Hailing from their hometown of Ocean City, Maryland, and now residing in Nashville, TN, The Swell Fellas honed their craft at beer drenched bars and college parties. The three old friends took lessons from their early days of improvising extensive riff heavy jams, and formed a dark, refreshing sound that will have you riding a wave of intense meditation into soaring musical crescendos. In 2020, the band released The Big Grand Entrance in January, three song EP The Great Play of Extension in April, single Death Race in August. After an intensive early 2022 tour schedule supporting All Them Witches, The Swell Fellas gear up to release new EP, Novaturia, on June 17th, 2022.
This power trio is made up of a pair of brothers, Conner and Chris Poole (guitar and drums respectively) with their longtime friend, Mark Rohrer, a rock guitarist who they begged to buy bass gear. Growing out of their homemade backyard studio in MD, the band is pushed forward by Rohrer’s brand of melodic bass playing, wailing lead guitar with dynamic instrumental effects, and an underscore of wonderfully technical drumming. And so, the trio have distilled their personal chemistry into something greater than the sum of its parts. With larger than life lyrics inspired by the ebbs and flows of their personal lives, the band remains surprisingly grounded for a group who are so prone to exploration.
After countless nights spent in Walmart parking lots with their 91’ chevy van, highway breakdowns, and rented uHaul’s, the band is building a reputation for packing out clubs across the East coast. Eschewing tropes of stoner and psych bands in the scene today, these small-town east coasters are in it for the long haul with their seemingly unpredictable compositions and an insatiable hunger for the road.