FAVORITES OF 2025!
9/29/26 ADDS
CURRENT
UPCOMING
RECENT
LIVE
ABOUT
HEATHERS
Awesome (Warner Records)
Add date: 11.3.2026
Release date: 10.30.2026
Links:
Apple Music
Instagram
Official Website
Spotify
Tidal
TikTok
YouTube
The music Heath Michael Thomas makes is literally Awesome. As Heathers, Thomas effortlessly unspools hooky and elaborate garage rock, one melody-packed tune at a time; his forthcoming debut album Awesome is the most multifarious house party your ears will attend all year, equal parts rambunctious and passionate while spanning decades of indie, rock, and pop music knowhow. It is simply astounding how much the 23-year-old Thomas has been able to distill into these 14 songs, and equally impressive that this is only the beginning of what is sure to be a prodigious career.
The path to Awesome began in Thomas’ hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri—a city of just 40,000, more than a stone’s throw away from Chicago, let alone New York and Los Angeles, where so much of today’s music conversation takes shape. He began exploring the art of music-making via his father’s guitars and home-recording setup at the tender age of 11 years old; after cutting his teeth in various bands in high school, Thomas gravitated towards his own project as Heathers, the name equally inspired by a Surf Curse song as well as the titular classic teenage black comedy which was beloved by a girl he was dating at the time. An earlier version of Awesome started making the rounds last year, with the untitled links racking up thousands of plays by labels, booking agents, and hopeful managers.
The influences that have been poured into the energetic rock music showcased on Awesome are both proudly worn on Thomas’ sleeve and surprising in terms of their depth level: The idiosyncratic classic rock perversions of Ween, power-pop gods Alex Chilton and Todd Rundgren, generational indie touchstones like Mac DeMarco and Tame Impala, and face-melting prog-rock—think Rush, Yes, and King Crimson, as well as their youthful and dearly departed spiritual forebears black midi. “Stuff like that bleeds into my music,” Thomas reflects on what inspires him, “especially my fearlessness when it comes to doing wacky stuff with time signatures and key changes.”
Earlier this year, Thomas dropped two new pre-album singles: The disorienting power-pop of “Drive Park” and the anthemic ”Bite,” which sounds like what you might get if Car Seat Headrest’s WIll Toledo tried his hand at a Big Star tune. True to his humble origins, the expansive party-starters on Awesome came together over the past year while Thomas was working a desk job at a TV station, with mix engineer Lars Stalfors (Wisp, The Mars Volta) brought in to add just a touch of polish to the thrilling rawness of Thomas’ original recordings. ”He did a good job not making it all sound too shiny, which I was worried about,” he enthuses. “I wanted people to hear what these songs sounded like when I first put them to tape, and he did a good job of cleaning it up while still keeping it loud.”
Indeed, Awesome is a kick in the teeth when it comes to volume and intensity; every song practically leaps through the speakers and commands your attention, from the dancey and raved-up “Loving You (Is the Easy Way)” to the hard-charging title track, the lyrics of which showcases Thomas’ impassioned fury when it comes to the sociopolitical state of the world. “I write about what makes me angry, because it’s what makes me human,” he says, while explaining that the song was written shortly after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. “The lyrics are emotional and angry. I think it's one of my best songs I've made—and I tend to fall out of love with my music pretty quickly, so the fact I still like it says something.”
Ever the restless experimenter, genre exploration abounds: the boot-scootin’ boogie of “Same Problems” was influenced by Thomas’ recent embrace of Johnny Cash, while ”I Believe in You” provides a rare acoustic moment in Heathers’ evolving discography. “It's a song about my girlfriend, because she always says that she believes in me, which is sweet,” Thomas says while discussing the song’s lyrical bent. “She's also a speech language pathologist, which is a very hard job—so I wrote this song to highlight how, even though she believes in me, what she does requires ten times more work than what I do.”
Don’t mistake his humility, though—Thomas’ goals as Heathers stretch far beyond Awesome, as he’s already looking towards a healthy tour schedule to follow as well as the record’s follow-up release. “I feel like I’ve already already crossed everything off of my bucket list, which is super exciting,” he reflects while discussing the future. “But this is just the beginning of something, and that’s what I want to get across with this album.” And what a beginning Awesome represents, as well as a statement of purpose that carries boundless potential.
Apple Music
Official Website
Spotify
Tidal
TikTok
YouTube
The music Heath Michael Thomas makes is literally Awesome. As Heathers, Thomas effortlessly unspools hooky and elaborate garage rock, one melody-packed tune at a time; his forthcoming debut album Awesome is the most multifarious house party your ears will attend all year, equal parts rambunctious and passionate while spanning decades of indie, rock, and pop music knowhow. It is simply astounding how much the 23-year-old Thomas has been able to distill into these 14 songs, and equally impressive that this is only the beginning of what is sure to be a prodigious career.
The path to Awesome began in Thomas’ hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri—a city of just 40,000, more than a stone’s throw away from Chicago, let alone New York and Los Angeles, where so much of today’s music conversation takes shape. He began exploring the art of music-making via his father’s guitars and home-recording setup at the tender age of 11 years old; after cutting his teeth in various bands in high school, Thomas gravitated towards his own project as Heathers, the name equally inspired by a Surf Curse song as well as the titular classic teenage black comedy which was beloved by a girl he was dating at the time. An earlier version of Awesome started making the rounds last year, with the untitled links racking up thousands of plays by labels, booking agents, and hopeful managers.
The influences that have been poured into the energetic rock music showcased on Awesome are both proudly worn on Thomas’ sleeve and surprising in terms of their depth level: The idiosyncratic classic rock perversions of Ween, power-pop gods Alex Chilton and Todd Rundgren, generational indie touchstones like Mac DeMarco and Tame Impala, and face-melting prog-rock—think Rush, Yes, and King Crimson, as well as their youthful and dearly departed spiritual forebears black midi. “Stuff like that bleeds into my music,” Thomas reflects on what inspires him, “especially my fearlessness when it comes to doing wacky stuff with time signatures and key changes.”
Earlier this year, Thomas dropped two new pre-album singles: The disorienting power-pop of “Drive Park” and the anthemic ”Bite,” which sounds like what you might get if Car Seat Headrest’s WIll Toledo tried his hand at a Big Star tune. True to his humble origins, the expansive party-starters on Awesome came together over the past year while Thomas was working a desk job at a TV station, with mix engineer Lars Stalfors (Wisp, The Mars Volta) brought in to add just a touch of polish to the thrilling rawness of Thomas’ original recordings. ”He did a good job not making it all sound too shiny, which I was worried about,” he enthuses. “I wanted people to hear what these songs sounded like when I first put them to tape, and he did a good job of cleaning it up while still keeping it loud.”
Indeed, Awesome is a kick in the teeth when it comes to volume and intensity; every song practically leaps through the speakers and commands your attention, from the dancey and raved-up “Loving You (Is the Easy Way)” to the hard-charging title track, the lyrics of which showcases Thomas’ impassioned fury when it comes to the sociopolitical state of the world. “I write about what makes me angry, because it’s what makes me human,” he says, while explaining that the song was written shortly after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. “The lyrics are emotional and angry. I think it's one of my best songs I've made—and I tend to fall out of love with my music pretty quickly, so the fact I still like it says something.”
Ever the restless experimenter, genre exploration abounds: the boot-scootin’ boogie of “Same Problems” was influenced by Thomas’ recent embrace of Johnny Cash, while ”I Believe in You” provides a rare acoustic moment in Heathers’ evolving discography. “It's a song about my girlfriend, because she always says that she believes in me, which is sweet,” Thomas says while discussing the song’s lyrical bent. “She's also a speech language pathologist, which is a very hard job—so I wrote this song to highlight how, even though she believes in me, what she does requires ten times more work than what I do.”
Don’t mistake his humility, though—Thomas’ goals as Heathers stretch far beyond Awesome, as he’s already looking towards a healthy tour schedule to follow as well as the record’s follow-up release. “I feel like I’ve already already crossed everything off of my bucket list, which is super exciting,” he reflects while discussing the future. “But this is just the beginning of something, and that’s what I want to get across with this album.” And what a beginning Awesome represents, as well as a statement of purpose that carries boundless potential.