Trick & The Heartstrings were formed in Brooklyn, NY in 2003 by blues prodigy and performance artist Alexander Gedeon. After self-releasing a CD of his ever-developing unique brand of guitar based funk music, influenced by realms as disparate as Stravinsky and The Germs, he recruited the talents of two close friends and classmates from The Experimental Theater Wing of NYU which he attended. Peter Hale, originally from Odessa, Texas was a visually stunning performer at 6’8’’ and avid drummer, involved in a couple local bands. After hearing Alex’s mix-tape, he insisted on being Alex’s drummer. Alex and Peter began playing together, and with Peter’s encouragement, Alex began considering playing his music live, a feat until then hardly accomplished in any satisfying or consistent way. Leif Young Huckman, a song-writer, guitarist and fellow performer (originally from Red Bluff, CA) had been Alex’s roommate at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London where they spent long hours playing and recording music together in their flat. Alex asked Leif to come into a rehearsal with he and Peter and handed him a bass guitar. Within an hour of playing together, Trick & The Heartstrings had been formed.

The band adopted a monastic and rigorous rehearsal schedule, informed by their mutual experiences of rehearsing for theatrical performances. Eventually Alex saw an opportunity to indulge in ideas of performance that seemed risky, but with the mutual talents of the group, impossible to pass up. By the time Trick & The Heartstrings had their third show, they shocked the audience of on-lookers by launching into a straight-faced dance routine, involving sharp and minimal synchronized movements, syncopated to the dry, rapid and rugged funk and soul music that would be their trade-mark.

Within two years of playing the downtown New York scene, the band had developed a live spectacle that drew large crowds and heart-sick fans. In 2005 during the CMJ festival one of those audience members was Paul Epworth, who had just finished producing a couple tracks for Bloc Party’s debut album “Silent Alarm.” He would eventually sign the band to a demo deal with his off-shoot label from 679 records, called Good & Evil. It would be the only record Trick & The Heartstrings ever released.

After almost 4 years of playing together, with major label interest in the last year, the band had not been able to sign a substantial deal. They broke up in January of 2007. Due to the secrecy regarding their demise, it is difficult to speculate as to what the actual motive was. Alex moved back to his home town of Los Angeles, and continues to write music and perform under the title Yellow Alex. Peter and Leif briefly stood in as the rhythm section of indie-rock band The Boggs, fronted by Jason Friedman, for their 2007 Summer tour. Peter Hale went on to form Here We Go Magic with singer/song-writer Luke Temple in 2008. Leif Young Huckman returned to the theater with an off-Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “The Incident at Vichy,” and continues to write music with former Trick & The Heartstrings manager Hamish Anderson.