The Richmond-based alt-rock band are moving forward from their debut EP into greener musical pastures.
What would it look like if a Richmond-based alt-rock band shared a name with one of the nation’s leading home decor and interior design magazines?
Enter House and Home. The band, formed in early 2017, is comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Pat Williams, guitarist and vocalist Joey Grammer, bassist Cole Bennett, and drummer Matt Stumpf.
Williams and Bennett met when their previous bands were on tour together in 2016, while they were both still in high school. Later, Stumpf actually replaced Williams as the drummer in another band. When that band fell by the wayside, the stars seemingly aligned, allowing the four twenty-somethings to come together and create their own music.
“The timeline of this band has just fit the perfect spot,” Bennett said. “We’ve all been playing music together and around each other for a really long time. We’ve all been grinding it out, and it’s slowly built up to where it is now.”
“Where it is now” is further along than you might expect an alt-rock band from Richmond to have gotten in only two years. The band recently completed a small two-week tour across Texas opening for Nominee, an Austin-based alt-rock band with a sound similar to their own. And back at home, House and Home have gathered a sizeable young following of dedicated, passionate fans — an opportunity any young, up-and-coming band would kill for.
“We realized after doing a little bit of touring that we’re really lucky to be from where we are,” Williams said, “because people are really supportive and really open to listening to new things. They’re eager to learn and listen to new bands, especially if [the band] is from the city they live in. It’s a very special thing you don’t realize is there until you go somewhere else and try to do the same thing.”
“We’re really lucky to be a part of the Richmond music scene,” Bennett added. “It’s become a hub.”
Although his head is kept looking down on his kit for most of the show, Stumpf said he cherishes the moments when he gets to really take in what an impact the band is making.
“When I do look up and see people paying attention and giving a shit — that’s the coolest part for me, because for us, this is just something we love to do,” Stumpf said. “The fact that we’re doing it in such a real and genuine way, and that we’re doing it for ourselves and that actually resonates with other people, is insane.”
Record sales and critical acclaim be damned. Grammer said the band hopes to continue on with their original passion for creating music that they themselves enjoy. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
“I’m not here to be a rock star and make a bunch of money or anything,” Grammer said. “I’m just hanging out, jamming with my friends.”
House and Home’s heavy, heartfelt songs, both lyrically and sonically, can be credited to all four members of the band.
“The writing process for us is very collaborative,” Williams said. “A lot of bands will have one person write everything, but we just get down in our basement together and write songs. It’s hard to do it any other way.”
The band only has six songs released currently. Four of those were a part of their Fully Grown EP, which released in 2018. Their newest single, “Wander,” has been by far their most popularly received, and has generated a lot of anticipation for new music, which the band said is on the way in 2020.
Their next hometown show is going to be pivotal for the band, according to Bennett, as they plan to begin phasing out of playing the songs from Fully Grown and into songs that fans can get excited to hear on an upcoming album.
“[The new album] reaches into some different areas of alt-rock,” Williams said. “It’s very different than songs that we’ve released before. There’s some grunge, and there’s some softer stuff.”
“We’re super proud of this record, and we think it’s a really cool direction for us to go,” Williams continued, “so we’re doing everything exactly how we want to do it, in the best way possible to make it as cool of an experience as possible for everybody that listens to it.”
Ultimately, every member of the band said their goal as a group is simple — make enough money to buy the “House and Home” domain name away from the magazine. After that, who knows?
House And Home plays Tuesday, October 22 (that’s tonight!) at the Canal Club, with U.K. hardcore punk band Trash Boat, as well as Sleave, Hold Close, Nine Line, and The Second After. The show begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $13 in advanced, and can be purchased at Eventbrite.
Top Photo by Ethan Edghill, via House And Home/Facebook
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