Music Profile: The Sneaky Growth

Music Profile is a series in which we profile local up-and-coming musicians.

Local bands Strand of Oaks, Kurt Vile, and Cheers Elephant have been tearing it up in Philly over the past year, and only in such a milieu as this can a band like The Sneaky Growth be conceived. It’s the perfect name for the perfect Philly band: a band that sneaks up on you and grows on your mind, on your soul. This morning, as I was brewing my La Colombe, watching the steam rise to the ceiling, I couldn’t help but think of The Sneaky Growth.

The band’s frontman, Jeremy Locks, describes his music as a blend of electropop, Fauvism, and bodegas. “The idea originally came from my desire to make music like Grimes, but less annoying,” Locks says. “I listened to her album once, and I was like, ‘This sounds really easy to make, I could do it better.’” Besides Locks, who writes and does vocals, The Sneaky Growth has three other members. “Rob Chester plays guitar and Justin Moore does bass and drums,” describes Lock; “we don’t have anyone to do synth yet, but I’m pretty sure my friend Ralph [Middleton] is going to do it.”

The four members met while attending Temple University. The band’s name came from a particularly inspirational night last week. “We were at Rob’s place in North Philly, and he was doing acid, and he was like, ‘Whoa a tumor is like a sneaky growth inside the body.’ And we laughed for about 30 minutes straight. And we knew that it would be the band’s name.”

Though the band hasn’t booked any shows yet, they feel confident that they will once they write their first song. Their first rehearsal was scheduled for last week, but got postponed until after final exams.

This is definitely one hip, new band to look out for, Philly!