The summer concert lineup is crowded with country acts, classics and Top 40 stars, but the local music scene heats up in the warmer months too. Head to the inaugural Beachland Summer Fest July 30 from 3-11 p.m. to enjoy a beer garden and grilled food, and soak up the sounds of local bands the Modern Electric, Ottawa, the Whiskey Hollow, Jivviden and Take Off Charlie. Also playing is Lakewood band Polars, fronted by Justin Miller and Kurt Eyman, whose album In The Pines is a pleasantly ambient debut lathered with sweet vocal harmonies and occasional string arrangements. Testing a new backing brass trio, the Polars frontmen chat with us ahead of Saturday’s show.
On eschewing genre labels: “We’re really not rock,” adds Eyman. “We’re folk in a sense that we’re telling stories about the place where we’re from.”
“The whole folk description? We don’t really fully embody that or embrace that,” says Miller. “It just kind of got associated with us.”
One the band name: “When you say ‘polar,’ obviously you think, ‘up north!’” Eyman says. “But ‘polar’ can mean so many things. Something can be polarizing. It can have to do with navigation. We wanted a common word that gave us this nature-esque feel, allowing us to use electronics and instruments that sets us apart from the folky types.”
On the nature vibe of In The Pines: “I grew up hiking in the woods, doing all types of outdoor stuff,” Eyman says. “One of the things we tried to accomplish lyrically was accepting the beauty of Cleveland, but also accepting some of — for lack of better terms —the griminess of it too. Like in ‘June,’ we talk about the smell of the walleye. You can be walking along the beach and smell that kind of stuff. It’s not a pristine paradise. We have to earn that actual beauty.”