Nashville Newcomers Secondhand Sound Share Latest Single “Dominoes”
As fate would have it, the boys of Nashville-based alt rock group Secondhand Sound came together during university coming from different parts of the States. Lead singer and guitarist Sawyer John Estok met drummer Collin Plank in high school in Maryland. “Plank and I ended up hanging out a bunch and hatched a grand scheme to start a band,” remembers Estok. “Long story short, nobody in town wanted to join. So we started Secondhand Sound as a two piece. We honestly just pretended we were the Black Keys for a few years.” At that same time in southern California, lead guitarist and keyboardist Cameron Schmidt and bassist Teagan Proctor were long time family friends, and Proctor, who took a gap year between high school and college, ended up settling on Nashville as a destination, which led Schmidt to do the same. “Had I gone to college the year I was supposed to, I wouldn’t have been able to room with Cam across the hall from Sawyer. Fate – am I right?”
So they started a band back in 2018 and released an EP or two on their own, making a name for themselves in the live music community of Nashville, the midwest, and on both coasts of the country. And despite the fact that university would be what brought them together, the four friends have since dropped out, taking on odd jobs to fuel their dream of pursuing music full time. Now freshly in their 20s, the band have released their latest single “Dominoes” with more tunes on the way.
On the new single, the band channel the ’90s alt-rock sound of bands like the Pixies and the early days of Weezer, giving off a lyrically-driven uplifting minor key, but with a contemporary gusto in line with Philly high school band-turned international act The Districts. With a mature sound well beyond their years, Secondhand Sound keep things youthful and down to earth, singing about the butterflies about leaning in for a first kiss with a longtime crush.
And while its easy to compare them to their predecessors, the group are driven to create their own sound and find a place that is strictly Secondhand Sound. “I work a service industry job,” says Proctor, “so I get into a lot of conversations about the band with the tables I wait, and the most frequent question is always ‘so who do you sound like?’ I will be the first to say that a lot of our previous singles/EP’s were directly inspired by and mimicked other artists we listened to. But if you ask me about the music we’re writing now, I’d tell you it sounds like Secondhand Sound”.
Frontman Estok is more confident in his role, sharing , “I’ve learned and still am learning how to step into the frontman/storytelling role as me, and not a bad imitation of various people I look up to. I’ve also generally just learned to better realize and understand where songs come from and how to find them. Finding the character, setting the scene and then building a playground for the listener to attach their own feelings and experiences to. If I can tell you how a room smells without telling you that the room I’m talking about even has a smell then I’ve done my job. That kind of song takes work, hours and willpower.”
With live shows scheduled in the coming months, Secondhand Sound will be officially setting off into the world as musicians, and have more music coming later this year. Listen to “Dominoes” and discover more of my favourites on my Starting Line-Up Spotify playlist.
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