Thomas O'Hearn-Poet, Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Russell Sutter-Drums
Mike Matthews- Bass Guitar
Bryan Bishop-Lead Guitar
Fellow Alchemists
Anthony Brown
Erik Neumann
Kevin Cheney
Tony Bargenquast
Influences
I find myself still on the heels of Rimbaud, the lonely bard. And thinking of when this madness began. Did it begin when Holden Caulfield exchanged his soul with a wandering spirit, or was it on the pages, written on the souls of the shoes of the beats? It might have been when I heard the blues sung somewhere in East Texas.
Sounds Like
Shakespeare, Dali, Blind Boy Grunt, The Doors, T.S. Elliot, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Kahlil Gibran, Rimbaud, and Joseph Campbell
I first saw the Alchemy sitting on a cold concrete basement floor somewhere by the foot of the lake. My best friend had recently started putting songs together with someone I had never heard of, and I was regularly beginning to hear stories about the project it was becoming.
Entering the basement where I would spend the next few years, I could hear the muffled sounds emerging from the old speakers and practice amps that served as the band's sound system. I walked into a room illuminated only by a mass of candles at the band's feet and decorated like a shrine to the influences of the sound I was hearing. Quotes from the greatest writers and minds hung from the wall, reminding everyone who entered, just what was happening.
Poetry overlapped raucous sounds, coming from guitars and drums. Songs of redemption and of pain, songs of salvation and of love poured out of simple instruments and amplifiers. Songs were being sung that mattered. They were the ideal combination of electric and acoustic sounds, complete with massive peaks and heart-sinking valleys. The sounds were organic and from the earth. The wisdom of the words is evident.
When you find yourself for the first time listening to the band, you’ll be hearing music in its truest and most meaningful form. This is art in its honesty alone, and the potential beauty of the world is reflected in its sound. Alchemy is gaining a reputation for their emotional and original music
-David Ditzman
