Frank Heiss, electronic musician composer and teacher, began playing drums as a very young child. After three-plus decades of experience that included a stint in the 9-to-5 world of information technology, he has come full circle and returned to his first love.
“I’ve been playing drums since I was four years old,” reasons Heiss. “Why stop?” Heiss’ first experience with drumming came after seeing a performance of a piece by his father, contemporary classical composer John Heiss, and being pulled in by the work of percussionist Frank Epstein (currently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra).
“I barely remember it, but apparently I was wide-eyed and the next morning, my parents awoke to a pounding sound. I had fashioned drumsticks out of tinker toys and was using them to bang on pots and pans.” This quickly led to lessons, which led to a childhood playing classical percussion, which evolved to becoming an accomplished drummer at the suburban Boston high school he attended. Upon graduating, Heiss attended Skidmore College on the Filene Music Scholarship and started playing with bands including progressive rock group Conjunction Junction, who once opened for Phish at a Skidmore show.
With a love of progressive rock bands such as Yes and King Crimson, as well as jam bands such as the Grateful Dead and Phish, you appeared well on the path to a career as a rock drummer after college. What happened?
“Toward the end of college, I was exposed to some of the hardcore electronic dance music which was popular in the UK at the time. It was very human, unlike anything I had ever heard before.
“So I began using an Alternate Mode DrumKAT to trigger sounds in an AKAI S-950 sampler and after leaving Skidmore and returning home to Boston, got acquainted with the local electronic dance music scene.
“I saw lots of younger kids dancing to similar music. It was music their parents would probably never understand. These kids didn’t know or care who Led Zeppelin was, and would only find out if they asked, ‘where did you steal that breakbeat,’ and you told them it came from ‘When the Levee Breaks.’ The music was mostly based on textural changes as opposed to traditional harmony and linear development.”
“Seeing this younger generation who appeared to have little interest in rock n roll other than to sample it, I decided to try electronic dance music as a new creative direction. I started experimenting with an AKAI MPC3000.”
How did that go?
“I had never done sequencing before. I put the drumsticks down and started programming the MPC. I made 4-track cassette DAT recordings with beats inspired by hip hop, but no rhymes and a lot of very psychedelic synthesizer sounds. I found out later I was making what would be called trip hop. I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me these recordings would be eventually released.”
What took you from experimentation to fully immersing yourself in electronic dance music?
“The straw that the broke the camel’s back was the realization it might be easier to get a record deal in the emerging electronic music scene than in the established rock scene. I accepted an invite from some friends to move to New York, which at the time had an even larger electronic music scene than Boston, and got a job with a streaming music website while recording music in my 15th Street apartment in my spare time.
“I’d go out almost every night and hand out music. I also spent a lot of time in front of Liquid Sky Music, talking to everyone coming in and out. Finally I got a tape into the hands of DJ Soul Slinger. Around that time, someone told me I would not be able to produce drum-and-bass with a hardware sequencer. I love a dare, so off I went and (solo electronic music project) Tube was born on Liquid Sky Music, which led to a contract.
“You have to be in the right place at the right time, but it’s not luck. I will quote the Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, who once told Han Solo, ‘In my experience there is no such thing as luck.’”
At one point you were signed to the EMI Harvest label (one-time home of Pink Floyd and Deep Purple). How did that happen?
“In 1997, I was invited to go to Cologne, Germany to record with Dr. Walker (of the influential electronic duo Air Liquide). I lived the life of a bohemian artist, traveling between Cologne, Boston and New York. I did a lot of couch-surfing. While I was in Cologne I also met people associated with Harvest and got a contract with them using the name HearNow. However, EMI eventually discontinued Harvest, and the US scene fizzled a bit around the year 2000.”
How did you react to Harvest shutting down and the US scene fizzling?
“For the next several years, I investigated alternative ways to get my music released, such as advertising and TV. All the car ads around the millennium had electronic music. I also applied my knowledge of electronics to work as a computer programmer. In 2009, I moved to Denver, where I noticed a jamband scene was exploding, with influences from a resurging electronic dance scene.
“I got back into performing. There were different styles of dance music with different sounds and tempos. I formed a group called Hardware Junkiez with (techo musician) Thee Unthuziast that combined traditional instruments, such as piano and trombone, with synthesizers and programmed beats.”
What are you doing now?
“Last year, I returned to Boston. I’m now once again performing and recording electronic music using my DrumKAT as a MIDI controller. I use a laptop as my instrument, which I did not think I would ever do when I formed Hardware Junkiez, but I remembered to embrace change and keep moving things forward as I had in the past when I found my way out of rock and roll and into electronic music.
“In addition, I’m getting into teaching music technology. My goal is to help people realize their true creative potential and learn how to innovate instead of imitate. Emerging interfaces and instruments have given my creativity a great liberation. Also income as a performer is not always consistent. Sometimes you have a lot, sometimes you have none. It’s nice to have an honest home base.”
