Secondhand Sound and the garage rock splashed divergence of "Dominoes"

 

"it took me five years to kiss you..."

Music and the sort of magnetic attraction to any particular song is comprised of formulaic elements you can quantify and other undefinable or esoteric things that you cannot. When I first listened to "Dominoes", by Nashville based Secondhand Sound, the sort of formulaic things like the mid-tempo drum drive, the sort of Weezer-esque big guitars and Pixies inspired guitar bends and Sawyer John Estok's guy next door Americana soaring wail felt like comfortable embraces (in a good way). The less definable and surprising parts like truly evocative lyrics stitched together with the painful longing that only youth has to offer, flights of fanciful art pop / power pop ascensions that transcend garage rock and bristle with the whimsy of bands like The Posies or Sparks or New Pornographers (or an amalgam of all three) and an unusual adrenalin fueled musical break (that smashed a big smile on my face), is what give this song and band a wonderfully divergent edge.

In the end, "Dominoes" as produced by Alec Stanley (Wanderwild, Lo Talker) and mixed by Matt Martin (COIN, Faye Webster) has more unique differences that homages. Digging this so, so much.

-Robb Donker Curtius

Secondhand Sound · Dominoes

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:


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The four members of Secondhand Sound all came together through music, forming the band when they met in college in 2018. They’ve all since dropped out, taking jobs at coffee shops, restaurants, and a car dealership to make rent and save money for touring and recording. If it sounds like a leap of faith, the long history between band members gives them ample reason to believe in each other.

Lead singer and guitarist Sawyer John Estok met drummer Collin Plank in high school in Maryland. “Plank and I ended up hanging out a bunch and hatched a grand scheme to start a band,” remembers Estok. “Long story short, nobody in town wanted to join. So we started Secondhand Sound as a two piece. We honestly just pretended we were the Black Keys for a few years.” At that same time in southern California, lead guitarist and keyboardist Cameron Schmidt and bassist Teagan Proctor had practically known each other since birth on account of how close their families were to each other. Proctor, who would take a gap year between high school and college, ended up settling on Nashville as a destination, which led Schmidt to do the same. “Had I gone to college the year I was supposed to, I wouldn’t have been able to room with Cam across the hall from Sawyer,” muses Proctor. “Fate - am I right?”

Within the first month of freshman year they began to play together and the connection was instant. They recorded and self-released a couple of EPs and started making a mark on the Nashville music scene with their incredible live shows. “There is nothing more fulfilling than playing a good show with my bandmates,” shares Schmidt “where we’re all sweating and screaming and jumping and dancing. I feel very lucky to be in this band.” That absolute devotion to their performances led to a top finish at a Lightning 100 sponsored Battle of the Bands, and won over audiences across Music City as they also started to branch out with shows around the midwest and on both coasts. The band could feel they were at a turning point and made the decision to drop out of school and pursue Secondhand Sound full-time, and the four of them are all-in on the decision. “We have no Plan B,” relates Plank, “and are determined to make this dream a reality.”

Leaving school and life as students has had the side effect of throwing the band into the “real world”, which paired with the ability to focus on their songcraft full time has given them the space to explore themselves as individuals as well as the kind of music they want to make.  “I work a service industry job,” says Proctor, “so I get into a lot of conversations about the band with the tables I wait, and the most frequent question is always ‘so who do you sound like?’ I will be the first to say that a lot of our previous singles/EP’s were directly inspired by and mimicked other artists we listened to. But if you ask me about the music we’re writing now, I’d tell you it sounds like Secondhand Sound”

Estok for his part, feels as if they are more confident in the shoes they are looking to fill. “I’ve gotten more confident in just being myself,” he explains. “I’ve learned and still am learning how to step into the frontman/storytelling role as me, and not a bad imitation of various people I look up to. I’ve also generally just learned to better realize and understand where songs come from and how to find them. Finding the character, setting the scene and then building a playground for the listener to attach their own feelings and experiences to. If I can tell you how a room smells without telling you that the room I’m talking about even has a smell then I’ve done my job. That kind of song takes work, hours and willpower.”

Secondhand Sound are ready to take on the world with their new songs, and like all other artists, looking forward to getting back in front of an audience. They’ll play their first show in a year this June, and they couldn’t be more thrilled. For them, the future feels limitless, and anybody who listens to their new songs will understand why.

Secondhand Sound, alternative rock, indie rock, Nashville based, "Dominoes", art pop flights of fancy, power pop, garage rock transcendence, adrenalin fueled, great vox