Introducing: Ravenswood

Stoner rockers Ravenswood are true OGs of the grunge scene, given that guitarist Chad was lucky enough to have seen Nirvana play live in Seattle before their debut album Bleach dropped. And the band have crafted a dank and moody, seriously low-tuned (B-standard) stoner rock sound that’s deliciously more-ish and they describe as “Lovecraftian post-Sludge.”

The Tacoma-based band first formed when guitarist Chad Baker, a seasoned veteran of the Seattle/Tacoma scene since the early grunge days and the “Unc” of the band, met vocalist and guitarist Ash de Choudens, when she played in a band called Kyberox. Chad had played in a couple of bands that attracted local attention, including sludge duo Mico de Noche, before High On Fire and Argonaut, while Ash had a similar history of playing in local bands without ever really having one to call her own. The duo wrote a handful of songs together just before the pandemic but, after the lockdowns lifted, they found bassist Tony Copeland and drummer Jeremy Hutton to complete the lineup.

And on the sound they’ve honed since, Chad told us: “We just placed an ad for the album in a local zine, and I called it ‘down-tuned, fuzzed-out, female-fronted, stoner-doom.’ It’s hard to boil it down to a soundbite, but that gets you in the ballpark. The guide post that we’re always aiming for is that the music has to grab you by the plums. The song has to pay off with a part that connects your head to your spine to your pelvis and compels you to lock in and nod to the riff with us. So it’s about super heavy tones in the guitars and rhythm section, with Ash’s vocals defining the melody.”

Our first taste of this is their six-track debut album Rites of the Let Down, which was released in August and from which they sent us the penultimate track Holler Knows. It opens up with a filthy guitar tone that continues under a light guitar loop and Ash’s laid-back vocals. The atmosphere builds as a faster guitar riff comes in and Ash’s vocals intensify, which drops into lighter guitars as Ash’s delicious high-pitched vocals continue. Another chorus drops into a flitting little guitar lick, then a little pause ahead of a cool little sludgy bass, guitar and cymbal mashup. The pace slows and picks up again as the vocals return, before a darting lick and a fun high-pitched guitar solo that fades away to bring the track to a calming conclusion.

“The reception has been great so far. We’re just looking to get the song out to more sets of ears because we think it’s a good one. Sometimes when you’re in the studio banging out tracks, one of them just starts to take on a glow. Our engineer turned to us after we mixed it and said ‘that’s the one.’ The first time we played Holler Knows live on a big stage at the Spanish Ballroom in Tacoma, I got chills. That’s a good sign.

“We don’t really do short songs, and this one has a bit of a slow build to it, but it pays off really nicely with a heavy breakdown section in the middle and a soaring solo that fades gently into the outro. It’s a whole journey.”

The Rites of the Let Down album is packed with more sludgy stoner rock goodness. That includes the delicious Oath of the Stream, the dark and mysterious Where You Won’t Be, the groove-laden title track that clocks in at nearly nine minutes long and features all manner of filthy riffage, and the typically epic final track Solid Psychonaut, which brings the album to a deliciously sludgy conclusion.

On the album, Chad told us: “We started out recording these songs with the intent to just do a quick demo so that we could book some shows and start getting our name out there. As were were building the songs in the studio and layering up the guitars and vocals, we started feeling like the recording was quite strong. Initially, we planned to just throw it up on Bandcamp as a digital release, but we had some really great art that our friends provided, so I decided to do a limited edition CD run and see how people responded. So far, it’s been very positively received.

“It’s about 35 minutes, so right in the sweet spot between a short album and a long EP. There’s a lot of variety here, which is something that I personally think is missing from a lot of bands in the stoner-ish genre lately. It kicks off with a shorter song that’s more angular and jagged feeling, then slides into some heavier songs with a deep head-nodding groove and big, thick warm tones from the guitars. Riffs that just envelop you like a weighted blanket. I don’t think we squarely fit into one specific genre, and I know every band likes to think they’re special, but it is intentional here. I don’t listen to a ton of stoner rock bands, apart from the other locals. I feel like it’s better to experience influences outside your niche and bring those in, drawing from a broader range of influences.”

As Chad alludes to, the Ravenswood sound draws influence from a massively wide range of musical styles. For example, Chad listens to everything from forgotten 80s bands and synthwave to Fleetwood Mac’s blues records and Ethiopian jazz (hands up who knew that was a thing?) While Ash is big into modern pop, hip-hop, and stoner rock, Tony listens to a lot of new heavy rock, stoner and doom bands, and Jeremy’s music tastes remain secretive but he’s in another modern rock band with retrowave influences.

To dig in further, Chad tells us: ” I grew up listening to top 40 radio and had an awakening to guitar rock when I was 11 and heard Journey’s Separate Ways on dad’s new stereo. That was like a gateway drug. From there I got into Def Leppard and Quiet Riot, then Maiden and Metallica, then thrash… Slayer, Anthrax, all that. That’s when I bought a bass and started playing along with Steve Harris riffs.

“One of my buddies in high school was a slightly older senior who got me into some of the emerging ‘alternative/underground’ of the mid to late 80s. He would make me tapes of Bad Brains, Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden’s early stuff. He and I formed a couple bof ands with our friends in the early 90s and got more into the indie scene, Amphetamine Reptile-style noise-rock stuff. We tried to sound like Jesus Lizard, Unsane, Melvins – and then later more stoner revival bands like Kyuss and Monster Magnet.”

And on what inspires them to write music, Chad added: “Ravenswood is named after the town in West Virginia that I lived in as a child. It’s right around the bend from Point Pleasant, where the Mothman legend takes place. When we formed this band, I had a loose concept about things lurking in the woods of Appalachia. Those are some of the oldest mountains on Earth. Older than old. I wanted to tap into that sort of Lovecraftian feeling of timeless otherworldly-ness. First season of the X-Files type stuff. Our friend Damien captured that vibe really well in our album art. It shows a narrow path through a dark forest where you can just make out shapes of things watching from the woods.

“I write music because it moves me so deeply. It’s one thing to be a fan, but another thing to bring music to life. And to know that someone out there could be listening to a CD I released in one of my college bands. It could be a soundtrack to part of their life, the way that all that other music is part of my life. It’s eternal, you know, I like that thought. I’m sitting here listening to Benny Goodman’s version of Sing Sing Sing 90 years later, and it still absolutely slaps. Maybe in a hundred years someone searching for water in an irradiated bunker will find our files in an archive and press play.”

Ravenswood are focused on getting their music out to new ears, having spent last the few years crafting their first set of songs. They love to play gigs, so they’re on the lookout for bands to partner with, and they’re eyeing up heading across to British Columbia (in Canada) for some shows, as long as border patrol lets them back in.

And Chad added: “Everything else you need to know about us you can find by listening to the album or reaching out to us. We’re always happy to talk music or gear with anyone. That’s honestly one of my favorite things about playing music. The community of other musicians and fans. I love it when people come up after shows and nerd out about gear, tone, their feelings about the music, or telling us about their favorite bands. We have some non-standard gear. I play an Electrical Guitar Company acrylic guitar with an aluminum neck in the shape of a Les Paul. It has massive tonal range, from ultra bright to deep and rumbly. Ash plays this crazy Frankenstein guitar that’s part Tele with like SG pickups. Verellen, Marshall, and Sunn amps. We tune really low, B-standard, and I play guitar through a massive 4×15″ bass cabinet. It weighs an ungodly amount, but big riffs need big cabs.”

You can follow Ravenswood on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp and Apple Music.