Mitch Rowland’s Nostalgia Tour of Columbus, OH

Graphics by Sophia Earley

Mitch Rowland hasn’t played a show in Columbus, OH - his hometown - in over 10 years. He has been living and making music in LA, touring the world with musical giants, and now, finally, with his debut solo album out in the world, he makes it back home to one of his favorite venues to play for a crowd of old and new faces at Newport Music Hall. 

Wanting to know how exactly Mr. Rowland went from the suburbs of Columbus, playing shows with friends as a kid to playing the world’s arenas all the way to frequently collaborating with Harry Styles, I asked Mitch what it was like learning instruments in the suburbs of Ohio from the tender age of six. “I started playing drums when I was six, I think… oh gosh, my brother, he is five years older, so when he had to kind of pick an instrument for school, he landed in percussion and then shortly after, brought a drum kit home. So, I kind of got a head start thanks to him. But later, my uncle posted a guitar to me when I turned 13,” Mitch reminisced. He laughed as he told me about how his parents were super keen on supporting his interest in drums, but to encourage him to stick to one instrument, when Mitch wanted to learn guitar he was on his own financially. “I had to buy my own guitar strings. They were just like, ‘If you're gonna over-commit, you're on your own!’”

And even though he still gets behind the drums every once in a while - mainly to set them up for Sarah Jones, his bandmate and partner - he has gravitated towards guitar ever since. Now having made his impact on records like Harry Styles’ self-titled debut, Fine Line & Harry’s House, he is branching out into “Big Tree Folk” with his debut album, Come June. 

When asked what the album would look like as a scene in a movie, Mitch said, “I think a walk in the woods…” as he reminisced about writing the album while literally walking in the woods behind his and Sarah’s home in England. “I'm a bit more faucet-like there. I don't wanna force it and I go there [to the woods] and it’s easy to feel clear.” 

Talking about Come June and what it has been like to tour as the Front Man, Mitch said, “One of my favorites [of the songs] to pull off live is this little song ‘Goes With Everything’. I felt like I was taking a chance on the arrangement of it. And I was worried about the flow..y'know, ‘is it only me that thinks that this is a good idea?’ But I took a chance on it. I really enjoy getting to that part in the set where we get to play this song and the band makes it sound great. It exceeds the recording. And all the crowds have been amazing.” 

The Columbus show, this coming Tuesday, March 19th, is a lovely little homecoming for Mr. Rowland and I wanted to know how it felt to grow up in a place like Ohio. 

“It was definitely the first place that I got to, you know, stand on a stage and play in front of people. And learn how to, you know, whether it was drumming or learning how to sing into a microphone in front of fairly forgivable crowds, Columbus was a really good place to get comfortable with what you're trying to do. It was easy to feel encouraged. People like Sarah and I, I think we can easily be discouraged. And the fact that where we started never felt that way. I think that's pretty critical.

I have only been to Columbus a handful of times and it has always been for a show at Newport Music Hall or A&R Music Bar not far away. Mitch told me about a few of his favorite haunts, both now-defunct ones and others that you can still visit on his own nostalgic tour of his hometown.

“Oh man. A perfect day in Columbus… I've executed this perfect day a handful of times.  probably start out at Spoonful Records to see my friends Brett and Amy over by Old Town East. Then, I would walk over the bridge over to Cara Bar, rest in peace. I'd probably [then] go to El Camino. And how would I end it? I don't know. Maybe a show at the Newport.”

Newport Music Hall, the Longest Continually Running Rock Club in the country, has been a staple in the Columbus, OH community since it opened well over 30 years ago with bands like Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth and so many more playing its’ stage.

Mitch grew up walking straight up to the box office to see some of his favorite bands play there and now he gets to see his name there in lights. He said, “We were trying to decide where to have the show and I thought it was between Newport and somewhere else and I was texting my friends like, where should I do it? And [they said] ‘cut the shit. You know you want your name on the marquee that you've walked past a million times.’” 

And so it is. 

Make sure to catch Mitch in Columbus and on the last few dates of his first solo tour, Pleaser Nation!

Stream Come June on everywhere now!