Audiofeed Festival is coming up quickly, and 2023 marks the second year that Tuned Up will be hosting a stage. The weekend of July 1st through 4th in Urbana, Illinois will bring some of the best up and coming independent artists, along with several seasoned veterans and exciting reunions. To get you hyped for the fest, Tuned Up will be spotlighting artists playing our specially curated stage, hopefully introducing you to your next favorite band.

Audiofeed Artist Spotlight-Well Read

Columbus indie-artist Well Read should be no stranger to the Tuned Up crowd. An alumnus of our own curated AMPLIFY CBUS event, Well Read has been making waves on the Columbus music scene for the last couple of years and is now getting a chance to hit the big stage at Audiofeed Festival. To get fans and newcomers alike HYPED for the show, frontman Seth sat down and answered the kind of questions Pulitzer Prize winning journalists DREAM of asking. Read ahead to meet an artist you will definitely want to get to know.

Describe Well Read in 5 words:

Midwest Indie Synth Shoegaze Bittersweetness.

Could you name a song or two of yours that someone unfamiliar with your band could check out to get a sense of who you are?

Check out our songs Daysleep or Cul De Sac! There’s a kind of an emotional palette that is at our core, and between those two songs, I feel you catch all of the emotions that move throughout our songs, as well as a lot of our sound.

What is your approach to live performances and why should someone come see Well Read at Audiofeed?

We. Love. Performing. We are constantly trying to find the perfect way to physically express the mood of each song with how we move on stage, and a lot of that lands on me (Seth). So, I’m always trying to make everything we play and do feel sincere and approachable, with enough emotion to make the song transcend us playing it. We want people to be taken to an internally emotional or dreamy, dissociative place from the songs and experience some beauty from it. There will be loud, spacey moments, and quiet, sparse ones but they’re all to take you to an inner reflective place, and our performance tries to convey that.

Which artists and/or albums who influenced your music would be carved in stone on your Mount Rushmore?

Wow! As far as influencing the music, it would be Alvvays, the album ‘Endserenading’ by Mineral, the album ‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ by Cocteau Twins, and Beach House. I can’t remember if there are four or five people on Mount Rushmore, but a fifth artist that is a new influence on all of us is David Lynch and the worlds from his movies.

*Editors note-there are FOUR heads on Mt. Rushmore, but hey, we can always carve another head.

If you could have rider requests that HAD to be followed by venues and festivals, what would ABSOLUTELY be on it?

Oh heck yeah! Sooooo many snacks and drinks before the shows, but if I had to pick, a Juicy Peach Alani, some PBRs or Hamms, those blue Sour Punch Straws, and Takis. 

What kind of music do you listen to in the van (or other vehicle) on the way to shows?

There’s definitely two modes, mainly because we love to talk a lot on our drives to shows: shoegaze/slowcore stuff, or math rock/alt folk. On the shoegaze/slowcore side, I feel like it’s a lot of Drop Nineteens and Stereolab, and on the other side it’s Death Cab, Toe, and Angel Olsen. 

Who are some other artists you’re looking forward to seeing at Audiofeed 2022?

Very excited to see Ronnie Martin/Joy Electric! He was a super early influence as I was getting into creating synth sounds and has such a deeply dreamy approach to songwriting. Also very excited to see Andy Squyres for a second time, and Slow Coming Day, a band I never thought I’d see live! A beautiful time for a reunion for them.

What are some future projects coming up for Well Read?

We’ve been writing a lot of new songs and hoping to pull a full-length album from it! It takes a while to have everything come to life, but as that continues to bloom, a few short film ideas will also take shape as a part of that. We like to make small short films that accompany some of the songs we release! All that along with more shows outside of Columbus Ohio, where we mainly play.

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Be sure to check out Well Read on Spotify and follow the on INSTAGRAM.