High Dive

***HIGH DIVE is the new three-piece Queer punk band from RYAN WOODS of DEFIANCE, OHIO. "I first saw TOBY play solo songs August of 2009. I was touring a lot at the time with Defiance, Ohio and we were seeing a lot of solo guitar players, but there was sincerity to his music that we were all really attracted to. It wasn’t long before we were spending most of our time together and he became a regular guest on Defiance, Ohio tours. Toby moved to Bloomington from Chicago. For years, THEO HILTON (Defiance, Ohio / NANA GRIZOL) and I had found it difficult to talk about the issues of being queer in our songs. It was something that was really important to us. Toby seemed to have a real strength for expressing his feelings on those topics and along with our friend, CLYDE PETERSEN (YOUR HEART BREAKS) we all found a greater voice for speaking about our experiences being queer. That relationship lead to some small tours and a 4-way split release LP on Talking Helps Records from Seattle. It included new and previously released solo songs by Toby, Clyde and Theo along with Defiance, Ohio and Nana Grizol songs we felt to be relevant. It also included two songs from a band Toby and I had started not long before called HIGH DIVE. We were really excited by the energy of some of our good friends three piece pop-punk bands like Songs for Moms, The Max Levine Ensemble, Delay and Vacation. We had known NICK ROMY for years and as soon as we played the few songs we had already written, it seemed to click into place. Nick is the kind of person who can play almost any instrument, is always in about a half-dozen bands at any given time and was one of our best friends. Our history so far has been that of mostly a lot of time in Nick’s basement working on these songs, lots of local shows and a very short tour with Songs for Moms. We are very excited to release this LP and take some time away from our day to day to travel and get to play these songs for old friends and new folks we will meet along the way."—Ryan Woods. LP includes a download.