The Way Down Wanderers
Organic Combination
By Andy Argyrakis
photo by Genta Tamashiro
P
eoria natives The Way Down
Wanderers may be new to many, but
since dropping a self-titled debut in
2016, as well as a pair of EPs and a live
recording, the quintet has steadily swelled
their grassroots fan base with an alluring,
frequently unexpected hybrid of heartland
sounds. Comprised of guitarist/vocalist
Austin Krause-Thompson, mandolin/vio-
linist/guitarist/vocalist Collin Krause,
upright bassist/guitarist/vocalist John
Williams, drummer/percussionist John
Merikoski and banjo player/guitarist
Travis Kowalsky, the guys’ relentless tour
schedule has taken them all across
America and overseas, both headlining
and
supporting
The
Infamous
Stringdusters while making the rounds at
several of Chicago’s most coveted rooms.
Along the way, they’ve fine-tuned a
sound steeped in bluegrass and
Americana, but with shades of The Band’s
classic sensibilities, The Beach Boys’ har-
monies, The Avett Brothers’ rootsy revival,
plus slices of classical, jazz and almost any-
thing imaginable. It’s no wonder why The
Way Down Wanderers caught the ear of
Grammy-winner David Schiffman (Johnny
Cash, Rage Against The Machine, Haim).
He produced, engineered and mixed the
group’s official sophomore album illusions,
which finds the fellas even more seasoned
than their previous stretch and possesses a
high musical proficiency in general well
beyond many in their early to mid-20s.
We got the full profile straight from the
mouths of primary songwriters Austin
Krause-Thompson and Collin Krause (who
just so happen to be brothers-in-law and
neighbors) in a wide-ranging phone con-
versation with IE. Here's what the boys
had to say as they geared up for a pair of
record release shows in Chicago and
Champaign, where The Way Down
Wanderers will debut all the new tunes
and make a case for the buzz that’s been
brewing as they continue to blur bound-
aries between genres and generations.
Illinois Entertainer: What was the Peoria
music scene like when you were getting
started?
Austin Krause-Thompson: When we first
got started, Collin and myself were both in
different bands. The scene as we knew it at
the time was pretty underground and pret-
ty low key. There weren’t a ton of spaces
for live music, but lots of small galleries
and little bars. Collin and I met at a covers
show where there were lots of young
bands playing. He and I were both in sep-
arate bands, and we kind of came together
after that. But it definitely seems like the
scene has grown quite a bit since that.
Collin Krause: I think when we first start-
ed it was a sense of mainly musicians sup-
porting other musicians. The people that
went to the shows were the other bands.
That was your audience, which was kind
of cool.
IE: How did moving to Chicago give you
significant opportunities and visibility?
CK: We moved to Chicago probably about
four years ago. A lot of our other band-
mates were living up there, so it was really
important to be close with them and to
leave for tour easily. It definitely helped
just getting to know the other people in
Chicago, and I definitely don’t think we
would’ve had that opportunity living fur-
ther south.
IE: Have there been any surprises or chal-
lenges about being in the city?
CK: A couple of years ago, we had this 36-
foot long tour bus, and we were living
right in the heart of Chicago at the time, so
we had to park the bus on a residential
street. I’m pretty sure we annoyed a nice
22 illinoisentertainer.com march 2019
neighborhood of Chicago residents, but
luckily we don’t have the bus anymore.
That was probably one of the biggest chal-
lenges of living in Chicago and making
rent every month with a musician’s salary,
but we definitely scraped by. And just to
clarify, we have moved back to Peoria
recently. It feels really good to be back in
our hometown where things started.
Austin and I are actually neighbors now,
and we get together a lot. We get to make
music together all the time, not just when
we’re on the road, but when we’re back at
home too.
IE: I hear some early Mumford & Sons, a
bit of The Lumineers, slices of Americana,
bluegrass, indie rock and even classical
elements in your sound. Does that all align
with your influences?
CK: I think you pretty much hit the nail on
the head. We grew up listening to folk
music and acoustic music, so many differ-
ent bands ranging from classics like The
Beatles and The Band that influence us for
sure, to newer artists, like I know Austin
really enjoys listening to Trevor Hall.
There’s really just a broad range of influ-
ences, and we hope that all of those come
through in the music.
AK-T: Collin and I have always been really
focused on just the songwriting aspect and
have always taken that folk singer/song-
writer traditional approach in a sense.
Then when we take things to the band, we
try to base the groove off of that, whether
it be something really dancy or modern or
something really groovy that you would
hear in a song by The Band or something
like that. But more so lately, we’ve just
been trying to push the envelope a little bit,
whether it be the groove or overall shape
of a song, so it’s definitely a good range,
from classical American music to modern
stuff.
IE: Harmonies are also a major component
in your equation. Any specific strategy or
approach to shaping those?
CK: We definitely spend a lot of time work-
ing on our harmony parts. I end up usual-
ly taking the highest harmony parts just
because I have a very high singing voice.
Our bass player usually takes the lower
harmony part. We know where each
other’s voices fall best in the chords. We’ve
definitely been experiencing different
styles of harmonies where each person is
trading off doing the melody part and
some songs where we trade off back and
forth between harmony and melody.
That’s been a cool element in some of our
newer songs.
IE: What inspired the illusions album
title?
CK: It’s a song that I actually wrote about
growing up and how relationships change
over the cycle of your life. I think that ties
in the whole album almost. The album
really is about life and death and experi-
ence and illusions kind of ties in the whole
thing to me.
IE: How do you guys feel about growing up
and the passage of time? Positive, nega-
tive, bittersweet?
AK-T: I would definitely say overall it’s
been a very positive thing. I think we all
kind of came up in good surroundings,
and I want to say it’s been even more pos-
itive since we’ve come together. But time
has been going by extremely quickly, espe-
cially since we’ve been on the road. We try
to remember that nothing is permanent.
It’s all very in-the-moment, and we just try
to take advantage of that as much as we
can. I think we try to portray that in some
of the songs as well.
IE: Storytelling seems to be a priority.
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