This year’s Punk ‘N’ Pie featured 10 talented acts, from dance groups and musicians to spoken word and magicians. Amid all these spectacular acts, one captured the audience’s attention and won votes — Heat Speaks — a group of five men from the floor Heat in Hart Hall.

A mixed media art collective

Heat Speaks performed a “mixed media art collective” using Taylor Swift songs, interpretive dance, music and art, the combination resulting in a humorous performance that entertained the audience.

Members include senior psychology major Michael Grieb, junior English major Brendan Ashley, senior film major Nolan Anderson, junior music performance major Cary Santana and senior art major Jacob Lucca.

Jehn Kubiak: Why did you guys decide to audition for Punk ‘N’ Pie?

Nolan Anderson: There wasn’t enough truthful art in it and that’s what we have to contribute.

Cary Santa Ana: We needed to instill an organic view of what art is and was and will be.

JK: How did you guys come up with the name for your group?

Michael Grieb: We started out a year ago for a Hart talent show, and it just sort of happened.

CS: Our floor in our dorm is called Heat. If you’re familiar with our floor, we’ve had a couple music videos which we go by ‘Heat Stroke’ and then there was a radio show we had called Heat Wave, and so this one we’re like, ‘let’s call it Heat Speaks.’”

Jacob Lucca: We were doing spoken word originally, so we wanted to bring this speaking part into the mix.

JK: Are you guys Taylor Swift fans?

Brendan Ashley: Absolutely not. It’s some form of art, contemporary, but it’s not the kind of art that’s truthfully popular.

JK: What category would you say your act is?

MG: Mixed media art. When art speaks, we are her voice — we are her mouthpiece.

JK: How did you guys feel about winning Punk ‘N’ Pie?

JL: It’s a little bit surreal, but so is our act. We heard some people say that we broke Punk ‘N’ Pie.

CS: We come on stage knowing we are complete and utter nonsense — it’s surreal and it’s just kind of amazing that we got away with it.

JK: Why did you guys pick pseudonyms?

MG: We choose pseudonyms to prevent our identities from obfuscating the meaning of our art.

JL: You tie a name to a piece of art and it gives it a certain flavor, so if we use pseudonyms and then get rid of that problem, we get rid of that bias and can evaluate the artwork objectively without bias — that’s kind of the reason.

JK: Have you guys done anything like this before?

MG: We tried out for Punk ‘N’ Pie last year, but didn’t make it in.

JK: What is your favorite thing about Punk ‘N’ Pie?

NA: It tastes really good.

MG: They have pumpkin pie at Punk ‘N’ Pie — that’s a good thing.