Brent Heyl/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo
The beautiful poster artwork by Chicago’s Camilo Medina (also a member of DiviñoNino), is just one of the many things that has Brent Heyl excited about a September festival he’s curating. “When we came up with the idea for this fest,” Heyl says, “we wanted it to stand out and I think his approach to the marketing materials and the poster is unique. It showcases his style as much as ours, and it’s proven to be a really great collaboration.”
Heyl got inspired to create Chicago’s newest festival during the pandemic. Like a lot of folks, especially concert booker and buyers like himself (as director of music for 16” on Center, he is one of the programmers for Empty Bottle, Thalia Hall, Space in Evanston, Salt Shed and other venues for the organization), he had some time to daydream while live events were shut down. He came up with the idea of a two-day festival to bring niche, experimental artists to more listener ears.
The theme is derived from a line in Nelson Algren’s “The Man with the Golden Arm,” in which World War II vet Frankie Machine is questioned in a Chicago jail and he “fixed absently upon an oversized roach twirling its feelers invitingly at him with a half-drugged motion from beneath the radiator: Come on down here where everything is warm love and cool dreams forever.”
Although Heyl is quick to add that “the context of this story versus what we’re doing is not entirely aligned,” he came across this quote “during peak COVID times,” he says, “and I didn’t really know what we were doing… For some reason that sentiment really set in with me. You know, what more do you need than warm love and cool dreams? I fell in love with that idea,” and that “informed what we’re trying to do with the event in the sense of: can we provide emotionally and sonically, ‘everything that you’d be looking for’ out of a fest?” In other words, what more would attendees want?
With the first day, “Warm Love,” the idea was to assemble a lineup of musical acts that would be more intense, “spicier” and “fiery,” as he describes it. While every artist on the bill is significantly different from each other (to Heyl and his team’s credit), this fieriness might be best exemplified by night-one headliners The Jesus Lizard, but he also mentions Sextile and more experimental acts like Bendik Giske and Aitis Band, acts that are “really pushing the envelope.”
The Jesus Lizard, 2024/Photo: Joshua Black Wilkins
While there’s no question that a highlight of night one will be the genre-defying sonic assault of The Jesus Lizard, the bill is bursting with envelope pushers, including the echoey trumpet of Giske and Aitis Band’s buzzing but plainspoken post-punk architecture that zigs when you think it will zag. Provoker’s provocation will feature simmering yet low-key indie pop, deadpan vocals over danceable, eighties-inspired beats, fitting in with Sextile’s eerie industrial bubbling and clanging. On the noisier side, Stress Positions’ brutal staccato metal features a screamo attack that won’t shield attendees from their harsh reality, and King Woman creates a claustrophobic churn that builds into a metallic cataclysm.
Because we can’t ignore the reptile in the room, our conversation veers to how he was able to secure first-night headliners The Jesus Lizard, given that they had not played live for six years, and hadn’t released a new album in twenty-six years. Heyl says they’ve “always been in the conversation.
“Any time we’ve talked about taking a bigger swing through Empty Bottle Presents, they’re a band that always comes up. Anybody that’s ever seen them knows there’s no other show like it. There are very few bands that deliver at that level, consistently,” says Heyl. “I remember seeing them the first time they came back six years ago, I had never seen them before, and… My jaw was on the floor. I knew they were good, but I had no idea.
“It was funny how this came about, because the one year we finally decided to put the offer together,” says Heyl, they responded by saying “Oh, yeah, by the way, we’re recording a new record [and] we’re going to go on tour.” He laughs and says, “I guess it was in the air, so it worked out great.”
Kelela/Photo: Timothy Saccenti, courtesy Warp Records
The following day, “Cool Dreams,” the thematic throughline will be “more mellow, kind of laying in the cut.” Heyl calls it music “that you can vibe out to, so that’s how you end up with [headliner] Kelela, Floating Points, John Glacier and Shabaka.” Both Kelela’s smooth-as-silk rhythmically intricate R&B reinvention and London-based experimental rapper, producer and poet John Glacier’s icy (yet spicy!) hip-hop will undoubtedly inspire mellow moves. And Shabaka will make attendees wonder if we’re ready for post-music yet. But let’s not forget Orlando product 454 (Frank Ocean is a fan), who will drop some stellar rhymes over head-bobbable grooves, and Jamaican dancehall legend Sister Nancy, backed by Los Angeles instrumental innovators and supergroup of sorts SML.
SML is a new quintet composed of luminaries from Los Angeles’ thriving jazz, improvised and indie music scenes: Chicago expat synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (Ariel Kalma, Marta Sofia Honer, Icy Demons), bassist Anna Butterss (Jason Isbell, Phoebe Bridgers, Makaya McCraven, Daniel Villarreal), saxophonist Josh Johnson (Meshell Ndegeocello, Leon Bridges, Carlos Niño), percussionist Booker Stardrum (Amirtha Kidambi, Lisel, Lee Ranaldo, Patrick Shiroishi) and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann (Sam Wilkes, Meg Duffy, Perfume Genius). Heyl sys he got an early copy of their album, released via International Anthem, and “I was just blown away.”
Heyl says that Sister Nancy is “somebody that I’ve admired for a long time” but that he’s “never had the opportunity to see her live. We got in touch with her about booking her for the fest, and they gave us the option of providing a band to back her up… And I thought, wow, wouldn’t it be incredible to pair them with Sister Nancy and having all these jazz players and synth artists be the backing band for [her] just sounds like it’ll be so cool. I literally can’t wait to hear it.”
Heyl has high hopes for Warm Love Cool Dreams, and he doesn’t see both nights adding up to something lukewarm. What he believes that both of the “vibes” have in common is “they cater to an adventurous listener—I think this is really a festival for the heads.” He hopes that if attendees “don’t know the bands, they’ll discover new music that they like. I think that while the vibes are different, there’s a throughline in the sense that, folks who are taking in a lot of new sounds, always looking for what’s next” and “what’s new,” and he says that “these artists are definitely in that wheelhouse of somebody who is always digging into different styles of music.”
Warm Love is “definitely a kind of fiery, high energy type of day… And I mean that in the sense of both frenetic energy and just sonic approach. As an example, he references Bendik Giske, saying that he isn’t necessarily “riling punk rock,” but that his approach to the saxophone creates “a certain controlled chaos to his sets that fits in well with the other artists.”
In terms of Cool Dreams, Heyl says “the approach with that is to create like a mellow hang” wherein “you sit back, kind of drift away, take it all in… Just a really relaxing day.”
By having these “boxes of our own creation,” as Heyl puts it, “it allows us to flex in those genres and find unique combinations in those vibes that will make for a unique day.”
Not only will the rooftop deck and Goose Island Tap Room be open, but in addition to the regular retail sites, there will be an extensive marketplace featuring unusual vendors, including a tattoo artist, and an interview stage hosted by WBEZ. Heyl also promises “other surprises on the fairgrounds.” So “while the focus is definitely the music, there’s going to be a lot of other things,” he says, although he prefers to stay cagey until closer to the festival date.
The Salt Shed
Heyl not only looks forward to this rendition, but future iterations as well, saying that he thinks that this creates a nice option for Chicago that doesn’t yet exist. “I think there are a lot of amazing bands out there that deserve to have a large-scale festival for them to play at. What I’m hoping this will create is a place to host a wide variety of acts… that this is a festival that will create new options for niche artists in Chicago.
“We want to create platforms for these bands to be seen. I know that we’re not alone in the bands that we’re excited about. And I think it’s just a matter of finding out how to get those bands to the people that want to hear them.”
Heyl sees this festival as being an additional way to get those bands heard. “I know that there’s certain bands that are never gonna get massively popular, and we’re not trying to force bands into popularity. What I want though, is an opportunity for bands that are good to be heard.”
He says he wants as many options as they can create to have these bands “to get out in the public and to know that Chicago is a scene that supports this type of music, that’s the ultimate goal.” If, as he says, they “continue nourishing the scene, these types of artists are able to come here and know that they’ll have a good audience, and know that they’ll get a good response.”
Heyl says the choice was clear in selecting Salt Shed for the festival. “I think it’s the perfect size and also it has what we’re looking for,” mentioning the spacious grounds and the flexibility of pivoting between the indoor and outdoor stages with no “lag time” between acts performing. “There’s not another venue in the city that offers that. Where I see the future of Salt Shed going,” he says, is becoming “an incubator for these new kinds of concepts.”
Heyl’s enthusiasm is crystal clear when he shares that “I’m really excited for the future of Warm Love Cool Dreams, I’m excited for the future of Salt Shed…in terms of the fest I think this is a great starting point.” The venue “gives you a lot of flexibility with trying out new things.” While “it’s relatively small, it’s only small in comparison to your Pitchforks and Lollapaloozas. It’s a lot easier to activate because you’re not having to rent all that equipment and everything. It’s also just an incredible venue, being on the river there, the level of production, and the views. I think it’s the crown jewel of Chicago. I’m just excited to be able to put the festival in it.”
Warm Love Cool Dreams takes place at the Salt Shed, 1357 North Elston with Warm Love on Saturday, September 28 and Cool Dreams on Sunday, September 29.
