The High Strung

Josh Malerman, the voice of the High Strung, likes to say it’s because the band has been best friends since they were eleven that they were able to live in a bus together for 300 shows a year, five years running. But he also says it’s the songs… and the way Derek Berk (drums) and Chad Stocker (bass) play them… that gets them to love the experience as much now as when they were, well, eleven.

The High Strung are a curious band. Extremely hard workers (Malerman once hung up on a potential manager who said a band wasn’t good just because they work hard), they are often mistaken as something much more simple than they are. The High Strung are not a traditional rock and roll band. The High Strung don’t have a bluesy bone in their body (though they sometimes long for one). And because of a vigorous tour schedule that wasn’t planned but continued to feed off itself nonetheless, the High Strung do not belong to any one scene or “movement”. They can’t sit still! It is hard to say exactly who the band sounds like (the words “quirky” and “autonomous” are ascribed them often) and it’s maybe more telling to explain them in unusual musical terms.

Maybe the High Strung have the SPIRIT of The Flaming Lips. Guided By Voices. Bands who produce seemingly impossible numbers (1200 shows, 400 songs) and who’s audience exists more from word of mouth than by being in the right place and the right time.

To Watch Our Entire Interview with The High Strung, click on the play button below!