Tube is the brainchild of electronic musician Frank Heiss.
Frank Heiss is the son of well respected contemporary classical composer John Heiss of The New England Conservatory. John Heiss has worked with such luminaries as Stravinsky, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Berio, Carter, Messiaen, Schuller, and Tippett. Frank Heiss was already playing drums at the age of four, and became an accomplished orchestral timpanist and drummer. As a drummer he was heavily influenced by Bill Bruford, John Bonham and Billy Cobham. His college band, Conjunction Junction opened for the well known jam band Phish. After being exposed to breakbeat music in 1992, he quit Rock and Roll and started using electronic musical instruments. Eventually using exclusively sequenced electronic instruments in the spring of 1995, Frank Heiss moved to New York City where he met Dr. Walker of the electronic duo Air Liquide from Cologne, Germany.
After his first visit to Germany in 1996, Frank spent several years living, recording and performing in Cologne, Boston, and New York. During this time he performed on the same bill with artists such as Coldcut, Freddie Fresh, and Wagonchrist. In 1996, a deal with Liquid Sky Music was established, and “Alive” was released in 1997. “Bending Spoons” was released briefly in 1998, on the EMI Harvest label, which was once home to the music of Soft Machine, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd. Unfortunately EMI discontinued the Harvest label only days after the release of Bending Spoons. In the fall of 1999, Frank Heiss completed a 16 date US tour as the opening act for The Sisters of Mercy. The album “Steak” was released in 2000, and the EP “Still Alive” was released in 2004. And “Before and After” was released in 2006. Frank has also written a lot of music for TV. His music has been used on a variety of TV shows including Alias, 20/20, NCIS, America’s Next Top Model and One Life to Live. Frank also composed the electronic portion of a contemporary classical piece “Apparitions” along with his father.
The music of TUBE has spawned nearly a decade of existance. In CMJ, Mixmag, and Urb TUBE was compared to Aphex Twin, Photek, and Squarepusher. If mental step is what you're looking for, TUBE is sure to entertain with his trance infused jungle beats.
Back in the day, a friend of mine had a boom car and the centerpiece was an 18" woofer. One of the favourite CD's to broadcast in a four block radius was ALIVE. Those were some awesome days...
