Hei'An (band)

Hei'An is a Slovenian metal band, founded in 2020 by vocalist, guitarist, frontman and producer Matic Blagonič, who also uses the name Hei'An as his own pseudonym. The band have released their debut album "imago" on November 25th 2022 as an independent release, with distribution, PR and publishing handled by SAOL, a division of CMM GmbH, and their partners. The band mixes elements of progressive metal, post-metal, metalcore and alternative rock / metal in their music, labelling their output as "post-progressive metal". The name Hei'An derives from the Chinese language and can be translated as "calming / ominous darkness".
==History==
===2020 - 2021: Early demos and imago recording===
Blagonič states that he came up with the idea for the band in 2020, while in lockdown due to COVID-19. He had been writing music since early high-school, and in 2020, he came up with a concept for a full-length album, comprised of twelve tracks, and began recording some early demos in his own bedroom. He quickly contacted dummer and long-time friend Gaj Bostič, with whom he'd been attending the Conservatory of Music in Ljubljana (KGBL) at the time, who helped him with the arrangements for the tracks and helped produce and mix some of those early demos. The duo uploaded some of the demos to YouTube and ended up getting thousands of views with very minimal marketing, which led them to form a full band and begin looking for a proper recording studio to record the album. The early demos have since been deleted from YouTube.
After trying out a couple of different musicians as potential band members, they quickly settled with Matevž Počič as the band's guitarist and Peter Smrdel as the band's bass player.
Blagonič began studying music production at United Pop in Ljubljana, Slovenia in late 2020, where he met Slovenian recording engineer, producer, mixing / mastering engineer and FOH engineer Matej Gobec (Laibach, Dub Trio, Fishbone etc.), who is also co-owner of The Cosmosonic Studios in Ljubljana. The band took Gobec on as a producer and engineer for their upcoming debut record, titled imago, and began recording it at The Cosmosonic Studios in 2021.
The band also started collaborating with American music producer and composer Randy Slaugh (Architects, Sleeping With Sirens, TesseracT, Periphery, The Amity Affliction etc.), who contributed additional production and programming to their debut record.
===2022: imago singles and album release===
Hei'An signed a distribution, PR and publishing deal with SAOL / CMM GmbH and their respective partners (The Orchard and Eardiction) in early 2022.
The band released five singles on all streaming platforms to promote the album, each with its own music video on YouTube, namely:
* inferno feat. Oəlka from Malorshiga (June 30th 2022)
* in the cold (July 20th 2022)
* can't get out of my skin (August 24th 2022)
* dreamer feat. Joe Buras from Born of Osiris (September 15th 2022)
* noises (November 24th 2022)
They also released Slovenian versions of three of the singles, namely:
* preteklost feat. Gregor Strasbergar - Štras from Mrfy (Slovenian version of dreamer)
* ko te ni (Slovenian version of in the cold)
* ne iščem več besed (Slovenian version of noises)
Their debut album imago was finally released on all streaming platforms and on CDs on November 25th 2022 and was positively received by audiences and critics alike.
===2023: Touring, Misstiq remix, Live at EastWest Studios EP and GRAMMY® consideration ===
The band held the release show for imago, which was also their first-ever live performance, at Kino Šiška in Ljubljana, Slovenia on January 28th 2023, performing in front of about 250 people, which is the full capacity of the Komuna venue where the concert took place.
In the same year, they then went on to perform at several music festivals across the globe, like 70000TONS OF METAL, MetalDays, ProgPower Europe and LiFe (Libertas Festival), had a short support run with Psycho Village and Eyes Set To Kill, and had two short headline tours and several standalone headline shows across Europe, performing in Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA.
Aljaž Novak joined the band as a touring member on all of their shows and became a full-time member as a backing vocalist mid-2023.
On August 2nd 2023, they released an electronic remix of their song noises, a collaboration with Australian musician and producer Misstiq.
On October 6th 2023, they released a live EP, titled Live at EastWest Studios, featuring live versions of four tracks from the imago album, which were recorded at the legendary EastWest Studios in Los Angeles, CA, USA with a string quartet and piano, comprised by members of the LA Philharmonic. The EP was another collaboration with Randy Slaugh, who composed the string and piano arrangements and co-produced the release. Live at EastWest Studios was released on all streaming platforms, with live videos of all four tracks available on YouTube, and it was also released on vinyl, making it the band's first-ever vinyl release.
In late 2023, the band announced that their album imago and their song noises were officially considered for a GRAMMY® Award by the Recording Academy, the album in the "Best Rock Album" category, and the song in the "Best Metal Performance" category, although they didn't end up being nominated. The consideration in those two categories still made Hei'An the first Slovenian band to achieve this.
===2024 - present:===
Hei'An started 2024 by performing at the ESNS Showcase Festival in the Netherlands, MENT Showcase Festival in Slovenia, and announcing on social media that they had already fully recorded their sophomore album.
==Band Members==
===Current members:===
* Matic Blagonič - lead vocals, rhythm guitar, programming (2020 - present)
* Aljaž Novak - backing vocals (2023 - present)
* Matevž Počič - lead guitar (2020 - present)
* Peter Smrdel - bass, synths (2021 - present)
* Gaj Bostič - drums, programming (2020 - present)
===Former members:===
* Jošt Lampret - bass (2020)
* Blaž Avsenik - synths (2020)
== Discography==
===Albums:===
* imago (2022)
===EPs:===
* Live at EastWest Studios (2023)
Category:Heavy metal musical groups
Category:Musical groups established in 2020
Category:Slovenian musical groups