For new approach, pair forms another band

By John Benson

As brief touring members of Another Found Self, Brandon Wirtz (vocals, bass) and Cory Snyder (vocals, guitar) knew there was something bigger in their future.

That idea recently came to fruition with the two friends leaving the popular local band and creating new act Miapollo, which has booked a co-headlining gig with Burning Down Broadway on Saturday at the Grog Shop in Cleveland.

“Miapollo is a very different approach to music altogether,” Wirtz said. “It’s just me and Cory Snider are writing everything, doing most of the songwriting and that’s kind of what we wanted to do. So we really left [Another Found Self] for that, the ability to kind of write our own stuff rather than those guys writing it because we weren’t founding members of Another Found Self.”

He added, “Whereas Another Found Self is a rock ’n’ roll band. Miapollo feels a little bit more grown up to us and a little bit more adult. They are pop rock and that’s just what they did, and this is just taking it in a little bit of a different direction.”

When defining a different direction, you don’t have to look far. Wirtz said the new band has been compared to a diverse group of contemporary bands, including the Foo Fighters, Cursive and Portugal, The Man. The 2007 Austintown Fitch High School graduate says if you take the aforementioned acts and add in The Beatles with Brand New you’d be getting close to Miapollo’s musical spirit.

“The kind of approach we’d been taking to everything is, it’s sort of, I don’t want to say it’s dark music, but it’s almost kind of an eerie feeling to everything,” Wirtz said. “And it’s all groove rock if that makes sense. It’s very bass driven and we’ve got two phenomenal guitarists [Snyder and Scott Lowry] who do very classic style leads over top of it. So the idea over the whole thing is it’s almost supposed to give kind of an interesting feeling and yet still fit the lyrical content.”

Despite the band’s relatively short existence, the stars have definitely lined up so far, beginning when Wirtz and Snyder went to see indie rock act the Dear Hunter in Pittsburgh last summer. The mission was nothing short of giving the Massachusetts band a demo tape of Miapollo.

Amazingly, the Dear Hunter singer Casey Crescenzo agreed to produce the band’s debut. The result is the EP “The Southern Gentleman,” which is due out Feb. 23 and features such tracks as the dynamic “Oh Me” and the anthemic “I’m Not Bitter, I’m Practical.”

Music fans attending Miapollo’s upcoming Cleveland gig can expect to hear those songs, as well as a few more popular numbers.

“We like to bring out a cover or two,” Wirtz said. “Somewhere along the line bands decided it was not OK to do a cover of a song they love. We never really understood why. So we’ve been doing some older stuff. We really like to bring it back to some songs we love, like The Beatles ‘Helter Skelter’ and Jeff Buckley’s version of [Leonard Cohen’s] ‘Hallelujah.’”

He added, “It’s really a cool time for us. We have this new record coming out and hopefully some big things following that up. Plus, the Grog Shop date will be great. This is our first co-headliner [show], and it’s looking like it might sell out, so we’re really excited.”