After hearing the indie rock band Hear Tonight’s music, it’s no surprise that most of the members are influenced by pop-punk, aside from the odd man out: their guitarist.

“I come from a jam-band background. I would come into bars and they would point at the chords on the ground and say “Okay, just solo when they’re not singing.” I started doing that when I was 15 or 16 and then it just evolved into riff writing. Then when it came together with [my bandmates’] other styles, it came to this unity that was really beautiful in a way. It created this unique sound. The catchiness of it comes from the “jammy” feel.”

That’s Steve Grzenda, lead guitarist for Hear Tonight. The group met while attending California University of Pennsylvania. The name Hear Tonight was thought of thanks to the pressure of needing a band name before a live gig.

“The first show we ever played, it was just me and Shane and I was just backing him up, it was under his name. We had one song, so we had to say: “When we announce this song, what’s gonna be the name?” What’s gonna sound good if they say “Oh here tonight, we have this band!” Then we were like, “Why don’t we just call ourselves Hear Tonight? We changed a [letter] because it’s almost like The Beatles, a little bit.”

Hear Tonight’s new EP “Chasing The Rain” is out now and more on the band is at their website.

Photo by Shots By Linzi.