Band Spotlight: Q&A with Rogue
- Andersen Beck
- Mar 27
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 15
North of the Allegheny County border, the music scene is a veritable wasteland. Sure, Zelienople and Harmony have some open mics at restaurants and bars, but that's not a music scene. It's a handful of musicians floating from stage to stage like tumbleweeds. Refreshingly, one band in particular breaks this precedent.
Hailing from the halls of Seneca Valley high school, Rogue is an alternative rock band that is essentially the sole lighthouse of the northern "Outer-Pittsburgh" music world. They've only played one show, and that show wove itself into the tapestry of local legend in November 2024. One of those "You Had To Be There" kinda things. But fret not, dear reader, because on APRIL 12, ROGUE PLAYS AGAIN. Follow them on Instagram @_rogue_band to keep up.
Since their forming in October 2023, some members have faded in and out. As of now, Rogue is comprised of Toby Nickles, Landon Newton, Mike Easterling, and Landon Oldenski. On Wednesday night, they let me sit in on one of their practice sessions for an exclusive interview. (The asterisk* represents who's speaking).
Q. How'd you guys form?
A. (Nickles*) So, me and him (Newton) had guitar class together in October 2023. We started writing Indie music and stuff like Mac DeMarco and yeah, we wrote songs like that for 2, 3 months, and we were like, "I guess we're an Indie band." Three months later we're like "fuck that!"
(Newton*) We had the drummer fiasco.
(Nickles*) 'Ski' (Oldenski) made us play Helmet songs, and then we turned into hard rock.
(Newton*) We like to play stuff like Helmet, you know, hardcore.
(Oldenski*) We're progressive. (chuckles)
(Easterling*) Our new song is very Tool-y.
(Newton*) I guess we formed really from an indie band and then we just kinda hung out, dabbled, and we played together for fun.
(Nickles*) And then we just got harder, and harder, and we started listening to harder music.
(Newton*) We played Stars (Hum) and that was the turning point.
Q. Who are your biggest music influences?
A. (Oldenski*) Helmet I guess, I listen to a lot of Helmet.
(Nickles*) Really? (all laugh)
(Oldenski*) I like his style, so I definitely copy things from that, but like on Tomb, for example, when I do that fill thing, I don't know where that stems from but it sounds pretty cool. But yeah, Helmet, his name's John Stanier, that's a big one. I guess Hum's drummer, I like what he does. And I mean, Tool's drummer... but I can't do half the shit that guy does.
A. (Newton*) For sure, 100%, Hum. Best guitar tone ever, I mean it inspired Deftones' White Pony. Their song structure, even the chords they use, I love the ambience that Hum kinda creates. Not only their singer, but like an ambience that makes you kinda just think about fuckin, otherworldly shit. And then Tool, I'm really getting into Tool. Whole thing is I kinda want it to be a little unexpected, when things drone on creating an ambience, I really like a good searing guitar in the middle of that.
A. (Nickles*) Mine is definitely Title Fight. I love everything about Title Fight. I like the fact that they're from Pennsylvania, and you know, if they can get out of whatever fucking small town near Philadelphia, in fucking Nanticoke or Wilkes or wherever they're from, if they can get out of there and make it big, then shit, we can too. Fleshwater, too. It's new and it's fucking hard. Tough as fuck. (group laughs)
A. (Easterling*) Definitely Hum, but for my separate thing, though, like apart from Rogue, I really don't know. I kinda go back to Slipknot here and there with my riffs, metal i guess. I take Mind's Eye into account for some of my riffs, too. For Rogue, though, it can stem from bass lines from A Tribe Called Quest. Tomb's bass line I think, I came up with off A Tribe Called Quest song that I kinda formulated around... what is your problem? (laughing)
(Newton*) You didn't say Ozzy Osborne.
(Easterling*) Why would I say Ozzy Osborne?
(Nickles*) Don't.
(Oldenski*) I don't get it.
(Nickles) Remember when you were writing the bass line for Tomb and it sounded like No More Tears? (all laugh)
(Easterling*) Was it like my first demo?
(Newton*) Yeah it was like the first day, I was writing some bullshit too, some bullshit.
(Me*) That's one of the worst feelings I think when making music. Getting so far with something and then sitting down and being like "Oh shit, no it's totally been made."
(Nickles*) Which song did we make? We totally made one song.
(Newton*) It was Last Caress (Misfits), I almost murdered someone.
(Oldenski*) We tested it out, the notes were exactly the same.
Q. When did each of you start playing music?
A. (Oldenski*) I was in the school band in like, eighth grade. Then I started taking drum lessons so probably like 13 years old. Yeah we were in RGMS (middle school) and we did a live concert and we played that song, you know, "Bang bang into the room (Bang Bang - Jessie J)." (all laugh)
(Newton*) "You know you want it."♫
(Oldenski*) I was playing the drum set on that one and it was pretty fuckin' sick. Yeah then I played with this guy in Harmony, he taught me a lot of stuff. Did that for 4 years probably. I wish I did more with this guy. Now looking back on it, it actually would've been fuckin' crazy 'cause he was really good.
(Me*) You'd play alongside him?
(Oldenski*) Yeah, two drum sets. Then he'd give me the books and shit and I just didn't read them. I stopped playing for a couple years, then Newt had me over one day. Your dad had a drum set and I was like "Let me play the drum set," and that was the first time I played in a while. So I started when I was 13, played till I was 16, then stopped, then picked it back up.
A. (Newton*) I started playing when I was around 10 or 11. I played acoustic guitar, my dad played, he's a really good singer. Played guitar his whole life. One of his biggest regrets was he didn't start playing guitar early, he started in college.
I just played, I never had a teacher or anything. Really up until ninth grade was the first time I really had any guidance. This is how I really got tapped in with Toby. Ninth grade, I really got guidance from the guitar teacher. He fixed my technique being self-taught. Almost all my motivation came from seeing other people play around me in the guitar room and I'm like "fuck." It was me, Carter, Toby, and Garrett.
(Nickles*) Garret was nuts and I was like "Holy shit I gotta be better."
(Newton*) Exactly, just being in a room with five different people playing guitar all at once, just in your own space, it really motivates you and that's when I really started putting the nose to the grindstone.
A. (Nickles*) So I started when I was 12 or 13, I started on the bass and --
(Oldenski*) -- posted corny YouTube videos. (all laugh)
(Easterling*) Hey TobyPlaysBass is hype!
(Nickles*) Okay that shit was stupid, but that's whatever. So I started playing bass and it was like a couple months before COVID hit. Then all I could do was stay at home and play bass. So I would record myself playing and post it to Instagram, like full song covers. I did that for like 8 months. I don't know when I stopped doing that but I'm glad I did.
(Me*) You gotta cut your teeth. The TobyPlaysBass videos are necessary, you know?
(Nickles*) It's a canon event. (all chuckle in agreement)
A. (Easterling*) I think I started when I was 13 or 14. I asked for a guitar for Christmas and my mom got me one. I took lessons, I actually just ended them yesterday; college coming up, time to cut it out. Back to the COVID thing, that's kinda when the kickoff for music kinda started. I listened to Ride The Lightning and Pretty Hate Machine and those were two albums that were just immediately like "I have to do something with music." I've always grown up with oldies and stuff like that, Steve Miller Band, Pink Floyd, you name it. But yeah I think that's when I started. Took lessons for 5 years then started playing with these guys.
(Nickles*) You and me saw each other in middle school at the music store.
(Easterling*) Yeah, my saddles were broken and dumb little me didn't know it was like 2 screws. I'm like "You gotta help me! The strings, they're broken!" I remember there was a picture of me and I'm standing over there like I'm in the confession booth. I was so worried (laughing), it was so simple.
Q. Aside from your own shows, have you guys played anywhere else?
A. (All*) No, I don't think so. Not yet.
(Me*) I think that's special that you've only played your own things, and for the success that you've had with it, that says something.
Q. Do you guys even know any other bands north of the Allegheny County border?
A. (Nickles*) Don't say it.
(Newton and Oldenski*) The Finn & Chase Fun Band.
(Easterling*) That's our quote-unquote "competition."
(Oldenski*) Do you know if they still play as a band?
(Nickles*) They do. They just released an album.
(Easterling*) It's Davoo now.
(Oldenski*) Finn's been doing stuff at the Harmony Inn.
(Me*) That's the thing, there aren't many venues or opportunities. There's bars.
(Oldenski*) Union Brothers and Fisher's.
(Easterling*) Is our town really the demographic we're trying to hit?
(Oldenski*) That is also true, these are like 40-50 year-old people.
(Easterling*) I don't think they're gonna understand what we're trying to do.
(Me*) Have you ever considered playing at Slippery Rock or anything?
(Nickles*) I'd like to play in college towns.
(Newton*) I feel like that's more our demographic.
Q. Have you ever thought about recording, or do you already have anything out?
A. (Nickles*) Well not out, we have it done though. We have one studio song and the rest are demo tracks.
(Me*) Are you gonna have an LP?
(Newton*) Yeah, it will be done by the summer. It's our senior project, but we're not gonna put something out that we're not ready for. They're great demos, but we want a good mix. I wanna be proud of what we put out, I don't wanna rush it. For a fuckin' point in the grade book I'm not going to ruin the art that we've been working on for a year and a half.
(Oldenski*) We're killing two birds with one stone. We want to do this for the band, but fuck it, we'll get some points for it while we're at it.
(Nickles*) Yeah we could be doing some serious shit, like job-shadowing a heart surgeon or something, but no, we're doing fun things.
(Oldenski*) And we're putting in triple the hours that other people are doing.
(Newton*) Triple?! Dude I have 200 hours marked on the log.
Q. Any takes on local music?
A. (Nickles*) There fucking isn't any.
(Newton*) Yeah what local music?
(Nickles*) New Ken, there's good stuff in New Kensington. They have a venue called Preserving Underground. I've only been there once but there were several good bands that came and played there. Local to Pittsburgh is a band called Porters, they're very good. There was another band from Philly called Pusch, and there was this band of girls, they were called Jigsaw Youth, and I really liked their stuff. They have a following, especially out in Butler.
To say the least, Rogue is one tight band, and they're fully dedicated to their craft. All their practice really shows off in their playing, as they play with some serious skill that's far beyond their years. Rogue represents the core of Bloodhound Magazine. They're authentic, honest, and they put in the effort to make real art; even in a region that doesn't host many outlets to support them.
I look forward to covering their upcoming show on April 12th and bringing it to you. If you like real, authentic rock, go support Rogue in whatever way you can.
-Andersen Beck Founder, Reporter
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Rogue's Instagram: @_rogue_band
Super cool Andy!!