Based in Orlando, Florida, The High Ground is a four-piece band with elements of alt-punk and hardcore. They released their self titled album later this year, and is the perfect album to get to know this band’s genre and style.
What made me an instant fan of this band is after hearing their song off of their self-titled EP, “ When It Rains, It Pours”. The song is the perfect introduction to the band in my opinion: the fast-paced, melodic vocals and guitar parts, the grungy breakdown and harsh screams, they all masterfully encompass the blend of genres and elements that make up The High Ground.
The band had only formed in 2017, however I feel that this band has been really successful in honing in on their style and I cannot wait to see what they achieve in the next year. Read on to see my interview with them!
Photo by: Aaron Berkshire
Band: The High Ground
Members:
Andrew Parker – Vocals
Jack Brown – Guitar
Matthew Brown – Bass
Dillon Smith – Drums
Band Social Media:
Where can we find your music:
All major music services (Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, etc.) as well as YouTube and free streaming on our website.
Established: Summer, 2017
Describe yourself in a few sentences or less.
First of all, thanks for the feature!
We simply describe ourselves as a post-hardcore band from Orlando, Florida, but we’ve got a lot of other influences including pop punk, metal, and many others.
What is your process for music writing?
It normally starts with Andrew, Matt, and an acoustic guitar. They then bring the skeleton of the song to the band and we all add on from there. Quite often, songs will change and evolve even more once we start performing them live and discover what works and what doesn’t. Some of the best ideas are born from playing live in front of a crowd, while some ideas that might seem great in rehearsal don’t have the impact we expected.
How do you feel your music has changed since you first began making music?
We like to joke that we were “just kids playing rock and roll” when we recorded our first EP. We still love those original songs, but we’ve definitely matured and progressed since those days. Our musicianship has naturally improved with time (and practice!) and our songs have become heavier and more complex as we continue to find our own unique sound. We’ve also each gone through personal highs and lows over the last couple of years so we feel our songs have more to say.
Tell me about the most recent release, your self-titled EP. What was the inspiration behind it and how do you feel it differs from your previous releases?
With our self-titled EP, we spent a lot longer on the songwriting and recording processes than with Concrete (our debut EP). The songs are more mature and much more personal than before. Inspiration came from a mix of both tragic and fortunate events that happened in our lives, and also just from growing up and getting older. We decided to self-title the EP because we weren’t fully formed as a band when Concrete was released. Dillon (our drummer) hadn’t yet joined the band and we were very raw in both our songwriting and performing abilities. We feel this EP marks a true starting point as a fully formed band.
Photo By: Tim Smith
What has been your most memorable moment performing your music?
Without a doubt we’d have to say playing in our hometown on the final run of Vans Warped Tour. For guys like us, who grew up listening to all these iconic bands and going to Warped as fans ourselves, that was an absolute dream come true.
Favorite thing(s) to snack on before recording? Before a show?
We usually fill up on Publix subs, Clif Bars, and Vitamin Waters before, during, and after any band activity. Xtreme Goldfish and Sugar-Free Monster Energy drinks are also essentials!
What are you most excited to do music wise this and next year?
After going hard with local gigs the last year or so, our focus in the near term is to play live a little less frequently and really focus on getting our music heard by more people. It can be challenging to break through and expand an audience beyond your hardcore fan base. We’re in the process of planning our next music video, which will be a good thing to help promote the EP, and we also hope to gig outside of Orlando (and Florida) a bit more to expand our reach. Beyond that, we’ve got a lot of ideas for blowing out our next release with new songs, acoustic versions, and more, but we’re really trying hard to expand our audience before releasing anything new.
Photo By: Gabriel Lugo
Where can we see you next?
As we mentioned, we’re cutting back our live shows a bit this year but we still plan to perform quite a bit. Next up, we’ll be playing in a Warped Tour tribute show in Orlando with some other local bands in early 2019. We’ll be performing a set of Silverstein covers for that one, which we’re stoked about since they’re one of our biggest influences. We’ve also got a few big shows early in the planning stages which we’ll be excited to announce when the time is right.