by Alyse Horn
Sometimes all it really takes to pull a band together is a yard sale synthesizer. Combine that with talent and dedication, and you’ll find yourself with some paying gigs.
The synthesizer is only a small part of what brought The Walking Sticks together though. It’s their drive for musical expression that feeds this DC bands fire. The trio is a combination of singer Chelsea Lee’s mellow, mature vocals spliced with twins Max and Spencer Ernst molding the beats with a guitar and synth blend. Their new EP, Pop Dreams, was released on November 22, 2014 and the band is hoping to be making a Philadelphia appearance within the coming months, but nothing is set in stone as of yet.
“I feel like we’re at a good place right now with the band,” Max says.
Listening to past and present EPs, it is clear that the band is all about chiseling sounds to provide different listening experiences, but they also allow their fans to have a go and participate in the fun. On December 23, 2014, the band released the audio stems from all of their tracks from their new EP for free on Soundcloud.com in a free-for-all fashion to see what people could create. According to the Facebook post, the band encourages everyone to “share your creations with us and if we dig your track we’ll release it as an official Walking Sticks Remix!”
Spencer says the band has done this before when they released their first EP and a fellow artist asked to mix their single. “He did an awesome job with it and we have a lot of artists in the area doing this, so we figured we could make it a lot easier for people by offering [our audio stems online],” he says.
The band is currently accepting remixes. For more information, visit their Facebook page. To obtain the audio stems, visit The Walking Sticks on SoundCloud. To listen and watch the band perform, visit their YouTube page. The Walking Sticks would also like to invite Philadelphia bands interested in doing a gig swap to contact the band via their Facebook. Their music is also available on Bandcamp.
Chelsea Lee says the band is also planning on releasing some more new material within the next few months, and she is “excited” to experience fans’ reactions.
Cover photo: Graphics by Brian Collins, photo by Yvonne Taylor, makeup by Lauretta McCoy
