Steevie Steeves and Jon Decious of TOWNE both live in the heart of Nashville but didn’t cross paths until a writing seminar in Wyoming. Shortly after that, they realized their talents melded seamlessly and have been writing together ever since. After realizing their ability for incomparable harmonies, and at the urging of friends and fans, the duo formed TOWNE.
They each grew up in very small towns and started writing songs at a very young age –Pennsylvania-bred Steeves came from a background of musical theatre, but later found herself performing in a classic rock cover band in Pittsburgh before moving to Nashville at 22, while Decious grew up in Kentucky and traveled with punk rock group The Pink Spiders before coming to Nashville as a song writer.
The duo began their career as performers under the name the Devious Angels before changing it to TOWNE, the name stemming from their unique sound. Not fully country, but not quite pop-sounding, their friends has previously described their unique sound as “town music.” TOWNE has a soulful edge that compliments their modern-take on a southern-rock sound.
Recently releasing their debut EP, Games We Play, with the help from Producer Evan Hutchings, they compiled the five-track album to showcase the many strengths of Steeves and Decious – the first single , “Runnin’ Into You”, was penned by Steeves and Decious, and was inspired by their personal relationship. They had tried dating for a short time but quickly realized they were better suited to just making music together. Steeves sings about how she keeps, literally and figuratively, running into her ex and can’t seem to get away from him. The song is real, relatable, heartfelt and honest.
They also don’t hold back on the track “The Rest,” which the duo co-wrote with Chris Gelduda. Decious takes lead vocal on this one and hauntingly sings about a past relationship, describing it as unmatchable: “there is the best, and then there is the rest.” It gets straight to the point about how he’s feeling, much like every song on the album.
Listen to the album here: https://soundcloud.com/user-394299913
“We say how it really is, not how we want or think it should be,” said Steeves. “As song writers you want to create the best songs. When you’re writing for yourself, you have to write the best songs, but with yourself in mind.”
Creating this album was a childhood dream come true for the duo, but Decious admits to having a favorite moment: “The One I Love was written only days before it was recorded,” said Decious. “We didn’t know how anyone was going to like it, but we decided to just go ahead and record it, anyway. It turned out that everyone loved it!”
The whole experience for Steeves was amazing, but the freedom she had as not only the writer, but also the artist, topped it all: “If I could have a whole choir behind me, I would,” said Steeves. “It was a lot of fun being able to play with the background noise and overlap multiple voice tracks to create such a cool sound for the songs.”
This summer TOWNE can’t wait to get out on the road and tour the country. They have a video in the works and are looking forward to seeing where this journey takes them. Steeve’s compares it to a seed that you plant and can’t wait to see what it’s going to grow into.
Check out their latest EP on their website www.townemusic.com