On a rainy Wednesday evening, Grumpy’s starvation for attention and a protein bar is satisfied by a chocolate croissant and a friend passing by with their dog. “Grumpy is famous now, spread the word” front person Heaven Schmitt explains of the open voice-memo app between us mid-interview, before leaning in to generously pet the small terrier. The interaction was the closest I got to meeting Grumpy that evening, a charming big-hearted character parading around in an armor of extreme ego. Schmitt describes Grumpy’s identity as “me, plus a very cocky bravado. There’s a huge layer of cockiness to it, but it’s also just very earnest about wanting attention.”  

Following a transformative four year stretch since Loser came out, Grumpy released singles “Saltlick” and “Protein”, both glimpses of EP Wolfed, out via Bayonet on October 25th. These vibrant songs confirmed the band’s charming sense humor remains unscathed, while also teasing a new voice to Grumpy. It’s a nightmare for the genre labeling fanatics on the depths of the internet, but for the rest of us, Wolfed is unpredictable and addicting, a sonically innovative feast guided only by itself.

The third single off of Wolfed offered a glimpse at the soft core nestled deep beneath Grumpy’s cocky bravado. “Relationships are not always forever, but I think that love can be”, Schmitt says of the ideologies behind “Flower”, a tender twee ‘syrup song’ immortalizing a connection after the romance has expired. The EP’s wittiness proves to be an easy hook, but it’s ultimately this dispersing of vulnerability, weaving in and out of comedic one liners and self-deprecating jests, that uphold Wolfed as Grumpy’s most captivating project yet.

When I sat down with Schmitt last week, their signature mischievous Sweeney Todd-esque hat had been replaced by an adorable knit striped hood they finished making the day prior. Along with knitting, we discussed the other ways Schmitt has kept busy, such as planning an epic release show, pioneering the niche internet aesthetic of “dirtybag twee”, and taking a hands-on role in the creation of Grumpy’s new sound.  

This interview has been edited for length and clarity: 

Manon Bushong: Before we dive into music, I did want to ask about your outfits and awesome hat collection. How you would describe your style, and what do you look for when you’re picking the outfits you play in, or just wear in general.

HS: Well, I love a funky hat, obviously. I’m super inspired right now by Sweeney Todd / Beetlejuice vibes…crusty insane man in a suit. It’s largely inspired by my hair, it recently came out a more cool-toned gray than I thought, but then I just leaned into it. I have a Sunday night ritual of making a little picnic dinner on the beach and the only time I wet my hair is in the ocean. So it’s super gross and sandy and wavy, and that inspired the whole Beetlejuice, Sweeney Todd era for me.

Right now, I’m trying not to buy anything. When I’m picking stuff out, I’m just trying to entertain myself with what I have. I’ve just started posting outfit TikToks…lord help me…but someone on TikTok described it as “Victorian Truck Stop,  and I love that. Challenging myself to post TikToks about it really pushes me to make an outfit that much more bizarre, or just to add one extra layer of intrigue. I just love clothes and expressing myself with my style. 

I’ve landed on, what do they call it? Oh yeah, therian TikTok. It’s these young kids who are ‘therians’, from what I understand, it’s a furry thing. So I need to figure out what animal I am. I don’t know…I’m getting wolf a lot, but I don’t know if that’s true. I think I’m a little cuddlier. Maybe there’s puppy elements to it? I’m never gonna beat the furry allegations.

MB: Wolfed is also the title of your upcoming EP. 

HS: Ohhhh, yeah. Okay, I’m Wolf. I am Wolf. 

MB: What does that verb mean to you for this collection of songs?

HS: Wolfed came from Anya, my bandmate and deepest collaborator. She’s the bassist in the band. I kind of just call her the art director of the project because she and I make all of the PR photos and cover art together. She has a really crazy editing style that I love and she also really gets me. She sees the fantasy realm that exists in my head. She sees it in me and understands me and is so good at translating these things into words and images. Anyways, I’m always saying, ‘oh, like you ate’, ‘you tore’, like ‘you, you ate that’ and Anya just conjured a lot of Big Bad Wolf energy. The art direction for this EP has a lot of dark fantasy inspiration. So we were thinking a lot about Big Bad Wolf, and she came up with the phrase wolfed as another way of saying “you ate”, like, you just devoured something.

For me, this EP and what’s coming is a real response to our first album, Loser. This is kind of my winner. These few years when I haven’t released anything have been a huge transformative time. I mean I called the band Grumpy, and I called the first album Loser, and it was tongue in cheek, but there was some truth to that. That’s how I felt at the time. Now, I still love the band name, but I want to put out stuff that I produced and made, cause I think I was hands off on the first album in a way that it ended up not sounding like it could have if I really tried to learn. Anyways, I connect with the big bad wolf because it’s this person whose bravado and cockiness gets him into trouble ultimately is his demise. So I think this is before the big bad wolf knows about his downfall. We’ll see where I go from here, but for now I’m just feeling like I could huff and puff and blow the house down. 

MB: When it comes to lyrics, Grumpy does a great job of meshing humor and some very clever lines with a lot of pretty solid introspection that can be very poignant at times as well. How do you feel like humor is something that you incorporate into your writing and is it something that you really feel is necessary?

HS: What I really value in music are comedy and melody. Those are the things that can get me really hooked, or just think, ‘Oh, I wish I wrote that’. I’m glad that that’s what you take away, the self reflection and the humor, because that’s what Grumpy stories are. It’s just a lot of me being like ‘how much can I embarrass myself with what I can admit in a song’, there’s a huge amount of vulnerability in it. I’m trying to be very raw and write how I speak and exactly what I was thinking. I bring in discomfort from honesty and then invite people to laugh at me, like isn’t it ridiculous that this is how I saw it?

Humor is such a way for me to access the uglier sides of who I am and to confront them. My history with music and pursuing music, was so ‘tortured artist student’. I really wanted to pursue music as a career so in college I was trying so hard to make songs that were relatable and not too weird. It just destroyed me, it was zero fun and the songs were terrible. I got to this point, right as I was graduating college where I was like, ‘you know what? Let’s just get real, I don’t have what it takes to do this’. So I went and worked at an ad agency for a year, it was just this dramatic exit and I didn’t make any music during that time. It relieved so much pressure that after maybe eight or nine months, I was like, ‘well I’ll pick up the guitar’, I can just do this for fun. Then there were no constraints, it wasn’t for anyone but me. From that total lack of pressure, all these goofy dorky songs that were so me came out. So that’s the whole genesis of what Grumpy is, how I figured out how to make music fun for me.

MB: What shape is the fun of Grumpy taking now, four years later? 

HS: We’ve got a really exciting tour planned and a bunch of music sitting in the cannon. These past four years in between releasing anything have been so important and I’m glad I waited because I knew I wanted help. I talked to a bunch of labels, but nothing ever felt right until Bayonet. I totally cried in our lunch meeting, because I was just like “Oh my God, they get it. They get me”. They shared what they believed was possible for me and the spaces they saw us in, like the bills they saw us on, stuff that I only privately thought ‘does anybody else but me think that we belong in this space?’ I love them and I’m grateful and I think they’re crushing.

Everything that’s coming for Grumpy is the result of my roots in folk and indie music, those are  just my biggest influences. I’m also hugely inspired by hyperpop and electronic music. Hyperpop artists have this brilliant sense of humor and sense of fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I’m so inspired by what they can achieve. I think Frost Children is so much bigger than any one genre you could put them in, they’re just absolute savants. I think they’re the best performers I’ve ever known, they have so much fun on stage. 

For me, Grumpy is this combo, a product of these two influences. During our first meeting, Bayonet was describing it as “hyperfolk”. Genre-izing things is hard for me, everybody wants to come up with the next Indie Sleaze category, but damn, they kind of nailed it with hyper-folk. Electronic vocals, indie sensibilities.

MB: Do you think that there could be more of a hyper pop future for Grumpy?

HS: I’m never concerned about cohesiveness. I think I’m the through line, so I can make whatever I want and it is Grumpy. I don’t see myself doing side projects, I just see Grumpy having a wide stroke. I have a lot of heavier rock stuff coming, some more electronic stuff, some classic indie, jangly pop stuff, and then it’s just some weird, weird folk that I’ve been sitting on for a long time. That’s another reason Frost Children are such a big inspiration to me, they could really crush such a huge variety of genres and it still sounds like them because they have a strong voice.

I love it so much, these people are my family, they understand me and have seen me so fully and still love me. It’s very healing to have them close, that we’ve remained valuable to each other in and outside of a romantic context.

MB: You play with a few of your exes. I saw you live last week, and there was something very special about the energy of your band, which I assume that contributes to. Do you have a favorite part about playing with people you share that intimate relationship with? 

HS: I like to joke that dumping me results in a life sentence of commitment to the band Grumpy, but they have all honored that. It is funny to joke about but it really is this beautiful thing for me, and I think it adds to the rawness. There’s a level of realism that can only be achieved by songs being performed by the people they’re about, like I’ve written the songs, but the people in the band have had a hand in living the story. In a way, they’ve written the reality, I just put it into words and melody.

“Flower”, is a very twee, sweet love song about a romance that has ended and it’s a reflection on the love. Relationships are not always forever, but I think that love can be. The way that I approach dating is knowing that that love can and will change shape. I’m not building some commitment to you so much as I’m nurturing a bond that I hope to hold forever. So, having these exes near and dear is just living that. I’m so glad I dated each of them, they’re such a huge part of me and I still feel very loved by each of them. My bonds with them feel eternal. In and outside of a relationship, we nurture that with each other, and that’s what “Flower” is about. I think it speaks highly of all of us, and the community that we hold for each other. It’s a rare relationship that I’ve come to really appreciate. 

To specifically highlight Anya, we ultimately realized that we were not lifelong romantic partners, but we do have this really incredible artistic connection. I always get this image in my head of two little rodents digging, like a skunk and raccoon with little archaeology brushes, uncovering and discovering things that we can make in the world. She’s just a music veteran, absolute powerhouse, freak of nature, not from this planet. Then Austin, my ex husband on drums, he’s the voice of reason in the band. We often don’t follow his apprehension, but it is good to have. He’s also just like our AV guy, he can really be so organized.

MB: What’s next for Grumpy

HS: Our EP release show is happening October 27th. I held off on playing a Grumpy headline show, this band has been around like four or five years and we just played our first one in July at Cassette. I like to be very specific with headline shows because I personally don’t love to go to shows. If the band is good, I’m like, ‘Damn, these guys are great. I want to get home and write a song.’ If they’re not, I’m like, ‘how come I’m not up there? I want to go home and write a song.’ Either way, it makes me want to leave and write a song, except for Blaketheman shows and Frost Children shows, then I’m locked in, that is pure entertainment. Blaketheman1000 has humor like no other, I actually think he’s a genius if you read his lyrics. He and I’ve been friends for 10 years, he was my first friend in college. I just think he’s an underrated genius and comedic hero. He really understands putting humor in music, he just nails that confidence. 

Anyways, EP release show. It’s Halloween weekend and I basically want to throw a party where bands are playing. For our first headline show, we had free hot dogs and a hot dog eating contest with a bunch of my beautiful friends. So for this Halloween weekend show, we’re doing a huge costume contest and I want to gather a whole bunch of prizes and merch related stuff. I want an apple cider donut contest,  probably some candy too. I like a snack element, there’s not enough food at shows. It’s going to be at Trans Pecos and the lineup is Estelle Allen and Thanks For Coming, and Grumpy. We’ll be dropping some merch and the EP will be on cassette. I’m gonna go hard, but Halloween is such an impossible question. I think for a Halloween costume to work for me, it has to have a wig, cause wigs are the thing I’m not wearing. Although, I really cannot deny that I am thinking about powdered wigs. Who’s pulling up to the function in a powdered wig?

Wolfed will be out October 25 via Bayonet Records. You can preorder the EP as well as a cassette tape here. Grumpy will be playing an EP release show at Trans Pecos in New York on October 27 along with Thanks for Coming and Estelle Allen. Buy tickets here.

Written by Manon Bushong | Featured photo by Logan White