AUSTIN, Texas — Local band Urban Heat is debuting in their first Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival this weekend.
The members of the group had been playing in the Austin music scene for a while before coming together.
“The idea was of a super group. I guess Urban Heat is our super group,” said Jonathan Horstmann, the lead singer of the group.
The group got together right before the city shutdowns of 2020 from COVID-19.
“We just started gigging right before the pandemic. We had a bunch a whole bunch of stuff planned for SXSW. And then it just, everybody knows what happened at SXSW,” said Hortsmann.
After the shutdowns, the band had to shift focus to building a fan base online instead of out in-person at live gigs.
“Just kind of had to adjust from being performance focused to connection,” said Hortsmann.
Now that live music is back at Austin and ACL is back to full scale, the band is excited to grow their fan base and keep developing their sound.
“It’s kind of like hitting the ground running. Amazing kind of snowball. We’ve been feeling and I think everyone had kind of feeling live music in general, things are really big and it’s just a really exciting time,” said Hortsmann.
The group plays ACL Sunday afternoon.
“While we are excited about ACL, like so excited, for us it’s like playing the same from five people versus 500 or 5,000, everyone has to get that same experience, to feel like their time was valuable,” said Hortsmann.
No matter the crowd, Urban Heat gives each performance their all.
“Live music is a give and take between the performer and the audience, so I think the exciting thing about playing ACL is, there’s the opportunity and potential for so much more, sort of, if that energy,” said Hortsmann.
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