Premiere: Wine & Warpaint Release Invigorating Single “Feel The Heat” Amid Personal Setback

By all plans, 2023 was on track to be the biggest year yet for five-piece rock group Wine & Warpaint. After years of refining and enhancing their forceful rock sound through bold EPs and memorable singles, the band is finally close to completing their debut album due out later this year. As the finish line approaches though, a monumental hurdle was laid in their path at the beginning of the year as frontman Brandon O’Neill suffered a medical setback that also triggered a whirlwind of complicated emotions. After focusing on his recovery though, O’Neill is clearing this hurdle as he uses art to aid his recovery and keep the momentum of the band rolling to ensure 2023 delivers on all its bright promise. This Friday, Wine & Warpaint will release their latest single, “Feel The Heat,” a surging track that features the raw emotions and heightened intensity Wine & Warpaint have built their sound on over the years. Out everywhere on Friday, April 21st (you can pre-save it today), The Auricular is proud to premiere this soaring single today with an exclusive stream.

 

Cathartic and gripping, “Feel The Heat” is a dynamic track built on alternative and hardcore elements that extract an inspiring message. “I don’t know the first thing about feeling anything,” O’Neill sings early on, a vulnerable admission from someone searching for more. As the song builds with a chugging unison of sharp guitars and pounding rhythms from the full band (O’Neill, Taylor Bess, Colleen Christman, Hunter Glotz, and Hannah Haupt), you can feel the tension of uncertainty build before being emphatically released in the empowering chorus. “Everything you’ve heard is true,” O’Neill erupts alongside the music, continuing the lyrical honesty of the song while also encouraging the listener to keep striving for more so they can “feel the heat again.” It’s an inspiring call-to-arms, and one that’s taken on new meaning over the last few months for the compelling frontman.

In early February, O’Neill suffered a stroke after losing feeling in the right side of his arm and face. Thankfully, quick thinking and medical intervention prevented it from becoming a dire situation, but while under observation, his physicians informed him that the stroke was the result of a congenital heart defect that would require surgery to resolve. A stroke and heart surgery is a lot to contend with someone who hasn’t even turned 30 yet and O’Neill found himself grappling with a whirlwind of emotions as he began the road to recovery, physically and mentally. After one particularly moving therapy session, O’Neill found comfort in “Feel The Heat,” a song that had been completed before his medical incident but felt perfectly equipped to address his current circumstance. With lyrics that encourage preservation and resilience, it was exactly what O’Neill needed to hear to bounce back from this setback and continue focusing on making 2023 a banner year for Wine & Warpaint.

With so much going on, musically and personally, we caught up with O’Neill to learn much more about where things stand now and what we can expect moving forward.

First of all, how are you doing? Physically and emotionally?

I’m doing great physically. Modern medicine is incredible. I’m doing great emotionally as well, though that has been tougher. When I was in the hospital, I wrote in my journal “I had a stroke” and I’m still in the process of coming to terms with being a statistical outlier and having a major medical event. I’ve never even broken a bone, so a stroke and heart surgery at 29 is hard to grapple with.

Have there been any musical setbacks because of the stroke? Regaining muscle memory or vocal strength?

Fortunately no. I lost feeling, but never any motor function. I remember going to Colleen’s house the day after being discharged and playing her acoustic, and that was a feeling I won’t forget any time soon.

Talk to me about the genesis for this song. How long has it been bouncing around?

The song has actually been done since November of 2022, and we’ve even been playing it live. The chorus has been bouncing around for years; I wrote the melody in 2018 before revisiting it last year and coming up with the music. Before the stroke, it was just a song about inner demons and trying to be hopeful, and what I was most excited about was that it’s the first W&W song with a breakdown. But since the stroke, it’s taken on a lot of added meaning.

How has your process for songwriting changed over the years? What about recording changes?

Everything used to be so insular, and that was partially out of insecurity and partially because I didn’t know what I wanted yet. Hunter and I did the first EP with Matt Goldman and then I recorded and mixed everything on the second EP myself. On this upcoming album, there’s way more collaboration. I still do most of the writing and recording in my studio, but I take every song to Taylor’ room at In Your Ear Studios and we re-record some things, add instruments, and make sure it’s as good as it can be. (On the album checklist, this is called “Tayify”). Taylor is mixing five songs, and then Will Beasley is mixing the other seven.

Colleen and I have two fully collaborative songs on this album where we both wrote it together, start to finish, lyrics and music. Hannah and I collaborated on lyrics for two songs, and we also have one where all five of us wrote it together from scratch, and that one is wild. There’s a richness to these songs that was absent when it was just me working alone.

You’ve spoken about how parts of the song speaks to your current recovery despite being written at an earlier time. Do you think this speaks to the open nature of your songwriting or maybe the endless hurdles we have to overcome in life?

It took a few weeks to notice the connection between the stroke and the song: “I don’t know the first thing about feeling anything” and “the biggest fight is the one inside your head.” It definitely grounded the song in a very real, very necessary way. Too often I get stuck in a malaise of depression and apathy and that was where I was when I wrote the lyrics initially. I think it’s a beautifully serendipitous opportunity to remind myself of the very tangible, mortal struggles people have. I’m grateful that the song can now speak to both of those places.

Was there any thought to alter or change this song in any way, or maybe hold it back as the first song post-stroke?

If anything, I felt more motivated to release it, exactly as it was. I’m always interested in evaluating why I want to release the things I make, and I really do care about the connection, about how people might see themselves in this particular blend of pop, punk, and alt rock. The song became more potent after it became more personal, which to me is a signifier to put it out because that’s the kind of art worth sharing.

What’s coming next for Wine & Warpaint?

A lot of new music and hopefully a lot more live shows. Our first full-length album is almost completely done and will be coming out very soon. Till then, we will be releasing singles from the album as well as some videos, so there’s a lot on the horizon.

And what’s coming next for Brandon O’Neill?

My recovery has been great. The surgery to fix my little heart hole went flawlessly and I’m ramping back up to my normal rhythms. What’s next for me is very similar to what’s next for W&W: making art that is as good as possible, saying things that are worth saying, and making positive waves.

“Feel The Heat” is available everywhere on Friday, April 21st and you can pre-save it at this link. For more news and updates on Wine & Warpaint, make sure to bookmark their website (link here) or follow them on social media (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter).