When I open up Twitter in the morning, I am greeted by a familiar face, holding a Waffle House coffee mug. This is none other than Eric Egan, the frontman and guitarist for the band Heart Attack Man. In these daily tweets, he introduces himself as Eric from Heart Attack Man (just in case you forgot in the short 24 hours since you last saw the tweet) and informs you of what he will be doing that day. Over the last couple of months, this has become a crucial part of my day. I had to meet the man behind these tweets.

Last Wednesday, I did just that. Kristen, Five Cent Sound’s Creative Director and a fellow meme connoisseur, and I made our way to Harvard Square to meet the elusive Eric Egan and the rest of the Heart Attack Man crew. Before their show at The Sinclair, we sat down with the band over plates of bomb veggie food, to get the inside scoop on everything from their ability to craft memes to their feud with Hot Mulligan.

Now you may be asking yourself; who is Heart Attack Man? Coming to fruition in late 2012, the screamo/pop punk band based out of Cleveland, Ohio began when front man Eric Egan decided that he was going to embark on a solo project. Originally, Egan had no intent of touring. “I was just recording everything and it was a studio project,” says Egan, “ I didn’t plan on playing shows originally but then quickly changed my mind on that and put together a line up.”

This spring, Heart Attack Man released their sophomore LP Fake Blood. The title track is a melodic intro that easily gets stuck in your head (in the best way). The album then keeps up with its rock and alternative influences from bands like Nirvana and Sugar. “Moths in a Lampshade” is a softer and slower ballad that showcases the bands variety of talent. Then there’s “Cut my Losses”—the controversial hit. Despite the dark and direct lyrical content, it still offers pop punk fans the guitar and vocal melodies they crave.

Not only did the band begin to produce these albums, they produced a powerful and timely marketing scheme that was based around none other than memes. This outlandish tactic got viral recognition thanks to none other than one of Egan’s very own accessories; A beanie. A winter staple for some, a way to almost acquiring $90,000 for the sake of a meme for Eric Egan.

In early 2019, Egan decided to jokingly put his beloved orange beanie on the Ebay market writing;

“Hate to have to do this, but I’m strapped for cash so I am selling my orange beanie. Featured in countless photos and videos of mine all over the internet, this is not your average everyday ordinary beanie. The amount of ideas I’ve thought of while wearing this beanie is astronomical. I’ve played many shows in it. This beanie alone has left a remarkable impact on this earth. Should fit most any head size.”

Following this write up was 5 pictures of an orange beanie from every possible angle that an orange beanie can be photographed. Quickly, the beanie accumulated bid after bid. Within an hour of being posted, the highest bid was $40,000. “It was an inside joke that spiralled very quickly out of control,” explains Egan, “At the beginning it was just two of my friends bidding against each other but I failed to factor in that other people would jump in”. In the end, the highest bid reached $90,000 but nobody ended up coughing up the money for the purchase of the beanie. “The worst that happened was that I did end up getting contacted by EBay’s Viral auctions and fraud department.They were very nice and very helpful and I didn’t get in any actual trouble” said Egan.

The band also has a vast Twitter audience. With almost 10,000 followers and the ever sought after verified check mark on Twitter, Heart Attack Man is a force to be reckoned with in the world of memes. Rebranding his once-personal account into what is known today as @heartattackmane, Egan has created a cult following. Not only have they harvested a consistent following of fans, in tune with the plethora of inside jokes held in the fan base, their tweets have gone viral too many times to count. The band is even at a loss for words on how well the account has done and shared some of their initial concerns;

“It’s great because people who follow it and like it have fed into it now so now it’s just this self-sustaining cycle of insanity” said Ty Sickles, the band’s guitarist.

“Honestly when he first started doing it and posted all of that crazy stuff, I wouldn’t look it. It would make me feel anxious that people would get mad.” explains Adam Paduch, the bands drummer, “People love getting mad on the internet and you never know how people will receive it”.

“If people get mad, they get mad. Fuck em.” joked Egan.

Despite the absurdity of the tweets, Twitter is what the band believes is the factor that drives most people to their music. “If I got kicked off of Twitter, it would be bad news for us,” said Egan.

In case the beanie and Twitter presence weren’t enough to convince you of their sheer power, look no further than their public and hilarious online feud with Hot Mulligan, a fellow pop punk band from Michigan . After taking stabs at each other on Twitter, Heart Attack Man got verified, leaving Hot Mulligan sad and unverified. This clear upper hand began a running inside joke between bands, with the most prominent aspect of the joke being that they simply hate each other. “They like real life bully us so we have to do it on the internet” joked Paduch, “Hot Mulligan are all terrible people. They stayed at my house and they let me dog out. Then they were like you go get her we don’t care. Then they broke all of my fiestaware. That’s expensive stuff dude”.

Thank you for sitting down with us, Heart Attack Man, and please never stop tweeting.