The Lost Wheels

The Lost Wheels fuse together old-school American blues with up-tempo Australian pub rock – combining a hint of funk and a heavy dose of slide guitar. Formed in 2011, under both strange and familiar circumstances, the band’s early line-up is mixed with serendipitous encounters. After leaving his original home of Gulgong, Australia in 2010, lead singer Dan Warner landed his old-timey rock sound in Minnesota, where he connected up with fellow Minnetonka neighbor and guitarist Walt Kruhoffer.

After almost a year of acoustic covers gigs and several failed attempts at recruiting a full band, a Craigslist ad answered by bassist Pat Kilcrease, who’d recently moved from New York to Minnesota, linked Walt and Patrick together. Another Craigslist ad coincidentally brought drummer Brian Rubin–also a recent New York-to-Minnesota transplant–into the mix. By fall of 2011, the early lineup of The Lost Wheels was set and the band began to write what would eventually become the Chipper EP recordings. However, a job opportunity took Pat back to the east coast leading Walt to recruit longtime high-school friend Evan Clark, a jack-of-all-instruments who was earning his Master’s in tuba from the University of Minnesota.

The foursome played their first show in February of 2012 and independently released their debut EP Chipper in early September. By the end of fall the band earned rave reviews in the Star Tribune, had songs played on WCCO Radio and KFAI FM, and made their TV debut on TPT-2 Twin Cities Public Television. Looking to further expand the band’s sound, Evan moved from bass to keyboards which paved the way for another high school friend, Daniel J. Scott, to assume the bass guitar role.

In January of 2013 the band headed into The Brewhouse recording studio in Minneapolis to record their first full-length album, Rule for a Day. Due to job complications, Evan was called away from the band shortly after completing the Rule For a Day recordings. With an open keyboard spot to fill, The Lost Wheels recruited yet another longtime friend from Walt and Dan Scott’s high school days – Andrew Frederick, a talented multi-instrumentalist. With the lineup set, The Lost Wheels are continuing the drive ahead after their independent release of their first full-length album, Rule for a Day on October 26, 2013.