Guitarist Max Heyob making musical career strides despite COVID-19

Max Heyob stands in an alley an hour before his group, Pushing Daisy's Band, plays another Wednesday at the Bluebird. He talks about his family and, as if he were listening, his dad John opens the back door and interjects to say he’s going on soon. 

Heyob looks annoyed, but he isn’t. John filled in on guitar for his band two weeks ago. His brother ran lights. It’s a family affair.  

“My parents were in a band the entire time I was growing up,” he said. “They started their band in ‘93 and their last show was 2014. I have been breathing this shit from legitimately the second I was born.” Heyob isn’t exaggerating.  

 Heyob is a 23-year-old IU graduate who attended Perry Meridian High School and is aggressively chasing a career in music. The COVID-19 pandemic challenged his pursuit, but he still plays anywhere from two to four shows a week despite the risk. Music has always surrounded Heyob and his family. 

The day Heyob was born his grandma and mother took him to see his dad play in the family’s band Peace Train.  

“My mom was in the band, but she obviously wasn’t singing that day,” Heyob said. “She just had a fucking kid. We went there and I was you know, in the fucking little carryon stroller thing in a tie-dye onesie.”  

Despite the state of the country, Heyob still finds time to connect over music. It has been a constant since he can remember and he has his family to thank. 

“My earliest memories are at shows or at practices Thursday nights,” he said. “Putting my ear next to the register in the house so I could hear them through the wall. Everything I can remember as far as nostalgia is completely based in that band.” 

Parents John and Tracey Heyob gave Heyob opportunities to perform, too. 

“First time I ever played on stage I was 8 and they let me play Hang on Sloopy… they gave me a solo you know, it was fun.” 

His family’s musical impact extended to Heyob’s childhood best friend and bandmate Chris Willsey.  

Willsey noticed Heyob in first grade when he saw him drawing superheroes with a classmate at Rosa Parks Edison Elementary. After he found out Heyob played guitar, Willsey, a drummer, offered a jam. They’ve been playing together ever since.  

Willsey has been there through every phase of Heyob’s life. He’s seen confident, long haired Heyob, but he’s also seen the athlete torn between two loves, baseball and music. Willsey was there for his first song, “maybe the worst I’ve ever heard in my life,” but also some of his best.  

“I’ll go home and my parents will be humming [one of Heyob’s songs],” Willsey said. 

Now, Willsey serves as a release from the stresses of performing for Heyob. As the front man of a jam band like Pushing Daisy's Band, Heyob feels pressure to capture the entire audience. It’s a challenge, as 90% of them don’t buy into what the group is doing.  

"First time I ever played on stage I was 8 and they let me play "Hang on Sloopy"… they gave me a solo you know, it was fun. -Max Heyob, Guitarist, Pushing Daisy's Band"

“But, being in a band with [guys like Willsey] have taught me not to fucking care about the 90%,” he said.  

When the two lived together, they would return to what they did as kids – jam and play video games.  

Despite music being a job, and a stressful one to carry out during a pandemic as two of his members have battled COVID-19, Heyob, his friends and his family use it to connect and unwind. 

Car rides with his family are one safe space in particular.  

“[You] pass the aux around, show everybody what you’re listening to recently,” he said. “We all want to hear what the other person is listening to.”  

Heyob, who now lives with his girlfriend, dreams of touring. He’s working on making it a reality but doesn’t forget where he came from.  

His parents taught him how to be a professional and to perform.  

“That was as much, you know, [as] reading any sort of book could have done,” he said about his family. “Watching [them] for all those years.”