Dean Roland, of the famous musical getup Collective Soul, has added a side project to his impressive résumé: the band Magnets and Ghosts, which will be making a stop in Tuscaloosa on its summer tour.
The band consists of Roland and Ryan Potesta and their instrumentalists Will Flowers and Taylor White, who were added for the tour.
Roland and Potesta have been working together musically for few years now.
“Ryan and I started having writing sessions almost three years ago, which turned into studio sessions. We are now embarking on our third stage, which is going on tour,” Roland said.
Magnets and Ghosts will be playing music from its debut album “Mass,” released in November 2011.
“Fundamentally, it’s rock music, but it’s a little more atmospheric,” Roland said. “It’s still melody and guitar. It’s definitely not hard rock stuff. We are inspired mostly by personal experience, relationships, deaths and addiction issues. We try to keep it real and write about things we know.”
Though Magnets and Ghosts is a fairly new band, Roland and Potesta are no strangers to music and performing.
“I’m also in a band called Collective Soul, [and] Ryan went to Berkley school of music in Boston,” Roland said. “We started working together with Collective Soul once he graduated. We’ve mostly performed small bars and venues, which will be the case with the tour too, but we’re making it more extensive.”
The “Light My Flame” tour will be the band’s touring debut, and they will play venues in cities nationwide including New Orleans, La., Philadelphia, Penn., New York City and Washington, D.C. They will close in their hometown of Atlanta, Ga.
“We think it’ll be fun to get out and tour with this band,” Roland said. “I like the Northeast, and I lived in New York for a while, so I have a lot of good friends there. Atlanta is always good because it’s the hometown, and we’re excited about playing Tuscaloosa for the first time as well. We’re super excited to play our music live because the songs will take on a life of their own.”
Magnets and Ghosts will be performing along with Nashville, Tenn., native rock band Sound and Shape and Tuscaloosa’s own Organic Androids.
Sound and Shape is a three-member progressive rock band that has been performing since 2005. Band members Ryan Caudle, David Somerall and Allen Jones have toured heavily, performing over 400 shows in three years. The band’s music has gained national recognition from their tour and with their release of their album “Where Machines End Their Lives” as well as their EPs, “The Love Electric,” “Hourglass” and “Now Comes the Mystery.”
Local band Organic Androids is comprised of six members: Jeremy Holder, Justin Hammonds, Skylar Bush, Drew Shelnutt, John McNair and Grant Bramlett. The band combines elements of hip-hop, classical, electronica and funk to create its one-of-a-kind sound.
Green Bar’s event coordinator David Allen said he really enjoys the Organic Androids’ fresh sound.
“The band is among the most ambitious in T-Town,” Allens said. “Everything is really tight. You can tell they work hard at it. Their sound feels familiar yet completely new. They’re definitely of this era. Like Grimes, St. Vincent, their foundation is hip-hop.”
