About this artist
San Francisco’s Hot Flash Heat Wave landed national attention in 2015 with the fuzzy surf-pop single “Gutter Girl,” which anchored their debut album Neapolitan. Boasting a trio of talented singer/songwriters, the group built on their initial success with a second album, 2017′s Soaked, which saw them trending in a more subtle indie pop direction. After the lush dream pop of 2019′s Mood Ring EP, they returned a year later with a punchier sound on “Grudge.”
Childhood friends Adam Abildgaard (vocals, guitar), Nathaniel Blum (vocals, guitar), Ted David (vocals, bass), and Nick Duffy (drums) spent their high school years in Davis, California playing in various D.I.Y. projects before heading their separate ways for college. The quartet reunited in San Francisco in 2015, beginning their band in earnest and living together in a shared house. Led by the breakout single “Gutter Girl,” their scruffy but tuneful debut LP, Neapolitan, arrived later that year and helped establish them within the Bay Area’s indie community.
After signing with Oakland’s OIM Records, HFHW released their second album, 2017′s Soaked, which saw them tightening up their approach and moving toward a less-abrasive dream pop type of sound. West Coast dates with bands like Alvvays, Day Wave, and Mild High Club followed, as did their first national tour. By early 2018, Duffy had been replaced on drums by Ben Briggance, and the group’s new lineup issued a pair of singles, “Glo Ride” and “Dreaming of U,” which further emphasized HFHW’s smoother dream pop leanings. The woozy “Head in the Clouds,” from their 2019 EP Mood Ring, found some significant play on the streaming networks, though 2020 saw another shift in sound back toward punchy guitar pop with the single “Grudge.” ~ Timothy Monger