Artist Spotlight: Massing
Courtesy of Hunter Way
West Virginia natives Heath Holley and Robb Coleman formed Massing in 2018. The Appalachian Preservation Project is proud to present Massing as this week’s artist spotlight.
How did Massing come together as a band? How long have you been together?
Robb Coleman and I (Heath Holley) both met in college at Marshall University in a graphic design class. We were in different bands at the time, but after getting to know each other a little bit, we decided to start making songs together in the basement of the Visual Arts Center. Which was kind of difficult, because it was just one big ass concrete room and people would come down pretty frequently in the elevator to get snacks out of the vending machine. We recorded our first EP “Happy So Bad” in that basement, but I think we knew from the first single “Do the Right Thing” that we had something pretty special.
What are the backgrounds of each of the members?
I (Heath) was in a band called The Dividends when Massing first started. We were active for about 2 or 3 years and played a lot around WV, OH, and KY. Around that same time, I was in school for graphic design, and I was serving tables and booking music at a little sandwich/pizza shop called The Press Club. Over time I got more into that line of work on the side, helping out with the Huntington Music and Arts Festival, planning The Localization Pop Up Show, and now booking shows at The Loud. It’s helped me a lot with doing the more managerly/booking side of Massing.
I (Robb) grew up closer to the Charleston area, and was fully enamored with local metal bands in my high school years – an infatuation I still carry to this day. I started playing shows around 2013 with Letters, and eventually joined a handful of other groups (primarily Youth and Time & Distance) for the next few years until Heath and I started writing music together in 2018. We decided to go full-DIY and record/mix everything ourselves since Massing was just a low-stakes side project at the time, leading me to eventually start recording and mixing for a ton of other local artists.
Corey Zornes, our guitarist, joined our band pretty early on. We met Corey back in The Press Club days while he was playing solo shows there pretty frequently. Robb and I loved his songwriting and the way he played guitar. He carries this sort of nice creative zing that no one else around our area is quite hitting, and it felt like something we could definitely mold into the sound of Massing at the time. He brings a LOT of character to the sound of our live set. Now we actually rearrange our whole band to back him for his shows too! So if you ever see Corey Zornes on a bill, come check it out!
I’ve known Jeffrey McClelland since high school, just from going to house shows that his band at the time, Goodbye Utah, would play. That band eventually became Feverwar, which is a band everyone should check out and listen to. But Jeffrey’s played in like 900 bands that all of us have known and loved at some point or another, whether it’s Feverwar, Of the Dell, The Dead Frets, or whoever. Jeffrey’s kind of always been around in that way. But once the world exploded in 2020, we asked Jeffrey to be our drummer and he was foolish enough to say yes.
Pino (or Anthony if he’s in trouble) is our bassist. I’ve probably known Pino adjacently since I was in middle school. He was good friends with my best friend’s older brother. So he’d be around their house while I was there sometimes, but we never really got to know each other or hang out. He played bass in a band with Jeffrey and our friend Walter Brendler called A Fish Named Reggie back in the Black Sheep open mic days. I actually got A Fish Named Reggie to play on my aunt’s balcony for my high school graduation party. We recruited Pino at about the same time as Jeffrey when shows kicked back up after 2020.
Courtesy of Hunter Way
What is the inspiration behind the name "Massing?"
We tried to keep this a secret for awhile, but we’re bad at that, and there’s also not really any good reason to keep it a secret. When Robb and I were in college and we were writing/recording that first single, we would have conversations about what this band or project should be called. We liked the idea of it sounding like a proper noun or someone’s last name, so naturally we just started listing off the last names of our professors. I think “Hagarty” and “Grassel” were probably in the running before we remembered that our most insane professor was retiring that semester and moving to Florida. So we were like, “why not ‘Massing?’”
What artists are currently inspiring the band?
Robb and I share a few favorite artists I know have definitely inspired our writing before, like Fall Out Boy, Remi Wolf, Still Woozy, Rozwell Kid, etc. It’s hard for me to say what’s inspiring me right now as far as Massing goes, because we haven’t been writing a ton lately, although we’re planning on it soon! I think everything I listen to inspires my writing in some way or another, but it might be a reach for me to tell you that the new 100 Gecs album is going to end up heavily influencing the next Massing release. You never know though! Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Dijon, Snail Mail, and the new Dougie Poole album.
I (Robb) have had that new Danny Brown/JPEGmafia project on repeat lately, as well as the new Paramore album and Tyler, the Creator’s Estate Sale. After knowing their name since high school, I started listening to The Chariot this year and have been stuck on their last album One Wing for a few months now. I take a lot of inspiration from specific beats/rhythms as well as chords, so I think that stuff tends to creep in through the percussion arrangements and the bridges/chord progressions of our songs.
How would you describe the band's sound/style?
We’ve always had a little bit of trouble answering this, because we’ve tried a lot of things that didn’t always stick. At our core, we’re a pop/rock band, which is very vague. We sometimes refer to ourselves as “bedroom pop” because that’s a cool trendy thing to say on the internet when you’re writing your music from your computer screen, but it also leaves a lot of room for fresh creativity and genre blending. I’d say there’s a lot of alternative/emo and funk/r&b influence woven in there as well, but with everything we write and record (which is 99% of the time written between Robb and I from our computers,) we try to do it with pop sensibility, while also considering the question “how are we going to eventually play this live with guitars and a drum kit?” It also should go without saying that on our recorded material (especially our first two EPs,) there is a TON of hip-hop influence in the production, from the drum sounds and beats to the overall mixing style. At the end of the day, we basically dump a bevy of influences into a musical blender, and if we can listen to a finished song and say “damn son this rips,” then it’s fair game to put on a Massing album.
Courtesy of Hunter Way
How do you hope your music impacts people?
I think on the surface of our music up to this point, we’ve wanted to give off this notion that we’re prioritizing a good time. The music should be fun and good and make you excited that you’re listening to it. But we also love to subtly subvert that feeling with some introspection laced in here and there, usually through slipping in some downer lyrics disguised behind a more upbeat-sounding instrumental – but we’re not super into lingering on those things. We kinda like to slap in a poignant climax or general theme, and tie it up in a nice bow that leaves you feeling like your life is still worth living. Robb and I really admire that aspect of Rozwell Kid’s music. This is probably most apparent in our songs “Onto” or “Daisies,” and also most contradicted in the absolute bummer of a song “Go Away.” You really never know when we’re going to throw you for a loop.
What life experiences inform your music?
For Massing, I think the biggest thing that affected mine and Robb’s songwriting was quarantine in 2020. With all the time on our hands, we launched this harebrained scheme called “Massing’s Big Ass Song Sale” where we took songwriting requests for $20 per song. You could send us $20 and a prompt for a song, and then we’d write, record, mix, master a 30 sec-1 min song, and post it to our social media pages. It was an absolute master class in selling yourself short, but also in how to efficiently write and record a good song. We ended up writing about 150 songs over the span of 8-9 months. When it wasn’t mind numbingly stressful, it was really fun. There are admittedly some stinkers in that collection, but the majority of them are solid, and the really good ones are still worth going back and listening to. A few of them even left enough of an impression on us to return to and rework into new songs for our most recent EP, Nothin’ to Fear. (All of those songs are available to listen to on our bandcamp, by the way!)
More specifically, we try to write a lot about what we know. Our first EP was written in college, so a lot of it was about not having enough money, not having enough time, not getting enough sleep, being hungover, etc. Our second EP, Wahoo, was written at a time when Robb and I were both dating around, close to graduating out of art school, etc. So a lot of those songs naturally have to do with love, acceptance, and the feeling of aimlessness. Our third and most recent EP, Nothin’ to Fear, was written coming out of quarantine. We were fresh out of songwriting hell and eager to write a new EP, and while threads of anxiety and aimlessness found their way in as always, we ended up writing a lot about time passing, getting older, and being afraid of starting new chapters in life. We were still writing lovey/datey/relationship songs like Lemon Jose, but began to infuse a healthy dose of existential dread with songs like Life Rocks and Daisies. The aimlessness came out in songs like Go Away, Flattery, and Onto. All of those themes kind of bleed into one another on this EP, and I think it’s a pretty cohesive release because of that.
What is the importance of collaborating and engaging with fellow Appalachia-based musicians?
We’re big proponents of supporting artists close to home. Some of our favorite songs in the world were written by musicians who are local to us. Our music scene is amazing, but it’s hard to say it’s fully thriving when you can zoom out and look at neighboring scenes in places like Louisville, Lexington, Columbus, etc. We probably utilize the coveted “feature” as a tool in our music more than most pop/rock bands, but it’s a great way to collaborate and share your audience with another artist.
Are you currently touring? Where can people find your show dates?
Touring isn’t the word I’d use. We’re occasional weekend warriors right now, but you can find those dates at massingwv.com/tour
Are you working on a recording project? If so, tell me about it.
We’re currently working on a live EP of full band performances (our first release to feature the full band on every song) that should be out later this year. We’ve been slowly working on another release as a sort of sister EP to Nothin’ to Fear for over a year now that will also be out sometime (later) this year. We’re always writing new songs and have plans for a full-length release, but haven’t officially initiated that process yet. Soon!
Courtesy of Hunter Way
