Local band Herzog drops singles while awaiting touring opportunities

There's a good argument to be made that all gigging musicians — no matter how big or small — are champing at the bit to get back onstage. While all true, that's not necessarily the case for Herzog's Nick Tolar, who, well, enjoys nothing more than jamming and practicing with his Northeast Ohio bandmates — sans an audience. The singer-guitarist knows he's in the minority on this, but, hey, he's being honest. "I'm not big on playing live, but I know the guys in the band like it," said Tolar, who due to COVID-19 doesn't have to worry about pesky gigging and mini-tours. Instead, he's focused on Herzog's next album "Fiction Writer," which is getting the slowest of slow-roll releases. Beginning in April, Herzog — Tolar, Charlie Trenta (bass), Dave McHenry (guitar, vocals), Dan Price (drums, vocals) and Alec Schumann (drums) — started releasing a single a month leading up to the 2021 street date. The lead single was the power-pop friendly "I'm Being Replaced," which Tolar described as the most straight-ahead rock song Herzog ever produced. This was followed by his favorite "Shadows" last month and the next single "Today's the Day" due out June 19. "The reason I decided to do one single a month initially was because it was only going to be an online release," Tolar said. "But then the label wanted us to quickly follow up our last record 'Me Vs. You,' which was released in early 2019. "I had some songs, so we quickly went to New Jersey and recorded four of them. After that, it was like let's just start putting this stuff online as soon as possible." Herzog's fifth studio effort, "Fiction Writer" continues the band's penchant for power pop — combining catchy melodies and distorted rock with frequent comparisons ranging from Weezer to The Cars. "There are songs from the new record where I'm like this kind of sounds like a song from the '80s," Tolar said. "That's just how it came out. I'd say 'Fiction Writer' is a continuation of our last record, which we did a little bit of touring off. We went down to SXSW." Regarding the pandemic, Tolar — not surprisingly — joked the hardest part of the stay-at-home spring wasn't the inability to hit the road, but instead seeing his bandmates. "The thing I miss is practicing," Tolar said. "We haven't gotten together since February. It's been very hard. I found out we're not a band that can work individually. We're a band that has to be in a room together. Also, I'll admit, I'm lazy when it comes to all of that. I don't particularly like touring. I'm kind of a baby. I like my creature comforts, and I love making music. "If I could just find people who would just make records with me, I would be the happiest person in the world, but that's part of the trade-off. I want good musicians to play with me, and they want to play live. So, I'm fine with that." More on Herzog here and on Facebook. Contact John Benson at Ndiffrence@att.net.