Colleen Shaffer
Mar 9, 20222 min
Updated: Jun 6, 2023
From their Midwest roots to their music festival "Oliver Hazard Day," the Ohio-native band opens up about life on tour, new music, and their creative process.
Our style is constantly evolving but when it comes down to it, the backbone of our sound is in the vocals. Our three voices were the glue from the start. The band was very minimalistic in the beginning— a broken guitar, an old suitcase kick drum, a kazoo and a tambourine— so naturally our sound has expanded over the years as we introduce more instruments. In the end, we just want to continue to grow as musicians.
Oliver Hazard Day was an event that was originally suggested by the mayor of our small town of Waterville, Ohio. We wanted to find a way to involve the city as a part of our project, so we decided to host a city wide festival to celebrate our roots and to bring great musicians to a place that they otherwise wouldn’t take the time to stop by. We hope to continue bringing our fellow musician friends to Waterville. We expect the festival to grow as we grow.
We love the intimacy of the living room tour, and even though these venues have had a much larger audience these past few weeks, we still find ways to make it feel intimate. We enjoy asking the crowd to participate and feel a part of the music, no matter the size of the venue. That is definitely one big takeaway from playing so many living room shows.
There was never one BIG moment for us. Our journey seems to be a series of serendipitous steps towards a common goal. When the three of us start singing together, there is no doubt in our minds that we are onto something. And the audience reaction at these shows affirms that. Each baby step we take (whether it be a new tour, a community event in Waterville, a new song or video) feels like another puzzle piece coming together in our journey.
Our hometown of Waterville is definitely the glue of this whole project. It serves not only as our identity but also as the foundation for our music. We have a wonderful community and their support is relentless. The fact that the city allows us to host our festival, and the whole town shows up, is a testament to that. We couldn’t be more grateful.