And they still talk to the kids. Before the Avalon show, Alex and lead guitarist Nate Patterson were outside hanging with those loyal fans in line. Although they’re now big enough to headline Avalon, TREOS haven’t forgotten where they got their start: Nate chatted with those fans about playing the Norwood American Legion.
Non-stop touring and burgeoning popularity haven’t come without some major inner-band strife. Casey Crescenzo, who played guitar and keyboards and sang, left the group in May. “We were just different people,” says drummer Andrew Cook, “and it got to the point where it was like, ‘All right, this really isn’t working. We’re either going to break up or we need to figure out what the problem is.’ ” TREOS were no strangers to losing members: early on, frontman Ben Potrykus left because of the increased attention and the pressure of touring. The band took a brief break, Crescenzo joined, and they recorded that three-song EP and kept moving. “It’s like breaking up with your girlfriend,” Cook goes on. “You still love each other on that certain level, but it’s really hard to talk for a while.” At Avalon, it was clear that they’re also handling the loss of Crescenzo.
So what do you do when you’re back in Boston and have some time off? (They head to Europe in October.) You write and record new material. Cook says, “It should be a lot different. Some of the songs we’re playing now are three years old.” With Boston native Matt Squire set to produce (he worked with them on their debut, and he also has Thrice, Northstar, and Rhode Isanders Monty Are I on his résumé), they expect the next album to have a more electronic feel, even without Crescenzo’s keyboards. Cook: “With the last record, we’d written a lot of the songs before Casey had been in there, so a lot of the electronics came as afterthoughts, just to complement the songs. Now, we have the privilege of being able to base a song around the electronics or write an electronic song.” But he adds, “It’s definitely going to be a rock record.”
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