Total Heat has released a new video for “On the FM.” The clip was directed by Ezra Ewen, and is the A-side of his debut, as part of the Dangerbird Records’ (Murray Lightburn, Slothurst) Microdose series.

Total Heat is led by Ross Wallace Chait, a drummer by trade, born and raised in Los Angeles. Through his 15+ years behind the kit, he’s toured and collaborated with Girlpool, Winter, Walter and Swell Maps’ Jowe Head among others. Trained as a jazz player, his songwriting reflects this deep rooted history as well as a lifelong reverence for underground rock and experimental noise music.

Total Heat was born in Chait’s former East Hollywood apartment with a field recorder, a Korg MS-20 and a fanatic obsession with Alice Coltrane and the Velvet Underground. Since then, the project has been groomed by the phenomenal talents of Joel Jensen Heath on bass, Yoel DeJesus on keys, Patrick Nolan on guitar, Tara Milch on flute, Joshua Sushman on saxophone and co­producer Greg Hartunian among others. Holding it down on lead vocals and drums, Chait leads Total Heat to a unique musical place where spiritual mantras, crazy freeform noise and pop songs mingle and mash.

Vocals, drums and keys – Ross Chait
Guitar – Patrick Nolan
Bass – Kevin Boog
Harp – Risa Rubin
Flutes – Greg Hartunian
Produced by Greg Hartunian and Ross Chait
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Greg Hartunian at Tropico Beauty

Ross Chait on “On the FM”:

“This music video is the brainchild of my dear friend and collaborator Ezra Ewen. I was in New York about a year ago for a Girlpool gig and in the throes of a fairly devastating personal life crisis. We had one afternoon to shoot in New York and enlisted the talent of another dear friend and brilliant dancer Jael McCants. Our friends at Genius in Brooklyn lent us their space and between that and some city shots of New York and later LA, we had what turned out to be a fun, crazy piece celebrating movement and music. Thematically the video is open for interpretation, which we all intended. However, there’s a lot I try to speak about with Total Heat relating to my deep relationship with Los Angeles, where I live and where I was raised, in conjunction with my familial roots in New York City, a place I find endlessly inspiring and beautiful. Just get in the zone, all that you need is on the radio!”