As the South Coast has many influential artists, let’s take a minute to drift a little further south and take a trip to Rhode Island.

Trophy Wives, a hard hitting five piece pop punk band hailing from Providence consists of guitarist Chris Piquette, vocalist Sam Boxold, bassist Travis Danforth, drummer Mike Crawley, and other guitarist Tyler Young. These five guys have strived for nothing less than perfection, and they have been on the right track from the get go.

Starting back in 2012, Trophy Wives was originally forged by former front man Pat Crowley, former guitarist Dave Geer, former bassist Ben Pond, Chris and Mike. At that point in time, many of them were at standstills with their previous bands, but were eager to jump into something new and start getting a new sound out there. With the release of their first EP “Letting Go” in August of 2012, these guys were able to sell out their first show, giving them the start that they wanted. From that point on, they played shows all over Ne

When I had a chance to talk to Chris about their style and music writing process, he said, “Our musical roots go out in various genre directions, but mostly, we’re all just fans of music creating what feels right to all of us. When writing [we] take influence from bands like Four Year Strong and All Time Low, but also from older bands like Boston all the way to the most modern bands like Beartooth. We usually find ourselves on the same page when it comes to making songwriting choices.” He continued on to say, “What truly brings TW together in our current era is that we all have passions outside of music that we pursue in our daily lives and in our work, but none of them compare to our passion for this band.

Touring and spreading our music and creating new music are the things that we each strive to spend our lives doing. We’re very fortunate to have Artery Global booking for us and getting us out on the road in 2015!”

With their recent signing to Artery Global booking and the release of their second EP, their future holds much more in store for them. “[We] are beyond excited to be locked into some dates of the 2015 Vans Warped Tour via the Ernie Ball BOTB. The new year kicks off for us with the Ernie Ball final showcase in LA. Till then, we are gearing up with some new tunes for our live set and getting lots of writing done in the studio!” Luckily for them, and their fans, they record at Chris Piquette’s own No Boundaries Studios, meaning that they can make sure that every note, every snare hit, and every bass drop, sounds perfect to them, and hopefully to their audience.

Trophy Wives continues to amaze their fans, and they continue to strive for more. They inspire so many local bands with their hard work, as the Providence scene continues it’s thrive with new up and coming bands. Their music can be found on their Facebook page, along with their merchandise and up and coming shows, and they hope you enjoy listening to their music as much as they love making it.

War Games is a five piece rock band from Southern Massachusetts that strives to demonstrate their continuous ability to uplift and inspire their listeners. These South Coast natives have been writing music for years, and are glad to see what they’ve created turn into something greater than themselves. Consisting of Kyle Therrien (Singer), Ian Provost (Guitarist), Andy Calheta (Bassist), Josh Zeolla (Drummer), and Matt Dilecce (Guitarist), these guys have been making a name for themselves in the music industry as they spread their music all over the world.

Formally known as Another Option, the band’s debut EP ‘Mountains” produced by Ace Enders of The Early November, laid the foundations for the band’s sound and established a strong fan base.

With their indie sound and their lyrical talents, their music has touched listeners in a new way. I had the chance to ask Kyle about his experiences in the band and the world tours he’s been on.

“Touring has been a huge part of my life both growing up and now at 26 years old. As soon as I got my license at age 16 we hit the road. We followed a band from New Hampshire all over the United States squeezing our half an hour worth of songs between other bands sets everywhere we could,” he said. As he was telling me about some stories about his early runs through the states, he said, “It was from our first touring experiences that we decided that traveling and playing music was what we were made for! Shortly after that we saved up money and bought our first van and trailer.

Three vans, five warped tours, two United Kingdom tours, and countless US tours later here we are, gearing up to put out our first full length album as War Games and hit the road in The United Kingdom for a third time.”

Though the members of War Games had been rigorously playing shows in U.S. and the U.K. under their former name, the band’s first official tour as War Games was during the 2012 Vans Warped Tour on the ourstage.com stage. Since then, the band has done countless runs as their new band, continuing to write music since their most recent Acoustic EP and finishing up their first full length as a band. The full length, entitled “Holding Patterns” is set to be released in early 2015, followed by a full U.K. tour in March.

“Touring the world, meeting different people, trouble shooting, the good times, the bad times, it’s shaped my character. It’s made us who we are. We all love life, and wouldn’t change anything about how we’ve spent the last decade!” He said with great enthusiasm. As an Indie rock band from the South Coast, War Games is the epitome that making it the music industry isn’t easy, but with hard work and dedication, you’re music will take you somewhere and have others come with you along the way.

Their music can be found on their Facebook page and they hope that their music will inspire you as it has inspired many before.

Back in the day, the South Coast thrived with the rise of the hardcore scene (who can forget how upset everyone was when Have Heart broke up?), but today, the post hardcore scene is making its revival.

Covering a fan base from Providence to Wareham to Boston, a group of Westport natives are creating a name for themselves in the music scene. Riverview, a four piece post hardcore band, consists of Dalton Winters (guitar), Ross Ketschke (Bass), Eric Canto (drums and vocals), and Lucas Murphy (vocals).

Originally a trio named Sally, this band went through a transition of sound and members since their start in 2011. Going from a trio, to a quarter/quintet (with yours truly on guitar, then on vocals when a quintet), and now sticking to four members, they finally found a sound that they want to stick with and continue on their new path.

As I sat down with Dalton, he had this to say, “The band started out as just a little talent show routine, and after that, Eric, Ross and I decided to try and make this joke into a reality. The name comes from the street I live on, which is funny because when promoters mail us tickets, they always have a comment about how they’re mailing them to Riverview on Riverview Drive.”

As we talked about how he likes the new sound in comparison to what it used to be, he added, “We used to just do covers, as most bands start out doing. It wasn’t until Eric and I sat down and tried to write some songs that we found ourselves in a genre.” He went into detail about their new sound as he said, “Most people used to categorize us with A Day to Remember as they were an influence on our band at one point.

We had that similar sound of clean vocals mixed with screams and the occasional breakdown to get the crowd rowdy. It wasn’t until about a year after we released our first EP that we decided we wanted to be heavier and have more of a raw sound. We released a few singles to give our audience a taste of our new direction and with the release of our last EP back in last October, our new sound suites us a lot better. It’s heavier, it’s raw, and it really shows our potential as a band.”

In December, Riverview is hoping to play out in new areas and give us New Englanders a taste of what post hardcore is these days. “We’ve written a few songs lately, and actually just finished recording one last week, and we hope to release it soon!” he said. Their music and merch can be found on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/riverviewmusic, and they ask that you take a listen and let them know what you think!

Backseat Boys – Riverview (unreleased b-side song)

Goodbye, Blue Monday – Riverview (b-side unreleased song) [ft. former vocalist Zachery Taylor]

Over the last year or so Eric Canto, a 17 year old senior from Westport High, recorded his debut EP “Graphing Planes” in the basement of his Westport home and finally released it back in May of 2014. Most people would think that a basement EP would produce terrible quality and sound like a grungy garage band EP from back in the 90’s, but this EP has the recording quality of some of the top notch studios in the South Coast area.

With a little help from the mixing and mastering of Chris Piquette (of Trophy Wives) at No Boundaries Studios in Providence, RI, Eric’s music has the upbeat, pop punk feel that makes you just want to get up and move. With catchy guitar riffs, crazy drum fills, and his poetic lyrics, it’s amazing to think how one person sat down and wrote all of these, and even recorded every instrument on his own.

“I wrote this EP as a way to kind of express myself in a different type of scene that I’m used to,” Eric said when I had the chance to sit him down. “After recording drums on the last EP for my other band Riverview, I just thought that since I had all of this time, I could work on some solo stuff,” he added.

Eric is also the drummer and vocalist for Riverview, a post-hardcore band out of Westport as well, so this transition to pop punk was a little different for him. “I’m huge into pop punk but I play in a post hardcore band, and I’ve always wanted to try something new. I pretty much wrote these songs because I was going through some stuff, just as everyone says about writing music, and I just wanted to get it all out. I ended up recording “Highway Sunrise” as a little rough demo and posted it on Tumblr and got an amazing response. That’s when I started doing demos of the rest of the songs, and people kept asking me to release them on an EP, so I did,” he laughed.

“I’ve recorded a bunch of covers and posted them, but after seeing all of these people telling me how much they loved my originals, it inspired me to start making something out of it,” he said with a smile. “I’ve always had people tell me that my music (in Riverview) has saved their lives, which is probably highest honor in music, and I wanted to help people on my own since I had all that time to do it.”

With his music starting to hit the South Coast scene, he’s now putting together a full band so he can play out, and hopefully start touring in the near future. He’s currently writing more music, and plans to put out another EP soon, hoping to have the same impact on people that “Graphing Planes” did. Eric’s EP is available for free at ericcanto.bandcamp.com, and comes with a “Name Your Price” option if you wish to donate some money so he can have CD’s and T shirts made up to help promote his music.

“I love writing music, and I know the direction I want to go with it, but I have to say, the hardest part of this is just coming up with a band name!”