The Bad Penny (beta)

Halo, one of the most popular video games ever, features monstrous characters each named Unggoy Heavy whose hideousness is often overlooked because of their formidable strength in combat. Despite the respect they earn, though, if you’re looking for love on Tinder and are matched with one of these behemoths, remember to swipe left immediately. Fer chrissakes, tattoo it on your arm in case you’ve had too many drinks.

Meanwhile, an alt-industrial duo from Brooklyn who reference the character in their moniker, Heavy Halo, are much easier on the eyes. Vocalist/guitarist McKeever and producer Gosteffects opt for a slacker-chic look that won’t haunt your nightmares and make them appear almost approachable.

Putting that aside, “heavy halo” is also an expression that connotes the light and the dark, and other dualistic, opposing forces. In the context of Heavy Halo’s music, it could refer to the interplay between soft electronic ditties and deafening industrial noise.

The seemingly serious musicians who comprise Heavy Halo are actually even smiling a bit these days, after having released a new full-length, Damaged Dream, via Silent Pendulum Records last month. And a mere two weeks ago, they unveiled a video for one of the songs featured on the album: “Lies,” a minimalist, arty clip for a song that contains the verse “You’re buried in my sheets/
I drag you down with me/ Desire’s a disease/ It’s crushed like fallen leaves.”

The other main catalyst for McKeever’s and Gosteffects’ demonstrable joy expressed during a video conversation with The Bad Penny in mid-June is that they just wrapped up a rare tour, and their biggest one yet, with Light Asylum. The bands have some critical commonalities: They’re both mostly Brooklyn-bred electronic-music duos. Light Asylum lead vocalist Shannon Funchess has a CV boasting contributions to records by TV on the Radio, Peaches, !!! and loads more bands that have pushed the envelope over the years.

McKeever and Gosteffects granted The Bad Penny a hearty interview, so without further ado, here ’tis:

So, are you guys both from New York?

McKeever: I was born in Manhattan, and John is from Oklahoma.

Gosteffects: I’ve been here since 2010.

What are you most proud of with Damaged Dream?

McKeever: Our band is sort of one of contradictions, you know, a heavy halo. I wanted two words that were basically opposites of each other, because I always feel like a song, in order to work and have enough drama, there needs to be a fundamental conflict at the center of it. That’s also why we called the album Damaged Dream, because it’s like two opposites and implies a struggle.

I feel most proud of the blend of noisy elements and overwhelming electronic elements. But it’s also very melodic at the same time. We tried really hard to make it dynamic, maybe almost in a Pixies or Nirvana way, where it [features] soft verses, loud choruses and bridges that [are made by] an acoustic guitar or a piano. It’s like having my cake and eating it too. If you stripped it down, the songs are still songs you could probably play on an acoustic guitar, and it would still work in some fashion.

That’s really fascinating, man. I haven’t really heard music described that way before, at least not in recent memory. I was taught, and you guys probably were too, in middle school or high school that any book you read always has one of five different conflicts: man versus nature, man versus man, man versus animal, man versus self … and what’s the other one?

Gosteffects: Man versus Elon Musk. Fucking asshole. There’s some good songs on the next record that are kind of about him. About these techno-fascist people that have God complexes and how they need to be taken down a peg.

So the dichotomy that you’re talking about creates friction, right? That’s what drives your music, would you say?

McKeever: Yeah. Even if it’s a romantic love song, like “New Blood,” that to me is maybe one of our most straightforward songs, but it still deals with … I’ve been trapped in this negative, depressive spiral, and I need someone to pull me out of it. Those lyrics were kind of written about … it’s cliché to say, but in the pandemic, everyone was pretty isolated, so I was thinking some people could relate to that feeling of, now that that’s over, everyone’s trying to experience life again, whether it’s going out to see music or meet new people. It’s a shock to the system, the excitement of a new kind of romance – but there’s still darkness in there, too.

I can’t stand shit like Bruno Mars. Like, ‘You’re amazing just the way you are, but it’s so saccharine and feels unrealistic to me. I’ve never felt that emotion. There’s always a conflict or an anxiety. Maybe that’s just the way I am, but I feel like a lot of people feel like that, because everything is more complicated.

When you get older, you got to recognize your flaws and work on them, right? So a lot of it’s that: Admitting in some songs the parts of yourself that are maybe kind of toxic. In my old band, I would worry about the lyrics, like, “What if people think I’m a bad person?” Whereas this band, it almost puts that on full display. It’s about brutal honesty, because I think that’s the only healthy way to deal with it. Because you’re not being an asshole to someone else, you’re also not being self-destructive. It’s this third way.

You’re sublimating. I know dark shit is going on in me, but [making music] releases it. And maybe other people can relate to that and feel seen, and then it’s just a matter of finding better ways to deal with [your flaws]. If you bottle up issues, inevitably, you get angry at yourself, and then that anger will turn outward. But if you’re just able to talk about it, you can kind of defuse that.

Very well said. That’s kind of pretty much what I wanted to talk to you about. Anything we missed?

McKeever: We’re working on new material after the tour. So that’s sort of the main plan.

Are you going to be tempted to play the next album live?

McKeever: It’s going to be really hard not to. But no, not yet, because we still haven’t played some songs from this record live yet. Also, since it’s our first time in some places, we’re trying to just play the songs people might have [only] heard from the internet.

Well, you’ve got a good team with [publicist] Curran [Reynolds of The Chain]. He’s awesome. He’s really, really cool and always saying the nicest things about you guys.

McKeever: He geared me up for this interview and said it was going to be good. I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much.

Go to Silent Pendulum’s website pick up a copy of Damaged Dream.

This entry was posted on 09/04/2025 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Interviews with tags Gosteffects, Halo, Heavy Halo, McKeever. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.