Heatsleeve was formed in the town of Kottweiler, Germany, somewhere between the years 1998 and 2001, depending on who you ask. What is known is that the principal writers and players during those formative years were one Richard Rumplik, and one Mike Steffen. (There are seventy-two and a half hours of dictaphone tape to support this claim.) Rick was a drummer and guitar player, was in the Air Force, and hadn't had a cool haircut in eight years. And he played a lot of Playstation. Mike was a certified English teacher and a passable poet, and was not keen on haircuts, period. He was not much of a musician, but had a bijillion songs running through his head that just had to come out. And he drank a lot of beer.
The first time they played together these two young men annoyed the hell out of the mourners of a funeral procession making its way down the street they lived on. This embarrassed Rick's wife a great deal, but for their part Mike and Rick saw this incident as a good beginning. Incidentally, the song they played that day was Black Sabbath's "Paranoid."
Cut to 2005. Through circumstances (probably only partially) beyond their control, Mike and Rick find themselves in New Jersey. They've recruited a be-spectacled bass player with ambitious facial hair and a law degree. He also happens to be remarkably adept at playing bass (what a bargain.) His name is Adam X. Storm. No bullshit, that's really his name. We couldn't make this stuff up.
Heatsleeve are a pretty bad-ass band, and on the whole their music is very gettable. You can sing along to it, which is nice if you like singing.
Heatsleeve have a lot of songs that were written in part or completely by Mike or Rick, or a combination thereof, but since Adam joined, the three have struck a new vein of creativity, and have written songs together which they feel are some of their strongest material to date.
Right now the boys are recording and working dilligently on setting up engagements wherever they can. If you like their tunes, give them a shout. If you'd like to have them play at your place, do likewise.
