In The Pines is a touring music collective based in Cincinnati, OH. The band consists of Michael Shular (lead vocals/guitar), Charlie Horn (lead guitar), Patrick Zopff (lead vocals/ bass), Alex Dungan (drums/vocals), and Peter Foley (synthesizers). Formed in 2016 by childhood friends Shular and Horn, the band added Zopff and Dungan the following year and has since cultivated an idiosyncratic writing style that draws upon a “variety of tones and colours of blues and psychedelic music throughout the ages” (Citybeat Magazine). Foley’s addition in 2021 has further introduced new textures and possibilities to the band’s sound. The group has shared stages with bands such as Acid Dad, Stuyedeyed, WHY?, and Soccer Mommy and toured throughout the United States playing shows and festivals including Nelsonville Music Festival in September 2022.
After spending five years writing, recording, and touring self-released music that weaves together psychedelia, prog rock, and beyond, Soul Step Records released the band’s LP Slow Blink in January 2020. “Evoking images of sun-blasted desert plains and everlasting blue skies” (Atwood Magazine), this release was mixed and mastered by Dalton Allison of Post Animal and features Graham Holthaus on saxophone. Notably, the record marked the beginning of a new era for the group with Soul Step Records as their new label home.
In November 2020, the band recorded its next album, Impossible Daze, in Rock Island, IL at Future Apple Tree Studio with Daytrotter Studios founding member and lead engineer, Patrick Stolley. Recorded in just seven days onto 8-track tape, this album’s creative constraints resulted in a dynamic, soulful, and heartfelt album that pulls from jazz, folk, psychedelic rock, and more. Ambient and nostalgic, this album “could very well be an Americana music history class” (Also Cool Magazine), demonstrating the wide breadth of multi-genre mastery that In The Pines possesses. Moreover, Impossible Daze’s thematic exploration of companionship, self doubt, and romantic love is both heartwarming and refreshing in its unflinching sincerity. Following the album’s successful release in January 2022 via Soul Step Records, In The Pines further garnered nationwide attention with Impossible Daze debuting at #140 on the NACC Top 200 and reaching Top 30 status at numerous independent radio stations all across the U.S.
Wide-eyed and longing, In The Pines creates its own sacred geometry of rock. Through unexpected collisions of psychedelia, prog rock, shoegaze, and blues, the band decorates a sprawling sonic landscape with lyrics and melodies that walk a tightrope of restless, youthful exploration and mystical profundity.
