Up and coming Chicago band Draft Week will be debuting their sophomore release, rightly titled The Sophomore EP tonight at the Metro. Previously part of rival pop-punk bands back in their hometown, the then high school seniors decided to join forces until the guise of punk band The Teen Scene Dead. Tiring of the title and the genre, the boys went on a hiatus as they started college, returning a year later, older and wiser, to form Draft Week. Since their reincarnation the band has been balancing beats and books, remaining in school while developing their music careers, creating the EP as well as working toward building their arsenal of covers in hopes of getting a gig as a bar band.
The Sophomore EP consists of songs written from the road of last summer’s tour, centered mainly on “relationships and freemason conspiracies.” Recorded at Down Beat Studio here in Chicago with Mike Rovare (Ex-drummer of Every Avenue) the EP was completed over the course of just a few weekends this past fall, and according to the band, listeners can expect to hear “raw alt- rock with hints of soul and post-punk”. After such landmark events as a new EP and a release show at the Metro, the band plans to reinvent their sound once again, hoping to move in a direction that is more sing-able, along the lines of “the Good Goo Dolls meets Motown.”
You can see Draft Week tonight at the Metro along with A Kidnap in Color, Footlight Frenzy, Indecent Exposure, and The Highlife
(check out Reviewsic’s post on them here)
Show at 6pm, All Ages
Visit the boys online:
Myspace
Purevolume
Facebook
Big Cartel
YouTube
Twitter
T.S: Who are your top musical influences?
D.W: Our musical influences have changed quite a bit since writing these songs but at the time we were listening to a lot of Saves the Day, Brand New, and AM Taxi (back then American Taxi). We are currently listening to a lot more music in the pop-rock spectrum like the Killers, the Gaslight Anthem, and Kings of Leon.
T.S: What is your favorite venue to play?
D.W: Metro is by far our favorite venue to play, we played it once back in June and we had a ball. If only we were old enough to drink the PBR’s they provide backstage, it’d be perfect. But really, it’s not the venue that matters to us so much as it is the other bands playing and the energy of the audience.
T.S: If you could tour with any three bands, active or inactive, who would they be and why?
D.W: If we could tour with any three bands it would have to be Kings of Leon just because we love their music and we share a common interest in binge drinking, John Mayer because he’s a total pimp, and Backstreet Boys circa 1999 just for the girls.
T.S: Most memorable show you’ve played to date?
D.W: It would have to be when we got the chance to play with Chicago legends Lucky Boys Confusion at the Local Music Revolution Festival back in November. It was probably the largest crowd we had ever played in front of and we were very well accepted. Plus we got to play with LBC who we all grew up listening too.
T.S: What other projects have you been involved with? Are you working on anything on the side now?
D.W: We tend to remain fully faithful to this project, but I (Kevin) played in a band called Just Left just before Draft Week came together. They’re a great band and they recently signed with Stand By Records and have been on the road a great deal since. Musically though, we just didn’t click.
