For those who might not know about you guys, introduce yourselves!
HOWDY!! My name is Sawyer John Estok I’m the frontman of Secondhand Sound! We’re a young rock n roll band based in Nashville, TN!
How did Secondhand Sound get started?
The four of us met our freshman year of college in 2018. Plank (the drummer) and I started the band as a two piece while we were high schoolers in Maryland. Teag (bass) and Cam (lead guitar) grew up together in Southern California. Their families have always been super close so they’re basically brothers. Cam & Teag lived in the room across the hall from mine and within a month or two of knowing then we invited them to join the band. We’ve been kind of inseparable ever since!
Your latest EP, “Burnout”, is genuinely one of my favorite EP’s out there, and my personal favorite song from the EP is “Kayla Klein”! Was that song inspired by someone specific, or was it more about something that people may experience in general?
Thanks so much for saying that haha! There’s a lot of EP’s out there, I’m happy to hear you think ours holds up!! Yes, Kayla Klein was inspired by a specific person. All of our songs are based off of our real lives. We are just kids figuring things out like a lot of our listeners. I think being as transparent as possible makes for the best songs. Hopefully, someone out there listening can relate to the stuff we’re talking about. Knowing someone else has been through something similar really helps in some circumstances, you know?
Are there any artists/bands in particular that inspire your music/music style?
Yes! The four of us have really different tastes when it comes to what we listen to by ourselves but there are overlapping artists we look up to for sure! We really love bands from the 2000s like Kings of Leon, The Strokes, The Killers, The Black Keys, Cage The Elephant, Paramore, etc. At the same time we are super inspired by local Nashville artists on a daily basis. That scene right now reminds me of the things you read about or see in movies. Going to a house party/show in Nashville is like going to the Chelsea Hotel in the 60s. You never know who you’re gonna see, who’s gonna be huge tomorrow, who’s doing big things now. Everyone knows each other and everyone is down to help one another out in any way they can. It’s a really healthy community of artists and it’s really exciting/inspiring to witness and be a part of! Some of our favorites over the past few years include Nordista Freeze, Joelton Mayfield, Shane T, Briston Maroney, Vanosdale, Gatlin, Annie DiRusso, Oddnote, Future Crib, and seriously so many more.
What’s the most challenging part of being in music?
I’d say the most challenging part of being in music for us at the moment is trying to plan for such an uncertain future. I’ve found that so much of being in a band or trying to make music your life in general consists of being unsure of what’s going to happen tomorrow, next month, next year. Maybe that’s every walk of life, I can only speak for my own. All you can really do is keep your nose on the grindstone with your fingers and toes crossed. Matt Shultz from Cage The Elephant is a big hero of mine. He told me once that if I want to make this my life, I’ve gotta remember to keep my head down and my spirit up. Might get that tattooed one day hahah. That’s kind of been the motto of the band since then!
Last month, you guys announced four upcoming singles that are going to be released over the next 4 months. Which one are you most excited for? Was this something that was planned prior to quarantine, or was it a project that was created because of quarantine?
Yes! “Four songs. One summer.” Haha. Those were songs we recorded during the same session that we recorded “Where You Put Your Love” during. We figured we should just release then asap to give people something to look forward to in such a crazy time! Personally my favorites are the first two being released. “I Know That You Don’t Know” is just so much fun to play live and Teagan really wrote it from a personal place, I’m really proud of him. It’s a banger. The second one “Cam’s Song” is one that I got to play the solos on. Cam also wrote from a really vulnerable position, it was really fun kind of trying to express those emotions through my guitar.
Do you guys have any plans regarding releasing an album in the near future (or maybe after quarantine)?
Dude, I have been dreaming of making an LP for so long. We’ll see what happens, We are sitting on so many songs I just want to put out already. The industry is kind of the Wild West at the moment with things like streaming algorithms and stuff. We’ve just been kind of teeing up our songs to have the best chance of being listened to by as many people as possible. We aren’t signed or anything, so we don’t have a lot of resources to really make it happen. Hopefully, fate pulls through and allows us to make one soon!
Lastly, what do you want your audience to take away from listening to your music?
I just want our audience to be happy! The reason I love the bands I do is because I feel like they’re just like me and I can relate to them. That’s because they’re regular people too, and SO ARE WE. It’s always been my dream to follow my heroes footsteps and walk through that role. If I can be that for 20 people or 1000 I’m happy. If we have to work hard for a month to give someone out there who needs a four minute song to distract them from life, it’s worth it. Life gets hard and music is a lifeline for a lot of people. I’ve been that person and still am most of the time. We’re trying our best to build a community for our listeners to inhabit! If anyone ever wants to talk we try our best to answer.
Find Secondhand Sound’s music on Apple Music, Spotify, etc and stream their new single “I Know That You Don’t Know”, out Friday May 15th :)
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