New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ The Temp Agency) After a decade fronting desert dance rock band Fight the Quiet (Clear Channel's Artist to Watch alongside
Mumford & Sons and Neon Trees, FUSE TV's Artist of the Month, with songs featured on MTV & VH1), Dohse knew it was time to change things up and strike out on his own.
He had relocated from Flagstaff to Nashville in an exodus rooted in restlessness. Written prior to his move to Nashville, the songs on Old Roads capture this desire to make the leap toward something greater, and to stop searching for new opportunities along the same old rutted roads. "These songs reference my love for the road and my desire to run away from home or possibly find 'home.' Old roads lead to the same old places. In Nashville, I finally found some new ones."
Most of the tracks were incorporated into Fight the Quiet's final release, but as Dohse told Emily Weiner in an interview with the entertainment weekly from his old stomping ground, Flagstaff Live, he never thought these songs would be released under Fight The Quiet's name. "It's more personal and introspective," he says. These songs, exploring personal struggles, dark moments, and small town life, are now getting a proper release in this 5-song debut EP Old Roads, out on
September 9th - this marks Dohse's solo debut and is the first of four EPs to be released quarterly over the next year.
Nashville's new roads have brought fresh opportunities to connect with a thriving community of musicians. Dohse performed earlier this year at International Pop Overthrow Nashville 2014 and has found early support from producer J. Hall (Young the Giant, Saving Abel, The Delta Saints, The Glorious Unseen, Taddy Porter), with whom he had teamed up to record the songs on Old Roads.
Enamored of "
Something"-era
George Harrison and rooted in a coming-of-age period marked by the music of Copeland, The Juliana Theory, and Dashboard Confessional, Dohse's songwriting is a compelling blend of alternative, emo, and Americana.
Old Roads captures a moment in time in which Dohse's underlying drive is toward motion and away from the ruts that can turn into a trap. It's a "before" picture in an ongoing transformation, a narrative of growth, with three subsequent EPs to follow quarterly.
"Nashville brings a lot of opportunity to any aspiring musician," says Dohse. "But for me, it brought healing and a clean slate."
Tour Dates:
7/16/14: Nashville, TN - The End
7/23/14: Memphis, TN - Kudzu's Bar
7/24/14: Norman, OK - Red Brick Bar
7/25/14: Denton, TX - The Whitehouse
7/26/14: Dallas, TX - Coffehouse Cafe
7/30/14: Tucson, AZ - Monterey Court
7/31/14: Tempe, AZ - Fiftyone West
8/1/14: Tempe, AZ - Yucca Tap Room
8/2/14: Flagstaff, AZ - Firecreek Coffee
8/7/14: Denver, CO - Meadowlark
8/8/14: Kansas City, MO - The Tank Room
8/9/14: St. Louis, MO - Plush
8/13/14: Nashville, TN - The East Room