Ann Arbor’s Launch Board Shop has housed a few local concerts and this past Saturday, Sept. 15 local ambient, post-rock band Rospoem was the latest to play a show there. For a band that assembled in the fall of last year they’ve come a long way. With an EP released and another recording in the works, they’re one of Ann Arbor’s latest bands to watch out for.
“I recorded an EP and self-started under the moniker Rospoem in 2010,” said Cole Corey, the singer, guitarist and founder of Rospoem.
After realizing that he would need a band to start playing live shows, he posted an ad on Craigslist looking for band members and started auditioning until he found the ones that fit his vision. Rospoem has gone through one keyboard player in the past year, but the guys that officially made the cut were Mathias Sturla on guitar, Ron Theileman Jr. on bass, Michael Skib on the keys, percussion and violin and Riley Bean on drums.
“I had been listening to some tracks that Cole had produced a few years back, and I kind of connected with the music,” said Sturla when asked why he auditioned to play with Rospoem.
The five guys didn’t know each other prior, but with all of them being from the Ann Arbor area, it made it very easy for them to get comfortable with each other. Once they had the band ready to go, “we started rehearsing maniacally,” said Corey.
It’s hard to place Rospoem into a specific genre. The members’ influences range from Pink Floyd, to Nirvana to Radiohead.
Corey couldn’t even decide on an influence, saying “I don’t know if I can pick favorites.” He did say that he’d like to perform with English singer-songwriter Nick Drake though, “just for fun.”
They’ve been described as ambient, indie, post-rock and alternative and have been compared to popular indie acts Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes in almost a cliché way, but every band member has a hard time putting a finger on exactly what Rospoem sounds like. They describe themselves on their Facebook page as simply, “an eclectic group of musicians who have managed to integrate multiple genres.”
“I don’t want to get philosophical, but you can’t really define it,” said Sturla.
Rospoem recorded together for the first time this past June and are currently in the studio recording some new tracks. They expect to have two new tracks online for streaming by November.
The current music on their Facebook page is from when Corey first started Rospoem, before he had any band members, but they’re working on getting music featuring the current band line-up available for listening.
They were just in Grand Rapids this past weekend working on the vocal recordings.
In addition to playing Ann Arbor skate shops, Rospoem has frequented venues such as the Blind Pig, the Crofoot in Pontiac and Ypsilanti’s own Crossroads. They’ve even taken their act on the road, playing at Sullivan Hall in New York City, and had their album reviewed overseas on a German music blog.
They played this past summer’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival Festival and performed a set with some new material back in March on WCBN-FM 88.3 in Ann Arbor.
You can check out Rospoem’s music at www.reverbnation.com/Rospoem or look for them on iTunes and Amazon.
Key tracks: “December,” “Beneath Autumn” and “This Is Your Time.”
