Early Genesis Meets Late Genesis: Talking About Viscera w/ James Keary of Heavy Shrug
by joseph murphy
9.16.2026
if you've spent any time in a band or booking shows, you know eventually there's a cursed bill coming your way: a band drops, a venue ghosts you, the booker's fired and no one can access their calendar, your band breaks up, you've been double-booked, your bassist forgot it's his wife birthday and bails last minute. And if any of these has happened to you on a show in Philadelphia, you know your time has really come. It's notoriously difficult to book, even for the most revered of bands – and there are so many really good bands that hardly anyone talks about. I digress.
A few years ago, a band “never got the email” and dropped a week before a show, and then the venue – whose name I cannot even remember – disappeared. I was playing guitar in Canid and doing most of the behind-the-scenes stuff, which meant this was on me (or we cancel all together; sorry! to the touring band). I think I sent a dozen emails and messages before getting replacements for both somehow; I still don't know how I pulled it off. Heavy Shrug (the Philly quartet of Catoe, Greg, James & Will) was one of the miracles, and I'm so glad it was them because it turned into one of those band-meet-cutes that kept giving.
First of all, they're a tight act; but maybe more importantly, they're solid folks. Since: Catoe (bass, vocals) has painted the cover for the last Canid album (hire Catoe: https://xoexo.net/). Heavy Shrug played the first Pleasuretone show – and a few more since – here in Reading once it got up and running. I've hosted most of Greg's (drums) other bands. And now I'm writing this interview for them because... why not? Heavy Shrug plays a sort of infectious guitar rock that's still sometimes a bummer – in a good way. James (vocals, guitar) is a lifer, it seems: someone who can't stop even if he wanted. Their new album's out September 19th via Bad Catt Records.
If you're into rock that dips its toes in prog-infested waters, this one's for you
Pre-order the tape or vinyl from Bad Catt Records or go see them at one of their upcoming shows:
9/19 Thunderbird Hall, Phl., PA Release show w/ Christina Ward, Shortcuts & Milkspiller
10/8 Asbury Park Brewery, Asbury Park, NJ, w/ Gardenia
11/21 Ortlieb's, Phl., PA, w/ Big Bill, Marathon '77 & Shortcuts
What's Heavy Shrug shrugging so hard about these days?
Heavy Shrug is shrugging hard to promote our first LP coming out Sept 19th on Bad Catt Records. We just released our second single, called “Green Souls”, on streaming platforms across the world over. We’ve got some shows coming up in Philly: we're throwing our LP release show party on Saturday Sept 19th at Thunderbird Hall with Christina Ward, Shortcuts and Milkspiller. After that, we are playing outside of Philly; definitely coming to Pleasuretone in Reading soon too.
Build the band's family tree. Who are your band parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, estranged-but-cool-uncle, weird great aunt?
Great question, we contain multitudes, we love to bring in all our influences instead of claiming any one particular style. So this may be odd.
Spiritual Guru: Genesis
Grandmother: Bowie
Grandfather: Radiohead
Pee-Paw: Robert Smith / The Cure
Mee-Maw: Coheed and Cambria
Daddy: Nirvana
Momma: the Pixies
Estranged-but-cool-uncle: Mogwai
Weird great aunt: Silver Mt. Zion
Creepy Uncle: Limp Bizkit
Cousins: Mars Volta, Pile, Hot Snakes
Siblings: (Philly area bands that our members are in) Flatwaves, Looser, Building Stars, quiet abandon, Falsa, and Piss Cops (fake band but also maybe a real band someday).
What's everyone's role in the band, besides playing their instrument?
I’m James, band leader/facilitator, singer/songwriter, and rhythm guitar player.
Catoe is our tone queen bass player and does much of the visual art components in our band, including all the album art and poster work.
Greg is our beast of a drummer, and knows everybody in the Philly music scene.
Will is our lead guitar player and a painter of sound; they are a visual artist in their own right and does some art for us too.
Everyone brings their creativity and inspirations to the songwriting/recording process.
The latest singles feel lyric- & vocal-forward to my ear, embracing a sort of maximalism. In other words, there are a lot of, well, words.A lot of bands choose impressionist, ambiguous modes, but this is certainly not that; both are difficult to do well. Can you talk a bit about the writing process in that regard?
That’s interesting, well I think that’s a couple of things. First, I think that’s just how I write lyrics. I journal a lot and my journal entries often just turn into my songs, so they’re very stream of conscious in style. The other aspect to the tracks is how we mixed them. We had many discussions around if they vocals should be buried and drowned like shoegaze; or should they have slapback like a Pixies song; should they be dry and bumped like MCR? Ultimately we ended up mixing the vocals more in saturated and present cause we felt it the songs better.
What makes this album different than the last HS outings?
This album is the best sounding representation to date of Heavy Shrug. It’s our first official long playing record, so all we really can compare it to is EPs and singles we did in the past. With this album we wanted to build a world with these songs sonically, lyrically, melodically. When writing the album I thought of it like writing a symphony, where we would have themes that we would return to both lyrically and melodically. That didn’t really come to pass for whatever reason, but what we able to achieve was very much so something that we think fits together. Its not just a bunch of one off catchy singles, although we don’t shy away from sick riffs and hooks.
Talk about recording. Where, when, how, why?
We recorded at Ivakota Studios in Washington DC with Producer Ben Green. We did 2 big multi day sessions; one in 2023 where we recorded 5 songs, and one in 2025 where we recorded 4. We took a break in between because Catoe and I had a kid in 2024.
I'm awful at describing what my own band sounds like and even worse at describing others maybe. What four made-up genre tags describe Heavy Shrug's latest?
We’re early Genesis meets late Genesis. We’re a post-post-grunge adhd-gaze band with touches of incelcore and parody music. We’re grunge meets prog meets emo meets post rock meets pee pee meets poo poo.
What is incelcore? Actually, nevermind; I don't want to know. Give me the headlines and marginalia on your favorite two songs on the forthcoming album. What's it about, how'd it start, what's the takeaway? Dealer's choice.
I think one of my favorites tracks is “Our House”. I wrote the first verse when I was going through a miserable and drawn out breakup. I was co-dependent, I was an active addict, she was verbally abusive: it was bad. At the time, I was thinking I was the problem and if I just could fix my way of thinking, we would get back together. I wrote that verse thinking that would happen. But that’s not what happened at all; instead I found program and therapy, got sober and healthy. Two years later I wrote the second verse with a sober vision of what would have happened if we had gotten back together.
The other one of my favorites would have to be “Test Meat”. It's a track about systemic inequality and social control. It's a track about recognizing exploitation and being gaslit and dismissed about it and told you are just spoiled. It's a song about trying to escape that, trying to grapple with it, trying to just point it out without getting put on a list. In other words, it's a song about modern American society.
Who are your favorite fellow Philly musicians right now? How do you see yourself fitting in to that crowded scene?
There are so many amazing bands in Philadelphia right now. Some of my favorites include Planette Automatic, So Totally, Queasy, Soft No, and Looser. Who knows if we are fitting in?
Get Viscera. Do the thing.
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Tony ly
7.12.26
How long have you been living in Lancaster & favorite things about the area?
My parents came to Lancaster from Vietnam around 1980 after the Fall of Saigon. Some time later, I was born, grew up, and lived here all my life, with the exception of a year in New York City after college.
The aspect of community here is so strong. There's this palpable sense of ‘togetherness’ that you don't always necessarily find in other similarly-sized towns.
At one point, the city of Lancaster was taking in 20% more immigrants than any other part of the U.S. And I think that ethnic diversity is a big reason why it's so special. There has always been a music, art, and food culture here. But it's still growing which is kind of crazy to think about.
You also don't have to drive very far to get anywhere. Philly, DC, Baltimore, NYC are all right around the corner. Metropolitans, beaches, natural beauty…wherever you want to go is never too far away.
What was the first song and/or album you fell in love with?
Growing up, I really only listened to whatever was on the radio or on MTV’s TRL. Backstreet Boys for life, by the way.
But one day, I saw the music video for The White Stripes’ “Fell In Love With A Girl” on MTV2, and I feel like it completely rewired my brain. It was like a shock to the system. I was like, ‘Wow! This is what music can be. This is what art can be.’
I went out to Park City Mall as soon as I scrounged up enough money and bought their album White Blood Cells. I guess that was my first, real introduction into alternative rock music.
When did Super Vehicle start to take shape & what's been your favorite part of the band's early progression?
Two of my great friends, Andrew Burton and Pat Hatt, used to live together downtown, in this apartment on New Street. They just invited me over one day in January of 2024. And I thought I was just going to help them with this musical project and track some bass guitar parts. But when I got there, Andrew was basically like, ‘OK, you’re the lead singer.’ And that was basically that. And we’ve just been grinding ever since, writing music, recording, playing live shows…
My favorite part of all of this, honestly, is simply having the opportunity to work alongside some truly special, remarkably talented people, all of whom I’d consider to be great friends. You read these horror stories about bands you listened to growing up and how much they fought and argued and resented each other - that idea feels so foreign to me. It sounds like hell.
I love my Super Vehicle boys, and I just feel so fortunate to be a part of it.
How does your song writing process differ between solo & band projects?
That’s a great question. Think back to when you were in school, and sometimes you had a solo project and other times you had a group project. There’s pros and cons to both.
When you’re working alone, and you have this problem you’re trying to figure out, and you’re just running your head into the wall over and over again…you’re on your own. You’re the only person who can solve it. You have complete ownership and responsibility and accountability over literally everything. And, honestly, it gets scary sometimes.
When you’re working in a band, it’s obviously more collaborative. You’re taking input from multiple people on the best path forward. And, I guess this is the part of the process that invites contention like I was talking about earlier, but we don’t really have any of that. We’re all just hyperfocused on crafting what we think best serves the song.
At the end of the day, you’re just exercising different parts of the same creative muscle.
What is your fave piece of gear?
For Super Vehicle, I play a Fender Mustang shortscale bass guitar that I just completely souped up, with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound pickups and a Mastery Bridge. It’s my workhorse. It’s what I’ve used for every single Super Vehicle show, and I’m going to play the shit out of it until it just completely falls apart.
For Tiger Balm Baby, I have this beautiful Martin D-16 acoustic that I bought for myself for my birthday a really long time ago. More recently, I bought this Epiphone Casino in this gorgeous matte olive green color - that one’s really cool. The tone is super middy and plunky. I used it for exactly one song on my last album, called “Away We Go.”
What exciting news do you have on the horizon?
So, this wasn’t intentional on my part, but every year since 2023, I’ve alternated between Super Vehicle and Tiger Balm Baby, as far as completely focusing all of my energy and attention into a major release. That’s kind of how it just worked out.
This year is a Super Vehicle year. We’ve been writing and practicing new material all year and will be driving out to Nashville in August to record our next project with our great friend and longtime collaborator, Max Getz. We're hoping to release that sometime this year. If you’ve been to any of our shows recently, you’ve definitely heard some of the new stuff. We’re all just really eager to start tracking so we can get it out there, we're also excited for our show coming up at Zoetropolis Sat. 8/1, with Hiroe, The Depth Beneath Us and Versus Machine.
Top 3 most memorable moments?
Our very first Super Vehicle show was at Zoetropolis in April 2025. It was our debut EP release show, so it was kind of a big deal to us. Our lead guitarist, Andrew Burton, had never performed live before, ever. There were just so many variables - being a new band, playing new music, having relatively little stage experience. We didn’t really know what to expect.
But the venue was absolutely packed. So many of our friends and family came out to support us. It was a really special night.
It’s just funny to think that when you’re first starting out, you’re usually playing in someone’s hot ass basement for like three people and maybe someone’s cat. To have something like that be our very first show was really amazing.
Playing at the Mercury Lounge in New York City with my best friend Peter Ferraiolo’s band is also a core memory. It felt like the culmination of literal decades of friendship. We were just a couple of music nerds in middle school doing Nirvana covers out of his trailer park home. So, to share a stage together at this legendary venue, so many years later, is something I’ll cherish forever.
Top 3 lessons learned?
Don’t be afraid to place your trust in strangers. Put yourself out there, make connections, and try to make something happen. You’ll get burned eventually, but I bet you’ll more often be surprised at who will show up for you.
Make time for your art. If you let yourself, you’ll be able to come up with a thousand reasons why you ‘can’t’ pick up the guitar or a notebook today. Be schedule-oriented and militant about it. Every single whatever-day, I’m going to noodle on my guitar for 30 minutes or write down my stream of consciousness. Simply showing up is the hardest part.
It’s never too late to start. I’m 36 years old. My back hurts, I have a CPAP machine, and I have to take Vitamin D3 pills every day. I just started doing this music stuff three years ago. If my geriatric ass can jump around on stage, literally anyone can do it, at any age.
What does the Central PA music scene mean to you?
I just feel really humbled to bea part of such a talented community of artists. There’s some really incredible musical acts putting out insanely good music right now. Babel Map, Northern Gloom, Bad Hints, Field Trip, and Hunter Root come to mind, but there’s so many more. All of it’s fresh and new and exciting.
I would just urge anyone and everyone to come out to a live show sometime, even if it’s a band they’ve never heard of before. Discovering new music is one of the most exciting, rewarding things you can do for yourself.
