[MUSIC: Housing Co. – Listen to the Sound]
O’CONNOR: Every great band starts somewhere. And for the members of Housing Co., that somewhere was a college dorm room at Salisbury University. What began with two friends and late night jam sessions quickly morphed into something professional. Live shows, thousands of followers, and now a new business plan. I'm Jenny O'Connor for Delmarva Public Media. The four members of Housing Co. recently finished out their undergraduates at Salisbury University, and with the looming real world coming into the horizon, they felt the need to start brainstorming to make their college band something more sustainable and financially reliable.
COHEN: I want to say it was the end of 2024. We had played a couple of shows and at that point we were like, we want to try to do whatever we can to make somewhat of a living off of this, or at least make this a strong source of passive revenue.
O’CONNOR: That's Housing Co.'s drummer Ethan Cohen, who explained that after over two years of writing, releasing their first album, and performing as much as possible, the boys had their heads on their shoulders and were ready to turn the band into a business. And luckily, the stars aligned.
COHEN: At the same time, we saw that there was an entrepreneurship opportunity with the Bernstein competition.
O’CONNOR: The Bernstein competition is a pitch contest for students at Salisbury University who want to launch a business. Housing Co. entered and, spoiler alert, they won. The victory secured a decent sum of money that immediately funded the next stage of their plan, a dedicated studio space in downtown Salisbury. As Cohen explains, this studio wasn't just for them. It was meant to be a resource for the community.
COHEN: People definitely, I think, would be interested in recording with us, especially if we could do it at a reasonable price for specifically college kids or younger people that are kind of in the spot that we were in a couple years ago where we didn't have the funding or the experience to like really get a track out all by ourselves.
O’CONNOR: In October, the boys finally moved their professional equipment to their new studio space, which meant they could reclaim their living room and once again have a TV and couches. You see, before the move, the living room had been their cramped home studio. The very space where they had created their entire sophomore album, Homecoming, which was just released this past August.
[MUSIC: Housing Co. – Listen to the Sound]
COHEN: This album was written over the span of like a year and a half with a lot of different ideas and a lot of changing ideas. So, I think that we didn't just sit down all at once and say we wanted to sound like this. It just kind of became a collaboration project of whatever was in our minds for, you know, the span of a year and a half.
O’CONNOR: Cohen emphasized their unique sound, which is partially attributed to their collaboration methods. Guitarist Connor Lewandowski mentioned all four of them write songs for the band, though their vocalist and bassist Trey Niccolini has been keeping a competitive tally.
NICCOLINI: Between me and the rest, yeah.
LEWANDOWSKI: Trey definitely has the most songs written.
NICCOLINI: Who's counting?
LEWANDOWSKI: Apparently you were.
O’CONNOR: And though they bicker like brothers, Lewandowski says they work incredibly well as a team, where everyone gives their input into their compositions.
COHEN: We all come together, bring our independent song ideas together. And then we’ll all put their own spin on it. Sometimes it'll just be like two of us sitting down and fleshing out an entire song. Sometimes it's the four of us jamming in a room together to make it all happen. But usually it's not one song completely done by one person. It's usually a pretty collaborative process.
O’CONNOR: And somehow they turn disjointed riffs and incoherent words—
[MUSIC: Housing Co. – TV Static (acoustic demo)]
O’CONNOR: —into fully produced hits.
[MUSIC: Housing Co. – TV Static]
O’CONNOR: And now they almost have a fully functioning space to do it in. Housing Co. is currently filling their lungs with insulation as they're soundproofing that studio in hopes of keeping the peace in downtown Salisbury. They're hoping to have their studio in full swing this winter and are planning on making more music and touring in the new year. Their new single, Don't Be So Far, is out Friday, November 14th. Follow housingco.band on social media or check out their website housingcomusic.com to stay updated. For Delmarva Public Media, I'm Jenny O'Connor.
