Doc Robinson is once again creating music after taking a two-year break. Credit: Courtesy of Jon Elliot
Doc Robinson is back on the Columbus rock ‘n’ roll scene with new members, a new song and a new start after a two-year break.
Doc Robinson’s new pop ballad, “Take Me by the Hand,” broke the band’s silence with its July 9 release. The song was their first since their album “Travelogues” in 2019, coming after a difficult year due to the pandemic and changes in band membership.
“The song is quite a bit different from the sound that we’ve put out in the past,” Jon Elliot, lead vocalist and harmonica player for the band, said. “But at the same time, there’s still elements that we wanted to adhere to so that our fans wouldn’t be completely caught off guard.”
Aaron Bishara, drummer and backup vocalist for the band, said they explored different techniques when crafting the new single, including experimenting with a synthesizer.
“Everybody’s singing real strong together,” Bishara said. “It feels like we’re shouting sometimes, but it’s a little more driving, and some of our other stuff’s a little more bouncy and jangly.”
The new single features original members Elliot, Bishara and George Barrie, guitarist and sound engineer for the group, but it will be permanently missing one of the band’s founding members — Nick D’Andrea, a vocalist, songwriter and guitarist, who is pursuing a solo project, Elliot said.
“Losing any band member is challenging because of many reasons, trying to find anyone to fill that kind of role,” Elliot said. “It’s not like a business, everyone in a band wears so many different hats, especially a cat like him.”
“Everything is one step more. Everything’s always got to be an email or message, and then these notes have to be pulled together, and it was cool to see that process,” Elliot said. “I’m complaining, but at the same time it was good to see that we were able to do it.”
In late 2019, months after their release of “Travelogues,” the band played a New Year’s show with Athens-based folk band Caamp before going on a short tour with the band The Brook & The Bluff in February 2020, Bishara said. Once they returned home from tour, the pandemic had made it impossible to hold live performances safely.
The band initially started writing “Take Me by the Hand” in 2018. After taking a break to put together “Travelogues,” Barrie said they decided to come back and finish the single in 2021. Although challenging at times, they worked virtually with Vancouver-based producer Mike Lando to mix the track.
“It was the first time we ever did it, and hopefully the last,” Elliot said. “It’s just so much easier to sit next to a mixing engineer. But yeah, getting ‘Take Me by the Hand’ to where we are now, we’re getting ready to release music, it was kind of something we didn’t know if it would ever happen.”
The band will perform at the WonderBus festival in Columbus in late August. They also are busy working on new music and plan to release new albums and singles in the future, Elliot said.
Barrie said he values the break the pandemic gave them but is happy to be able to meet and perform again with his band members.
“I think it was a nice little reset on priorities and making sure you’re doing the right stuff and doing what counts,” Barrie said. “So it’s good to be back in a room with our friends and bandmates making music again and getting back in the studio, getting back in sweaty rehearsals and sweaty shows.”
Overall, Elliot said the band is hopeful for the rest of the year and feels lucky to be able to continue making music, collaborating with artists and performing for their community.
“We’re in a music community, a music scene that is just very ripe with talent,” Elliot said. “And we’re very fortunate to have a bunch of people that love the music and want to help us out, come on the road with us and be a part of the circus.”
