On July 25th, at Rohs Street Café, 5 bands are set to take the stage for what promises to be a supremely fun night of some of the best post-rock, emo, rock, and pop-punk to hit the town in quite some time.
Though New Jersey’s Prawn will be headlining, Cincinnati’s own Growing Up A Ghost will be ready to get things going with their high energy, late-90’s revival influenced pop-punk, which easily draws comparison to the prolific stylings of Into It. Over It. and Stay Ahead of the Weather. Not to mention this will be their first show in 4 years, as they explain below. Thanks to Nick for taking the time to answer my questions!
Where are you from and when did you start?
The band came together in January 2010 in Cincinnati.
Can you give us a little background on the band?
Nicholas and Nick had played together before and Nicholas worked with an extremely talented bass player, Duece who was down to play some music. We got together once or twice a month and cranked out a few songs pretty quickly. In the fall of 2010 we were offered a show that we wanted to be a part of, so at that point we really kind of scrambled to get enough songs together for a set so we could play. We ended up playing 2 shows in 2010 and then things just fizzled out. Nick and Nicholas would get together from time to time over the next few years and write a little here and there. Eventually those songs were developed enough that we wanted to go record them, just so we could have some good quality recordings that we were proud of. In the weeks leading up to the studio time we had booked, we reached out to Duece to see if he would be interested in learning these songs and recording them. After a few practices, everything just seemed to click again. After what was just supposed to be a recording session, we decided that we would keep up with it and continue to write more songs, and if the right opportunity came along, maybe we would play some shows. It’s never been our intention to be that band that plays out all the time, we’ll play when it’s something we really want to be a part of.
What’s been the best tour or show experience you’ve had so far?
Our first show was at the old Southgate House, opening for Hawthorne Heights. It was a different experience, being a brand new band, playing our first show and actually having a good sized crowd there. It was great, we were received well and it was a good time.
Is anyone in the band currently involved in any other projects? Were any of you involved in any before this?
Nicholas currently plays bass in Even Tiles (http://justinww.bandcamp.com) and Tall Tales (http://talltalesohio.bandcamp.com). Nick plays drums with Kevin and the Octaves for their annual Christmas shows and also plays in Tall Tales. Previously Nicholas played in The Kicking 20’s, Sayonara Tiger and Come On Caboose. Nick previously played drums in Mint 6 Ten/ArcArsenal, Sayonara Tiger, A Voice Like Rhetoric, and has filled in from time to time with The Rusty Griswolds. This is the first band Duece has been a part of.
Do you have any records or EP’s out?
In February we released “Do Something” (http://growingupaghost.bandcamp.com), a 3 song EP. Two of the songs are new and the other is a song we originally wrote in 2010.
Can you talk a bit about recording and releasing them?
Recording was great, we recorded with Eric Tuffendsam at Moonlight Studios (http://www.moonlightstudios.org). He was always the guy we wanted to record with and it was really just a matter of waiting to have enough songs to record. We recorded the songs over a couple Saturdays in January and that was it. Recording with Eric is great, you go into the studio, set up and right away the sounds you get are excellent. We were really able to capture the sound we were looking for fairly quickly. I (Nick) was actually out of town for the second day of recording which was the day bass and vocals we’re recorded, and at the end of the day I got some rough mixes of the songs and at that point I knew we had something we were going to be very proud of. We self released the EP on bandcamp and have really gotten a lot of positive feedback. Now you can find the album on iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify, etc.
After this show or tour, what are your plans for the rest of the summer?
No upcoming releases, we’re going to continue writing with the intention of putting out a full length record sometime. Given the band’s history, it might be a few years before that happens, but hopefully it’ll be much sooner this time around.
Anything else you’d like to add or mention?
I think we’re all really excited to be playing together again, and we’re really looking forward to playing out. This upcoming show on July 25th should be a lot of fun, I feel like we really fit onto the bill, and it’s the perfect scenario of us saying “Yes, this is really the kind of thing we want to be a part of.”
