Band: Openhead
From: Portland, Oregon
Their formation story:
(Joe, bass): "I moved to the Northwest and wanted to start a band to try to key into the local scene. I recorded something like 20 demos to try to attract members. I befriended the band Gossip through working with them in the studio and showed them some of my tunes. Their drummer at the time, Jose, was really stoked on the sound and dove in headfirst.
"He brought in TJ (vocals) and we found Trent (Guitar) on the internet. We fleshed out the best songs from my demos for a set list, three of which are the tracks on DEMONSTRATION."
Their sound in their own words:
"'Grimy Blast Beat Hardcore.'
"The current batch of material was largely inspired by acts like Regional Justice Center, Scalp, Weekend Nachos, and Nails, as that’s what I was listening to a lot when sketching out the demos. The material we’re writing together will retain the best elements of those sounds, while also taking cues from artists like Wound Man, Despise You, Hatred Surge, Cave State, and Mind Eraser."
Latest release info:
"DEMONSTRATION was cut live at The Hallowed Halls, a recording studio I work at with arguably the best sounding live room in town. I get studio time for cheap so I mostly wanted to record ourselves as an exercise to make sure we were ready for live performance and be critical about our execution and arrangements.
"I threw up a dozen mics and tracked us all in the same room. When I sent the rough mixes over to the guys, we all agreed they sounded solid enough for a demo and decided to drop three of our favorites. I mixed them and had them mastered at Dead Air Studios (shout out to Will for all of his help with these tracks)."
Future plans:
"Our ethos is truly to be a live performance band; one of our friends recently said about us, 'If you haven’t seen them, you haven’t heard them,' and I really think sentiment defines the approach with this band. So, we’ll be jumping on as many NW shows as we can. Three of us are originally from California, so we’d like to make our way down to play with our friends there before the end of the year as well.
"From there, we’re writing more material with hopes to track a couple more songs for a split with one of our favorite up and coming bands, and are also in discussion to cut a live audio/video project in collaboration with Portland’s sickest heavy-music based studio and an incredible boutique pedal builder."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
"There are a ton of great bands on the come up from Portland. Some of our favorites are Dry Socket, Slime, Misery Whip, Blu Blaz, Family Vacation, Throateater, and Unspeakable Carnage."
Openhead on social media: Instagram | Bandcamp
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Tagged: openhead
