Band of the Week: Dearest

Welcome to Orlando Weekly's "Band of the Week." Every week, we highlight one of our favorite local bands. This week, we're pleased to bring you Dearest.

Dearest is playing Will's Pub on Thursday, March 29.

Just the facts:

When did the band form?
Sometime in early 2016. After going through an intense, several-year-long depression and suddenly finding myself in a much better place, I wrote a couple of songs that I felt confident enough to actually show to people instead of just anonymously uploading to Soundcloud.

Who's in the band?
Dearest up until recently has been my solo project, and I’ve played guitar and synths on the songs.

Currently available releases:

Websites:
Facebook
Bandcamp

Describe your sound in five words:
Smooth, ambient, feel good jams

Five questions:

What has been your most memorable show so far?
Opening for Perfume Genius. Being able to play the Social was cool enough. But Perfume Genius has been one of my favorite bands for years, and Mike Hadreas is a personal hero of mine. Without a doubt, one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Which local band is your favorite one to play a show with?
Volcanist. I feel like our sounds are both complementary to each other and they’re all really great dudes.

What description gets used for your band that you would most
like to correct people on? Why?
Nothing really comes to mind, in all honesty. People always come up to me, telling me how the shows make them feel and I love the variety of experiences I’ve heard. Mostly I’ve heard people say something along the lines of they “could fall asleep to it, but in a good way”.

What’s your favorite thing about being an Orlando band? What's your least favorite? Why?
Favorite: Orlando has a scene that’s at this wonderful size that allows for a lot of diversity in the acts, but people still know each other. Bands, event people, bartenders, everyone is on the same page.

Least favorite: Florida in general is so far from the rest of the country geographically that it makes it difficult to meet and perform with a lot of larger touring bands, simply because they don’t come here as often as other places. That, or the lack of all ages venues/shows. Let the kids have fun.

Any big news to share?
Dearest is becoming a full band! Bringing on Jacob Young of Featuring Humans on bass, and Noah Gordon of Volcanist on drums. Our first show together will be April 16 at 64 North.