Heavens is the musical collaboration between friends
Alkaline Trio guitarist
Matt Skiba and
F-Minus bassist
Josiah Steinbrick. Relocating from Chicago to Los Angeles in the early 2000s,
Skiba became a housemate with East Coast native
Steinbrick. Spending downtime together hanging out and listening to records,
Steinbrick one day played
Skiba some instrumental tracks he'd previously recorded; instantly falling in love with the songs, the two soon began writing together.
Steinbrick initially coming up with the music, the two would lay down the tracks at home and
Skiba would later add lyrics. The resulting songs, which heard
Skiba taking vocals and
Steinbrick handling the instruments, allowed both guys to tap into influences -- like
the Sisters of Mercy,
Wire,
Brian Eno, and
Television -- not normally heard in their primary punk-oriented bands. In the span of a week in August 2004, the frame of their debut album,
Patent Pending, was finished. At that point, both went their separate ways,
Skiba to record
Crimson with
the Trio and
Steinbrick to continue writing for Thieves Like Us. Coming back together in the spring of 2005, they entered the studio with producer
Ben Lovett to flesh out the record, though additional schedule interruptions would occur before the finishing touches were complete.
Patent Pending was finally done in February 2006 and issued on Epitaph that September.
Heavens then embarked on a month of tour dates with
Darker My Love opening. ~ Corey Apar