Often Home is an Indie/Pop/Rock band falling somewhere between Coldplay and Young the Giant. Born in Grand Rapids, MI, the band is comprised of four members. Aaron, Ethan, Carson, and Cody’s music focus on the tough internal feelings we all struggle with. They make it easier to take a look inside and make it a positive learning experience. From dealing with depression and anxiety to celebrating the small joys of life, Often Home deliver songs to sing regardless of circumstance.
“My Heart” was released earlier this year and I’ve been playing it on repeat. The fresh and ground-breaking sound arrangements have me blown away. These four friends and bandmates have a special inspiration and idea when it comes to creating music. The whole band’s chemistry is evident through the speakers. The timing and tempo of everything is flawless and finely-calibrated. The vocals are rich and transcendent, I love the detailed lyricism and effortless delivery. My personal favorite lyric that resonates through me is “My life is truly good, I know it. It’s got what it needs, I’ll show ya”. This lyric continues to highlight the overall positive outlook and meaningful message of the song. Often Home have found a way to combine the comfort of your living room with the discomfort of looking inside yourself to seek a better you. Focusing on the positivity and small things that make us happy are crucial for our survival and finding our worth. “My Heart” is available on all major streaming platforms and we highly recommend you check it out as soon as possible. Stay on the lookout for this explosive band, Often Home.
Listen to "My Heart" here and get to know more about Often Home below!
Can you start by introducing yourselves and describing how you met
Four of us make up the band. Ethan Partridge on drums, Carson Straube on bass, Cody Hennings on lead guitar, and myself (Aaron Wienss) on guitar and vocals. The band first started out as Ethan and I writing songs together in the basement of our college house. We knew each other because we both studied music in college and out of that, we found that we write really well together and have a lot of fun doing it. We played a couple small acoustic shows just the two of us and we quickly realized that we wanted to give these songs more with other instruments so we invited Carson, who was also a good friend from our college music program, to join us in writing and playing bass. We played some more shows as the three of us and still felt like we needed more and at the time Cody was just finishing playing in another band so we asked him if he'd be want to join us as our lead player. Thankfully, he said yes!
How long have you been making music together?
As all four of us, we've been writing music for about a year now. Ethan and I wrote music for about a year beforehand with Carson joining somewhere in there.
How does the writing process work?
Our writing process really just depends on the song. It usually just starts with me or Ethan coming up with a general outline of a song with lyrics and chords. Then we'll bring it to the other guys and where it goes from there is different every time. Sometimes we'll either all hear a similar idea of where a song should go but most times we all have different concepts of where a song should go so we try to play with all the different ideas and see what sticks. More recently however, a lot of our songs have started out with a guitar part that Cody writes and he'll bring it to me because we're roommates and we'll add lyrics and structure from there. Then we'll bring it to Carson and Ethan to see what they think and build on it. We all have different abilities that we bring to the table in regards to the songwriting process so we try to utilize that instead of just sticking to the same routine every time.
Can you tell our readers more about the meaning behind "My Heart"?
Yeah so "My Heart" comes from that place we all find ourselves a lot when one thing goes wrong and from there it seems like everything else starts to go wrong. In trying to work through that negativity, we've found that being thankful for the small things in life like fresh coffee in the morning or a summertime campfire with with good friends (which here in Michigan is quite an amazing thing after such a long winter!) can really be the deterrent to feeling like the world is caving in. The song feels pretty happy but the lyrics don't quite follow that happy mood which was also on purpose because to us, "My Heart" has become the pick-me-up in those moments.
What inspired you to write about meaningful, uncomfortable subjects and make them comfortable?
I think write about these things because now more than ever, we live in a society where it's really easy to just be comfortable and stay there. It's easier to stay at home more than ever. It's easier to stay alone more than ever. Both these things are awesome at times but they can also very difficult to break away from because it requires becoming uncomfortable. We've found that it's in the moments where we step out of our comfort zones that we feel like we are truly able to grow and discover who we were meant to be. We just want to encourage other people to do the same.
Connect with Often Home on social media
www.instagram.com/oftenhomeofficial
www.twitter.com/oftenhome_music
www.facebook.com/oftenhomeofficial