In Conversation with The Band Light: Musical Inspirations, New Music & More!

The Band Light, composed of Konnor Dolberry (lead vocals), Trevor Young (drums), Jack Glenn (bass, keys) and Garrett Goodrich (guitars), discussed their musical journey and inspirations. After meeting in high school theater, they formed the band, initially releasing music under Light. before rebranding to The Band Light. Their music blends ‘80s yacht rock and indie pop, with influences from The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Harry Styles. 

We sat down with The Band Light at Weak Coffee in September to discuss their two latest EP’s and how they came to be a band. 

PHOTO BY ZAYNE ISOM

PLEASER: Who is The Band Light and how would you like to be introduced to the readers and viewers at Pleaser?

Konnor: The Band Light is a rock and roll boy band, that's what we’ve always called ourselves. 

Trevor: The Band Light used to be a rock and roll boy band, but I feel like now, it's so much  more of a community around the love of music and love of people in general. Our biggest thing is we just want to spread positivity and connection to people. 

K:  And we are not too serious. We just like to write fun songs and have fun at shows.

How did you guys meet? And how did that turn into the band forming? 

T: High School theater. *laughs*

K: We're from 45 minutes south of Nashville in Spring Hill. We all went to high school together. The three of us [Konnor, Garrett and Jack] were in a show together. We were in “Footloose,” and it got canceled. So we decided we were going to remake the soundtrack from scratch. It was just Jack and I at the time. Then Garrett was the only guitar player we knew, so he came in. 

Garrett: I was the emo new kid at the time. So no one really knew me, except Jack heard that I could play guitar, and obviously, both of them could play guitar, but… 

Jack: We needed somebody to shred.

K:  We kind of just started hanging out after that, us three, and then we wrote some songs together and released them, and it never was going to be anything more than that. It [the songs] were originally under Light. We released Harmony and Promised You under that name,  but we eventually moved it over to The Band Light. Then, Trevor kind of just came along. Garrett had been trying to get him in the band. They were already friends.

G: Before I was in this band, Trevor was my first friend when I moved to this school, and coincidentally, he was a drummer. So I joined his band. 

T: We were playing pop punk and thrash metal and all the things that people in high school don't listen to. 

G: So basically, I took my two favorite sets of people, combined it together, and that became The Band Light. 

K: So through theater, we all found each other and we started making music. Literally our first practice, we just knew that it was going to be something that we needed to put as much attention into as we could. Trevor was the final touch we needed. 

Instant chemistry, I love that! Were you all playing instruments and making music growing up? 

T: All my family were songwriters on my dad's side, but never really knew how to make it. And so, from a young age, I think subconsciously, I've just always wanted to break that mold. 

K: I played sports growing up. But I watched Disney Channel and sang the Disney Channel songs. My parents always said I was a good singer. Troy Bolton was my hero growing up, because I always played sports, and he played sports and sang. As a five-year-old, that was like, “Oh my gosh, that can actually be cool.” So yeah, that's really how I got into it. I still played sports all the way up until high school, and then in high school, I started doing theater. I just didn't really want to play football anymore, it just wasn't my thing. And then I started writing songs, and I did a solo project up until my senior year. Really up until this band started taking off and then I was like: this is what I need to be doing. 

J: I didn't have too much of a musical family growing up. I just kind of found music myself and started learning instruments in elementary school. Since then, music was kind of the only thing that I did. I learned drums first, then bass then guitar then piano. 

G:  For me, I grew up in a family that were music fans, but no one was musical besides me and my sister. Before guitar, I started with singing, I was in the show choir. Actually, the high school that I was at before moving here was the evil high school in “Glee.” It was based on Carmel High School. I've always been into rock music and guitar in general. Middle school is when I finally picked it up and sort of went on my own path. My dad was kind of the gateway when it came to rock, and then I just started from there and kept playing. 

PHOTOS BY ZAYNE ISOM

How did this all lead to you moving to Nashville?

K: I took a gap year after high school. I didn't really know what I wanted. I knew I wanted to pursue this band, but I didn't really know how to do that. And I just found myself at The Basement Bast in April and Briston Maroney was playing. At that show something hit. I felt this overwhelming feeling that I just needed to be here [in Nashville]. And so I toured Belmont a week later, ended up going, and only stayed for a semester. But I now live here, and I met a lot of great people through that. 

T: I grew up completely from Spring Hill, I know the rest of the guys moved there from somewhere else, but my family were the OG Spring Hillers. I remember in eighth grade, I watched a video and the one thing that stuck out was: “If you can see yourself doing anything other than music, don't do music.”  And I thought about that for a while, and I was like, I just don't see myself doing anything else. And so, Nashville just seemed like the clear place to be. 

J: I actually don't currently live in Nashville, but again, I've been in the Spring Hill, Middle Tennessee area all my life. Nashville's always been close to my heart. Since I was a kid my mom would take me to The Bluebird Cafe and all these historic music venues. So, Nashville is definitely still a part of my identity. I went to college in New Orleans for one semester, and it was the fall 2020 semester at the peak of COVID and everything. Things didn’t really work out there, so I moved back and that's kind of when I went all-in on the band. It was something magic that I wanted to keep pursuing. 

Has your perspective on making and writing music changed at all since you moved into the city and been surrounded by more music? 

K: I think I find the most inspiration when we go back home. I get the most inspiration when we unplug from the city. It's so easy to get caught up in it because there's so much going on all the time. I just have to be quiet and retreat to what makes me happy. 

T: A lot of my favorite songs that I've ever written were written when I went back home and where I really felt all those emotions the first time. I love Nashville, I think there's a lot of great things here, and it inspires me a lot. But I think there's just something special about Spring Hill. 

K: A lot of that Nashville inspiration was our In Moonlight EP. That was all the songs that came from being inspired by living in Nashville. So now the inspiration is coming from different places. But I think that doesn't mean that Nashville is not great. 

G: It takes boundaries, sometimes, because Nashville is great, but it's such a symbiotic relationship for artists all getting inspired by each other. But, I'm very grateful that we have a chance to unplug from the city every now and then and go to Jack’s farm.

What kind of musical inspirations did you have starting the band and how have they evolved since the band has grown? 

K: I feel like it's evolved, but we kind of ended up back where we started, in a way. The band was based around ‘80s yacht rock and indie pop. We kind of blended those two together. I come from a pop background but these guys are all super musically knowledgeable. We've kind of explored different genres, we’ve done hard rock and indie rock, surf rock for one EP and this recent one is kind of hippie/psych rock. But at our core, we are nostalgic pop-rock. 

G: It helps that all four of us have such different tastes in music, and I feel like that's part of what's helped us. We always joke that when we started this band, I was super heavy metal, and Konnor was super pop, and we kind of just met in the middle. 

K: There's some inspirations that will always be there too, like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Harry Styles is always there too, freaking love Harry Styles. But yeah, there's some core ones that will never change. 

What bands did you listen to growing up? 

J:  Growing up, again, a lot of music I found on my own. Elvis,  Michael Jackson, The Beatles and The Beach Boys are my favorite bands of all time. Really those heavy hitters’s classics are what I grew up on and what I know and love. 

T: I was not super popular in high school. I really loved pop punk, but now, it's more just like songwriter stuff. 

K: Harry Styles is my hero. I think he's a great frontman, even though he's a solo artist. I saw him play in 2021, and before then I wasn't heavily into music. He was the first person that really inspired me as a frontman, and I've looked up to him for that reason ever since. Elvis is a huge hero of mine for the same reason. 

G: About everything I listened to is rooted in guitar. I grew up with a lot of the classic rock and roll bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC. My main inspiration is Eddie Van Halen. Almost everything I do is rooted in what he did. I like a lot of contemporary stuff, too, like Shawn Lane and Eric Johnson. 

PHOTO BY ZAYNE ISOM

Let’s talk about Pinball! What was the inspiration behind this song and entire EP?  

K: Musically, we were going for a modern take on Pink Floyd. 

T: It kind of started off as a Neighbourhood sounding song. 

K: Yeah, The Neighborhood was a big inspiration. Phoebe Bridgers obviously makes an appearance in the lyrics. Lana Del Rey was another one. 

Where did the name Pinball come from? 

K: It's actually based on a true story. We were at a party, and I was talking to someone at the time and their dad had a broken pinball machine downstairs. I really wanted to play it the whole time but it didn't work. It was broken. And I just kept thinking about it the whole night, it just kind of stuck with me. So when we were trying to write about the situation, that's just the first thing that came to my mind. I felt like it was kind of metaphoric for the situation that happened. We also love pinball and arcades. 

You recently had an acoustic pop-up performance. What do your fans mean to you? 

T: I’m actually wearing all their friendship bracelets they made us now. We have a whole collection and I swap them out every day. When you get into the music industry, or just doing music in general, I think it can be easy to lose track of why you do it. So, I like keeping a reminder of why we do it [wearing the friendship bracelets].

K: They are the reason why. I still don't even understand how they are willing to drive so far. The fact that something we've created means that much to them as it means to us, that's something I definitely don't take lightly. 

G: It's very reassuring for me. It's crazy to think that I'm doing something that someone drove 11 hours for, so I'm gonna make sure I make it freakin’ worth it. 

That's PLEASER’S main thing too. We are a magazine run by fans, for fans. That's what we always say. At the end of the day, it's all about the fans, because we are them. We are too. I feel like if you are a big fan of other artists, you understand what it means to have fans that care so much about your music. 

T: It’s all about connection. And I think that's really, at the end of the day what we're all about and what music is all about. 

What is your dream for The Band Light? 

T: I think the biggest dream is just to connect with people and to help people connect with each other. 

 K: I could name off goals and aspirations forever, but really the most important thing to me is that when it's all said and done, that we added something good to the world and we left a lasting impact. I just feel like there's so much going on and people are looking to something for help or for escape. I feel like, in some way, our music can be that for people. And if we're wrong, we had fun on the way.

You can listen to the Band Light’s latest EP “Flying Silver Sphere” OUT NOW with more music and shows to come in the new year! Including their annual Light Year show in January!