Wydown played our last show on May 18th, 2007 at Blueberry Hill in Saint Louis, Missouri.
If you would still like to hear/purchase our tunes, they will continue to be available through iTunes, CDBaby, and many other online retailers. We are all moving on to do other projects, but we want to thank everyone who supported and believed in our music.
We love you all.
Not your typical rock band, Wydown began in St. Louis, Mo. with vocalists/songwriters Ethan Balis, Nate Dewart and an arsenal of original material. What started with a bass, a keyboard and for their first gig, a classical string trio, has evolved into a devoted group with a tenacious approach towards focused and inspired songwriting. With the addition of Karl Eggers on guitar and Aaron Story on drums, this prog-indie-rock quartet has not only expanded its musical influences, but has refined the live delivery of its intense, intelligent songs.
With 85+ shows throughout the Midwest including performances with Athlete, Lapush and Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, and successes on college and online radio nationwide with its EP, Message From the Yes Man, Wydown has found itself in its commitment to writing and performing energetic rock music for people who are too smart for their own good.
Live, the magic of the group is readily apparent. The shared vocal duties of Balis and Dewart - sometimes harmonizing beautifully, other times dueling through call-and-response - set Wydown instantly apart from its peers, while the musical chairs school of instrumentation makes for a stunning display of talent. Though the lyrics unabashadely regret and loss, innocence or otherwise, the cathartic, upbeat instrumentaion and arrangements are nothing if not life-affirming.
Their first full-length, "Noise America," (summer 2006) co-produced by J. Christopher Hughes (Moderndayzero, Greenwheel), is a culmination of these efforts: an intense look at life, love and the complexities of the American Dream. As Balis puts it, "This band has never been one for lack of ideas, but for this album we really tried to focus our creative energies into complete, cohesive thoughts." The result is a grand collection of stirring vignettes. Each song carves out its own space to ruminate on ideas of innocence, apathy, abuse and loss but in a vibrant, celebratory way. The diverse topics all share a common goal of trying to get beyond the advertised America and to the heart of the condition of living in this country with the hopes of acknowledging and honoring our shared human experience.
Welcome to Wydown; we're in this together.