"I have seen the future, and it is the Heyday," writes Cory Casciato of Westword. The Heyday are rapidly becoming used to these praises, but these five kids from the south end of Denver started out just looking for fun.
The Heyday formed in the spring of 2006, when singer-songwriter Randy Ramirez and pianist Jeff Appareti parted ways with their former Americana-roots project aptly-named "Like Chasing Wind." Shortly after, guitarist Brian Martin and drummer Sean Bennett began sneaking away from their other bands to develop the Heyday's sound in Appareti's parents' basement. Spring turned to summer, and Pete Wynn, a friend of Bennett, took over as bassist. The newly formed quintet decided to forego any live performances and write for the remainder of the summer, honing their soulful sound into an honest but radio-friendly new take on rock and roll.
Three months and six songs later, the Heyday gathered what money they could and traveled to the Blasting Room in Ft. Collins, CO to record their first demo. With help from engineer Andrew Berlin, the five songs caught the attention of local producer Christopher Jak, who offered to produce a full length album, and mixer Jeff Juliano (OAR, Jason Mraz, John Mayer).
The result is a solid, wonderfully constructed 10 song effort by this mostly-teenage outfit. Tasha King, of thisweekindenver.com, wrote that the "anthemic choruses are full of new love and saying goodbye, topics du jour for a group of kids negotiating graduation, college, new responsibilities and friendship lost to time and distance." The band calls them fit for "the drive home with your friends on the last night of summer," but these radio-ready tunes are destined for bigger things.
In January 2007, near the end of the recording process, Westword 's music editor Dave Herrera got wind of the songs and featured the Heyday in his "Class of 2007" feature. Herrera deemed the band the next-generation Fray- only six live performances into their career- claiming he'd " found a promising new group to trumpet from the mountaintops...this one in particular has all the makings of becoming the next Mile High sensation to sweep the nation…," and calling the record the "epitome of radio-friendly power pop." That matched with strong support from Denver's 93.3 KTCL, the station many claim to be responsible for the record label successes of Colorado acts the Fray, Meese, Single File, and Tickle Me Pink, the band's future remains bright.
The band is looking forward to travel in the coming months to expand their fan base outside of Colorado, as well was writing and recording new songs in February of 2008. Perhaps it is karma, but the Heyday's strong belief in having fun while playing music has taken them very far in a short amount of time. Easy to see when Ramirez is asked how many hours a week the group spends on music- "Uhhh, all of them."