Ohio Natives Andy Hoffman, Alex Hoffman, Matt Gregory, Cory Heddleston, and Trevor Burke make up the Indie Rock band LEDGES. They're giving us authentic, hard-hitting rock elements, with an overall tranquility masking over them. There's a certain type of feeling some rock bands can give you as a listener, and LEDGES knows how to execute their music well to make you feel a range of emotions. The band appreciates real life hardships, and integrates that emotion into their musical production.
LEDGES recent release "Convenience" is atmospheric. You're listening to the song, and you feel completely entranced, floating on a cloud. LEDGES has a soft approach to the vocal execution and overall production, and it warrants a soft spot in our heart for them. Their sound is modern, with a slight old-school approach with their synth production. "Convenience" is genuine in its approach, and transitions from soft elements, to daunting heavy-hitting elements. LEDGES authenticity as a band shines through in their music, and especially so in the overall quality of "Convenience".
Give a listen to "Convenience" and continue reading for our interview with LEDGES.
Check out LEDGES upcoming tour dates to see them at a see near you! Get your tickets here: www.ledgesmusic.com/live
8/22 - Nashville, TN @ East Room
8/23 - Louisville, KY @ Odeon
8/24 - Chicago, IL @ Subterranean Basement
8/25 - Cleveland, OH @ Mahall's
Hey LEDGES! We're excited to be showcasing your music on our platform! Can you tell us more about your musical journey thus far?
LEDGES came together in 2014. It was just a bunch of us that used to play music in high school together. We started writing some songs and released a self produced EP in May of 2014. Over the years we played some shows and kept writing some new material, but took a long hiatus due to people going off to school and other stuff. In 2016 we started getting together with the core guys that started the band and writing again. Due to a crazy hookup through our friend/bandmate at the time Will Hess, we had the opportunity to go down to a studio in Nashville and record some songs. It started as an EP, but as we kept writing it turned into a full length album. I think we ended up going down to Nashville 7 or 8 times in the course of a year. The product of all that work was our debut full length album "Homecoming." We are super proud of that record and learned a ton about ourselves as musicians through the long, complicated, and sometimes frustrating process of writing an album. After a pretty long break from live shows, we kicked off our new season of touring with a big hometown release party for Homecoming. We've had some crazy opportunities since then including appearances at Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, Brite Winter Festival in Cleveland, Starry Night Music Festival in Indiana, and an opening slot on a tour with Kings Kaleidoscope playing for like 400-600 people a night just to name a few. We're super humbled and thankful for all these opportunities we've had so far. As far as music, since Homecoming's release we've been refining our sound and testing the waters by slowly releasing singles over the past year. Convenience is the last of those singles.
What do you think ultimately sets the band in the indie rock music category? What integral elements do you believe make up the band altogether?
I think we land in the "Indie Rock" category mainly because our music is mostly guitar driven and pretty hard hitting at times. What we've tried to do though is blend that in your face Indie Rock/Alternative sound with some more ambient synth and production elements. I think it gives us this cool dynamic where our sound is smooth and ethereal one second and in your face the next. We hope it's an enjoyable experience for the listener and keeps people on their toes.
"Convenience" was heavy-hitting yet soft, yielding for a stellar track. How did the musical creation go about for the band with this single?
Thanks for saying that! Almost all of our songs are written by multiple members of the band. I (Andy) came up with the initial progression/verse lyrics. I bounced it over to Cory our guitarist who added some of the ethereal synth and guitar leads you hear in the track. He also finished off the lyrics of the verse which is why you hear both of our voices on the song. It makes for a cool back and forth. Anyways, I got together with our drummer Alex and we laid down a demo and finalized the structure of the song. Once we were ready, we went down to Revelator Sound in Columbus and recorded with our good friend Jeremy. We went in really prepared an knocked out the song in like a day and really refined the sound of the song. At that point we sent the track to our buddy Nate Furtado to mix it and he knocked it out of the park! We got it mastered at Foxboro studio which also helped bring the track to life.
That was a long answer but the basic point is this...I think the track turned out as well as it did b/c of how collaborative the band is in our writing process! Also using people you know and trust to record, produce, mix, and master is SO IMPORTANT. Those processes are really creative and guys like Jeremy, Nate, and Mike (from Foxboro) are almost like additional members of the band when we record. Our songs wouldn't be what they are without them.
How do all of you combat creative blocks?
Well personally I just stop writing when I run into creative blocks hah...but the great thing about the band which I've mentioned is that literally all of us write. So even if one of us in a slump, the other guys step in and write something awesome.
What can we expect to see from LEDGES throughout 2019?
Well we're heading on a quick four day tour next week with our good friend Corey Kilgannon! After that we're going to hopefully try to record and put out an acoustic b-sides type EP sometime this winter. We've always loved that kind of stuff and it would be cool to put out something like that and some of those songs are already in the works. We'll also be working on taking these singles from this year and turning it into an EP or who knows maybe another full length!
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