Interview: The Band Solstice
Around six years ago on the day of Summer Solstice, Marty Gee, Grayson Strader, Jackson Frazier, Maddox Frazier, and Jacob Greene began their journey of playing music together. Hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee and named for the day they started, The Band Solstice brings a fresh, upbeat sound to the Indie scene and they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Over the past few years, they’ve continued to gain traction, opening up for acts like The Stews, WILLIS, Quinn XCII, and Sun Room. They’ve also begun to play more and more headline shows and touring more regularly along the East Coast starting with their debut headliner tour ‘Mile Dive’ back in 2024.
During my conversation with three of the band’s members, Marty, Jackson, and Maddox, we discussed the band’s love for playing live, the importance of building a good team to help them grow, and some new material that they’ve had in the works, including their debut album set to release in the near future.
Back Row From Left: Grayson Strader, Maddox Frazier, Jacob Greene
Front Row From Left: Marty Gee, Jackson Frazier
Source: https://www.thebandsolstice.com/
Q: So, how did you guys get started as a band?
Marty: We all grew up playing instruments. And actually, Jackson, Maddox, and I all had the same guitar teacher when we were really young.
Maddox, Jackson, and our piano player Jacob all grew up going to school together. And Grayson, our drummer and I grew up going to school together.
And then we all met when we were freshmen in high school and knew that we all played instruments, so we just wanted to play with each other.
The first time we did that was on the Summer Solstice. That’s where the name came from.
Jackson: Yeah. Marty's mom and my dad worked together. So they were like, ‘oh, our sons are both doing this…they should get together.’
Q: It's funny how stuff like that just kind of gels automatically.
Jackson: It's crazy, yeah. It's really cool.
Q: I think it's also really cool when you find people that you can communicate that easily with…to be able to play music and create music with them.
Jackson: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I think that definitely has come with a lot of time. Especially us just kind of doing it together for so long.
Marty: It's been about six years. So we've all, at least I hope, progressed since when we started. And we've all just been learning together. Our sounds have just accompanied each other for this whole time as we've all been mastering our instruments. We're not masters yet, but we'll get there.
From the Top Clockwise: Marty on guitar and vocals, Maddox on bass, Jacob on keys, Grayson on drums, and Jackson on lead guitar
Source: https://www.thebandsolstice.com/
Q: Do you guys all write together?
Marty: Yeah, I mean, we've kind of done different things.
Jackson: Yeah, a lot of times someone will have an idea. And a lot of times it's either a Marty or Grayson kind of a framework. Maybe I'll have a guitar riff or Maddox will have an idea. Honestly, we do write together a lot. But a lot of times, someone brings some sort of core idea. And then we all just add to it as a group, I guess.
Marty: And then we kind of arrange, sonically how we want the sound of the song to be, together.
Jackson: But we have had a few songs that were like, ‘All right, let's write a song as a group together right now’.
Q: Do you have a style that you’ve been in the groove of lately? Or do you find yourself kind of experimenting?
Maddox: We’ve been experimenting.
Jackson: I feel like...would you say recently it's been sort of indie folk rock, I guess?
Marty: Yeah, I mean, we've been saying it's indie folk rock because we have folk songs. And then we also have rock songs. We also have some more songs that sonically fit the indie kind of dream pop style. So, yeah, we do a lot of experimenting. But we feel like part of our sound is not necessarily confining to one genre. We love being able to explore these different elements and mix them all together and just see what we create.
Q: Yeah, that's the best kind of thing, I think. That results in a lot of really interesting sounding songs…
Marty: It does have its downsides as well, though, because sometimes you'll have people be like, ‘Oh, this song doesn't sound anything like this song’. Or we'll say that to each other and be like, ‘Oh, these are too different’. And then we're kind of like, ‘Do we even put this out or continue working on this?’
Jackson: I think a lot of times we would get frustrated because we're like, ‘Oh, we have to find our sound.’
I think a lot of people have identified that we do have sort of a general sound, but we can kind of do different things within that, like the rock and the folk and the indie and stuff like that.
Solstice clearly has a strong drive to continue moving forward, which also involves building a reliable team around them to make sure their music is heard, appreciated, and that they are properly equipped. During our conversation, they talked about a few people in particular who have really come alongside them so far.
Q: You mentioned people that you've been working with lately…have there been any that you've been really excited to work with or any artists that have been helping you along that you've looked up to?
Marty: Paul is a partner in Triple Eight Management based out of Nashville and he owns Two Fine Records. And Zach is our manager and he works for Triple Eight.
We met them in May. This was a pretty crazy coincidence on how we ended up connecting with them. About three or four years ago we were playing really small shows, like cafes and pizza shops and things like that.
One night, I sat down and just sent out probably 100 emails. I didn't know what I was doing…they probably sounded so bad and amateur. I just sent them to big artists, and I was looking for artists' managers and stuff like that.
I sent out a bunch of emails to people who were coming through Knoxville asking to open. I remember I had found Paul as Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors’ manager, and they were going to play at the Tennessee Theater.
So I emailed him asking to open. And then I didn't get any replies except for his one reply. And it was like, ‘Not this time, bud’ (laughs)
So then it was radio silence for three and a half years.
And we get a DM from this guy, Zach. And he's, like, ‘Hey, I work for Triple Eight. And I showed Paul y'all’s stuff. He really likes it.’ So then we kind of just started nurturing a relationship with them over the next few months and eventually started working with them.
They've turned our world around just helping us and providing us mentorship and just helping us get all our ducks in a row.
Q: Yeah, because as an artist, there are so many moving parts to everything.
Marty: Exactly. We've also had a little bit of mentorship from James Trimble. He's the lead singer of the Dirty Guv’Nahs.
He helped us in branding ourselves, understanding our image and how to start touring. He was in a very similar position in college when he was in a band. And they did it for a living for a while. It's been awesome having guidance from him as well.
Q: As far as artists that you kind of get inspiration from, do you feel like there's some main influences to your sound?
Maddox: Yeah. I'd say, obviously Mt. Joy, some Kings of Leon, Pine Grove. It's all different, really.
Marty: A little bit of Coldplay.
Maddox: Some Radiohead.
Jackson: Yeah, subconsciously, I feel like there's definitely Radiohead there.
Marty: A little bit of Flip Turn. Yeah, it's just kind of like a hodgepodge…we all listen to the same genre, but alternate versions of it. And then it all just kind of gets mashed together when we're writing stuff.
Q: I saw that you're coming out with new music in the near future.
Maddox: Yeah, so we just put out three singles. The last one we just put out is called Tides, and that's the last single in 2025.
Q: That one was good. I just recently listened to it.
Maddox: Thank you! So that will be the last single of this year, and then next year we'll do one or two singles and then we'll do a full-length album coming out in March or April.
Q: Do you feel like your sound has changed, or do you feel like there's any differences you notice?
Maddox: I feel like this album definitely feels more cohesively together. I feel like our last EPs are sort of all over the place, which is not bad.
Q: Yeah, it's part of finding your way.
Marty: Yeah, I feel like that when we're creating too, but sometimes every once in a while I'll just go back and listen to our old projects, and I end up realizing that after a year or two, it does kind of sound more cohesive to me than I thought it would.
Maddox: I agree.
Jackson: Yeah, that's what I think too.
Marty: And right now with this album, obviously we love it, and we've been pouring so much time and effort into it. But, I mean, we do have those folk songs, and we do have those rock songs. I think bridging the gap is what will make that project feel cohesive, and I think we've done a good job of that so far.
Yeah, in terms of it changing we're always writing new stuff and working on new songs…we just wish we could always be in the studio!
Jackson: That would be the dream. If we could just be in a studio five or four days a week and then go play shows on the weekend, that would be awesome.
Marty: One day we'll build our own studio!
Q: When you're in that space, I think you're just kind of transported into this creative sort of bubble where you just don't have any concept of what time it is.
Jackson: Yeah, exactly. And then it's lunch break.
Marty: We go to the Blackbird Academy, and they're teaching producers as we're recording. So yeah, it's a really cool deal. You'll go in, and it feels like you're in there for 30 minutes, and then you're already unloading for the day. Yeah, it's crazy. It just flies by…an entire eight-hour day.
Q: Do you feel like there’s any standout moment in the recent past in your music career that you feel like is a milestone you’ve hit recently?
Marty: I mean, yeah, there've been several in the last few months that we've just been really grateful and blessed for. Since May, we signed to Two Fine's record label, and so that's who we're releasing this album under.
And we've been building a team around us of awesome people and we've been touring really, really hard for the last, I don't even know how many weeks. It's been a lot in a row.
But we've had the opportunity to play some really cool venues that we never even thought we would get to play.
So it's been crazy. It's been a gradual uptick, but it's all been going quick, you know?
Maddox: I'd say doing the headline at the Bijou Theater was a big milestone that we hit.
We've kind of been doing more gradual things after that. Leading up until that one, it was pretty monumental for us.
Jackson: Something I can think of recently is definitely Mill & Mine. Even though we're opening, I remember freshman year sitting there with you guys watching Mount Joy.
And even though we were the opener, the opener for Mount Joy was Brooke and the Bluff, and they were one of my favorite bands too.
Marty: If you told me a year and a half ago that we were going to play the Mill & Mine, I would have flipped out. And now we're playing there for the third time.
Jackson: Dude, yeah. I remember last winter I was at Sam's house in North Carolina…the little cabin, and you texted me, like, ‘Bro, we might be able to play the Bijou!’ Obviously the Bijou is a huge privilege, but it's cool to make progress. Because Marty and I always talk about how sometimes if there's a small setback, we'll be like, ‘Oh, dang, whatever’, but then we always look a year back in our memories and we're like, ‘Wow, okay’.
Marty: Yeah, it's really easy to compare to other bands around your size and get discouraged. But you just have to keep going day by day. And then you look back in a year and you're just like ‘Holy crap’.
We did come a long way, you know, and it didn't even feel like it.
Q: How do you find yourself trying to handle a healthy balance between trying to promote yourselves on social media and also having your creative and performing time as well?
Maddox: That's a hard one. I mean, our team is like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get some videos out. We’ve got to do all this’. And that's not fun.
Marty: Well, the stress of it isn't fun.
Maddox: Yeah. The stress isn’t fun because we're still trying to finish up school and stuff. So we’re trying to balance that with making videos to put out weekly.
Marty: That's been the hardest thing recently…just finding the balance. Not necessarily between the nitty-gritty work and the creativity in the music scene, but just balancing our personal lives. We're all still students at the University of Tennessee…three of us are seniors and two are juniors.
Maddox is an architect, which has a really heavy course load, and Jackson's neuroscience. So everyone has a lot going on.
We're leaving every single weekend. So it's been hard finding time to create content during that time.
But I feel like once we finish school, we’ll have more time to work on the creative stuff.
And that's what I meant…the stress of it isn't fun when you don't have content. And then you also don't have much time to create content.
Shout out to our photographer and tour manager and video maker, Xander. He has literally been an angel sent to help us.
We met him our freshman year. And it's just been so cool to see his journey, too, in taking photos and creating content. He just started getting into video work, and he's been doing everything for us, like making videos and reels. And just taking insane photos at our shows so that we have content to post. He's really taken a burden off our shoulders in that sense.
Q: That's such a big thing that can just kind of linger in the back of your mind as you're trying to get everything else done, so I'm sure that really frees up a lot of space for other things.
Marty: Totally. I don't know what we're going to do next year when he has to finish school and can't go with us.
Maddox: He'll be there whenever he can. And he can still make content and stuff.
Marty: We joke that without him we'd kill each other.(laughs)
Jackson: It's always funny because we'll all be trying to make a decision or something about an album cover or songs to keep on or off or blah, blah, blah. So we're like, ‘All right, what does Xander think?’ He gets the final say, and usually we'll do whatever he says. It's good, too, because usually he doesn't have a wishy-washy opinion.
The near future holds some really exciting opportunities for the band, such as performing at the Treefort Music Festival…a huge event for Indie music which is located in Boise, Idaho.
“That’ll be the furthest we’ve ever gone,” said Marty. “We’re gonna have to fly out, and fly our gear. We’re still going to be in school, so it’s literally going to be a weekend thing. We’ll fly out on Friday, play Saturday, fly out Sunday, and 8 A.M. Monday we’re back in class.”
In the midst of all their growing opportunities, the band members obviously have a packed schedule with being both college students and starting to tour more frequently as they progress in their music careers. I asked them about that particular contrast of band life vs. college life and how it feels to switch between the two.
Q: Is that ever a crazy feeling to go play some shows somewhere and then just be back to sitting in class listening to a lecture?
All: (In strong agreement) Yes.
Marty: Jackson and I were talking about it…we just did this podcast and we actually said the same thing where it feels like sometimes we’re living a double life.
It’s crazy too because sometimes people obviously won’t recognize you right away…but for instance, in my 8 A.M. class I was sitting there, and we had just played the Stews show. We had to get in groups, and one of my friends ended up telling the group that I was in a band. They were like, ‘Oh, have you played anywhere in Knoxville?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, I played last night!’
And they were like, ‘What?!? We were at that show! That’s crazy!!!’
Q: With creating new music in the studio, are there any songs that surprised you and came out of the woodwork, or any songs that you're especially excited about?
Jackson: We have a song called ‘Friend of Mine’ that's going to be on the album that has a pedal steel and a banjo …it's a little bit more chill and acoustic. But I just love it.
And at the end, Grayson and Marty are doing rounds singing at the same time. And I think that one was kind of surprising. That was one of the moments where we were like, ‘Oh, this might not be on the album…I don't know if this fits us’. We were making jokes about it being only for Grayson's side project. But then we were, like, ‘No, this is awesome...this could be a really good song for all of us’. And I think it really has turned out to be. It's kind of more of a folky, Americana type of vibe.
That might be the one that I'm most excited about. Not necessarily just because of what the song is, but I think it's going to show some of the colors that we've been kind of sitting on that we haven't been able to actually express without being in that weird mind set of, ‘We have to find our sound’.
Marty: Yeah, we had—I think his name was Philippe, right?
He’s an independent contractor for pedal steel that lives in Nashville. And he's insane. He's been on stadium tours with people.
We texted our manager, Zach and we were like, ‘Hey, we want someone to play pedal steel on this song’. And he was like, ‘I have someone in mind’.
Jackson: His name is Philippe Bronchtein.
Marty: He literally just came into the studio, listened to the song one time through, laid down the most beautiful pedal steel you’ve ever heard in your life, and then he just left.
It was watching a master at work. It was like watching Gordon Ramsay cook a meal.
Q: Any goals in the future that you guys are working towards?
Jackson: I would just say to get the album out right now
Marty: Yeah, our short term goal is definitely focusing on that album and promoting that album. For a long term goal, next year we’re hoping that we can start moving to full time and really just spend a lot of time not having to focus on school, and just being able to create, go play shows, and then coming back here to create whether it's content or new music.
As much as they enjoy studio time, the three band members seem to agree that their favorite moments happen while performing live. We got to dive into a little bit about why they love to play live, as well as why one of their recent shows in particular was so special.
Marty: It’s a weird thing with playing in a studio…as much fun as it is, it’s easy to get nit picky about things. Also, just staying on a computer generated tempo the entire time…it all sounds great, but when you’re in such a dynamic setting and you’re able to read each other and just be jamming for a while, you have complete control over the feel. Sometimes you can tell a story out of just a jam session. That’s really hard to portray on a recording.
Q: Is there a show that stands out as the most energetic and dynamic one that you’ve played so far?
Jackson: The last show was pretty cool.
Maddox: Yeah, that was a good one. We always try to give it our all.
Marty: Yeah, we go all out for every show we’re at. We try to always make it a great show, but yeah, there was just something about this most recent show…we played at
The Mill and Mine. We opened for WILLIS…and I don’t know what it was about it, but everything was so smooth.
Jackson: I think I’ve deciphered what it was for me…we’ve been gone every weekend which has been awesome…it’s been such a blessing. But we’ve been gone, mostly on really long car rides and playing shows…but I think this one was just on a random Wednesday, we just showed up, it was in our hometown, our friends came, it was a big room…I think that just made the energy really good. And the Mill and Mine is the best place ever…growing up we got to see a lot of our favorite artists there. So getting to be there with all of that context…I think that’s what made it so great.
Marty: The first time we played there, I was so nervous. I was kinda shaky going out there. But the second time it was just like, ‘Ok, I’ve got this…been here done this. We’ll just keep it smooth.’
It just blended really well, that whole show. It was a really good time.
Jackson: I think we were able to appreciate the opportunity without seeing it through the lens of shaking in our boots.
Marty: We’ve been grinding at this for six and a half years now, and sometimes we’re like, ‘Why can’t we just blow up overnight?’
You just have to appreciate the small gradual steps. If I had to go from playing really small bars to this insane crowd overnight I would crash out…I wouldn’t know what to do.
Growing as people and as well as growing with the band has been really nice…I’ve learned a lot about how to be a good human through the band as well as through growing up in my life outside of it as well.
Pictured Above: Photos from the band’s recent performance at The Mill and Mine in their hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee
Source: https://www.instagram.com/bandsolstice/
Q: Is there anything in particular that you’d want to say to people who are discovering you guys or anything you’d like to promote in particular?
Maddox: I’d want to promote our single ‘Tides’, for sure! Definitely be looking out for the album in the spring.
Jackson: Come see us at a show!
Marty: Yeah, if you listen to our music, we love you, we want to meet you, we want to see you at a show, and we want to rock out with you for the night!
Find out more about The Band Solstice and keep up with new music and upcoming shows by following their social media and checking out their official website using the links below!
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The Band Solstice Official Website: https://www.thebandsolstice.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bandsolstice/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCknVnR7IQ5AUKUVO1aXjuXQ