By day, dedicated students and a brave service member, by night recording musicians.
Oswego punk band Afterthoughts’ debut release, “Where You Belong EP,” is anything but the title of the intro track’s name, “One-Dimensional.” “Where You Belong” has a little bit of everything that punk fans love.
Check out Afterthoughts “Where You Belong EP”
“It’s an obviously biased opinion, but I love it.” Steve Radford, guitarist and vocalist said. “I’m happy with the exposure it’s getting and the positive responses we’ve been receiving.”
The band includes Oswego State graduates Michael Beshures (bass and vocals) and Kyle Wodzicki (percussion). Joined by them is Stefan Goins (guitar), who is in the Navy and stationed in Hawaii and Radford (guitar and lead vocals), who is the only member remaining on the Oswego State campus.
The first song, “One-Dimensional,” opens with a short guitar intro that sets the tone for the rest of the EP. The song hits home for anyone who has ever felt wronged by someone who was close to one. The song ends with gang vocals repeating the powerful verse, “If you were my real friend, you wouldn’t betray me in the end/ I’ve taken time to realize these were wounds I never wanted to mend.”
Many of the lyrics are a personal expression of how Radford felt when he wrote the EP, which he felt was relatable to most people.
“A lot of the lyrical content deals with my relationships with certain people or certain groups of people I have met since I came to college,” Radford said.
Open Mic Spotlight interview with Radford
The two strongest moments on the album are in the songs “Circle of So-Called Friends” and “The Person Inside Us.” Ted Winkworth, formerly of the Lifestyles Center on the Oswego State campus, is featured on “Circle of So-Called Friends” with a screaming vocal part in the end of the song. It was great to hear the band incorporate a different genre of music and it made its music more versatile. “The Person Inside Us” ends with the most beautiful part of the EP, where the music slows down, highlighted by a clean-picking guitar part and bassist Mike Beshures singing one of the best lyrics on the album: “This time, it’s going to be different/ I’ll be making a difference in me.”
There are very few negatives about the “Where You Belong EP.” The only ones that stand out are in the vocals. Sometimes one wishes some of the vocal melodies would be different, as they do not always go with the rest of the song and the band should take advantage of having two solid singers in Radford and Beshures. There were many parts in the EP where two vocalists playing off of each other would have brought the songs to another level.
Radford hopes this successful release is only the beginning for Afterthoughts.
“Right now, Stefan and I have been writing for a full length that we hope to start recording this winter,” Radford said.
The band will be playing an acoustic set at WNYO’s “Acoustics in the Quad” on Saturday, Sept. 28th which starts at noon in the Oswego State academic quad.
