The Band Light Is Ready for Their Next Chapter
Photo by Zayne Isom
The Band Light have been steadily carving out their own lane with a sound that blurs the lines between rock energy and boy-band charisma. What started as a group of friends jamming together has grown into a dynamic, genre-shifting project rooted in collaboration and genuine chemistry. Fresh off a standout performance at Louis Tomlinson’s Away From Home Festival and gearing up for a new era of music, the four-piece is embracing both their evolution and the influences that shaped them. We sat down with The Band Light to talk about their beginnings, their creative process, and what’s next.
Photo by Zayne Isom
SOUND STAGE: Who is The Band Light? How would you guys describe yourself to someone who hasn’t heard your music before?
KONOR: We’re just four guys from 30 minutes outside Nashville. I’d say we’re a rock and roll boy band. We carry that title because the way we interact with each other feels a lot like a boy band. We all play our instruments, and we love to rock and roll!
TREVOR: We've kind of touted ourselves as a rock and roll boy band for a while, but recently we have started to lean more into the boy band part.
KONNOR: It's like a pendulum. Sometimes we’re more rock and roll, sometimes we’re more boy band.
TREVOR: Yeah, it swings from song to song really.
SOUND STAGE: I read that you guys did high school theater and connected through your performance of Footloose! How did you guys form the band from that?
KONNOR: The year we did Footloose was the same year COVID shut everything down. The show got canceled just two weeks before opening, so we were all pretty invested at that point. Especially Jack and I, because we were the two leads. It got canceled out of nowhere, and we wanted to do something. Jack and I pulled together as much of the cast as we could and tried to recreate the soundtrack in my bedroom. We got to one song where we needed an electric guitar, and Jack said, “Hey, that Garrett kid, the new kid from Indiana, I’ve heard he’s pretty good on guitar.” So we got a hold of [Garrett], he came, and literally blew us away on that song. We never planned for it to be anything more than that, but Jack, Garrett, and I ended up hanging out a little bit more. Then somehow, just by hanging out at my place, we ended up making two songs. We were like, “Okay, these are actually pretty cool.” So we put them out, not really expecting anything to happen. People at school seemed to like it, and we seemed to really vibe together. Then, Garrett introduced us to Trevor.
GARRETT: Yeah, I moved in 2019, and Trevor was the first guy that I met, and he happened to be a drummer! My two main goals when I moved were to meet new people and to start a band. Even before Jack had told Konnor about me, Trevor and I were playing together. He was in a pop punk band that I joined. I also started my own thrash metal thing, and we just played in each other's bands for a while. Through that, we became good friends. Once I fell in love with the process of making music with Konnor and Jack, and saw that it was well-received by our peers and others, I knew I wanted to turn it into a band.
KONNOR: I was actually pretty against it.
GARRETT: It took a lot of convincing, because when you are in high school, age differences matter way more. That probably added to the awkwardness, because we were all in different grades. When Jack was a senior, Trevor was a freshman. Eventually, I convinced them to do one jam session. After playing a couple of songs, we all just looked at each other and knew we had our band together.
TREVOR: At the time, I was trying to get into a new band. When Garrett told me that he convinced the guys to do a jam session, I locked in and practiced. They had two songs out on Spotify and Apple Music, and I just rehearsed them over and over again every day for like a month straight.
SOUND STAGE: Who are some of your biggest influences?
KONNOR: On the Ladies and Gentlemen, Light EP, we were very influenced by Michael Jackson and The Police, and that specific type of 1982 to ‘83 type of synth rock music. Even though five years have passed since then, I think we’ve come full circle and found our way back to the same influences we started with.
GARRETT: All four of us came from different music tastes. Which I think has been a blessing, in terms of creative exploration, whether it’s individually or as a group. We are able to find that middle ground, but we also lean into our differences when we make music, and that’s what makes this band so fun to be in.
SOUND STAGE: Were you guys listening to completely different genres of music?
TREVOR: Oh yeah, we are all over the map. None of us is the type of person who refuses to listen to a certain genre of music, though. We are always listening with open ears. I like a lot of softer, singer-songwriter-type music. We don’t exactly release that kind of music, but there are times when that touch or emotion can shine through in what we record and what I write.
SOUND STAGE: How do you feel your sound has developed since you first started making music together?
KONNOR: We started in this '80s rock world, then we moved more to an indie-rock, surf-rock kind of sound. Then, from there, to more psychedelic rock. We got a little bit folky in some ways in our Flying Silver EP, and in Moonlight, we went more hard rock. Through our EPs, we are trying to explore all these little facets of our creativity. Through all that, we’ve arrived sort of at the same spot we started in, but with all the knowledge we gained from exploring those different subgenres.
TREVOR: I also think, aside from the music, we have developed much more confidence and knowledge of who we are. When I joined the band, I was 16 years old. I mean, I can't speak for every 16-year-old but I didn’t know what the hell I was doing at that time. But now, we have all learned so much more about ourselves, where we fit into this, and what we can do best.
SOUND STAGE: Do you think the music you’re making now captures your sound most accurately?
GARRETT: Yeah, we always want to be changing and evolving what The Band Light Sounds like, but I think all of us are in agreement that, in terms of where we are at now as people, this music is the best representation.
TREVOR: Just to be clear, not the music that is out now. I mean, it’s still us, of course. But I just wanted to clarify that we have upcoming music in this new year that I feel is the most us.
KONNOR: I just want to say, too, I think the reason why it needs to be stated is because of our amazing team at Jonas. They have partnered us with really great songwriters and producers. The EPs I mentioned earlier were 98% self-produced, but that's not what we wanted to do forever. It has helped us step up and hit the nail on the head for the sound we are really going for. I think everyone will be able to hear it with these new songs.
SOUND STAGE: Can you walk me through your creative process? How does a song usually come together for you guys?
KONNOR: I think what made it clear from the beginning that this band was going to be something special was when I would have an idea I thought was finished, and then I would bring it to these guys, and everyone just adds their own ‘sauce’ to it. We have started to evolve into writing more together, but it didn’t always start that way. There are still moments where a song will start with one of our ideas, but at the end of writing it, everyone has their imprint on it.
TREVOR: That collaboration is what’s so special about being an artist in a group like this.
KONNOR: It helps that we’re always coming up with ideas for songs, even ones that might not become Band Light songs. When a song is chosen as a Band Light song, it’s really the best of the best from the hundreds of ideas we had before. It’s kind of like a fight to the death between little ideas, to see which one wins, which song gets everyone on board, and shows off everyone at their best.
SOUND STAGE: You recently performed at the Away From Home Festival. What was that experience like for you as a band?
GARRETT: So surreal.
JACK: It was crazy. We found out we were playing the Tuesday before our Sunday set. I was at work, and Konnor tried FaceTiming the band. He was like, “Pick up now, this is serious.” Once I picked up, he told us we got an email from Louis Tomilson’s team and that we were opening for him at Away From Home. Immediately after the phone call, I called off work for that weekend.
SOUND STAGE: As a big One Direction girl, I can’t even imagine getting an email from Louis’s team.
KONNOR: Speaking of, holy crap, I have never seen fans like One Direction fans. They are crazy! But in the best way! We walked on stage an hour before our set to do sound check. Normally, fans aren’t there for sound check, but since it was a festival, they were all already there at the barricade. As soon as we walked out, they were throwing bracelets for us and asking us our names. It was awesome. You always hear the One Direction guys talk about how different their fans are, but I didn’t realize it until that moment.
GARRETT: Everyone was so incredibly nice to us.
KONNOR: And welcoming too!
GARRETT: We felt like runts of the litter being there. I mean, we basically were, but no one treated us like that. Everyone showed such great hospitality before and after our set. It was just such a fun time.
KONNOR: Louis’s team was so nice to us and so welcoming; it made the whole thing so easy. We’re just big thankful.
JACK: Yes, big thankful.
TREVOR: From the fans to the team, and literally everyone involved in that festival was top-notch. We could not be more grateful.
SOUND STAGE: Do guys want to start doing more festivals?
JACK: Oh yeah, absolutely,
GARRETT: I think that was the immediate feeling for me after we got off stage. I was just like, “Oh my gosh, I want to do 100 more of these.”
KONNOR: This is actually the second festival we have done. The first one we did only had about 20 people, though, so this was our first big one.
SOUND STAGE: Over the past year, you guys have been playing a lot of live shows and releasing a lot of singles. “Turning Red” has personally been on repeat for me. What can we expect in the future?
KONNOR: You can expect a Christmas song later this year! It is a song that has been in the chamber for about two years now, so we are excited about that. Every year, we also do Lightyear, which you can expect to be bigger and better this year. We will be playing a lot of our new music at that show and giving a sneak peek of our next era.
GARRETT: Yeah, expect a lot of new shows and more content from us!
SOUND STAGE: That all sounds super exciting! Thanks so much for talking with us today, can’t wait to hear what’s next!
