Born & Bred is your source for music emanating from the hills of West Virginia. We are excited to showcase the enormous and diverse talent that has been bred here. Check out this new release from The Off Set.
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The lore of surf rock is usually written in salt spray, Pacific sunsets, and the roar of a California coastline. But if you think you need a twelve-foot break or even a single palm tree to summon that classic reverb-drenched twang, then you haven’t been listening to the muffled screams coming out of West Virginia. Enter The Off Set, a band whose very existence is a musical oxymoron, turning the rolling hills of Appalachia into a surprisingly fertile ground for instrumental sounds usually reserved for Santa Cruz piers and Honolulu boardwalks.
Comprised of Christopher Quattro on guitar, Corey Bonasso on bass, Cory Chase on drums and Dave Klug who served as engineer, master as well as percussionist, The Off Set is not creating a sound that many would typically associate with West Virginia or anywhere not by an ocean. So how did this come to be? We spoke to Quattro about his love of the genre and why he is pulled to create this music.
I was an odd kid with older parents. So I heard 50s doo wop and Buddy Holly before I heard Led Zeppelin. or the Beatles. Being born in Asbury Park (which is the the inspiration for the cover a vintage AP postcard and Blackwater Falls mashed) means I was born on the shore so Dick Dale and The Beach Boys were played everywhere. It was just around! Also being a gen x-er… growing up on syndicated 50’s 60s and 70s television… things like the Munsters theme the Monkees and Beverly Hillbillies and etc., etc. I think that sound of 50s 60s guitar has always been in my ears.
Then as I became a bit more of a music connoisseur, you start realizing just how much punk and indie theory is based on surf/rockabilly guitar. The musical historian in me kept looking backwards and it kept ending up at the same place. Bands like the Shadows and the Ventures don’t get nearly enough credit for being the template for the guitar based rock quartet for years to come.
That background and those influences converged to create a perfect six song EP that exemplifies the guitar talent of Quattro and those he surrounds himself with in The Off Set. These songs will transport you directly to that era and should be lauded amongst the greats of the genre. Listen to the whole EP on their BandCamp by clicking the album cover below.
