SoCal alt-rockers Ridgeway dropped their LP, Wall Of Stars on 15 December. To celebrate the record, the band has agreed to join us in our latest Roll of the Dice interview series.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! Congrats on the release of the new LP. What should our readers know about the band, your history and your sound?
We started making music in that weird emo alternative tumblr era. We were young and grew up from there musically. Above all we are friends and after about 11 years of being a band and being glued to each others lives our music is coming out the exact way it wants to. It’s a living thing.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst for your musical journey?
Early on the band Alaska really inspired us. A group of people who really took control of their destination as a diy rock band. I think that band made a huge impact on the way we make and deliver our art. Everything is hands on and a team effort and we really only work with people we think are cool. That band doesnt exist anymore but we’ll never forget the grind that they showed the scene back then.
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
One time time we got scammed out of multiple thousands of dollars by the hot shot pop punk producer🐼. We were young and ambitious and way over our heads and we got taken advantage of. But there’s a learning lesson in it. Since then we really only work with people we trust and are friends with. That’s almost the only rule of how we operate since then. I really regret cash apping all of my savings to that man damn.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences within the music scene so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
The most memorable are always those check off the list moments. From the first out of state show to the first time on the east coast. Those are the highlights in my mind looking back on our time doing this thing. Last year we got asked to play with Finch as direct support and that was crazy. Something like 1600 elder emos watched me have gear problems and they still loved it and gassed us up and bought shirts. That was sick. Also one person got our lyrics tattooed across their chest. Nuts.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?
Some bands from the West Coast are Bug Bath, Pure Hex, Pop Free, Marni, and Suzie TrueSome non-West Coast bands are Prize Horse, Gollylagging, Seer Believer, Day Aches, and Only Sibling
What’s next for Ridgeway?
Release this record and hope some people out there connect with it. If some of them do we’d love to go and play it for them. Hopefully we can get some more east coast tours going for this year and fingers crossed for overseas tours.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
We covered a lot but mostly these days we want music and traveling to be fun. It’s hard, but possible! Being in a touring band can be challenging for all of our personal lives. But we all love this so much. So as long as people wanna come to shows we’ll keep grinding. And we’ll try to do it bigger and better each time. More people should get Ridgeway tattoos because then we would feel bad if we stopped rockin’.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
