Media

Roast Biography

Roast was a dynamic, melodic, six-piece band that formed in the spring of 2001.  Not happy with rehashing the sounds of bands that came before them, Roast spent tireless hours composing, practicing, and performing to establish their own unique identity.  Watching a Roast show is like running a marathon; audiences are left reeling after witnessing the intense raw emotion that each player pours into their performances.

Roast is made up of six extremely talented instrumentalists from different backgrounds who take the craft of songwriting very seriously.  The band is built around tight, textured musical arrangements and cathartic lyrics.

Several noticeable genres can be heard in the music, including rock, classical, R&B, jazz, Latin, folk, and post-modern, but the end result is a more homogenized version of these varied tastes.  The lineup consists of two guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, and percussion.

Roast was based in Syracuse, New York, and had been performing to packed, enthusiastic crowds regularly.  The band also performed in Oswego, New York, and Chicago, Illinois, has received airplay on the local college radio station, has appeared on a local cable talk show, has opened for national touring bands such as Psychedelic Breakfast and Vermont’s RAQ, and won first prize in the Syracuse University Battle of the Bands.  Syracuse University’s Daily Orange has described the band as “turning heads in 2002,” and as “being poised for great things in 2003” (Mike Lang, 2003).  In March of 2004, the documentary about the band entitled Variations was released on Time Warner Cable’s Orange Television Network.