The Heat Run: Just a little bit country

Michael Schaller was fronting the tight, poppy indie quartet Oso when he met his future wife at a festival gig in upstate New York a few years ago. The two now live in Conshohocken with their two children.

“I woke up in her tent, and we’ve been in love ever since,” says Schaller. “She was playing me music that morning, and from that moment we’ve had a musical connection.”

The young lady was country singer-songwriter, Mandy Shearer (now Mandy Schaller).

Soon Michael would drop the Oso moniker, as Mandy’s Virginia twang created a whole new sound for the band. The Heat Run was born, releasing their self-titled debut last March, with Mandy and Michael’s relationship at the core of the band.

Tonight the full lineup of THR will play for the first time since their record release show, as accordion/sax-man Frank Ewing returns to the fold. And, with Mandy now co-authoring the tunes, their set promises plenty of good ol’ country heartache alongside Michael’s Oso-style ironic musings.

“[Mandy has] this outlaw country thing that really inspires me,” says Schaller. “So my writing has been going in that country-folk direction for a while now.”