Estok and drummer Collin Plank (known to his friends as simply “Plank”) grew up in Urbana, MD, a suburban census-designated place located in Frederick County about 30 minute drive from DC or Baltimore. The two were an anomaly in their hometown, young guitar players with a passion for music shared by few if any of their high school peers. They set about looking for a singer, bassist, and drummer but ultimately began recording in Plank’s dad’s music room on their own, with Plank on drums and Sawyer playing guitar and singing his own songs in front of another person for the first time ever. In 2018, Sawyer and Plank set off for college in Nashville, though they both already had an idea that they’d rather be focusing on their music. “We had agreements with our parents that we’d at least try college,” Estok says. “And that’s turned out pretty much how I thought it was going to.”
As if by divine providence, Sawyer almost instantly encountered bassist Teagan Proctor and guitarist/keyboard player Cam Schmidt while playing Mario Kart in the dorm room across the hall from his own. Like Sawyer and Plank, Teag and Cam had arrived in Nashville as best friends, with roots that went back even further their own. “Our families are pretty much one big family. We did everything together – vacations, weekly dinners, the whole bit. I’ve known Cam since he was literally born,” Proctor says. “I was there in the hospital when he was born. Our families were that close.” The four musicians became fast friends, bonding over their shared passion and dreams of the future.
The new quartet quickly began scrapping to play as many shows as possible, working their way from a Nashville pizza shop to house shows to hugely influential local venues like The End and EXIT/IN. Determined to get tour experience under their belts, they traveled the East
Coast, including shows in NYC, DC, and VA. A westward journey made it all the way to Anaheim, Ca, a trek highlighted by a show in Campaign, IL to a room of eight people.
By 2020, all four members of Secondhand Sound had decided to leave their respective schools in order to fully devote themselves to the band. The global pandemic put the brakes on their immediate plans, locking them down at home like the rest of the world. For Estok, the worldwide pause provided his first real opportunity to assess where Secondhand Sound had been and what he hoped it to be moving forward. “It forced me to really sit down and look at where the band was going,” Estok says. “For me, 2020 was about deciding what kind of voice I wanted to take as a songwriter. And what kind of perspective I wanted to depict.”
With the world reopening, Secondhand Sound is eager to get back to the live arena as a galvanized young band fully focused on the future while acknowledging the recent past that led them to this moment in time. Brimming with self-assurance, imagination, and a seemingly infinite songbook, Secondhand Sound is set to take on the world.