Hailing from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Pulphonics seeks to reshape the soundscape for rock music and subgenres alike. Starting in Dustin Heiler’s garage as a jam band in 2015, the group put its first recordings out to the world expecting nothing to happen. When the band received a positive reception to their sounds, they knew they had something.

Unable to find an accurate label or name for the group, Pulphonics was born to describe what battle-of-the-bands judges seemed to fail to understand—that the band is a mix of sounds, influences, and genres and won’t simply settle on one. The name translates to pulp (a shapeless mass of material) and phonics (the science of giving meaning to sounds).

Following some promising leads and positive reception, the band took a more serious stab at its craft and evolved from just being a Saturday jam band. Dustin and Stu took to crafting new songs, lyrics, and melodies with Sean helping both hone in the songwriting or finding solutions to combine multiple musical palates.

In the process, the band focused on and aligned around their core values of writing and performing music they would all enjoy, experimenting and striving to create new sounds, and holding nothing back to engage audiences both in recording and live performances. In 2019, the band put out its self-recorded album Featherless—holding true to what Sean, Dustin, and Stu valued in the process.

The first project served as an opportunity for the band to immerse itself in the music industry, learning along the way how to best reach audiences and turn music into a self-sustaining operation. The band took to the road playing numerous shows across West and Mid-Michigan getting its name out to the world and shaking stages. After receiving highly positive feedback from big names in the industry, the band learned that it needed to make a more serious investment into its recording.

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Pulphonics took to Cold War Studios, enlisting the support of Rick Johnson (Mustard Plug) to start setting the next stage.