Biography
Though Tim Heidecker first gained notice through his work as a comedian, writer, and actor, he has also built a substantial career as a musician and songwriter whose material stands independently of humor. Active in bands since the 1990s, he reached a wider listenership once several of his compositions featured on Awesome Show, Great Job, the television series he developed alongside creative partner Eric Wareheim, with additional tracks appearing across two soundtrack albums drawn from the program. His affinity for 1970s soft rock surfaced on a pair of releases recorded with Awesome Show composer Davin Wood, Starting from Nowhere in 2011 and Some Things Never Stay the Same in 2013. Political satire shaped 2017’s Too Dumb for Suicide: Tim Heidecker’s Trump Songs, while his interest in classic pop deepened across 2019’s What the Brokenhearted Do, a breakup album centered on a fictional split, and 2022’s High School, a set of ten tracks that alternate between wry humor and wistful melancholy as they recount his teenage years in Pennsylvania. Country and roots influences guided 2024’s Slipping Away.
Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1976, Heidecker developed early enthusiasms for both music and comedy. He performed with several indie rock groups and issued the prog rock parody Theatre of Magic in 2002 under the name Tim Heidecker Masterpiece before teaming with fellow comic Eric Wareheim on writing and production. The duo, known to audiences as Tim & Eric, launched their initial television effort, the Adult Swim animated series Tom Goes to the Mayor, in November 2004; its success led to the live-action follow-up Awesome Show, Great Job!, which premiered on Adult Swim in February 2007. Heidecker contributed songs to the series in collaboration with Wareheim and composer Davin Wood, selections that later appeared on the soundtrack collections Awesome Record, Great Songs! in 2008 and Uncle Muscles Presents: Casey and His Brother.
Heidecker and Davin subsequently recorded outside the show under the name Heidecker & Wood, channeling their affection for soft rock into Starting from Nowhere in 2011 and Some Things Never Stay the Same in 2013. In 2013 the country-rock outfit the Yellow River Boys, featuring Heidecker, released Urinal St. Station. As a solo artist he issued the 2012 EP Cainthology: Songs in the Key of Cain, prompted by presidential candidate Herman Cain, along with several Bob Dylan parodies that included “Titanic,” a send-up of a track from Dylan’s 2012 album Tempest, and “Running Out the Clock,” modeled on the 1983 release Infidels.
His first proper solo album, the straightforward In Glendale, arrived in 2016. The following year Too Dumb for Suicide: Tim Heidecker’s Trump Songs assembled his Donald Trump-related material into a benefit collection supporting suicide prevention groups. As Heidecker’s left-leaning political stance drew attention, online posts from conservatives falsely asserted that his wife had left him over ideological differences; the happily married artist answered by crafting the 2019 album What the Brokenhearted Do, another homage to 1970s soft rock that traces one man’s struggle after an imagined breakup.
That June he joined Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering for a live cover of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” at a charity event; the studio version appeared on his 2020 album Fear of Death, which also included the original Mering-Heidecker track “Oh How We Drift Away.” His debut standup special, An Evening with Tim Heidecker, became available that same year in both video and audio formats. For 2022’s High School, Heidecker drew on recollections of adolescence, recording most tracks at Mac DeMarco’s home studio and a few with frequent collaborator Jonathan Rado; the resulting witty yet bittersweet collection featured guest vocals from Kurt Vile on “Sirens of Titan.” Heidecker and his Very Good Band toured in support, yielding the four-song EP Live in Boulder captured at a 2022 Colorado show. Also in 2022 he contributed “laughs” to Kevin Morby’s album This Is a Photograph.
Heidecker next aligned with the roots label Bloodshot Records, resulting in 2024’s Slipping Away, which incorporated country and contemporary folk textures while addressing adult themes such as writer’s block, parenthood, aging, and uncertainty about the future. The Very Good Band—guitarist and pedal steel player Connor “Catfish” Gallaher, keyboardist Vic Berger, bassist and backing vocalist Eliana Athayde, and drummer Josh Adams—provided accompaniment. Following the album’s release, Heidecker and the Very Good Band toured with Waxahatchee and Snail Mail. Bloodshot additionally reissued Fear of Death, High School, and Live in Boulder on vinyl. Heidecker joined more than one hundred artists on the digital benefit compilation Cardinals at the Window, created to support flood relief in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1976, Heidecker developed early enthusiasms for both music and comedy. He performed with several indie rock groups and issued the prog rock parody Theatre of Magic in 2002 under the name Tim Heidecker Masterpiece before teaming with fellow comic Eric Wareheim on writing and production. The duo, known to audiences as Tim & Eric, launched their initial television effort, the Adult Swim animated series Tom Goes to the Mayor, in November 2004; its success led to the live-action follow-up Awesome Show, Great Job!, which premiered on Adult Swim in February 2007. Heidecker contributed songs to the series in collaboration with Wareheim and composer Davin Wood, selections that later appeared on the soundtrack collections Awesome Record, Great Songs! in 2008 and Uncle Muscles Presents: Casey and His Brother.
Heidecker and Davin subsequently recorded outside the show under the name Heidecker & Wood, channeling their affection for soft rock into Starting from Nowhere in 2011 and Some Things Never Stay the Same in 2013. In 2013 the country-rock outfit the Yellow River Boys, featuring Heidecker, released Urinal St. Station. As a solo artist he issued the 2012 EP Cainthology: Songs in the Key of Cain, prompted by presidential candidate Herman Cain, along with several Bob Dylan parodies that included “Titanic,” a send-up of a track from Dylan’s 2012 album Tempest, and “Running Out the Clock,” modeled on the 1983 release Infidels.
His first proper solo album, the straightforward In Glendale, arrived in 2016. The following year Too Dumb for Suicide: Tim Heidecker’s Trump Songs assembled his Donald Trump-related material into a benefit collection supporting suicide prevention groups. As Heidecker’s left-leaning political stance drew attention, online posts from conservatives falsely asserted that his wife had left him over ideological differences; the happily married artist answered by crafting the 2019 album What the Brokenhearted Do, another homage to 1970s soft rock that traces one man’s struggle after an imagined breakup.
That June he joined Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering for a live cover of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” at a charity event; the studio version appeared on his 2020 album Fear of Death, which also included the original Mering-Heidecker track “Oh How We Drift Away.” His debut standup special, An Evening with Tim Heidecker, became available that same year in both video and audio formats. For 2022’s High School, Heidecker drew on recollections of adolescence, recording most tracks at Mac DeMarco’s home studio and a few with frequent collaborator Jonathan Rado; the resulting witty yet bittersweet collection featured guest vocals from Kurt Vile on “Sirens of Titan.” Heidecker and his Very Good Band toured in support, yielding the four-song EP Live in Boulder captured at a 2022 Colorado show. Also in 2022 he contributed “laughs” to Kevin Morby’s album This Is a Photograph.
Heidecker next aligned with the roots label Bloodshot Records, resulting in 2024’s Slipping Away, which incorporated country and contemporary folk textures while addressing adult themes such as writer’s block, parenthood, aging, and uncertainty about the future. The Very Good Band—guitarist and pedal steel player Connor “Catfish” Gallaher, keyboardist Vic Berger, bassist and backing vocalist Eliana Athayde, and drummer Josh Adams—provided accompaniment. Following the album’s release, Heidecker and the Very Good Band toured with Waxahatchee and Snail Mail. Bloodshot additionally reissued Fear of Death, High School, and Live in Boulder on vinyl. Heidecker joined more than one hundred artists on the digital benefit compilation Cardinals at the Window, created to support flood relief in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
Albums
I'm Hungry (feat. Vic Berger IV & The Lemon Twigs)
2024
The Very Best of Office Hours, Vol. 1
2021
An Evening with Tim Heidecker
2021
Drop Concert
2020
Fear Of Death
2020
What The Brokenhearted Do...
2019
Another Year in Hell: Collected Songs from 2018
2019
Too Dumb for Suicide: Tim Heidecker’s Trump Songs
2018
In Glendale
2016
Cainthology (Songs In The Key Of Cain)
2011
Singles
