"I would say that we channel our inner Hetfield/Mustaine and King/Hanneman for inspiration," says Heatseeker's Robert Goodspeed. The bassist/vocalist is breaking down his band's sonic blueprint and I'm respecting his bluntness. "We pretend we just joined Slayer or Metallica and are presenting our ideas to the rest of the band. Most likely, they'd get turned down, but that's how Megadeth got started, right? OK, yeah, that's it...we're the Megadeth to Malice at the Palace."
Wait, why did he just mention Florida hardcore band Malice at the Palace? Well, it turns out that Heatseeker share certain members with MATP. "Ryan [Hn], one of the original members of MATP, moved off to California for a job and was losing his mind over there, so he moved back home. In the meantime, he was still writing music and he wanted to have another band demo ready as soon as he came back. So, really it was created out of boredom."
After dropping a demo in 2018, Heatseeker is back with a 4-track EP and I tell Robert how much I love the raw vibe of the recording, especially in the background vocals department. In this day and age of over-compressed recordings, the Heatseeker EP stands out. "Ryan recorded it all in his bedroom, so maybe that's helpful for all studio engineers reading this. After Mac [Carptenter] did his drum parts, this somehow still took over a month to get done, even though Ryan did all the instruments himself. I guess patience is key with all that."
Robert also offers up the secret to the vocal sound on his band's brand-new EP. "As far as the singing goes, originally I was asked to do vocals for this band but then found out through a Facebook ad that I was kicked off that duty. Dan [Neice] decided to give it a go, he had one line that he sang and we texted him and told him if he didn't sing like that the entire time that we were going to kick him out. He said he couldn't do it the whole time, so that's when we decided to do some alternating vocals like Steel Nation and Biohazard and it turned out to be one of the most fun bands I've ever been in."
Heatseeker's new EP also features a collaboration with Jami Morgan of Code Orange on the track “Semblance." Robert tells me how the union was started: "We met Code Orange a few years ago and at one point MATP jumped on a weekend run with them, so we've been friends with them since. When we recorded these songs, the part in 'Semblance' definitely felt like it needed another voice to come in and make that part sound crazier. I hit up Jami and he was down and I feel like his voice really brings out the intensity of that part. I'm pretty sure Shade from Code Orange has recording gear, so a true brotherly thank you to them both for coordinating that and venturing into the freezing cold Pennsylvania weather to record an epic 10-second promo."
With Malice at the Palace still going, I finish out my chat with Robert by asking him what the plans for Heatseeker are going forward into the rest of 2019. "So, go figure, but Ryan moved again. We're hopeful this won't affect anything going forward. We'll still be playing either way. The plan for 2019 is to write and record an LP. We're working on a tour with Seed of Pain from Florida at some point later this year and will probably do a few more at some point as well. With Malice at the Palace, we don't really get a chance to do much anyways, so this definitely helps fill that creative void."
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