Like their moniker, The Ongoing Concept refuses to cement themselves to any one thing. Dawson Scholz (guitarist/vocalist) says of the band “some bands may say we play heavy music and that’s supposed to be guitar, bass and drums. I look around our music space and see a trombone, a piano, a harmonica and I think, I wonder what we could do with that?”
Hailing from Idaho, the band is literally a band of brothers (and one childhood friend) made up of Dawson, Kyle Scholz (vocals/keyboard), Parker Scholz (drums) and TJ Nichols (bass). The band arrived on the national radar via their 2013 debut album Saloon on Solid State Records (Underoath, Fit For A King).
The album simultaneously produced plenty of praise and plenty of puzzled head-scratching alike. The songs combined the technical dexterity of bands like The Chariot with strong elements of punk melodicism and utilized unexpected instruments and styles throughout. As highly critical online outlet Metal Sucks summed up “The dusty mine-town barroom conceit isn’t fleeting or kitschy either – ragtime piano, seedy banjo plucking and barbershop crooning have all been smoothly integrated without ever feeling forced or secondary to the screamo.”
While recording their newly released sophomore platter, Handmade the band brought the term “DIY” to a whole new level. This included recording the album entirely in their house, making their own videos and album artwork and even going as far as to build their own instruments.
Dawson Scholz (guitarist/vocalist) espouses on the idea, “well, I don’t want to give the idea that we were dirt-poor growing up but we always were inclined to build the redneck version of things we needed. I built our guitar cabs years ago and people always comment on them. So not too long ago, we were sitting around and just had the idea to really build our new album from the ground up including our instruments.”
This process was undoubtedly long and challenging. In the case of building the drums steps included setting axe to pine trees, drying the wood of sap and moisture over long arduous hours, shaping, sanding, and attaching the pieces together, to drilling and installing the hardware to the finished drum. In the case of the guitars different pickups and electronics were soldered on and off to match the tonal aspects for each individual song.
With the announcement of the album and its concept, there was a lot of media pick-up and questioning the validity of it. However self-recorded videos of the process leaked to the internet soon put the nay-saying to rest.
Watch album video teaser #1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBjifRv2pu4
Watch album video teaser #2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83pj_Ft7ArI
In addition to the novelty of the album’s creation, the final result got plenty of high praise from the media. To show the scope of musical diversity the album inspires consider the following quotes including Metal Hammer calling them “one of the most fascinating, unique young forces in heavy music” and Under The Gun Review who proclaimed them “the future of alternative rock.”
The sense of rambunctiousness and passion extends to The Ongoing Concept’s live shows. Touring steadily over the last few years, the band has hit the country and Europe with such artists as Hawthorne Heights, War Of Ages, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Brent Walsh (of I The Mighty).
More Info: https://www.facebook.com/theongoingconcept
U.S. Publicity Contact: Jerry Graham, JerryGrahamPublicity@gmail.com
Overview