff Heiskell is the veteran of the scene. Heiskell was the frontman of the

beloved Sire Records-signed act the Judybats in the late 1980s and 1990s. However, "Nose Ring" stands as his finest disc to date.

Heiskell's best assets include an expressive voice, lyrics that are crass and clever, and a knack for good melodies, but they have never come together as well as on this disc. If rock singles were still relevant, "Sick of Nothing" and "Helluva Summer" would be blaring from radios. In "Helluva Summer," the singer bitterly lambasts "another virgin in a tire swing" whose "brief affair" had her "legs up in the air." It's funny. It's sad. It's nasty. And, it's absolutely irresistible.

Illicit and unconventional encounters and troubled relationships populate the best tracks. A humorous ode to chubby men that could become an anthem for guys who grew up shopping in the "husky" department.

Heiskell infuses the songs with honesty and humanity. And, the players on the disc (including Tim and Susan Lee, Eric Nowinski and Greg Horne) help make the disc sparkle.
- Knoxville News-Sentinel

http://www.metropulse.com/news/2008/nov/12/broken-dreams/

If Jeff Heiskell is looking to wipe the slate clean, then his first solo album under the name Heiskell will do the job and then some. His new self-released album, Clip-on Nose Ring, is a blistering account of relationships, cynicism, and regret, fueled by some of the catchiest melodies of his 20-year career.

It’s an unexpected sound from a guy best known for his clever, if slightly detached, musings as the lead singer for the Judybats, one of Knoxville’s most beloved pre-grunge alternative bands. The Judybats were signed to a major label in the early ’90s and touted as the next big college rock band. They toured the country and were regulars on MTV’s seminal weekly alternative show 120 Minutes. And then it all fell apart.

“I’ve always considered myself an artist, and I don’t do this because I’ve always wanted to be on TV and get laid a lot,” Heiskell says. “That’s not why I started playing music and that’s not why I am doing it now. And in the Judybats there was a point where I didn’t know why I was doing it anymore, and maybe I was just trying to write the next jingle for stupid college kids to listen to for a week. And I could not do that.”

Clip-on Nose Ring signals more than just Heiskell’s return to music. It’s a statement of where he is in his life, a gritty confessional that will surprise more than a few of his old fans. Many of the songs openly refer to his relationships with men: married men, chubby men, men half his age. But Heiskell says it’s just the first time he’s been allowed to explore his relationships so openly.

“I started writing one song and was like, ‘If I write this song, there will be other things that will follow,’” he says. “And I gave myself some time and decided that I am ready to do that. It was very hard on me, making that decision.

“Because of being on a major label, there were certain things that were OK, but there were parameters. Like writing songs about men, it wasn’t something I felt like I was allowed to do previously. Personally, this is very revolutionary for me.”

Heiskell teamed up with local rockers Tim Lee (of Tim Lee 3) and drummer Eric Nowinski (Angel and the Lovemongers) for the new record. After deciding that he wanted to record another album, he bought a guitar book at McKay Used Books and CDs and started writing songs. He would record them and then play them back for Lee and Nowinski, and they would all three flesh the songs out in the studio. He says they never took a rough mix home, but just left it simple. It’s a bare-bones approach that resulted in some of the most melodic songs Heiskell has ever recorded. From the laid-back melancholy of “Best Broken Dream” to the jolting rocker “Helluva Summer,” Heiskell says he was interested in writing killer hooks that you can’t forget.

“I’ve never had a recording experience like this, where the people involved were so focused on the task,” he says. “I’m really indebted to them for being so dedicated to this project.” It’s an experience Heiskell hopes they can emulate live. They’re playing a show at Barley’s to kick off the album release and may do some out-of-town gigs as well.

It’s also hard not to notice Heiskell’s new tough-guy image. The cover of Clip-on Nose Ring shows him decked out in a black leather jacket with a silver hoop big enough for a bull piercing his septum. He says it’s the perfect metaphor for local musicians and what Heiskell says is their phony hard-rock facade. “Somehow I mentioned ‘clip-on nose ring’ and Tim was like, ‘That’s what you’ve got to call the record,’” Heiskell says.

“You look at all of the musicians with their black clothes and black leather jackets and tattoos and all that. Like, ‘I’m so cutting edge,’ but they all grew up in the suburbs in a rancher. All these people think there is something so punk rock about them. That has always bothered me. To me, I’m more fucking punk rock than anybody else in this town. And doing a record like this is more punk rock than anything anyone else has done in this town. There’s nothing cutting edge about them.”

Comments - It's early, not certain

http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20081114/ENT/311149998

Jeff Heiskell gets bold, reflective on new album

By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff



No compromises, no apologies -- "Clip-on Nose Ring" is the sound of a man planting a flag into the continually unfolding landscape of his life and not backing down.

Jeff Heiskell -- who fronts a band that goes by his last name -- will release his new album tonight at a show at Barley's Taproom in Knoxville's Old City. It's a far cry from the big venues he played and the MTV audiences he played to as front man for The Judybats, one of the few Knoxville rock acts that have earned national exposure over the past 20 years.

None of that really matters to him, however. Not now. Not with this record. Not this time, when he feels like he's in the most emotionally confident, spiritually serene place of his career.

"I feel more comfortable musically now than I ever have," Heiskell told The Daily Times this week. "One of the first songs I wrote was 'There's a Road,' and it was just me sitting in my basement with an old guitar and drinking wine, and it was really strange. (The subject matter) was a hurdle for me to get over -- I had to ask myself, am I going to write about that in a pretty pop framework? Is that really what I want to do?

"I've been a manager quite a bit in my life, business-wise, and so I gave myself exactly 48 hours to decide whether I was going to do that. And when I did, it felt really good. I'm writing these songs, and I'm paying for this record, so I don't have anybody else's financial well-being dangling off of what I'm writing. In the past, with The Judybats, I felt a little bit responsible, because it wasn't just me -- I couldn't do this wing-nutty something that's all about me because other people were involved.

"This time, it was my guitar and my thing, and I decided to do whatever I wanted to do," he added.

Heiskell's roots in the East Tennessee music scene date back to 1987, when he formed The Judybats with five fellow University of Tennessee students. It was a strange time for a band like the 'bats -- college-rock success stories like R.E.M. and Let's Active were still underground, while he airwaves were ruled by hair metal and New Wave synth-pop. Over the course of four records for Sire/Warner Bros., however, The Judybats flirted with mainstream fame, finding some success on MTV before drowning in the grunge explosion of the early 1990s.

"I'm an artist first, not a musician, and I've always, to a certain degree, done what I wanted to do," Heiskell said. "With The Judybats, it just got to where I couldn't do it anymore. We were on a major label, and it seemed my life was nothing more than trying to write a jingle of the week for stupid suburban college kids. That wasn't what was going on, but in my mindset, that's what it was, and that's not why I started making music."

At the same time The Judybats were struggling up the corporate rock ladder, Heiskell was wrestling with issues of his own -- primarily his sexuality. He came out to his parents in the mid-1990s, and looking back, he said, he probably could have used that decision to sell more records.

"I might have hinted as the sexuality stuff in my music, but it didn't overshadow it, because that was not something I felt comfortable with at all," he said. "I think it was kind of expected at some point that I might make an issue out of it, and that it might sell some records, but I wasn't willing to do that at that time. I had a real problem with the idea of that.

"I probably should have; I might be living in Central Florida, running a convenience store. I look at k.d. lang, and how she did it at the right time, and I think that was very much planned. I think she talked to her financial adviser and asked if her decision to come out as going to get a lot of press and sell a lot of records. I knew it was something I could have done, but I just didn't want to do that. I wasn't willing to whore myself out."

His unwillingness to compromise -- his integrity or his art -- is what torpedoed a new incarnation of The Judybats eight years ago. The band put out one record ("Judybats '00") and featured only Heiskell from the group's original lineup. (Incidentally, the other musicians from Judybats '00 -- drummer Mike Hairrell, guitarist Doug Hairrell and bassist Rob Bell -- are now members of Heiskell, the band.)

"We had a multimillionaire and a control freak who was backing that record, and he had some issues," Heiskell said. "One of the things was the writing shares -- he said I should get 60 percent and the other guys should get the rest, and I said no, that it would be divided up equally. There were a couple of things like that that I said no to, and since he had all that money and power, he wasn't used to hearing that.

"So it didn't last long. After that record, after I stopped doing The Judybats, I was never going to do any more music."

The music, however, still had plans for Heiskell. A couple of years ago, he released the first record under the Heiskell moniker -- "Soundtrack for an Aneurism," produced by Don Coffey of Superdrag/Independent Recorders. It wasn't just a record; it was Heiskell's re-emergence into the local music scene that seemed, back in the early 1990s, like it turned on The Judybats.

"People were pissed when we got signed, because they thought they're loud, gritty, screaming-guitar band was better," he said. "Not a lot was said, but there were things written by musicians in clubs and bars all over town that were horrible. Some of it ran across my back, and some of it didn't. And that bothered me.

"But what I found years later was that there was some kind of shift. A lot of people I thought just didn't like me -- but it turns out a lot of people that really respect me and what I've done were just somehow intimidated by me and would not come over and talk to me because of that. I don't know what it is about me -- it's not like I'm 6-foot-4 and a bruiser -- but it's very interesting, because I feel really comfortable around any of the musicians here in town now."

For "Clip-on Nose Ring," Heiskell enlisted the services of Eric Nowinski, local drummer with The Vibraslaps and Angel and the Love Mongers and owner of Rock Snob Recorders, and Tim Lee, former guitarist for the aforementioned band Let's Active and a college rock stalwart who co-founded The Windbreakers in the 1980s. In them, Heiskell said, he found kindred spirits -- musicians who were content to just let the songs be what they're supposed to be as opposed to ceaseless tinkering.

"I would say, more than anything else, that 'Clip-on Nose Ring' is a reflective record in which I'm looking very boldly and objectively at some relationship issues that I've had in the recent past," he said of the finished product. "To me, it's just an outpouring of any emotional schisms hat I've had with things -- what am I comfortable with and what am I not comfortable with, and really exploring that and not trying to edit any of it.

"I feel like I've had to do that a lot with my lyrics and my music in the past -- I've ad to edit, to whittle down and homogenize it a little bit. And so I just made the decision that I was not going to do that this time."


Originally published: November 14. 2008 3:01AM
Last modified: November 13. 2008 3:28PM


- A publishing company

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/former-bat-no-longer-dark-new-album/

From his days in the Judybats through his new album “Clip On Nose Ring,” there’s a peculiar dichotomy to Jeff Heiskell’s music. Alongside the biting and sometimes sophisticated smart-aleck lyrics is a rural, even redneck sensibility.

“Part of me comes from a rural blue-collar perspective,” says Heiskell. “My parents come from tobacco farmers. I might start raising tobacco!”

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, Heiskell was the singing-songwriting force in the Judybats, a college-radio favorite that skimmed the national consciousness with the songs “Being Simple,” “Daylight” and “Don’t Drop the Baby.” The group signed with Sire Records and released four albums before calling it quits. Since that time, Heiskell has kept a low musical profile, surfacing only occasionally with the band the Doubter’s Club, a new Judybats configuration and, most recently, under his own last name.

“I got out of the Judybats because I felt like I was writing pop songs for stupid college kids to get drunk to,” says Heiskell. “That was completely ridiculous, but that’s how I felt.”

Heiskell says he’s been ready to give up music completely several times, all the way down to “not singing in the shower.” His performance at Barley’s tonight will be the first time since a 2005 tour that he has performed in concert.

Heiskell’s new songs are markedly different than his earlier work.

“It isn’t the Judybats. It isn’t a wispy, upbeat kind of thing,” says Heiskell. “But it is still glib. There’s that sardonic wit going on.”

There’s also a new level of honesty. Whereas Heiskell wrote cryptically about his relationships in the past, on “Nose Ring,” he addresses his sexuality directly.

“In the Judybats I think there were some expectations for me to say, ‘I’m not into girls’ to help record sales,” says Heiskell. “I wasn’t going to do that.”

Heiskell says there was a point when he was writing the new song “There’s a Road” that he realized he was no longer going to edit himself.

“I realized what I was writing about — basically about being at a BP station on Chapman Highway during the summer a couple of years ago doing some kind of concrete work. Some guy pulls up to me, traveling salesman type and started asking me directions and I realized pretty quickly that directions wasn’t what he needed. And one thing led to another. Not something I do that often, but those things happen.

“It took me a while, but I realized, It’s my guitar. I’m paying for the recording time. I’m gonna write about whatever I want to. This is America!”

On “The Chubby Guy Song,” Heiskell humorously addresses his attraction to oversized men.

“I just decided to blow that up bigger than life,” he says with a laugh.

Over the past few years, Heiskell, who has always been a vocalist, has taught himself to play guitar. While he isn’t comfortable performing with it on stage, he uses it to write songs. It has resulted in some songs that he might not have written before he started playing and it is hard to tell what his next album might be like.

“The next time I do a record it might be an alternative-country record,” he says. “I spent a huge part of my life breaking horses. I went to rodeo school and couldn’t get bucked off of anything. So if anyone was going to write an alternative-country record it would be me. But I’m not necessarily going to do that. … I’m not going to do genre music.”

- Wayne Bledsoe, Knox. News-Sentinel, Nov. 14th 2008

Each month, Twirl Radio scours the country (and sometimes the globe) to bring the finest musical talent to the airwaves. As you might recall, last month we landed in Knoxville, Tennessee. Well, this month, for the first time, we just stay put--and keep ourselves parked in Knoxville--because we are celebrating Jeff Heiskell, and his new band Heiskell, as the Artist of the Month for May, 2007. Catch my interview with Jeff on Saturday, May 12th, 2007 on Twirl!

Back in the early 1990s, Jeff was the leader of the Judybats. I cannot overstate how innovative and creative they were. Their Native Son debut came roaring out of Knoxville. This landmark CD provided a showcase for Jeff's inventive songwriting, his versatile vocals (which ranged from Stan Ridgway-like quirkiness to pure crooning), and the group's ensemble musicianship, led by Peggy Hambright's stellar keyboards. You could say that their sound represented the fun side of alternative music. Gosh, we really liked that band! They were rewarded with a fair amount of fame. Alternative radio airplay, and MTV and VH1 video exposure followed. Unfortunately, after a few more albums, and mishandling by their record label, they were overshadowed by the louder (and grungier) music coming out of Seattle (Nirvana, anyone?)

Fast forward to 2007. Jeff teamed up with the last incarnation of the Judybats (Doug Hairrell, guitars; Mike Hairrell, drums; Rob Bell, bass) and formed Heiskell. As Jeff told me, it was the rest of the band's idea to use the name Heiskell. And it's not just Jeff's band--it's a very democratically run band, with all four musicians contributing and making decisions.

After having gotten somewhat burned by the ravages of the music industry, Jeff is a little older and a little wiser. Life happened. But his songwriting instincts are sharper than ever, and they form the foundation for the debut album from Heiskell, Soundtrack for an Aneurism.

I know what you're thinking: "does Heiskell the group sound like the Judybats"? Well--yes and no. There are some moments where Aneurism reminds me of the now-legendary opening five song salvo on Native Son, or the great songs on Pain Makes You Beautiful. But this new band introduces some new sonic textures as well. Let's explore the album.

The opening track, Your Touch, is completely radio-ready--out of the box. Just press "play". If this album has a hit, this is it. It's an upbeat-sounding pop song, equal to anything Jeff did under the Judybats brand. A love song with edgy lyrics--a nervous start to a relationship. Who hasn't been there before? Another song that sounds great from the first listen is The Death of Knoxville Cool. Again, great pop sounds--but with troubling lyrics, based on a real life observation, turned into a storytelling tour de force. And unlike the typical Judybats/Heiskell sound, there's a guitar solo by Doug Hairrell at the end--very tasty. I wish the solo could have gone on for another minute or so.

A third instant standout--Farewell, Green Eyes--sounds like something R.E.M. might have recorded on their late 1980's album Green--you know, the one where Michael Stipe finally started enunciating the lyrics clearly, and you realized what you had suspected all along--that the lyrics really were profound. The vocals sound ominous, and the mandolin and acoustic guitar are prominent in the mix. Jeff said that this one originally had a drum, but it annoyed Mike Hairrell (the drummer!), so they just turned off that track, and wound up with this quiet but intense song, written for a band associate who committed suicide.

I've already played those three compelling songs on my radio show, but everything else is standing up well to repeated listening. Songs like Beneath the Garden, Like A Vampire, and Love Again all have a good mid tempo alternative rock sound. Gasoline has a really rootsy feel, with dark lyrics. There's a cover of the Lindsey Buckingham Trouble, with intimate, whispery vocals--Jeff tells me his intent was for the song to sound "creepy". Actually, the vocals are fairly prominent throughout the disc--more so than in Judybats albums. All in all, there are about 7 or 8 songs off this album that I'll be playing on my show. It's really a strong collection.

It was so interesting talking to Jeff about his songwriting. Many of his songs start out based on real-life experiences and observations, then become an exercise in storytelling. I was amazed to find out that my favorite Judybats song, Convalescing in Spain, off of Native Son, was actually a true story. I've always been impressed with the clever way in which the main character dealt with the heartbreak of a failed relationship. Little did I know that Jeff was the main character, and he really did go to Spain!

All in all, Soundtrack for an Aneurism is a magnificent start to this phase of Jeff Heiskell's career. He and the band have crafted a fine album, which should please Judybats fans, garner some new ones, and at the same time reassure us that brilliant songwriting and musicianship are alive and well. I wish Jeff well in this first post-Judybats effort, and am honored and pleased to have him hold forth over Twirl Radio as Artist of the Month for May, 2007!

- Mike Lidskin, Twirl Radio - http://www.twirlradio.com/twirlcast.php

There are a few points which the casual observer should note about Jeff Heiskell:
1. Jeff Heiskell was the frontman of (and possibly the soul behind) the early 90's college rock wonderband The Judybats.
2. Clip-On Nose Ring is Heiskell's second "solo" release since The Judybats went missing sometime around 1995.
3. Jeff Heiskell doesn't beat around the bush. The man tells it like he sees it, straight up.
4. Jeff Heiskell's got a dark, dark soul.
5. Jeff Heiskell surrounds himself with some mighty fine musicians.

Keeping these fine points in mind, it is no surprise that Clip-On Nose Ring is a wonderful collection of songs. The album flows seamlessly between genres, skipping lithely between the iconoclastic college rock of songs like "I Want The World To Change" and semi-ridiculous joke rock like "The Chubby Guy Song". Jeff Heiskell's lyrics still stand as the strongest part of his music, as he turns his pen inward to espouse the things that are more important to him in a more straightforward style than ever before. His brilliant melodies are still extent, but his lyrics have taken a bit of a turn from more obscure references to simply stating, in a decidedly poetic manner, how he feels about everyday challenges that face him… and you. "I Want The World To Change" is simply a somewhat selfish plea for the world to accept difference and revel in that acceptance. "Helluva Summer" begins in rocking fashion, reminding me of The Vapor's "Trains" in rhythm and tone as it tells the story of summer love gone missing, or awry, or whatever. The love song is not neglected as Heiskell bounds tirelessly through the glittering rock of songs like "Everdear", but most of these songs have the bitter darkness that we've come to expect from Jeff's lyrics. As the light melodies barrel through their songs, careful attention shows that Heiskell isn't so much singing about love as it goes on, but laying down funeral dirges for good love gone bad, or simply gone. The gritty alt. rock of "Still A Place" is about as dark as the music gets, ably conveying the spirit of the lyrics, until Jeff sidesteps into country territory with his very dark cover of the Dolly Parton classic "Jolene". As Jeff tackles his first real foray into the country music realm, he takes complete ownership of the song, darkening the lyric even more as he turns his normally joyous voice into an ominous haunting scrape. Heiskell slows the tempo, relies musically on dirgey drumming and acoustic guitar offset with some great simple banjo (!!) rolls that really set the mood for the song.

Clip-On Nose Ring finds Heiskell walking the familiar ground of dark songs with bright music that his fans have come to expect from him. But in addition to the poppy music and tongue in cheek lyrical sense that he's always brought to the table, Jeff has also taken the time to stretch his sound, incorporating more folk elements, and the darker sides of country music. The sum of these seemingly disparate parts is far greater than anything Jeff has ever created before. Clip-On Nose Ring shows that Heiskell has grown as a person, while becoming more comfortable telling the world his innermost personal reflections and battles, all the while taking a few musical chances and coming out a winner in the game.

-David DeVoe

- hybridmagazine.com