Heaven

The Precious, Shivering Of Dimming Sentiment - Daytrotter

You know what's cool about Sundays in late March? You can wear your best leathers and varying shades of black and stroll around the streets with your girlfiend, laughing casually in the light of very early spring, when the air is still kinda crisp. You can walk by grafittied walls and feel at one with the city, you can strut in slo mo down railroad tracks and feel like you're in an urban version of Stand by Me, you can come across some randomly discarded instruments and then hold that white keyboard above your head like John Cusack in Say Anything (just please don't actually play music in the street unless you're a musical genius. Buskers begone!). Basically the underlying message of this video is—you can do anything you want, BB!

Matt Sumrow and Mikey Jones make up NYC's Heaven and create music that floats on a narcotized cloud of reverbed guitars and gauzily layered vocals which sounds as if they've been delivered horizontally. The video for their latest single, "New Amsterdam," is premiering above and lifted from last year's debut LP, Telepathic Love, which we all know is the best kind of love: unspoken eroticism, people.

Heaven Tour Dates

2.6 - Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts at 8pm #
2.6 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie at 11pm ^
2.7 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge %
2.10 - Chapel Hill, NC - Cats Cradle Back Room #
2.11 - Athens, GA - Georgia Theater #
2.12 - Cincinatti, OH - Southgate House
2.13 - Ferdale, MI (Detroit) - New Way Bar
2.21 - Washington, DC - Comet Ping Pong

# w/ Caveman
^ w/ Ruby The Hatchet
% w/ +/- (Plus/Minus) - Noisey / VICE

We've got an exciting video premiere today from Brooklyn dream pop-ers Heaven—watch their video for "Colors in the Whites of Your Eyes" above.

The band formed in late 2010 and consists of Matt Sumrow (Dean and Britta, the Comas, Ambulance LTD), Mikey Jones (the Big Sleep, Swervedriver, Snowden), and Ryan Lee Dunlap (Fan-Tan).

The swirly shoegaze of "Colors in the Whites of Your Eyes" is the opening track off Heaven's debut LP Telepathic Love, out July 30. You can also stream the track and their recent Covers EP on their PureVolume page.

Pre-order Telepathic Love here and catch Heaven on tour this summer. - purevolume

A collaboration from New Yorkers Mikey Jones (Adam Franklin, The Big Sleep, Snowden), Matt Sumrow (Ambulance LTD, The Comas, Dean and Britta, ) and Ryan Lee Dunlap (Fan-Tan), Heaven is a New York new wave/psychedelic scene supergroup. After touring with Swervedriver last year, a SXSW Showcase and holding a month residency at Pianos NYC in last November, they are releasing their first full-length on hot indie label Goodnight Records in April. You see them with The Wedding Present at Bowery Ballroom February 9th. Here’s a track off their split 7? with Swervedriver: - serialoptimist.com

Heaven’s last residency show is tonight, Tuesday, November 27th, at Pianos. Hard hitting documentarians scoped out last week’s show and found the room filled with sounds comforting to their head’s side holes. Wearing earplugs is only recommended if you have an aversion to fun super sensitive hearing.

Brooklyn-based Heaven brought their mix of psychedelia and new wave to Pianos last week, for the second show of their November residency. The trio — comprised of NYC music veterans Matt Sumrow on guitar, Mikey Jones on drums, and Ryan Lee Dunlap on keyboards and synths — describe their sound as “a romantic clash between your Dad’s long lost favorite psych record and the soundtrack to a John Hughes film.” And they’re not wrong. Layers of dreamy, trippy sounds built by synths, keyboards, and guitar are kept grounded by Jones’ steady pop on drums, as well as impressive vocal harmonies which either add to the loud, gritty psychedelic experience or give listeners something to hum along to, depending on the tune. The live show blends sounds and sights that provides a unique experience that’s not to be missed.

See you there tonight.
2012, New York - NYMN.com

Heaven are a sort of supergroup in the New York psychedelic scene, made up of the triumvirate of Matt Sumrow, guitarist for Dean & Britta, Ryan Lee Dunlap of Fan-Tan, and Mikey Jones, drummer extraordinaire who has played with everyone from Adam Franklin to The Big Sleep. Together this young team delivers a synth-heavy payload of droney neo-psych that is simultaneously soothing and scintillating. Layers of keyboards and guitar noise over a solid beat provide a foundation upon which their impeccable vocal harmonies can uplift and entrance.

Resting comfortably in that place where dream pop meets noise rock, Heaven are quickly making their mark on New York, garnering rave reviews from local press and making fans all over the music world. With a full album recorded but not officially released, Heaven have been releasing songs little by little. "Once the Heartache" was given away by The Village Voice as a free download, and now the band are preparing to release their debut 7-inch, "Mountains Move." A record release party for it will be held at 200 Orchard in Manhattan on August 23.

Rock Edition caught up with Heaven's guitarist, Matt Sumrow, to find out how the band came to be and where they want to go. Read on.

How was Heaven formed?

That's a good way to start it off. It started off with Mikey [Jones, drummer] and I playing together. The first time we played together was with a band called The Still Out, which was with these guys Josh [Stoddard] and Arjun [Agerwala]. We met Josh because he played with Adam Franklin, and we ended up starting to play with him around the same time as well. So we all sort of started playing together.

Mikey was already playing with Adam Franklin?

At that point, yeah. But I actually played keyboards in a couple of rehearsals with Adam before any of us even knew Mikey. Then, my old band The Comas got real busy, so I had to forgo playing with Adam at that point. It sort of all came back together a couple of years later with Josh's band. They got this guy Mikey to come play in Josh's band, and I show up, and we started playing together and had great chemistry, and just decided to start working on stuff. That took a couple of years to get going. We did some recording maybe a year before the Heaven stuff that's recorded now; we went into Stratosphere [Studios] with Arjun from The Still Out.

This was in '09?

Yeah, probably '09. I could look, I have all the recordings labeled, but I always forget the times. Anyway, we went in there and recorded about ten songs with Mikey playing drums, and me playing either bass or guitar -- basically demoing some songs. From that session, we sort of had an idea of how we wanted to go about it next time we went in, and how we wanted to frame it up. So we went in and kind of pre-produced the recordings really well, had an equation, and just went in and knocked it out.

At this point, it's still just the two of you?

Yeah, just the two of us. But, part of the equation we came up with was to have harmony the whole time, to have two front guys [basically] singing the whole time. So we threw around different people, and Ryan-Lee Dunlap [of Fan-Tan] came up as a great candidate, so we got him in. We brought him in kind of near the end of the sessions, just to sing and play guitar.

So the core of the band is now the three of you.

Yeah, I know you saw us play with five people at Perfect Prescription in 2010; we had Lizzah Lohse and Wayne Longwell playing for a while. When we were getting the band started, we kind of wanted to experiment with how we could present it live, and change it up. It's a three-piece now. We're just trying to really get to the essentials of the sound, and rock out that way, but as time goes on, we're definitely open to changing that around and experimenting more.

I've seen you as a five-piece and as a three-piece, and I think it worked equally well both times. Some things were a little different; I guess there was something a littler rawer, in a good way, about the three-piece.

Yeah, that's kind of the consensus we came to. There was more rawness and more of an ability to push the envelope and rock out, so to speak. Mikey and I have a good dynamic. We've played together in various things, with me on bass or on guitar, and so we have a really good chemistry, and we can really turn up and rock out. It was essential to get back to that. It felt like with the five-piece, that I was orchestrating a little too much.

So now with the three-piece, the role of bass is now being handled by keys?

Yeah, we're running the Roland Strings into a bass amp, playing the low section. The bass ends up just being heavy drone keyboard. There's definitely moments where I miss having bass guitar, to propel it more. In the future, we'll probably get bass guitar back in some capacity. But for now, it seems to be working.

Yeah! So, you've got your first official release coming out this month: the "Mountains Move" 7-inch. - RockEdition.com

Swervedriver and Heaven have now completed their short tour that brought them to Bowery Ballroom on 3/31. Here are some pictures from that NYC show. More of them (including the headliner's setlist), below... - BrooklynVegan.com

Swervedriver and Heaven have now completed their short tour that brought them to Bowery Ballroom on 3/31. Here are some pictures from that NYC show. More of them (including the headliner's setlist), below... - BrooklynVegan.com

Franklin: Heaven is a new New York City combo featuring Mikey Jones, Matt Sumrow and Ryan Dunlap. Mikey is widely regarded as the baddest drummer in the city (and by bad I mean sick, y’all), and he and Matt are so sick that they played drums and bass, respectively, on my new Bolts Of Melody album. Heaven’s quite a different beast altogether, however, and Matt plays guitar and sings lead on this stellar cut, “Colors In The Whites Of Your Eyes,” which you can download below. - MagnetMagazine.com

Heaven is a Brooklyn dream syndicate planted firmly between the 1985 crossroads of Paisley Underground shamble and noisepop blast. These three New York veterans have no shortage of experience with things that swirl and gaze and lilt along hazily: Their collective résumés boast time in atmospheric rock bands like Snowden, Ambulance LTD, The Big Sleep, and Fan-Tan; and guitarist Matt Sumrow has been backing Galaxie 500's Dean Wareham for years. But Heaven has a noisier streak, a bitter taste of psychocandy ready to snap and snarl into the blown-out new world of Death By Audio power-gushers. They've got an album's worth of material currently awaiting the right record label and their first official release, the "Mountains Move" 7-inch (Goodnight Records), will be ready this summer. "Once The Heartache" is an abrasive blast of sheet-metal feedback doing its noble best to hide some spectral, Spectoral harmonies.

Download: Heaven, "Once The Heartache"
Q&A: Heaven guitarist Matt Sumrow on "Once The Heartache"

What is "Once The Heartache" about?

Well, "Once the Heartache," like most of Heaven's material, is a love song. This tune is about being in love with someone, but at the same time trying to express the confusion surrounding the fact that you know it just isn't going to work out... The lyrics are purposely written to be kinda cryptic and schizophrenic. They jump back and forth, professing ultimate love for this person, but on the other side saying I'm not going to change, or can't change the way I feel even if I wanted to. Lofty, sentimental ideals, I know... but we like it that way.

What inspired it musically?

Originally it was written on an acoustic guitar as a Gram Parsons-style country song, and it existed like that for a long time. Mikey Jones (Heaven drummer extraordinaire) and I decided to feedback and fuzz it out, play the guitars with all downstrokes and generally make it sound more like a Ronettes song.

How did you make the feedback at the beginning of this song?

Well, the feedback track was originally recorded at an earlier session at Stratosphere Studios that Mikey and I started but didn't finish, a year before Heaven was conceived. It was one super long track of guitar feedback cut up and layered on top of each other. I went into the isolation booth with my Fender Jaguar Baritone, lots of pedals, and two amps and created chaos for what seemed like an hour.

What's the most memorable show you've placed in NYC?

The first Heaven show was one to remember. We played a late-night free show at Mercury Lounge to a packed room of friends and family. Unexpectedly our light rig caught fire five minutes before we were on. Thank God it was luckily put out and fixed without too much of an incident. We like to think this was an omen of some sort, blessing our first night on stage.

What's your favorite place to eat in Brooklyn?

Hmm, so many places to choose from.... Some friends of mine from North Carolina recently opened a place called Van Horn Sandwich Shop in Cobble Hill. It's at the top of my list for getting my southern food fix taken care of: pulled pork, fried catfish, hush puppies and sweet tea. - theVillageVoice.com

When Matt Sumrow, Mikey Jones and Ryan Lee Dunlap teamed up last summer, the Brooklyn trio didn’t foresee 2012 bringing a tour with Swervedriver, a SXSW showcase and a shiny 7’’ that takes on the atmospheric texture of U2. But that’s exactly what they did.

From their first release comes “Mountains Move” (full-length debut expected later this year), and while the track brought by Goodnight Records is good, it is the B-side “Falling Apple” that has gotten our ears spinning. Hovering over the hazy synth lines, “Falling Apple” resonates like a murmuring wave that suddenly plasters itself onto shore. The self-aware lyrics, paired with droning vocals, kick through the tide and wade within pulsating synth puddles. Check out the Josh Stoddard-directed video for “Falling Apple” below. - PasteMagazine.com

NYC dreampop band Heaven will release their new album, All Love is Blue on March 2 via Little Cloud Records. Led by Matt Sumrow and Mikey Jones — who, between them, have played in Dean and Britta, Swervedriver, Ambulance LTD, The Comas, Snowden, and The Big Sleep — the band fall somewhere between driving ’80s alt-rock and early-’90s shoegaze, with an ear for melody and atmospherics. The first single from the record is the pulsing, hypnotic “Never the Moment,” which makes its premiere in this post. Watch the video, and check out album art and tracklist, below.

Heaven will be on tour early next year, playing Southeast dates in January and also have a hometown show at Trans-Pecos on February 1 (ticket into and full show lineup TBA). All dates are listed below. - Brooklyn Vegan

Heaven can’t wait, psych/rock fans. On March 2, the Little Cloud label will issue All Love Is Blue, the sophomore album from Brooklyn trio Heaven. But you don’t have to trust us when we tell you that you need to immediately check out this band. Instead, you can just listen to what a couple of our famous friends have written about vocalist/guitarist Matt Sumrow, drummer Mikey Jones, keyboardist/vocalist Liz Lohse and guitarist/keyboardist Eric Altesleben in MAGNET: “They play my favorite song” —Dean Wareham (Luna, Galaxie 500, Dean & Britta); “Mikey is widely regarded as the baddest drummer in the city (and by bad I mean sick, y’all)” —Adam Franklin (Swervedriver). Heaven has just released a new video for All Love Is Blue track “She’s Closer Than Everyone,” which Sumrow describes as “a song about a girl who’s psychic, who can see everything in this life, but still can’t find love. She looks in the mirror to try and see but ends up just seeing herself. There’s the life you have, then the life you see in a mirror, so let’s all pretend just for one blue moment that the psychic-mirror love that shines back at us is real.” My blue heaven, indeed. We are proud to premiere the video for “She’s Closer Than Everyone” today on magnetmagazine.com. Check it out now, and check them out April 7 at the Mercury Lounge with Longwave. - Magnet Magazine

Excellent Brooklyn psych-rockers Heaven – whose members have recorded or toured with Dean & Britta, Swervedriver and even Atlanta’s Snowden (in one of the later lineups) – will be releasing their second album All Love Is Blue on March 2nd, but Atlanta fans can get an advance dose when the band begins a brief Southeastern tour on January 9th at 529.

Now officially a trio ­(keyboardist Liz Lohse has become a full member after establishing herself with the live lineup), Heaven haven’t been heard from since making a splash with their debut album, Telepathic Love, in 2013. If the advance track from All Love is Blue, “Never the Moment,” is any indication, the wait will be worth it. - Stomp and Stammer