Idaho’s The Ongoing Concept has released a video announcing their new album "Handmade" this morning.



As evidenced in the time-lapsed video, the forthcoming album’s title "Handmade" is more than a moniker and brings the term “DIY” to a whole new level. In addition to recording the album entirely in their house, making their own videos and album artwork, the band went as far as to build their own instruments for this album.

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 versions 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 the drums alone, 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 of each individual song.

Composed of Dawson as well as his two brothers Kyle Scholz (vocals/keyboards), Parker Scholz (drums) and childhood friend TJ Nichols (bass), The Ongoing Concept is definitely not afraid to stick out. Their 2013 debut album Saloon on Solid State Records (Underoath, Fit For A King) both won plenty of fans 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.”

On the genesis of their sound Dawson divulged “we’re just not afraid to look weird. That’s really it, 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?”

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). Expect more announcements regarding Handmade as well as new tour dates for summer shortly.