STaG
“Colorado – Suicidal”
Don’t Check Out
STaG is an interesting band. Composed of Matthew McGuire, William Walden, Matthew Hampar, Casey Baird, and Tony Denove, the band is basically the dream child of McGuire and Walden. As McGuire explains in STaG’s bio:
StaG is a band based around friendship. Will and I have known each other for nearly our entire lives (certainly since we began forming memories), but we started making music simply because it was a way to hang out more. I always had a dream to write songs, so Will taught me the basics of piano, and we began to write songs together. We tricked our parents into being psyched about us going to the same college, and once we were crammed into a dorm room with laptops and effects pedals, we just became completely obsessed with making sounds together. Even though those little experiments were usually nothing more than drones or noise or nuggets of songs, they started forming our sound and what kind of music we wanted to make.
We’ve progressed to more conventional songwriting, but when someone listens to our music or sees us perform live, we hope they feel like they are diving into a full sensory experience rather than only listening to a bunch of songs. We’ve expanded our band and added Matt Hampar and Casey Baird, who have helped make our little bedroom project sound exactly as it does in our heads: like a couple kids who couldn’t be more excited and simultaneously anxious to tell you how weird, messed up, amazing, heart wrenching, or happy their life is.
I couldn’t have said it better. I really love their sound, as tumbled up and unusual as it is. Soundly like a higher produced Neutral Milk Hotel or They Might Be Giants, STaG could never exist if it weren’t for the friendship of McGuire and Walden. Their vision has transferred itself from the dreams of kids to some serious, soul-searching music. Thanks guys for exposing that most secret part of yourselves with us. The ride is definitely worthwhile.