Halfstack Highlights: Ep. 53 - Meet Chicago's New Dream Folk Band

Musicians Sam Brownson, Oliver Horton, and Jake Hawrylack first met as undergrads at Knox College in Galesburg, IL.  The three multi-instrumentalists collaborated on various student and side projects but then went their separate ways upon graduation.  Later they each migrated to Chicago drawn by the City’s musical roots.  After jamming together on different projects, the three formed Sedgewick in late 2013.  Chalk up another win for the Windy City muses.

Their successful live shows prompted Newcity to name Sedgewick “Best new folk music act of 2014”.  After the release of their debut EP, Garden, Obscure Sound called the band “Masters of emotionally stirring songwriting”.  Clearly Sedgewick had something going on.

The collaborative spirit that the three musicians implemented back in college has continued with Sedgewick.  “We definitely have a democratic philosophy when it comes to running the band,” explains Horton. “We each bring ideas to the group to work on together.  This extends to our unique live set up, where we all set up together at center stage as opposed to the more traditional band set up with a front man surrounded by other musicians and the drummer in back on a riser.”  Sedgewick’s unique live set up of guitar pedals, synth, upright bass, and vocal harmonies combine influences from electronica, alt rock, and their deep roots in folk music.

The members of Sedgewick have evolved as they continue their musical journey.  They define their genre as dream-folk.  With a strong musical trust in each other, Brownson, Horton, and Hawrylack are not afraid to take musical risks.  The band recently performed a live version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.  This musical evolution is evident with Sedgewick’s latest CD, Collapse, scheduled to be released at a CD release show at Burlington Bar on November 10. 2017. 

The members of Sedgewick sat down with guest host Louis Vasseur for an interview on HalfStack Highlights.  During the interview, the band members discuss Sedgewick’s evolution, their musical influences, and the new CD.  Here is the link to the HalfStack Highlights podcast interview:

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To learn more about Sedgewick and the music, visit www.sedgewickmusic.com. 

We hope you enjoyed this latest episode of Halfstack Highlights. If you are interested in learning more about Sedgwick, listening to some tracks, or finding out about upcoming show dates – visit them online at sedgewickmusic.com – You can also downloading their latest album collapse on itunes and check out more tracks on bandcamp and spotify. While you are online make sure you stop by halfstackmag.com and keep up with us on all social media with the handle @halfstackmag. If you like what we are doing, please take a moment to leave a review for our podcast on iTunes. This will help our episodes to get noticed and allow us to continue to create the content you enjoy listening to and that we are passionate about. Thanks for your support!