Words by Nelson Tift of High Romantics

Momentum. It’s one of those vague buzzwords that speaks to the flow of opportunity and synergy of when everything is clicking. And when you lose momentum there’s a whole bunch of other words ready to take its place: the yips, the squeeze, in a funk, in a rut, sophomore slumping, etc.

So for a band like us, High Romantics, getting back momentum from “The Before Times” is a challenge in that the music we’re promoting here is a year and a half old. We had high hopes to hit the ground running with this EP in May 2020—after ya’know just a few months of quarantine—but of course the pandemic had a whole lot more in store for all of us. And after all that’s followed, should we try to pick up where we left off or just come out firing like it’s all brand new? Either way, this sense of “now” has to honor and include the paths that brought us here. 

Rather than ask who the hell ARE we, a better question could be who the hell WERE we?

High Romantics was formed by the two-headed songwriting team of myself, “Shadow Chops” Nelson Tift + “Dank Zappa” Jared Hauser. Like a lot of local acts, we came from the rubble of other groups running together in the same scene: Jared’s Castle Dwellers + my Wild English. When those bands ended around the same time in 2017, Jared + I opted to join forces and start writing together. Bringing Tom “Yo-Yo Mosk” Moskal into the mix on bass, we as a trio put our heads down and cranked out the jams.

This EP is a direct result of those early days writing as a trio, figuring it all out. Representative of the music that brought us together in the first place, Figure It Out contains three of those first songs we wrote together and (at least I think) helps showcase who the hell this band IS.

To round out the quartet we’ve also added a familiar face on drums: “That Lucky Butcher” Nick Biscardi, re-emerging from my old Wild English days. (Hey, the Beatles had Pete Best before Ringo; Nirvana had Chad Channing before that Dave guy…)

Now with our eyes set towards creating a new future, we can go back to doing those things bands DO: like playing shows, writing music we ourselves would (and do) listen to, and other fun stuff like posing for photos, filming videos, or designing merch. We’ll be out and about next at Drunky’s Two-Shoe BBQ in White Center on November 20th playing with Skates! and Lofts.

We can’t wait to (re)introduce ourselves to you, and maybe help you Figure It Out too.

Want more from High Romantics? Check them out on: Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram / Facebook