By Mick Dillon / The Jambar
The indie folk band Tophouse continues its 2025 tour schedule March 27-28, with shows in Columbus and Pittsburgh.
According to the band’s website, Tophouse was formed in 2015 by Jesse Davis, guitarist and songwriter, alongside violinist William Cook. Years later, the band expanded to include Joseph Larson, lead singer, lead guitarist and banjo player as well as pianist Andy LaFave.
In an attempt to take its craft more seriously, the Tophouse members packed up and moved from Butte, Montana, to Nashville, Tennessee, in 2020.
Shortly after the move, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the group’s live performances. Larson said Tophouse had to adjust to its new lifestyle without being able to book any concerts.
“We honestly just hunkered down and made a bunch of YouTube videos and just wrote a bunch of stuff,” Larson said. “I’d say the adjustment was just like trying to figure out what to do with a bunch of newfound free time and figure out how to make it productive with music.”
Tophouse started to garner more attention shortly after the pandemic ended. The group has now amassed over 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and its track, “The Mountain Song,” has over 11.6 million streams.
The groups latest EPs, “Theory” and “Practice,” released in 2024 and 2025 respectively, display contrasting concepts. Davis said the group was inspired by the flow of a common connection between the song’s stories.
“I remember [Larson] and I were sitting in a kitchen and just kind of listed out all the songs we had, and sort of grouped them in two groups more or less by feel,” Davis said. “We even sort of weaved a storyline, not a storyline that we intentionally placed there, but that could be interpreted to kind of help us get a feel for the vibe of each EP.”
Davis said the two albums differed in outlook but maintained a cohesive theme. “Theory” has a more optimistic outlook, while “Practice” is the hard truth uncovered through the execution of said theories.
“One group was about ideals — it was all bright eyed and bushy tailed and optimistic. And the other one was more realistic and maybe a bit more melancholy, but not overly depressive,” Davis said.
Growing up, Davis and Larson said they found inspiration from artists across all sorts of genres.
“Personally, I feel like I grew up on equal parts hard rock and bluegrass,” Larson said. “I love southern rock, something like the Black Crowes or The Allman Brothers.”
Davis said he found the bulk of his early music taste to reflect what his family would listen to.
“I definitely grew up with my parents’ music, it was like classic rock [from the] 70s and 80s — Boston, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin,” Davis said. “I feel like the inspiration comes from wherever it comes from — the influence just kind of influences you and you just kind of roll with it.”
As far as group inspiration goes, Tophouse found inspiration from other groups in the indie folk genre.
“As a band, especially in our older stuff, the modern folk movement was a big influence — Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers and things like that,” Larson said.
Tophouse looks forward to continuing its 2025 tour and plans on releasing new music soon.
“We’re all chomping at the bit to release a full length LP, full length album. [We] want to get a whole pile of new songs out there already,” Davis said.
