Mountain Brook's Riverbend performing at Sloss Fest
It’s summer, which means it’s time for Birmingham’s annual Sloss Arts and Music Festival. But this year won’t just see national headliners, it’s also featuring some local acts — including Mountain Brook band Riverbend.
While Riverbend first started in 2013, it wasn’t until February 2016 that the band of high school musicians became what it is today: junior Stanton Langley on lead vocals and guitar; junior Price Pewitt on bass and backup vocals; junior Max Simon on keyboard and guitar; and senior Sims Ruffino, on drums and percussion.
All members agreed that it was when Ruffino joined the band as the new drummer and percussionist in 2016 that everything clicked.
“It all kinda pieced together one by one,” Pewitt said. “That’s when we really got on it.”
“It’s been a moving train ever since,” Ruffino said.
From there, they honed their skills to create a unique sound: southern alternative power-pop.
“It’s a blend of a lot of things that we like and a lot of things we’ve come to love all in just this big pot,” Simon said. “It’s kinda a mesh with all of our influences and that kinda lands us in southern alternative power-pop.”
A majority of their inspiration comes from the music they listen to or grew up listening to. Simon starts the songwriting process with the music, and the lyrics follow, as directed by Langley. From there, all four work together to create music and songs for their listeners to relate to in both the Birmingham area and beyond.
Since their start about a year and a half ago, they’ve performed in Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Nashville and Atlanta, and recently traveled to Haiti as a part of the House of Hope Project. Through the project, they spent a week teaching children who live in an orphanage how to play music. But their biggest stage since forming Riverbend is coming up this weekend: Sloss Music and Arts Festival, held at Sloss Furnances.
“We’re definitely trying to step it up,” Langley said, explaining they were practicing a little extra in preparation on top of their already daily practices.
“I never thought we weren’t doing this, but I feel like we’re really utilizing what musical abilities we’ve gained [over the years],” said Pewitt.
And it’s even more special to them that the festival is in their hometown, where it all started.
“That was one of the most special things,” Ruffino said. “Not only is it a huge festival with bands that I’ve loved for forever … it’s also in my backyard.”
As members of the Birmingham community, Riverbend will also be representing the local Birmingham music scene on a larger scale.
“It’s great to be playing on a stage that we were watching people play on last year,” said Langley.
Riverbend will be performing on the Seasick Stage on Saturday, July 15 at 3:15 p.m. For more about Sloss Fest, visit slossfest.com. Look for more about Riverbend and their experiences in our upcoming issue of Village Living.