Heidi Gluck, (23) Musician

30 Under 30
Indianapolis innovators in the arts

Sept 3, 2003—This Manitoba native has risen quickly to the top of Indiana’s original music scene since moving here just a couple years ago. Gluck grew up taking piano lessons and singing with her mother’s country bands, then took up the bass around age 18. She left the University of North Dakota after her junior year, deciding to play music instead of studying it.

A chance encounter on the road with Indianapolis singer-songwriter Vess Ruhtenberg brought her to the Hoosier state, where she now provides bass, vocals and keyboards in Ruhtenberg’s band, the Pieces, recently voted the city’s top act by NUVO critics. She also has played with the Bloomington-based all-female collective Lola.

This month, however, Gluck is focusing on Some Girls, a new project featuring two veterans of the pioneering ’80s band the Blake Babies, guitarist/vocalist Juliana Hatfield and drummer Freda Love of Bloomington. The trio’s debut album, Feel It, will be released Sept. 9 on Koch Records. Aside from bass, Gluck also contributes harmonica and lap steel guitar to the collection of sparse R&B-flavored rock.

A six-week coast-to-coast tour will run through October, with a stop Sept. 26 at the Patio. Gluck looks forward to soaking up experience from her senior bandmates, with whom she toured briefly last year behind a Hatfield solo album. They don’t know each other all that well, she admits, but she doesn’t expect any cat fights.

“We’re all really quiet,” she says.

Looking back on the past three years, Gluck is amazed at the turns her life has taken. “I’ve just been realizing that,” she says. “Suddenly, I can actually say I’m making a living playing music.”  

—Scott Hall
Reprinted from NUVO