Edison Hollow sternly warns about a pending demise on “Body’s Guest.”

The Detroit hard-rock quartet of Tyler Chernoff (vocals, guitar), Jordon Stockdale (lead guitar), David Vida (bass) and Aaryn Lindow (drums) confronts a friend about destructive behaviors on their new cautionary single and video.

An impenetrable force of steadfast electric guitars, bass and drums protect Chernoff as he sings, “Your pride will be what kills you / You just can’t let it go / Oh no time left to convince you / You got nothing to show / So much time spent / Your body’s guest.”

We recently chatted with Edison Hollow about their new release as well as their background, previous album and singles, live shows and upcoming plans.

New Single and Video 

TSS: Your new single, “Body’s Guest,” chronicles a person’s unwillingness to face the consequences of their actions. What initially inspired this track for you sonically and thematically?

Edison Hollow: Musically, “Body’s Guest” was a step forward for us as a band and as songwriters. We had a riff from Jordon [Stockdale], and we built the rest of it together, just doing what felt right to us. Lyrically, the melodies flow with the dynamics of the music, the verses are very remorseful and express feelings of pity and regret, and the choruses are defiant and strongly proclaimed like the music that lies beneath those sections.

From the get-go, we wanted a Halloween-adjacent release for this [track] since we recorded it. It just has that feel to us, and we had a clear idea of how we wanted the release to go and the video that accompanies it.

TSS: What was the recording process like for “Body’s Guest?” Who did you collaborate with on it?

Edison Hollow: We recorded with our friend David Miseveth at Tuxedo Avenue Recording Studios [in Roseville], and it was mixed by Adam Shepard. It’s been a process figuring out our own sonics, but this release is the closest we’ve come to achieving our sound so far. David is an absolute wizard in the studio and such a pleasure to work with. Adam also knows his craft well … he randomly showed up at one of our gigs and commandeered the sound, and we knew we had to work with him.

TSS: What was it like to record the video for “Body’s Guest” at Eloise Asylum in Westland, Michigan? How did co-director Cooper Arent help shape the creative direction for it?

Edison Hollow: In a word, wild. You can feel the heaviness in the air as soon as you walk in. The basement level and first floor have been converted into a haunted house and escape rooms, but everything else is pretty much untouched. Cooper and Aaryn [Lindow] have known each other for a while now, and Aaryn had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted for this video … seeing Cooper’s work and the idea he had just made sense.

TSS: How did the plague shaman character come about and become a symbol for “Body’s Guest” in the video? How did Dominic Lockridge help bring the plague shaman character to life in the video?

Edison Hollow: We wanted a figure that could reflect the four of us coming together into one entity. We wanted this video to be the debut of the personification of that character and to show off the ambiguity of a classic dilemma. Do we spawn him, or does he spawn us? Dominic absolutely knocked it out of the park. He’s been friends with Aaryn since high school and asking him to do it was a no-brainer. His characterization and the way he moves … are exactly what we had [envisioned] for it.

Background

TSS: How and when did come to form Edison Hollow? How does the band’s name represent your music and creative vision?

Edison Hollow: The band actually existed in a few different formats as Red Baron led by Jordon [Stockdale] and Tyler [Chernoff]. It wasn’t until Aaryn [Lindow] came into the fold in 2019 that we recorded and released the debut record under the new name of Edison Hollow.

The name comes from the location in which we practice; it’s just a fancy way of saying, ‘The basement on Edison Street.’ Everyone has self-titled songs and records; we opted for a self-titled band. It represents the sounds of the ‘Hollow’ so to speak, and it’s a reflection of what goes on in there. Our collective sound comes from how diverse our backgrounds are, and it’s a fun mix of all that together into what you inevitably hear.

Previous Releases

TSS: Your self-titled debut album provides a raw, honest journey through internal struggles, personal challenges, life lessons and changing relationships. How did writing and recording the album’s nine tracks help you process and reconcile those experiences?

Edison Hollow: It’s definitely not intentional, but we’d say performing those songs and hearing the feedback from our fans helped us process and move past those experiences more so than recording the actual album did.

The writing took place over the course of about two to three years. We were just compiling songs as we went along, trying to sharpen our abilities in songcrafting. It was recorded in late 2019 and early 2020 at Sound Shop Studio in Macomb. Phil Steuer and Kevin Williams were the production team we had in the studio, and they definitely contributed to the finish product sonically, but not so much as far as the actual songs themselves.

TSS: You released two additional singles, “What’s So Funny?” and “Bad Things” in 2021. How do those two tracks continue to showcase the band’s evolving hard-rock sound?

Edison Hollow: ‘What’s So Funny?’ was born out of the George Floyd protests that were going on around the country, and more generally, just the civil unrest that was rampant everywhere. With the onset of the pandemic happening at the same time, we were in desperate need for some form of catharsis and something to feel good about without being contrived.

While ‘What’s So Funny?’ is an outward look at the world around us, it could be said that ‘Bad Things’ is a look inward. Being an antithesis in concept to the former, ‘Bad Things’ spawned out of a jam we had as a three-piece. Both were the first releases as the band we are today and what we consider to be the start of the real Edison Hollow sound with David [Miseveth] engineering both songs and Chuck Alkazian mixing ‘What’s So Funny?’

Live Shows and Upcoming Plans

TSS: What’s it been like touring and performing throughout the Midwest this year? What live shows do you have planned for later this fall? What’s up next for you in terms of new material?

Edison Hollow: Touring this year has been crazy; we’ve met so many amazing people and played so many amazing venues, festivals and such. Wisconsin has gotten a lot of attention from us for mainly two reasons. One is that our tour manager lives there, and two because the fantastic people out there really seem to enjoy us.

Places like the Lyric Room in Green Bay or Badger State Brewing have welcomed us with open arms and packed rooms, so we are definitely feeling the love. Shout-outs to Tom Jordan of 20 Watt Tombstone, Tom Johnson from Badger State Brewing and Tessa from the Lyric Room.

We have one more show at our favorite downriver dive, Parts & Labor Bar, on Nov. 19 for Cosmic Sans’ EP release. Then, we’re going to take a few months off, hunker down and get back to the workshop. We want to sit down and write our next album without having to worry about tours or shows.

We are currently only one song deep into it, and we have a pretty solid spring tour in the works. The first album was very transitional finishing the Red Baron project and starting to develop the Edison Hollow sound. We continued that trend with these three singles, and now we feel it’s time to really lay into it hard.