The evening sky is pink and orange as I arrive at The Rage in downtown Niles, Michigan. Tonight is special—local band The Erly is launching their latest album, Salem Lights. The building, part of the historic district downtown, was originally a drug store. Now, it’s an events center and restaurant, with a bar from the turn of the last century being the highlight of the interior.

I walk up to Colin Mattiford, standing at the bar. He recognizes me and gives me his trademark smile. He is super excited about tonight's event and promises it will be a great show. I am sure it will be, as the jazz-infused rock band never disappoints. He tells me the soundcheck went great and they are ready to go.

I ask the band to give me their thoughts on the band, the new album, and life to get some context.

GW: Tell us about the new album. What drove its creation?

• TREVOR: Salem Lights (4th album) is our quickest turnaround album since our first album, Shadows. It’s in a way our “Get Back” album. The foundation was recorded live in one room, including solos and, in some cases, vocals. With minimal overdubs, this is a much more stripped-back album compared to our most recent LP, Culture Fever. I think this fueled us to want to land the tracks with as few takes as possible. We wanted to capture the fun and excitement of a live experience on record, so the fans know what to expect at an Erly show.

• FRAN: The creation of Salem Lights was driven by a collective subconsciousness to create something of the moment. Nothing fancy or trendy, but something authentic and real. We initially scheduled sessions with producer Paul Bennett to record demos and see what could happen. Next thing we knew, 27 songs were created and then narrowed down to the 11 featured on the album. Lyric-heavy vocal harmonies combined with stripped-back arrangements, Salem Lights offers stories of love, loss, travel, and acceptance. It’s the closest album so far that captures what The Erly’s live show is like.

• COLLIN: The album’s creation was derived from our ability to write, perform, and record as a live band. While some of the songs stemmed from core ideas created at an earlier time, the majority of what you hear was discovered in the moment of the recording process. This album is the result of spontaneous writing and recording that can only be captured by four individuals in the same room.

• SIMON: I feel that the band drove the creation of the album. As the newest member of the group, the recording process felt very intuitive, with the four of us very quickly becoming acquainted with playing music together. Sometimes it felt like we were just focused on playing, and later realized we had almost finished an album’s worth of music.

The band is going to play on the terrace tonight, outside under the late summer sky, and the weather couldn’t be nicer. I find Simon Hurst and Fran Gleason greeting friends and family as the venue starts to fill. I ask Simon where Trevor McDonald is, and he tells me there is a little more gear they decided they would need tonight, so Trevor has run home to get it. Local doesn’t quite clarify—it’s clear these guys are all part of the fabric that makes up Niles.

GW: Tell us about the band, its formation, members, and future goals.

• TREVOR: I was still in college (IUSB for a BA in Music) in 2018 when I joined the band. I was both taking and teaching lessons and needed an outlet that wasn’t just work. I’ve been with the band since the beginning, following many different changes, whether it was lineup changes or creative changes. As a band, we would love to tour both coasts. We’ve been to LA on a one-off and are journeying to NYC on this upcoming tour. I would love to make that connection someday. Gaining organic fans from a live experience is how I feel we’ve been able to carry on as long and happily as we have. I mean, that's how we met you, Dan!

• COLLIN: The Erly focuses on four different instruments that play off each other in both the studio and live settings. We’re never too fixated on whether a song should be played in a certain structure. The band's formation came from a combination of recording sessions, live gigs, and Craigslist. The Erly will be expanding outside their region of the Midwest for touring and playing shows.

• FRAN: The Erly showcases Collin Mattiford on Bass/Vocals, Trevor McDonald on Guitar/Vocals, Fran Gleason on Drums/Vocals, and Simon Kauffman Hurst on Keyboards. The band started in late 2017 and has produced four albums since, including Salem Lights (9/4/24), which embodies an Americana-rock feel. The Erly plans to continue building their songbook with more albums in the near future, as well as traveling the country on tour.

• SIMON: The Erly was around and making music for a while before I jumped in at the start of this year. After making an album, playing lots of original shows, and even some Grateful Dead shows, I’m excited to see what’s next for us. It’s been a blast playing all this music with these guys. As for the future, I really just hope we get to keep playing shows, making albums, and doing it with a bigger and bigger fan base.

The first part of the show will feature the new album, complete with input from Collin about each song. The crowd reacts with enthusiasm as the band pours their hearts into every note. Songs like “Sally,” “Reading the Call,” “55 on the Other Side,” and “Caroline” resonate with the audience, but to me, the highlights tonight are the ballads like “Wreckage” and “Let It Roll.” The standout of the first half comes as the band lets Trevor sizzle on an extended version of “Oh Well.” Pure magic.

GW: On every album, there is one song that is just for the performers themselves. Which song on Salem Lights is that song and why?

• TREVOR: For me, my one contribution to this album is “Sally,” so it was a pretty easy choice. I had this song in the works since we started considering a new album. I went through quite a bit of writer's block during this album’s cycle. Being able to still pull out this tune for the album meant that, regardless, it was going to be on the album! I think it was captured perfectly and it is so fun to perform live.

• FRAN: One of the songs I contributed to the album, “OH10,” was a lot of fun to record. Though it’s a very loose performance, it brings out the best characteristics of each person in the band. Trevor lands a live guitar solo perfectly, Collin holds down the bass and superbly portrays a sheriff with his vocal in verse two, and Simon gives us that honky-tonk piano solo to close the tune. The drums came very naturally to me, and the tones were exactly what I was looking for (thanks, Paul!). The song is about being stuck in Ohio, and ironically, the band ended up being stranded in Ohio after hitting a deer one month after the song was written.

• COLLIN: “Let It Roll” would be the performer’s song. Aside from a slide guitar and some layered vocals, it’s the most live song on the album. Vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and keys were all recorded live without any edits after the fact. All of the song’s perfect imperfections are what make it the most humanistic and showcase The Erly in its most natural state.

• SIMON: For me, I really enjoy the song “Gimme a Sign.” I really connected with the energy and attitude of the song. You can hear in the organ parts at the end—I definitely had some fun with the slides.

The second half of the show begins with Erly favorites “One for All,” “Hey Amanda,” and “Waiting All the Time.” The band is really in the groove now, and Collin gives us a little more insight. Songs on earlier recordings were made at a studio right in downtown that has since become a dress shop.

GW: When working on new songs, where do you go for inspiration?

• TREVOR: I think a new approach to every tune helps make each song sound and feel different. Sometimes it comes from what we’re listening to or covering. Culture Fever leaned heavily on Steely Dan. As people may know, we’ve done quite a bit of Grateful Dead tributing/covering in recent years, and that is certainly making its way into our approach and aspirations. For this album, if we found something starting to sound like something, we didn’t lean into it. Rather, we tried to go the other way.

• COLLIN: Inspiration for writing songs starts from the smallest idea, whether it be a rhythm, chord progression, melody, or a lyric. These starting ideas are then expanded on to reach their maximum potential. If an idea isn’t working or hits a roadblock, it’s set to the side for a later date or when inspiration strikes again.

• FRAN: Inspiration for a new song comes at the strangest times. It’s usually when my mind is preoccupied with a mundane task such as driving, doing laundry, or taking a shower. In those moments, I feel my creative brain is most active. Usually, I will only get one phrase or a title down on the page. Typically, that title or phrase will wait until I resonate with it more in the future. In some cases, I instantly connect with the phrase, and my life experiences inspire the completion of the song within 10 minutes.

• SIMON: For me, inspiration comes from lots of places, whether that’s listening to other records, clicking through presets on a synth, or seeing how someone else responds to a riff you were messing around with. In the case of this album, it was definitely the latter. It really felt like this record came about from exploring all those things together in a room.

Amongst the crowd, I notice none other than Paul Bennett, the band’s producer. He tells me that he and Fran first met in high school when they formed a band. Years have passed, and now they find themselves living in Michigan. He recounts how the album kind of just happened. The band was cutting demos, not really expecting more than to see what they sounded like. In the studio, they worked on songs, sounds, and creating the feel of a live performance. Paul knew they had hit on something real and organic. The band made 30 cuts all at once, and from there, they culled the number down to 14. The final tracks have just enough polish to shine without losing the ambiance of a live performance. Paul speaks about the album like a proud young father.

GW: What other bands do you try to emulate?

• COLLIN: Emulating other bands is not a top priority for our creative process. If a song has a certain sound that resembles another group or artist, it is merely a by-product of the creative flow between the four of us bouncing off each other.

• TREVOR: Having seen numerous bands, the ones that impact us live are the ones we want to emulate—not by ripping their ideas but by asking ourselves, “Can we build off of this preexisting tune?” Artists that really go the extra mile that we’ve seen as a band include Dead & Company, Dawes, Thundercat, and The Weather Station.

• FRAN: I wouldn’t say we strive to emulate certain artists when recording or planning a live show, but we certainly take inspiration. Bands like Dawes and Grateful Dead have opened our minds to how big (or small) you can take a song. During the time of recording Salem Lights, songwriters like John Prine, Matt Myers, and J.J. Cale had a big influence on my writing.

• SIMON: For this process, I had Theo Katzman’s album Be the Wheel in mind. Not in terms of specific musical references, but for the process of how they made that record—all live, all to tape. I really wanted to be part of a very live, very in-the-room record. I think we definitely accomplished that.

The band gives us favorites from the past like “Peace of Mind,” “Jasmine,” and my favorite, “Red Roof Inn.” The crowd has thinned, and the night sky has turned a deep blue, with a slight chill in the air. The band would love to go on forever, but even wonderful nights like these must come to a close.

GW: What festivals and venues would you like to play at in 2025?

• COLLIN: We would love to play Shoe Fest, as well as return to Limo Camp. Of course, there are always the big goals, such as SXSW, Bonnaroo, Bourbon & Beyond, and NAMM.

• TREVOR: We would love to be involved in concert series with a local community pull. The ones that are obtainable for a locally growing band. Something like Limo Camp was a nice size with an active, pulling crowd. As far as venues, we want to start tapping into bigger cities like Reggies in Chicago, The Rave in Milwaukee, and The Pour Houses in Raleigh, NC, and Charleston, SC.

• FRAN: For 2025, we plan to gig as much as possible to promote the new album. Festivals like SXSW, Summerfest, Bourbon & Beyond all come to mind, as well as venues like The Acorn (Three Oaks, MI), Schubas (Chicago, IL), and Hi-Fi (Indianapolis, IN).

• SIMON: Red Rocks has always been top of my list. It might be a long shot, but if anyone’s got an opening, let us know! I’m excited for more outdoor festivals next summer, as well as shows in new places. The more, the merrier!

Those of us lucky enough to have discovered the band have enjoyed a night full of their very best. Those of you who have yet to discover them should check out the band's discography on any online service—or better yet, pick up a copy of Salem Lights. You’ll be glad you did.