The Soloists’ story began when Patrick and Eric met in elementary school in Novi, MI. After discovering both had a creative flair, they began to mess around with comedy. By middle school, they were writing and recording their own comedy show on cassette tapes and distributing to their classmates (unfortunately, a few of those tapes are still around!). It was during this time Patrick and Eric first experimented with songwriting and singing. As a trained percussionist from a musical family, Patrick was able to lead the way in their early musical development.

Fast forward to 2008…

By this time, Eric had taken up guitar as his instrument of choice, as Patrick had taken a clear liking to piano. It was around this time that they first started discussing forming a band and focusing on music. In the summer of 2008, their first two official songs were written and recorded, “A for Accuracy” by Eric, and “D for Distance” by Patrick. These songs were complete solo efforts and were not really meant to be played as a duo, so they decided to go with the name “The Soloists” as it embodied their view that they were two solo artists working together. They were happy with the songs, and set their sights on a 5 song EP to be completed by 2009.

Away at college, each wrote a several songs and they got together over winter break to go through the songs and plan out the EP. They called up friend and fellow Novillian Max Landry to record and Mix the EP, to be titled Bending the Truth. The practice sessions and recording sessions shaped the sound of The Soloists for years to come. Patrick and Eric learned many techniques and skills from Max they would carry forward in their songwriting and recording for future music. Eric designed the distinctive album at in between class back at school, and the silhouettes would be a lasting motif for the band.

For their next EP, they decided to take a less formal approach. They recorded the EP themselves in Eric’s basement and mixed up the instrumentation. Patrick played box drum on a few tracks, and Eric played accordion on one track. They tried to keep only two vocal tracks to capture more of the sound of their live set. In February of 2011, the EP was released as Let It Go.

In the next few months, it became clear that Patrick’s and Eric’s lives would diverge; Patrick would be off to France and Eric would be off to San Diego. In the summer of 2011, they put together a collection of songs and called up Max Landry once more, to put together the more polished Before You Go EP.

In the time that followed, most of their collaboration happened online with a few notable releases. In 2013, they had their first chance in a long time to write a song together in person when Patrick made a visit to San Diego. The song that came out of the writing session was “No Forecast of Rain” and was based on the poems of Nazifa Islam in her book Searching for a Pulse.