THE TALENT // ALLEY EYES
ARTIST PREVIEWS
Colton Schroetter
Vocalist & Guitarist
Tell Us About You
The desire to create music that takes listeners on a journey, and explores the possibility of sound across genres and time. The adrenaline jitters before a performance. Also milk, bell peppers, and sleep deprivation.
What's in your head?
I’m constantly thinking about non-musical inspirations and ways to channel them into my music. John Carpenter and Sergio Leone movies, John Lautner architecture, Hideo Kojima games, and “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” have all occupied my thoughts recently.
AJ Folino
Bassist
Tell Us About You
Making the best music we can and putting on the best show possible for the crowd is what drives me (us). The feeling you get when what started as a small melody or riff turns into a complete idea is what we’re always chasing. We love a great crowd and we always strive to put on the best show possible for every crowd we play for.
What's in your head?
Typically, the ever-growing list of things I want to accomplish in a day. We’re really pushing ourselves to accomplish a lot this year, and to make that happen we need to make the most of every day. Outside of that, in music, I’m always thinking how I can incorporate melody into my bass lines while always trying to add a bit of funk.
Matt Ricciardi
Drummer
Tell Us About You
I am mainly driven by goals that focus around improving as a drummer and my skill sets on other instruments such as keys and guitar. There are so many different musical aspects that anyone can work towards, and it is a great challenge to write new fills, beats, and breakdowns. Learning new instruments is an awesome way to build upon my own skill set and constantly improve on understanding the music theory that helps make songs go from good to fantastic. I strive to sound as good as the many great bands that we look up to, and am constantly humbled by how many tricks are left in the bag to learn as soon as possible!
What's in your head?
I am always looking towards making the best of any situation, and that has certainly been put to the test in this COVID environment over the last year. We have been unable to perform in public during the pandemic, but we decided to take things in stride and instead focused our efforts towards writing original songs instead of just learning covers. This decision has helped us take things to the next level, and helped us all improve our skills in a time where we couldn’t do what we originally wanted to. I have loved learning lots of new skills relevant to songwriting and recording, and look forward to being able to show live audiences our work as soon as possible.
Jake Grimes
Guitarist
Tell Us About You
What drives me to keep putting in the work to write and learn covers is that playing music is my creative escape. Playing music gives let’s me leave my day job behind and live the dream I’d say we all have, to be some kind of rock star!
What's in your head?
The thoughts in my head typically tend towards what life would be like to no longer work as an engineer and live the touring music life. As soon as my thoughts make it there they jump off the rails to all the ridiculous motley crue esque experiences we could have.
WHAT'S NEXT
How are you getting heard?
We are always trying to find new ways to share content with fans online, from a steady stream of demos and singles, to streamed practices and jams. We are also waiting on a safe and healthy return to live performances so we can begin connecting with audiences and venues around the Midwest.
What's the latest?
We came together as a band shortly before the beginning of the pandemic, and have used the time away from live performances to learn to write our own original material. We hope to build an EP of songs we can be proud of and ready to play live when venues are safely reopened.
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