David Heatley is a musician, cartoonist and animation director living in Queens, NY. He has recorded two albums with legendary Shimmy Disc label founder and producer Kramer back in the early 1990s. In the mid-2010s, Heatley performed as part of The Bischoffs and The Angel Numbers Band, releasing a series of well-regarded EPs and albums. His last record Life Our Own Way, helmed by Mark Bingham, found Heatley discovering and immersing himself in New Orleans’ indie music scene.
IF… is the second full-length solo album from Heatley. All its songs were written, performed, and produced by David Heatley in 2023, who was joined in the studio by members of the Lost Bayou Ramblers and Givers, plus Julie Odell, Sarah Quintana, Lilli Lewis and Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris. IF… will be available on all streaming and digital platforms March 24th from Dream Puppy Records.
Heatley describes IF… as a portrait of someone in the throes of “impossible love,” with all the attendant euphoria and longing pulsing beneath each track. “I’ve always had an issue with crushes and falling in love. I fell in love with all three guest singers on my last record.” The bulk of the songs came to him while recording down in Louisiana for the first time in the summer of 2021, surrounded by an inspiring and passionate array of New Orleans musician-heartthrobs. What he couldn’t have known was that by the time this new record was released, his personal life would be entirely rearranged and would line up in an uncanny way with many of the themes of the songs he had written. “It’s honestly eerie how prescient some of these songs turned out to be. I’ve often gotten song ideas in my dreams, and I write them out and record them only to see how perfectly they fit some situation I’m living through years later. It’s enough to make you believe in Carl Jung’s theory of the archetypal field.”
Today Glide is premiering the song and video for “Mess,” a standout track on the new record. Kicking off with a raucous Cajun-punk introduction by the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ Louis Michot, the song is forceful and wild. The combination of Spanish language spoken word verses, a frantic groove and crashing drums makes this an art-punk mess in the best kind of way. The animation from Dusty Deen only amplifies the sensory overload.
This song is for all my muses out there who light me up with desire: wild, badass, creatively-liberated bitches on their own trajectory who don’t give a fuck what people think of them. When recording the song, it felt fitting to have Lost Bayou Ramblers’ Louis Michot kick us off with some blistering fiddle and howling a Louisiana French approximation of the phrase “She’s a mess.” Mexican-born comedian and rapper Emma Ramos blesses the track by spitting the same idea in Spanish. And several other Louisiana-based players bring the nasty groove home: Sam Kuslan, Bryan Webre, Rex Gregory, Jim Kolacek, Lilli Lewis and Michael Cerveris. Before the track was even in the can, I came across the animation work of Dusty Deen (https://www.instagram.com/dustydeen/) and I knew I had to collaborate with him on the video. His handmade, paint-splattered, photocopied, scratched and scribbled approach to filmmaking was perfect for rendering and rotoscoping over the found footage I edited together. He was a blast to work with. I hope people find it empowering or a turn on or both. And I hope it gives women permission to not be so put together all the time and just BE A MESS! – David Heatley
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