The son of a contemporary classical composer, Frank Heiss started playing drums at the age of four. He became an accomplished orchestral timpanist and drummer, performing works such as Symphony No. I by Gustav Mahler and Concerto for Orchestra by Bela Bartok in countries around the world while still in his teens with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of New England Conservatory under the direction of Boston Philharmonic Director Benjamin Zander.
In 1989 he earned the Filene Music Scholarship to attend Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. At Skidmore,he was asked to join the band Conjunction Junction who wrote mostly original songs and performed technically intense covers by bands like King Crimson, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Rush. Conjunction Junction would go on to record a full length album, Thugnugget in the Skidmore studio and open for Phish in 1990.
Exposed to break-beat music in 1991 and inspired by the Ithaca, NY band Jaws, Frank Heiss began to use electronic musical instruments such as Alternate Mode‘s DrumKAT and the Akai S-950 Sampler. After Graduating with Honors for excellency in music, in the Summer of 1993 Frank Heiss attended The Drummers Collective 10 week certificate program in Manhattan where he studied with Pete Zeldman and Mike Clark.
In the Fall of 1993, with an already growing interest in hip-hop, Frank Heiss heard the sounds of producers like DJ Premier, Pete Rock and Large Professor. He immediately purchased an Akai MPC-3000 and began to make recordings which would later be released on the label Rising High in the U.K. as Radical Technology. Eventually using exclusively sequenced electronic instruments in the spring of 1995, Frank Heiss moved to New York City where he met Dr. Walker of the electronic duo Air Liquide from Cologne, Germany. After his first visit to Germany in 1996, Frank spent several years living, recording and performing in Cologne, Boston, and New York.
In 1996 a deal with Liquid Sky Music was established after getting a demo into the hands of DJ Soul Slinger and tube Alive was released in 1997. The media immediately made musical comparisons to artists like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Photek. HearNow Bending Spoons was released in 1998 on the EMI/Harvest label, which was once home to the music of Soft Machine, Deep Purple and Pink Floyd.
In the fall of 1999, Frank Heiss completed a 16 date US tour in support of goth rock legends The Sisters of Mercy, including a performance at The Warfield Theater in San Francisco which was captured on video. The sophomore tube release Steak was completed in 2000. Currently there are six full-length tube releases, all pushing the envelope for Mental Step drum-n-bass. At the beginning of the new millennium, while living in New York City, Frank Heiss took a break from performing live but continued to produce and release new music such as his wild Hip Hop and Country crossover known as The Hick Step Massive, the genesis of which was an illegal mash-up which he eventually took to the next level by writing original songs in the style. In addition, Frank Heiss began to license music for use in television and advertising working with New York based production library Video Helper as well as music publisher Heavy Hitters.
Today, in addition to composing and performing, once again living in his home city of Boston, Frank Heiss is also teaching the myriad things he has learned during his more than 35 year journey through music.